Juliette Kayyem: f you could have a wish of what everyone would prepare for in anticipation of, of even a, a, a normal hurricane season like this summer, what would it be?
Rich Serino: Well, simple things that people can do ahead of time. When you hear that a storm’s coming, or even long before that, now hurricane season started June first. But the real peak is going to happen probably at the end of August in, into the middle part of September, although we had an early hurricane this year in January. But people should have certain things, they should have, you know, ahead of time. They should have simple things like flashlights, have batteries for the flashlights, have a, a hand-cranked or, and a battery, and/or battery-powered AM radio. Not many people have those any. And AM and now some FM radios to have those so you’re able to hear what’s going on. Have… Almost everybody has cell phones now. Make sure you download the FEMA app. They have a mobile app that gives you all sorts of resources on that and can send messages to you as well if you sign up for that. But then in order to contact with other members of your family, make sure you have it fully charged, but go out and make sure you have a car charger for that. Even if power goes out in the home that you could charge…in your car. And have those spare battery packs as well for the mobile phones. I think that’s one thing that’s a big change from where we were just five years ago, is to make sure people have those battery packs for their phones, ’cause your phone… It’s [sic] amazes me how quickly my phone dies on a day-to-day basis. But having those battery pack, and start remembering that when a hurricane could strike. In addition to that, make sure you have water – a gallon per person per day is sort of an average. So if you have five people in your house, have five gallons. If you make sure you have at least three days. So have ten to 15 gallons in the house. And you know, look when they’re on sale at the local supermarket and you get water pretty cheap or just fill up, you know, empty milk jugs or whatever with water and put them away to make sure that you have them. Have some canned goods, granola bars. It’s very simple things that you can have in your home and just have ’em in a kit that you have ’em ready to go. And if you have papers, you know, special documents, make sure they’re protected. I’m not saying run out and get a safe that’s, you know, waterproof safe. Say, simple things just getting, putting them in Ziploc bags, big Ziploc bags and keeping them dry.
Juliette Kayyem: So this idea of three days, this is that, that slogan “72 on you” which is essentially not that you won’t be saved in 72 hours, but just to have a sense of preparedness and resiliency, think about 72 hours as being the right framework.
Rich Serino: Yeah. It’s, it’s very simple. It’s to make sure you have that for the 72 hours, similar to if you’re in the northeast in the wintertime, you’re gonna get storms. You could be without power on a regular basis for two to three days. And making sure that you have that. And also making sure that you have something in a go kit ready to go in case you need something and having your medications ready to go. Simple things that especially if you hear a hurricane’s coming, you know, having your medications ready to go; having them listed out or taking pictures of them so you know what they are in case you have to have them refilled. You have the prescription numbers. And bring them with you as well. If you have little kids, take toys.
>>To hear more about hoe to prepare for hurricane season, click on the audio link above.
