Be Prepared

I am still off meditating, but I am scheduling this to publish in my absence for National Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 3 - 9, 2026. It is so important for people who live in the southeast, Atlantic coastal and Gulf Coastal regions to get ready for hurricane season, which runs from June 1st through November 30th. You can find lots of helpful information here, and get updates on systems and storms throughout the season at The National Hurricane Center.

Every year my guy and I take stock of our supplies of non-perishable foods, batteries, medications and everything else we might need in the event a hurricane cuts us off from civilization. My guy tests our generator, and makes sure we keep enough propane on hand to use the grill if we have to for cooking. This is because we have lived without power for weeks many times in the past, and have never suffered because we prepared in advance for such events.

I have just tidied and reorganized our emergency pantry to see what I need for the season, which is why I'll be investing in a jar of peanut butter, a box of crackers, some pasta and some dried fruit this week. I'll also probably get a few more bottles of juice from Dollar Tree, as I know from past experience that drinking bottled water during outtages gets old fast.

None of the food in our emergency pantry is fancy or expensive. It's simple and tasty, and we can eat it out of the cans if we have to. I keep a lot of oatmeal on hand because you just need a little boiling water to make that for breakfast, and we can boil water on the grill. All these companies that try to sell you freeze-dried survival food don't mention that their meals usually taste terrible, and required quite a bit of boiling water to prepare. Remember, with canned foods you just need a manual can opener.

In the days before a storm hits our area I will invest in fresh fruit (bananas and apples are best without refrigeration available) and a loaf or two of bread, but generally that's all I buy. An emergency pantry saves you from panic spending.

I keep a clipboard with an updated inventory of the emergency pantry (I make mine with Excel) as well as some guidelines on how to make water safe during crisis situations. The guidelines are for the neighbors. We try to help out our neighbors when we can, especially during emergencies. My guy will also go over and test their generator this month.

Probably the most important preparation you can make is to be sure you have drinking water on hand. You can survive for a while without food, but you can't live without water.

The usual recommendation is one gallon of water per day per person for three days. Based on experience, and the fact that we have a well, we store one gallon of drinking water per person for ten days, as well as three gallons of water per person for washing, plus five gallon buckets of water in each bathroom so we can flush the toilets. It's also something you can prepare for versus panic buying water when a storm is coming. I've washed and saved plastic tea jugs for years, which I fill ahead of the storm and store in bins around the house.

I freeze three or four gallon jugs of water before a storm and put them in our freezers to help keep food cold until we can run our generator. I do the same thing for the fridge with five or six frozen water bottles. Remember before you freeze water in any container that it expands, and you need to pour off a little rather than fill it to the top to create space.

Finally, I keep a shelf of hurricane supplies in the laundry room that include emergency lights, a transitor radio so we can listen to news reports (this has been super helpful in the past when we went weeks without power or outside contact with civilization), our Coleman battery lantern, paper goods and plastic utensils for meals (washing dishes wastes water) and plastic cups from every fast food restaurant we've been to for the last couple of years. I wash out the cups and save them for drinking after a storm.

It might seem funny that I save cups and jugs for hurricane season, but they would otherwise get thrown away, so it's recycling. Think about things you throw away that you can instead save for an emergency situation. Those little salt, pepper, and nonperishable sauce packets that come with a take out meal, for example, can make all the difference with emergency food.

I have never once regretted preparing for hurricane season, and I keep looking for ways we can be better prepared for the next one. If you live in the danger zone you should, too.