Tips for Preparing Your Home for Hurricane Season

For many, hurricane season can be a stressful time. The grocery stores are emptied of food and water but packed with crowds. The weather radar plays on a loop, and people make frantic last-minute plans to evacuate their cities. With so much happening so rapidly, it’s easy to let your self-preservation supersede the protection of your home. But, if you follow these tips for preparing your home before hurricane season, you can protect yourself and your home long before a hurricane makes landfall.

Take Inventory of Your Property

Taking an inventory of your entire property is the first and best step you can take in preparing your home for hurricane season. When a hurricane causes significant damage to a home, the infrastructure of the building is damaged. But things like furniture, clothing, essential documents, and other items also become unsalvageable. So, you must take an inventory of your property and the vital items housed within it before a hurricane makes landfall. This inventory will protect your assets and ensure that even if your home is severely damaged, insurance can reimburse you for your losses.

Secure and Seal Your Roof

Something else you can do to protect your home from hurricane damage is to get your roof inspected, sealed, and secured. Hurricanes bring with them torrential rain and high winds that can damage your roof significantly. So, it’s wise to have your roof inspected for weak spots, worn shingles, or slight damage that might exacerbate with severe weather. Doing this might seem like a little extra time and money, but it’s well worth it. A strong roof will ensure that you and your family have considerable protection from any storm that might be raging outside the walls of your home.

Keep Your Trees and Shrubs Trimmed

One of the tips for preparing your home for hurricane season that you might not have considered is keeping your trees and shrubs well-trimmed. Hurricanes have a nasty habit of making the things in your yard turn into projectiles. So, it’s a good idea to maintain your trees and shrubs regularly. For instance, if you notice that one of your trees has a large branch growing a little too close to one of your upstairs windows, it would be wise to cut it back or off altogether to avoid unnecessary damage, should a hurricane make landfall close to where you live.

Life can become very frantic once a hurricane heads to your city. But, if you stay calm and take precautionary measures to protect your home and your loved ones, you can make it through hurricane season safely.