Ready and Prepared for Another Hurricane Season in South Florida

Well, here it is, another August, with three months ahead of watching the weather forecasts every day and holding our breath as we check the weather in the tropics each morning. Last year we got pretty much of a pass, with no severe storms hitting our region. But the memory of the previous two, especially the effects of Wilma on our community, have really made my husband and myself assess our situation and act accordingly.

First, and most important, we invested in a whole house generator, hooked up to an inground propane gas tank in our yard, which gets filled on a regular basis and which is supposed to be topped with gas by the gas company a day or two before any major storm. The generator is directly wired into our circuit breaker, eliminating the need for all of those pesky wires running throughout the house that we had with our portable generator. It is a 7500 watt generator, enough to run one of our two whole house central air conditioner units, our refrigerator, all of the lights in our house, the ceiling fans, and all of our TVs and outlets. It will even be enough to provide the power to run our hot water heater, although we will need to temporarily shut off our AC to do so for the short time it takes to heat our water. It will also run our microwave and our kitchen outlets, so that we can run our coffee maker, a crock pot, portable skillet and any other small kitchen appliances. One of the things I missed when we had no power after Wilma the most was my fresh cup of coffee in the morning. And of course my air conditione!

I always stock up before hurricane season with the usual kitchen staple items such as bottled water, which is the most important of all and the hardest thing to find immediately after a storm ,canned food, such as tuna fish, beans and so on, lots of paper items, such as toilet paper and kleenex, and lots of paper plates and cups, and plastic disposable cutlery. Sometimes, it can take a few days for the water to be certified safe, and who wants a kitchen full of dirty dishes waiting to be washed after a storm?

We recently moved to a new house that has new hurricane and wind resistant windows and doors. Actually, it was one of the reasons my husband wanted to move, so we wouldn't have to deal with putting the storm panels up every time a storm is approaching. They are guaranteed to protect us from winds well past 130 miles an hour. I am still a little nervous about the possibility of riding out a storm without our predictable aluminum panels, but we have been assured that these new windows will provide us with an equal amount of security. Hopefully, we will not have to find out any time soon.

Other precautions to take during hurricane season in the sub tropics are to trim and thin out trees and branches to avoid having landscaping become uprooted. During Wilma, three of our very large shade trees were totally turned upside down and landed on our roof which we had just replaced. It caused thousands of dollars to repair and took months to get fixed, as there was such a shortage of roofing tiles.

We also have a back-up plan to clear out some of the garage to allow enough room for patio furniture that must be brought in, the barbecue, and any planters or loose items that can become projectiles during a storm. But at the same time, we must still leave enough room to be able to park both our cars in the garage to protect them during a storm.

I feel like we are as ready as we can be for an active hurricane season this year and pray we will get lucky this year as we did last hurricane season. I guess this is the price we have to pay to live in paradise!