Storms and Hurricanes

During my childhood, I lived at my grandmother’s house in the Caribbean. It was a big and sturdy house. We were  lucky because her house was in a good area. When we had storms and hurricanes in the island,  her house was never flooded. However, we always had to prepared for the storms and hurricanes. At a young age I learned that these natural disasters, can make your life really difficult.  Here  is a list of things that you can do, so you do not suffer that much during the storms or hurricanes.

1. Make sure you have enough can food in your pantry and a manual can opener. For example, cans of sausages, cans of tuna, cans of sardines, cans of evaporated milk and cans of corn or mixed vegetables. Also make sure you buy cereal,  peanut butter and crackers. The reason for this is that, many times during a hurricane there is no electricity, so you cannot use the microwave or electric stove. You want to make sure that you will be able to feed your family. The last thing you want during a hurricane, or afterwards, is  a group of hungry kids, crying for food.
2. Make sure you have diapers, toilet paper, tampons, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, detergent and soap. You should have enough for two weeks. Remember, after the storm or hurricane, many supermarkets are going to be closed for a couple of days. You want to be sure that you and your family have all these products that are necessary for good hygiene.
3. Make sure you have flashlights, batteries for everything that needs batteries, candles  and matches. The reason is, no power means no electricity. You do not want to be in a dark house for days.
4. Make sure you are finish with your laundry before the hurricane. If the hurricane hits close to the area where you live, you might not have water or electricity  for days. So you need to be sure you have clean clothes to wear.
5. Make sure you have water. Thirty years ago, my grandmother used fill up the empty gallons of milk or cooking oil, with water. She will have like fifty empty containers. We will use these gallons of water to flush the toilet or brush our teeth. Sometimes we even have to use this water to take a bath.
6. Make sure you have enough water to drink. When I was a kid, my grandmother always had two big  containers of drinking water in the kitchen. These containers had enough drinking water for a week.
7. Make sure your car is fill up with gas and make sure you have cash. Gas stations and banks will  not be open until couple of days after the hurricane. If you have an emergency after the hurricane and need to go to the hospital, you will probably need to drive your car. Please, do not forget to listen to the radio and find out if  you will be able to drive around.

Remember there are  a lot of more things that you can do. You can never be too prepared for a storm or a hurricane.

T.B.F.