Hurricane Readiness

Before the storm arrives, check to see that flash­lights, emer­gency gen­er­a­tor, bat­tery-oper­at­ed radios and oth­er equip­ment are in work­ing order.

When the storm hits, turn off all appli­ances except for lights. This reduces the chance of over­load­ing cir­cuits when pow­er is restored. If you are in the direct path of the storm, assume you will be with­out pow­er for some time. And of course, stay away from any downed pow­er lines. After the storm, crews will work around the clock to restore pow­er, but their first con­cern is to restore ser­vice to emer­gency radios, hos­pi­tals, util­i­ties, and trans­porta­tion sys­tems.

Call YEC imme­di­ate­ly if you see spark­ing pow­er lines, and call if your house is the only one on your block with­out pow­er.

Hur­ri­cane pre­pared­ness check­list:

• Access infor­ma­tion regard­ing flood stage data for area streams and water­ways.
• Note the ele­va­tion lev­el of your own home.
• Inquire as to the poten­tial for inland flood­ing and storm surge.
• Check with emer­gency man­age­ment offi­cials for low points and flood­ing his­to­ry and plan an escape/evacuation route accord­ing­ly.
• Pro­tect win­dows and oth­er glass by board­ing up or shut­ter­ing large win­dows secure­ly.
• Tape exposed glass to reduce shat­ter­ing and place cov­er­ings around doors to pro­tect against fly­ing glass.
• Keep bat­tery-oper­at­ed radios or tele­vi­sions tuned for accu­rate infor­ma­tion.
• For more hur­ri­cane tips, vis­it Ready.gov/hurricanes

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About Hurricanes

The 74–160 mph winds of a hur­ri­cane can extend inland for hun­dreds of miles. Fol­low­ing a hur­ri­cane, inland streams and rivers can flood and trig­ger land­slides. As a hur­ri­cane approach­es, the skies dark­en and the winds will grow in strength.

Hur­ri­canes are cat­e­go­rized by inten­si­ty on a scale of 1 to 5 with the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics:

Cat­e­go­ry	Wind (mph)	Storm Surge (feet)
I	74–95	4–5
II	96–100	6–8
III	111–130	9–12
IV	131–155	13–18
V	156 plus	19 plus