Thrifty Ways To Prepare Your Family For A Storm

Thrifty Ways To Prepare Your Family For A Storm.  Hurricane season is in full swing and storm preparedness is on everyone’s mind.  You can hardly turn on the television or open Facebook without seeing something about getting ready for the next big storm.

We have been through our share of storms and have gotten prepared for more storms than we’ve been through.  There are a lot of things I have learned along the way.  The first thing you need to know about hurricane season is that it runs from June 1 to November 30!  Yes, it really is that long.  We spend half of our year in hurricane season.  This means that we have to be ready for a storm at any time during those months.  Even if it’s not a hurricane, we get a ton of rain in south Louisiana during that time, which can be just as dangerous as a hurricane.

Great resources:

Ready.gov has a ton of great information about the timeline of when a hurricane hits and what you should do to get and stay prepared along the way.  You can find it all on their site over here.  I focus more on what you need in your home during a storm since we don’t get evacuated very often.  We live far enough inland where hurricanes are not always our biggest threat and floods are very unpredictable.  The CDC also has a lot of great information about preparing your family for a natural disaster.  You can find that information on their site, over here. 

Recommendations:

It is recommended that you have at least one gallon of water per day, per person or pet to last 3 days.  For our family, that means 24 gallons of water!  WOWZERS!  But, yes, it is important to have enough water when a storm or any disaster hits.  One thing that I learned, loud and clear, during the flood of 2016 was that you never know when a big storm will strike or where you may end up before, during, or after the storm.  This is why I have created an emergency kit just for storms we may not know are coming.  This is a small kit that is portable should you need to evacuate at a moment’s notice or discover your living room suddenly has 6 inches of water in it.

Save money:

The best thing about these kits are that all of the supplies can be bought at your local dollar stores and they can be made for around $12 per kit!  Our new tradition is to make these in May after school is out.  This way our supplies is good through hurricane season.  All of the items in our kit have an expiration date that is 10 or months away, which makes it easy to budget these kits.  I prepare a personal kit for each person in our family as well as a few other items that I know come in handy in an emergency.  I also find that everything works out better if each child has their own set of supplies.  It is also important to keep in mind that days without electricity can be long and boring, so packing a coloring or activity book to keep everyone busy helps out tremendously.  Here is the list of items in each kit:

Parents’ kit (All of this is packed inside a gallon size freezer bag):

• 1 pack of Lysol wipes
• Flashlight
• Extra batteries
• Flameless candle
• Multi-tool
• Kitchen size trash bag
• Plastic grocery bag
• Quart size storage bag
• 1 pair of latex gloves
• Small deodorant
• Toothbrush/toothpaste travel pack
• 1 can of dog food (I prefer canned food because it is more durable in a storm)
• 1 can of cat food
• 1 pack of chicken salad and crackers
• Juice box
• 1 puzzle book
• 2 crayons
  • Total is less than $12

Children’s kit (All of this is packed inside a gallon size freezer bag):

• Flashlight
• Extra batteries
• Flameless candle
• Multi-tool
• Kitchen size trash bag
• Plastic grocery bag
• Quart size storage bag
• 1 pair of latex gloves
• Hand sanitizer wipes
• 1 small deodorant
• Toothbrush/toothpaste travel pack
• 1 can of dog food (I prefer canned food because it is more durable in a storm)
• 1 can of cat food
• 1 pack of chicken salad and crackers
• Juice box
• 1 coloring or activity book
• 2 crayons
  • Total is less than $12

Extras for the box:

• 5 bungees
• 1 shower curtain
• Pack of bandaids
• Rope
• Lighter
• Mosquito coils
• Mosquito repellent
  • Total is $10

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