Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read
Things to Do When a Hurricane or Bad Weather Is Headed Your Way
I knew what we were getting ourselves into when we moved to Sanibel Island Florida in 2020. What I didn’t expect was to have to evacuate 4 times in 4 years and go through one major Hurricane, Hurricane Ian, and two minor ones, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. With each bad weather-related event, we’ve learned a lot and here’s what we think everyone should know about prepping for these events in the United States.
I wanted to write this because while many think a hurricane will only affect you if you live in a coastal area, this is not true. When we lived in Louisville, Kentucky, a hurricane that hit Texas, Hurricane Ike, made its way to our city in 2008 and knocked power out almost all over the city for 2 weeks.
It took roofs off buildings, shut down most restaurants and caused quite a lot of a mess. Then, Hurricane Helene made its way into North Carolina in 2024 and caused tons of damage, loss of lives and more.
See our 1-minute video of our Hurricane Milton prep in our video below or via our YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:
While we were fortunate enough to still have a house standing after each, it’s still a lot to deal with. We kept power during Hurricane Ike and opened our house to friends and family without power so they could eat a warm meal and more. The following year, we had an ice storm that shut down the city for 2 weeks again. We fortunately kept power and once again, opened our house up to friends and family that needed a warm place to sleep.
While we have not been as fortunate to keep power at our house in Florida during massive storms, Hurricane Ian taught us how to plan for the worst and how to deal with it when it happens. When you think of a hurricane, you think of wind, but there is often tornadoes and flooding that come along with them.
Our tips could be good for all three of those events, and maybe even some other weather events too. Here’s some of our tips on how you can prepare yourself and your home for bad weather.
We evacuate due to the possible flooding…Milton brought our home 18 inches of water under our raised home
Evacuate
If you are under a mandatory evacuation, please evacuate. Find a friend or family member that is in a safe area and ask to go there if you cannot afford a hotel. We knew Hurricane Ian was going to be terrible (it was, as the Sanibel Causeway, the only road to our home, was destroyed) so we headed from Florida to Indiana to stay with my husband’s family. We were there for a long time while the causeway was rebuilt.
Hotels and Airbnb’s book up fast during bad weather, so you may have to travel a long distance to find an available one if you do not act fast. We booked our hotel for our mandatory Hurricane Milton evacuation 5 days in advance (the hotel had a 24 hour in advance cancellation policy, so check that in case you book and don’t need it) and right after booking, everything on the east coast of Florida was booked as much of the west coast was under mandatory evacuation.
If you have no family, no friends, and cannot afford a hotel, go to a shelter. We had neighbors that stayed on Sanibel Island during Hurricane Ian and they had to be rescued by boat as the city had no power, sewers or water for about a month. It was also very hot. Staying on the island wasn’t an option and they were taken to a shelter. While each said the shelter was chaotic and loud, it’s still a safer place than staying at your home if really bad weather and flooding is coming.
When we left for Hurricane Milton, we gave our gas (for our generator) to our neighbors that stayed. Do this kind thing if you plan to leave and know of others staying. Also, get gas days before an event as right before or days after the event, you will wait in line for more gas OR gas may run out in your area.
Our pets always come with us during evacuations
Pets
Take your pets if you evacuate! In Florida, Governor Desantis pleaded with people to take their pets with them during Hurricane Milton as all hotels in Florida HAVE to take pets during mandatory evacuations. Take fish, birds, lizards, cats, dogs and all living creatures in your home if you have to leave. Emergency shelters take pets too, so do not leave them at your house no matter what.
Find a safe family member’s home or friend to take your pet if you cannot do so. Animal shelters are affected by storms too, so if your area is set to be hit by a bad storm, an animal shelter may not be a solution either.
Our cleanup attire for Hurricane Milton
Battery Backups
We have invested in 3 battery backups. They are good even during minor power outages as they keep your internet going for about 3 hours after power goes out. We like them because sometimes our power will just flick on or off and the battery backups keep us working from home flawlessly.
My husband loves his portable power station too, the Bluetti. It can charge phones and more. We also have a Takki small powerbank we take with us when we travel. We got some battery backups for very little cost at a yard sale, and know that people sell them on eBay and Facebook Marketplace too.
