Despite the advanced warning you may receive, once one hits your area you may still be pretty shaken up. Having a good preparedness plan for a situation like this can help tremendously when it comes to dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane. Assuming the hurricane wasn't a category five, a good preparedness plan will lessen the severity of care needed after the hurricane passes. Knowing what to do when the storm passes is just as important as knowing what to do in case one occurs.
Personal and Neighboring Injuries
Most hurricanes that happen to cross land are not at a high enough caliber to cause major personal injury. If the storm in your area wasn’t strong enough to cause injury you can skip this step. However, if the hurricane was tremendous enough to tear houses apart or cause falling trees, be sure to check for injuries. It is always important to survey the immediate surroundings (people in your home) first to insure that you are capable of continuing on to help others without harming yourself further. If you determine you anf your family are safe, gather the able bodies, and search your neighboring areas. If there are others injured, help who you can and call the authorities to help the more critically injured people. Most important tip is to not remove any debris or puncture wound items, this could hurt or kill the person you are trying to help.
Surveying the Amenity Losses and Outages
The more avid hurricane experiencers know it is not common to lose power during a storm. Having a flashlight, candles, camp light, any other from of light in your preparedness plan will take care of this problem. Extra batteries will come in handy too if the storm was strong enough to know the power out for a few days. Hurricanes have also been know to burst pipelines, meaning your water supply will be knoced out for a few days. Having a gallon of water per day per person should be enough to hold any family over. Knowing the category of the hurricane will allow you to prep the best by gathering the appropriate amount of water, lights, batteries, crafts for the little ones to keep them busy, etc.
Evacuate Unsafe Buildings
it is not unheard of for houses and shelters to be torn up and broken apart during a powerful enough hurricane. If your house or shelter did not hold up as well as expected, be sure to get out! Your area will have a designated organization designed specifically to help place people in homes or group shelters after a horrific disaster. If you are not hurt bad, it is always a good thought to check the surrounding buildings to warn others of the impending danger.
Start the Cleanup Process
After you have determined that you and your neighbors are safe, in a stable shelter, and know the severity of the outcome of the storm you can now start the clean up process, if necessary. Due to the 5 various categories of hurricanes the clean up process will vary as well. If the storm in your area was not disasterous your biggest clean up chore may be to clean up your daughter spilled milk. However, if the hurricane was detremental to your city you may have quite a chore on your hands. There will be various organizations present to help the home owners clean up and rebuild. Communities come together in events like this, you can count on others to help you accomplish everything you may need in this difficult time. Be sure to stay away from downed power lines and fire hazards when trying to clean up your area, leave that to the professionals.
