Hurricane prep, the actual version

We've taken a lot of weather here. Ivan. Sally. The bigger ones and the busts. The locals who've lived through several have a different relationship to hurricane season than the people writing the tourism brochures, and the prep list reflects that.

The mindset

Hurricane prep is not a one-week-out scramble. It's a season-long set of small habits that mean you're ready before the system has a name. If you're prepping for a Cat 1 the same way you're prepping for a Cat 4, you're going to get tired of prepping. Adjust to the actual threat.

April and May (pre-season)

• Trees: trim what you can, drop anything dead. Live oaks shed limbs in 80 mph wind that they don't shed in 60.
• Roof and shingles: get on a roofer's calendar in April, not in June. By the time a system is forming everyone is booked.
• Gutters: clean. Water that can't drain finds new exits, none of which you want.
• Generator: if you have one, run it on its actual fuel for ten minutes once a month. If you don't, get one before April. Prices double when a storm is in the box.
• Insurance: review your policy before June 1. Wind, flood, and contents are three separate questions. Get them right.
• Photographs: take a video walking through every room. Time-stamped. Cloud backup. This is the single best 15 minutes of pre-season prep, period.

June to November (in season, no storm watched)

• Keep the gas tanks above half. Once a storm is named, every gas station within 60 miles has a line.
• Keep the pantry stocked. A two-week food and water buffer is the default.
• Know your evacuation zone. Both states publish zone maps; learn yours before the orders go out.
• Know your hotel options if you evacuate. The places everyone runs to (Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville) book up. Have a fallback list.
• Trash and yard items: assume anything not bolted down becomes a projectile. Even with weeks of warning we forget the kayak on the rack.

Five-day cone (storm in the basin)

• Check the National Hurricane Center, not Facebook. The 5-day cone updates every six hours.
• Top off gas, water, prescriptions. Don't be the one in line at CVS on Friday night.
• Confirm evacuation plan with anyone in the household. Where you're going. Who's driving. Who's calling whom.
• Check on the older neighbor. Especially the one who says they're fine.
• If you have a boat: haul or sink-the-anchor decisions made now, not at 48 hours.

72 hours out

• Shutters up. Plywood cut and labeled and stored in a way that lets you put it up alone. Don't be the person on a ladder in 40 mph wind.
• Anything in the yard goes inside or in the garage.
• Fill bathtubs and any other large container with water (for sanitation, not drinking).
• Move important documents to a waterproof container; the cloud copy is the real backup.
• If you're staying, have cash. ATMs and card readers go down with the power.
• If you're leaving, leave when officials suggest leaving, not when they order it. Traffic on I-65 and US-98 is the actual reason people miss the window.

24-12 hours out

• Charge everything. Headlamps, phone packs, the actual phones.
• Wash a load of laundry.
• Refrigerator and freezer: turn to coldest setting; fill empty space with bagged water (frozen).
• Locate the gas shutoff and the main water shutoff and confirm you know which way to turn the valve.

If you're staying

• Interior room, lowest floor, away from windows. Closet or bathroom. Mattress over the bathtub is a real thing, not a movie thing.
• Don't go outside during the eye. The other side is coming.
• Don't drive through standing water afterward. Turn around, don't drown.

After

• Document damage with photo and video before you touch anything.
• Don't get on the roof.
• Don't run a generator inside a garage or near windows. Carbon monoxide kills more people post-storm than the storm.
• Tree work — leave the big stuff to people with insurance and chainsaws. You will get hurt trying to be the hero.
• Check on the older neighbor again.

Sources that actually matter

• National Hurricane Center — the cone, the discussions, the real data
• NWS Mobile/Pensacola — local forecast office, has local marine + surf info
• Florida Division of Emergency Management
• Alabama Emergency Management Agency
• Escambia County — your county on the FL side
• Baldwin County — your county on the AL side

Nothing on this page is medical or evacuation advice. Local authorities make the call. When they say go, you go.