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A calm hurricane-season home checklist
Before June arrives: alarms with battery backup, an extinguisher you have actually checked, and a plan everyone in the house knows.
Hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The best time to get the house ready is a calm weekend in May, not the day a storm shows up in the forecast. Here is the checklist we use.
1. Alarms that work when the power doesn't
Outages are common during storms, and people often run generators and candles. Hardwired alarms with battery backup, like the First Alert Hardwire Smoke Alarm, keep working. Press the test button on each one and write the date on a piece of tape inside a cupboard.
2. An extinguisher you have actually checked
Look at the gauge on your Dry Chemical Fire Extinguisher: the needle should sit in the green. Keep it near the kitchen exit, not behind the stove. A Prepared Hero Emergency Fire Blanket by the cooktop handles small pan fires in seconds.
3. A way out of every bedroom
If your home has a second floor, keep a Kidde Fire Escape Ladder in upstairs bedrooms and practice unfolding it once so it is not new on a bad night.
4. The paper and power basics
- Copies of insurance papers and IDs in a waterproof bag.
- Flashlights and batteries in one known drawer.
- A gallon of water per person per day, for at least three days.
- Charged power banks for every phone.
- Collier County evacuation zone noted on the fridge.
Make the plan together
Spend ten minutes with everyone in the house: where you meet outside, who checks on a neighbor, and where the pets go. A plan everyone knows beats a perfect plan nobody remembers.
Written by the Browse Cart Product team in Naples, Florida. Questions? Call +1 239-784-5098.