Our home survived, thank God, post Hurricane Milton
Generator
Get a generator. We plan to have a whole house generator at our next home, but for now, we have a large generator that we got for free from Facebook Marketplace. We had to lift it up high in our garage on a bench to keep it safe during our mandatory evacuations and covered it with a waterproof cloth and bungeed it to our house. If you don’t have the means to buy a large generator, any small one will do to power a refrigerator, a fan, charge a cell phone, or help you maintain access to other life necessities.
Our pool has been flooded 3 times from 3 storms
Trail Cams
While we have not used trail cams at our house yet, we will invest in one soon. While watching your house flood or be destroyed from afar may not sound like fun, having a documented timeline of events can be helpful for your insurance claims. Some neighbors had them running during Hurricane Ian, so we were able to see the direction the flooding came, the time and how long the water stuck around.
Our house cams and internet stayed going for a while during Hurricane Helene, so we could see our pool get flooded. We at least knew we had that to deal with after that evacuation. Having cameras stop at a certain time stamp is helpful too so you know if your food in your fridge will be okay or not if the power goes out.
Hurricane Milton pushed flood waters under our home
Refrigerator
Speaking of refrigerators, make sure you clean it out completely if you are evacuating. We didn’t during Ian and when we returned 4 months later, there was no saving it. It was moldy, had bugs in it and more. We have several coolers that we now pack our food in during evacuations and like to stay at hotels with fridges. We also love our Orca cooler, which keeps food cold for days. It’s cheaper to buy more food if you have to throw any away to fit in a cooler than it is to buy a new fridge.
A baby snake took up refuge on our 2nd floor porch during Hurricane Milton
Trash Cans
Since trash cans or blow away with a lot of wind, if you are expecting a storm, either put them up high and bungee cord them down or bungee cord them to something. We bungeed ours to our house beams in our garage area (our house is a piling home to prevent it from getting flooded) during Hurricane Milton and they stayed! We had 18 inches under our house during Milton and 6 inches or so during Helene and the cans that we bungeed stayed.
During Ian, we did not do this and had to scavenge the neighborhood for our cans. We never did find them all. We did inherit one during Milton which belonged to a neighbor, so we took it back. If you don’t bungee them, spray them with your house number using spray paint so hopefully someone will return it. Buying garbage cans isn’t something I want to do over and over and over again.
We put all this porch decor away during each hurricane
Satellite Internet or Hotspots
Our internet went out for a week during Milton, so we have a Starlink satellite internet as a backup. We got it during our Hurricane Ian evacuation to use with our RV for our return home, and we just kept it going. In 2024, Starlink gave free monthly service from October until December for those affected by Hurricane Helene or Milton, which made me love the company even more.
My husband’s work sent him a Netgear hotspot to use during our Ian evacuation and it works great. They have let him keep it until we move out of Florida, but due to the cost being relatively low, we may invest in one at our next home. Starlink works great in Florida and wherever there is not a lot of trees, but if you live in an area with many trees, it may not work as well.
How I prepped our porch stuff on our second floor porch for Hurricane Milton…it worked!
Porches
If you have anything on your porch when a tornado, hurricane or bad storm is approaching, remove it all. Take it in your house or put it up high in a garage…like really high. If your area floods, everything you leave outside will float away. You may find it, but it may be full of mud, muck and chemicals that cannot or should not be brought back to your home environment.
I’d love to say that taking things inside your house is only to keep it safe from the weather, but it’s also to keep it safe from looters. After Hurricane Ian, some people tried to steal things from people’s homes (we had things picked through at our house by strangers that were at our house to “help” as we had photographic evidence), so lock your house and many things will stay safer inside.
If you have an electric house lock without a key option, you may need to figure out a better option for getting into your home if it floods or the power goes out and stays out. You may want to leave a window (maybe one that is up high, even if you have to use a ladder to access it) unlocked, but again, this may open your house up for thieves, so you can decide on what to do about this.
