How to prepare for a hurricane in Florida: First-hand lessons
GOES Health Team
I learned how to prepare for a hurricane in Florida through a lot of personal experience. I grew up in Fort Myers, Florida – directly in the paths of Hurricane Ian (2022), Irma (2017), Wilma (2005) and Charley (2004).
Growing up there, you learn to live with hurricanes — the seasonality and ritual of it all, understanding the nuances of a storm, the dangers and risks and how to prepare for bad storms in general.
Unlike other natural disasters, hurricanes are big, slow, and long. What I mean by that is:
- You can see them coming from a mile away. Actually, hundreds of miles away. So you have days, sometimes weeks, to prepare for a hurricane.
- There is no big destructive moment. You have to endure many destructive moments, for hours until they pass.
The three dangerous stages of hurricanes
The destruction wrought by hurricanes comes from three different factors. One of the ways to improve your chances of surviving a hurricane is knowing what they do and how to stay safe:
🌬️ High winds
I’ve seen trees uprooted, billboards hurled through the air and roofs lifted off homes. I remember seeing our sliding glass doors bowing in from the wind pressure during Hurricane Charley, which was only a category 3 hurricane. It wasn’t hard to imagine how the windows would shatter in a more powerful storm. Lesson learned: stay away from windows to survive a hurricane.
🌊 Floods
Fort Myers is a coastal town. Living right at sea level means it doesn’t take much to flood. Hurricane Ian caused storm surges of 10-15 ft — enough to lift a home from its foundation. Floods can also happen quickly and trap people inside their homes, which is why they end up being the most lethal natural disaster.
⛅️ The aftermath
After a storm passes, the world feels eerily calm and quiet — just long enough to see the collateral damage the hurricane left in its path. A category 4 storm (like Ian or Harvey) can disrupt water and power services for weeks, depending on a city’s infrastructure. It isn’t until you’re without water and power for a few days that you realize just how many things depend on these utilities. There are many ways in which this can become dangerous for people over time:
- Without working traffic lights, driving becomes much more dangerous. You just have to trust that everyone else is driving with as much caution as you are and treating every intersection as a 4-way stop.
- Downed power lines, flooded streets and wet logs are a dangerous combination. Naturally, everyone wants to step outside to assess the damage after the storm has passed. But one misstep could cause serious injury or be fatal.
- Everything in your fridge eventually spoils and becomes unsafe to eat. Most methods of cooking to kill bacteria also require electricity. That’s why it’s important to have non-perishable food reserves that don’t require refrigeration or heating.
- Many Floridians have invested in gas-powered generators to prepare for hurricane season. However, when not used and ventilated properly, the odorless and colorless carbon monoxide they emit can result in unexpected death.
- Water runs out. Even the most vigilant storm prepper has a finite amount of bottled water. Without proper methods to disinfect post-storm water, there’s increased risk of getting sick from the water.
- Looking into the long-term health impacts, flood damage to a home could lead to the growth of mold, which can be harmful with prolonged exposure.
Community is a necessity to survive a hurricane
If hurricanes sound like a lot to navigate and endure, they are. We’ve learned how to live with them by knowing what to prepare for hurricane season. That includes following local authorities and evacuation orders. Those stubborn enough to stay behind in an evacuation zone could find themselves in need of rescue. However, rescue services could be strained and are not guaranteed during a natural disaster.
After the storm, I’ve seen communities come together and share resources to try and regain some normalcy .Whoever gets their water and power back first invites those without over for showers, a hot meal and air conditioning. Neighbors help each other locate displaced vehicles, washed miles away. We pick up the pieces, and rebuild.
