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
• Radio guide — NOAA Weather Radio 162.400 (KEC86) with the SAME codes, the Hurricane Watch Net, and the local ARES repeaters for when the power and cell service are down

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