Preparing for Hurricane Season in Corpus Christi, Texas

Living in the Corpus Christi, Texas area, means preparing for the hurricane season. Although it has been awhile since a major hurricane has hit my area, my family does not take this time of year lightly. Hurricane force winds can be devastating and one thing that seems to be forgotten is the tornadoes that can spin off a tropical system.

We would consider ourselves lucky with the fact that we have a Travel Trailer and some property in West Texas to run to if we have to evacuate, but some people are not this lucky. It is recommended that to have a portable generator and check it often to make sure that it runs. We turn ours on once a month and let it run for about an hour. Many people wait until the last minute to get ready and this is not a good idea as supplies run out quickly in stores.

My family prepares well in advance; first off we have a special place in our hall closet to store all our hurricane stuff. A lot of the stuff is non perishable and stays year round. The stuff that stays

1. A flame resistant file box, we have for our valuable papers

2. Most important of all a First Aide Kit.

3. Animal Carriers, leashes, tie out dog runs, and portable food dishes. To us our pets are part of our family and they go with us if we need to evacuate. If you
cannot take your pets with you plan for a safe place for them to be kept and rescued if need be.

4. A box that contains Silverware, Paper Plates, Knives, and Can Opener.

Our list when it’s Hurricane Season. We move everything from our emergency closet and pack our trailer. Of course if you don’t have a trailer your emergency closet is where you will keep everything.

1. We get a hurricane tracking map and post it on the wall in the hall and have our colorful push pins handy.

2. We fill water bottles and soda bottles with water and freeze them. This actually serves two purposes one if there is a power outage we have ice to keep food cold and two as the ice melts we have fresh water to drink.

3. Collect valuable papers, such as insurances, photos, prescription information and put them in our metal file box.

4. We pack our overnight bags with 7 days worth of clothes. And extra blankets or sleeping bags and pillows, one for each person is fine.

5. Buy extra batteries for our flashlights and make sure that they are all properly working. A new gadget we recently added was those flash lights that you shake
to recharge the battery.

6. Make sure our wind up storm radio is working.

7. We fill our extra gas cans with gas and have them stored in a safe place. And keep our gas tanks full. During Hurricane season we never let our vehicles get below a half a tank gas.

8. We plan our evacuation route based on the city evacuation plan. Sometimes the roadway to San Antonio can get congested and since we do not plan to go that way we make sure that we have a well planned route away from the main evacuation routes. We would recommend that you learn the back roads of your community and plan where you will be staying if you have to leave. When you know that a hurricane is heading your way make hotel reservations for a week at your evacuation destination. Well in advance. You can always cancel the reservation with in 24 hours of the arrival date, if you don’t have to evacuate, and not be charged.

9. Plywood to board up the window, masking tape to put an X on the glass itself, and wood screws. Of course we already have these on hand but wood deteriorates and we replace any if we need to. We would recommend that once you buy the wood fit it to your windows ahead of time and mark each piece with a marker to indicate what window it goes to. That way if you have to board up you are ready to go. And not fighting the crowd at the hardware store.

On our shopping list of things to buy once a hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico, no matter where its destination are

Power Bars
Bottled water
Sports drinks
Cold cereal that can be eaten without milk
Snack foods
Extra pet food
Jerky meat
Tuna fish
Canned fruit

Comic books, puzzle books, puzzles, board games, regular books, pencils crayons, coloring books, drawing paper and small toys. This will keep your family from getting bored if there is a power outage. Buy enough food to last 7 days, consider how many people are in your family, and that you will want to eat about 3 times a day.

Do not buy foods that you know your family would not like to eat. We always plan our grocery list and entertainment list together that way everyone will be less stressed and ease through any disaster that may come your way.