Home Safety
How To Prepare for Severe Storms and Hurricanes
When a hurricane threatens, your primary concern is for the safety of your family. But your house is important too, and even though you may be evacuating the area, your home requires whatever forms of protection you can provide. The key is to make plans and provisions to protect your home long before a hurricane becomes anything more than an unpleasant possibility. This way, when a storm does threaten, you can concentrate on the safety of your family and know that you've done your best to protect your home.
Before the Storm:
What Can You Do To Protect Your Home?
Hurricanes pose both wind and flood damage potential, but there are things you can do to greatly reduce the impact on your home. One of your main goals is to prevent the wind from damaging the home in such a way that allows water to enter and do further damage. Make sure your doors and windows are secure. Wind inside your home will push upward against the roof and try to lift it, while winds outside create a suction pressure, almost doubling the roof's load.
Despite the best attempts at protecting your home, however, damage may still occur. Take a look at your insurance policies to make sure you're adequately covered. Keep lists or video tapes of your belongings as documentation for the insurance company.
Prepare Your Roof
- If you have an exterior television antenna, you may want to disconnect and remove it.
- Remove roof turbines and cover the holes where they were installed. Otherwise, high winds could remove them for you, leaving a gaping hole through which heavy rain could come into your home to do damage.
- Check for loose or damaged shingles, and seal around flashings, chimneys or vent pipes if necessary. A roof in good repair is much better able to stand the torture inflicted upon it by a storm. For more on roof repair, visit How to Repair Shingled Roofing.
- Check for loose and clogged gutters and downspouts. Backed-up gutters can send water flowing into your home in the event of heavy rains. For detailed information, see How To Maintain Your Gutters.
- If your roof is damaged in a storm, use tarps secured with ropes and nails to cover it as soon as you can. Heavy rains usually occur during and after a hurricane, and water can cause devastating damage to the interior of your home. Any step you can take to minimize water damage will help.
Cover Those Windows
If you live in an area vulnerable to hurricanes, consider installing storm shutters. They are available in several different types, and will go a long way toward keeping the damaging wind and rain from entering through your home's windows. As a side benefit, they may reduce your home insurance premium.
Secure The Doors
Steel entry doors provide the best protection for your home. Double doors and French doors are most vulnerable to high winds. But no matter what type of door you've got, a hurricane panel is your best option to keep damage at a minimum. These galvanized steel or PVC panels are available at Lowe's. You can also nail plywood over your doors for protection and to help keep out water and debris.
If you have double doors that have no structural member in the center between them, you may need to purchase and install special hardware to more adequately secure the doors where they meet. Bolts which secure the door into the framing at both the top and bottom greatly increase the door's strength. Wedge sliding glass doors with a dowel or piece of broom handle to prevent them from jumping their tracks when the wind howls.
Provide stiffening support for garage doors. The pressure from winds increases with the door's size, and wide doors particularly need bracing for stability during high winds. Make your own vertical supports by nailing two 2x4s together and attaching them vertically to the inside of your garage door with "L" brackets. Use as many as you feel are necessary to support your door.
Button Up the Yard
Flailing tree limbs may pose a danger in high winds. Trim trees to avoid the possibility of large limbs doing damage to your house. Also, selectively thinning out the branches to allow wind to more easily pass through and will reduce the potential for damage to the tree itself. Dead or damaged branches should be removed, otherwise they could become flying missiles aimed straight for your house or that of your neighbors.
Lawn furniture, ornaments, toys, grills and exterior potted plants should be taken inside. Anything that can't be brought in should be tied down. Sheds, doghouses, playhouses, swing sets, and boat trailers should be secured with tiedowns, turnbuckles and cable or stout rope. Concrete tiedown spaces are a good home improvement in areas susceptible to hurricanes. If you don't have concrete mounted tiedowns when the weather threatens, screw type tiedowns secured deep in the ground must suffice.
If you live in a mobile home it is particularly important that you inspect and repair your home's tiedowns.
Cars, Trucks & Boats
If you live in a low-lying area, move your car, truck or boat to higher ground, preferably to an enclosed garage or warehouse.
If you must leave a boat behind, don't leave it in the water. If the boat's left outside, anchor the trailer tongue of a trailered boat to a firm spot on the ground. Lash the boat to the trailer; let some air out of the tires. Add water for weight, but make sure you keep it below engine level. Stow all loose gear (outriggers, canvas tops, etc.) and remove electronics and other valuables to avoid damage and theft. Cover the boat to keep additional water and debris out.
Protect Your Family, Too!
The No. 1 rule: Get every member of your household involved. Set aside time for a family meeting to discuss the following:
An Evacuation Package: We're talking keepsakes here - personal items you'd hate to lose, things insurance could never replace. Examples: your children's baby books and photos, an heirloom quilt. Place them in a water and fire proof container. Include important family documents, such as birth certificates and insurance policies. Make sure everyone knows where the package is kept and assign a family member responsibility for it in case you need to evacuate.
Safety Kit: Put together a safety kit. Include a first aid kit and essential medications, a fire extinguisher, packaged or canned non-perishable food and a non-electric can opener, water (no more than 6 months old - mark the date) in a non-breakable container, protective clothing, rainwear and blankets. Make sure everyone in the household knows where this kit is kept.
Emergency Contact: Pick someone to call (a friend or family member out of state) in case a hurricane hits or you need to evacuate. This contact can be the person who lets others know where you are and that you're safe so you won't have to spend precious time doing so.
After the Storm: Is Your Home In Need Of Repairs?
Property damage created by storms can be devastating. Structural and electrical damage must be repaired by licensed contractors and building professionals, and should be brought up to the most current standards for storm protection. There are smaller jobs as well, however--jobs that can be done by homeowners while contractors focus on the worst of the storm damage. Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse can help. Visit our How-To Library for help with those repair and replacement projects you decide to do yourself. And unlike some retailers, Lowe's is committed to providing the building and home improvement products you need at guaranteed every day low prices--both before and after the storm.
These How-To's are provided as a service from Lowe's, the Original Home Improvement Warehouse of How-To Information for the World Wide Web. The information in Lowe's "How-To" clinics is intended to simplify jobs around the house. Tools, products, materials, techniques, building codes and local regulations change; therefore, Lowe's assumes no liability for omissions, errors or the outcome of any project. The reader must always exercise reasonable caution, follow applicable codes and regulations, and is urged to consult with a professional if in doubt about any procedures. Please read our terms of use.