Hurricane Milton wilted plants and leaves on Sanibel
Plants
Bring plants inside or put them up high. Tie them down if needed. I had heavy planters in my yard during Hurricane Milton that I swore wouldn’t go anywhere, but three floated away. I still don’t know where they went. They stuck around for tons of flooding (we had 5 feet under our house) during Hurricane Ian, yet for the 18 inches of flooding during Milton, they vanished. Honestly, anything in your yard that you love should be brought inside or put up high during bad weather.
We had to save fish in our yard post Hurricane Helene
Cars or Other Vehicles
Move your car to a high place if you expect flooding or salt water spray. Electric cars, golf carts and electric bikes DO NOT like salty water and can even catch fire if subjected to it for a long period of time with flood waters. This happened in Sanibel after Hurricane Ian, which caused some house fires. Many of our neighbors that have multiple cars move theirs to the local airport and just pay the fee for parking. It’s cheaper than getting a new car/s like so many people had to do after Hurricane Ian. Or, find a family member or a friend in a safe area you can take it to.
We clean under our house after flooding with water and mold spray
Free Assistance
Ask your leadership at your work if they offer any grant programs for those in need after a natural disaster. My husband’s company had a grant program (he works for a large company, and big companies usually offer them) that we were able to take advantage of after Ian and Helene. It wasn’t a lot of money, but every little bit helps. Check with your local library or local government for grant programs. You don’t have to pay back grants, so they are usually harder to get, but you should try if you need the financial help.
Local churches and organizations also will sometimes offer free food, gift cards, cleaning supplies and more (we have the F.I.S.H group on Sanibel), so ask neighbors, local government and call around to local businesses to see where you can get free assistance if needed. If you know of someone that is struggling after a large weather-related event, you can often apply for them if they cannot. FEMA offers free mental health help after natural disasters (and many other events) too.
Keeping your sanity when dealing with so much is hard, so get mental health help if you feel you need it. I watched many people of all ages and cultures weep after the hurricanes and tornadoes of 2022 and 2024 and I shed my own tears too. I poured myself into creating, writing, and talking with friends and family, which was very helpful. There is no shame in helping yourself and your brain get healthy after a traumatic event.
I put out fresh water for the animals after salty flood waters flow over on Sanibel
Money: Insurance, FEMA, Lawyers
If your house gets hit bad or is completely destroyed, call your homeowners or renter insurance immediately after the event. If they are giving you any trouble and are offering paltry amounts of money that won’t fix your house back to its original state or provide you with adequate shelter, don’t be afraid to hire a good lawyer team.
If you have more damage than your deductible like we did after Hurricane Ian, we had a lawyer team help us and though it took a long while, they helped us get exactly what we needed to fix our home. They took a percentage, of course, but we still had enough to fix everything. We know so many that didn’t want to get a lawyer, so they were left to either pay for a lot of repairs themselves or just went without. Repair costs can be high and this can make you struggle, especially if you are retired or can’t work your job due to storm damage.
If you pay into insurance, get what you deserve and put up a little resistance against insurers if you need to! Ask the necessary questions and keep asking. Take photos and don’t fix anything until you get help and/or don’t fix anything until an adjustor has been to your house.
Flood damage is different. Our flood insurance helped very quickly (during Ian, our adjustor had to take a boat to our house!) and though it didn’t cover everything affected, our claim helped us get our air conditioners replaced (our A/C units are raised, but the salty flood water still reached it, destroying our outside units) and helped us get our pool drained and cleaned.
Our flood insurance did not cover all the cost, so if you are a homeowner or a renter, FEMA does have a loan called a Small Business Administration (SBA) you can get to cover things insurance doesn’t. It’s a low-interest disaster loan that is worth looking into if you need it. We repaired what we could ourselves after each storm, but did need some help, which comes with a larger cost.
We got zero “free money” during Hurricane Ian from FEMA though it was publicized by the media and government that we would get some monetary help. We know there was a law that changed in 2024 allowing more to get financial assistance after hurricanes, so let’s hope those that need monetary help are getting it after Helene and Milton.
If you loved this article, then we know you’ll love this one too: One Year Later: What We Learned After Hurricane Ian
Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.