Seems like everywhere you turn these days someone is offering advice on what to do to get yourself ready for the next big storm, earthquake or other catastrophe. Planning ahead is important and can save your life. Get the go bag ready, stockpile water, food, first aid supplies, and batteries. There are also many things you can do to your home to prepare it for the next big storm to minimize your loss. Here are ten tips to help you along.

1. Make a record of everything in your home. The easiest way to do this is to walk through your home and take pictures or video. In the event of loss, this information will make it a lot easier to be reimbursed by your insurance company. If you don’t have insurance, get some. Important note – don’t just leave all the photos on the phone. If the phone gets wet or lost, they won’t do you any good. One secure way to store home-related photos is to send them to a computer and then upload them to the Notes feature on Hinged where they will be encrypted and held securely in the cloud, all for free. You can also use Dropbox or other cloud storage sites, but unlike Hinged, once you have filled the initial trial size memory allotment, you will have to pay.
2. Trim or remove trees growing too close to your home. If a tree is growing in your yard and it can fall on your house, will it and will you hear it? Odds are that if it can hit your house it will, and hopefully you won’t be home at the time. While the tree people are working on your property, clear away any branches growing over your power lines too.
3. Maintain your grading. The dirt around a home settles for years after it’s built. It may have sloped away from the house on all sides when the house was new, but it may not now. Take a walk around and check. Pay careful attention to corners which are hard to backfill and tend to settle the most. Another problem with many homes it that the mulch that is added around the landscape plantings builds up and essentially creates a moat around the home. Either have additional soil added behind the plants or remove the mulch every few years. If you’re adding soil be careful not to let it get too close to your siding. Building codes call for eight inches of masonry between the ground and wood siding.
4. If you live near the water and your home was not built with storm rated windows, consider precutting plywood to cover them. Make sure you label the pieces so you won’t have to spend a lot of time figuring which one goes where and have plenty of fasteners stored with them. There are storm systems for holding them in place, but in a hurry you can screw them directly into your window trim and then after the storm, caulk and touch up the paint. Don’t leave any extra pieces lying around outside. Hurricane force winds can catch a sheet of plywood and turn it into a lethal object. Garage doors are another problem area in a high wind storm. Bracing them with lumber on the inside is fairly easy. Pre-cut the boards and store them with the plywood. There are also roll up window protection products available that you can leave up. They are fairly unobtrusive.
5. If you are covering your windows you still need to clear your yard of anything that can blow around or away. Start with the lightest stuff like plastic toys and work up to heavy items. Especially anything that can float. A pile of firewood being pushed along with flood water can be deadly. A garden hose can get tangled up with debris and also be dangerous. Disconnect them from your faucets and put them inside too. Furniture, garbage cans and even bird feeders can become dangerous projectiles. Put as much stuff indoors as you can. When the storm hits, even if your yard is bare, don’t assume that it will be safe to go outside in the middle of a severe storm event. Debris can be carried along with the wind for miles.
6. Make more space on the ground floor or basement for outdoor stuff by moving expensive indoor items to higher safer places in your home. Small electronics and precious photos can go in sealed plastic bins. Tape them shut for added protection. Smaller interior rooms are the safest spots and even a fiberglass or acrylic bathtub will offer some protection in a catastrophic event.
7. If you have a sump pump with a battery back-up, check that the battery is fully charged. If you have a generator, make sure the oil is clean and that you have lots of fuel. Keep the fuel in appropriate containers and store them where the fumes won’t be a fire or health hazard.
8. Long before the storm is predicted, purchase some tarps. It doesn’t take up much space to store them and even a ten by ten foot one will save a cherished piece of furniture from damage if part of your roof blows in. One that size can also be turned into a tent if need be. Buy a variety of sizes and get enough rope to hold it in place. Parachute cord works great.
9. While you’re buying tarps, pick up a few roles of duct tape. It has thousands of uses including holding the tarps in place. If you never got to protecting your windows with plywood, you can protect yourself from the danger of flying window glass, by putting tape on them. Run the strips about eight inches apart and go both vertically and horizontally. If flying debris breaks the glass, the tape will reduce the risk of pieces becoming airborne.
10. Make sure that your gutters are clean and all the drains are working before the storm. The more water you can divert away from right around your home the less you are likely to have a flooded basement.