Find out if you live in an evac zone. If you do, plan your evac. Don't figure you can ride it out. You can't, and because people staying in evac zones put the cops and others who come to get them at risk, if you stay for any reason other than being physically unable to move, you're an asshole. If you aren't able to easily evac, and you don't have a plan in place to take care of that, you're a dumbass, and why the HELL are you living in an evac zone.

Don't wait for the storm to supply up. Once the season starts, gradually buy supplies. You should, by the end of the season, have at least three days of food and water, a week if you have the room.

All that bullshit about taping windows, or leaving one open? There's a name for people who do that: Statistics. Board them up with good, strong plywood sheets, preferably metal storm windows. Attach them to the structure of the house with proper anchors. If you do this at the last minute, you run a lot of risks you don't want to. Reinforce garage doors, or buy new ones that are properly strong. During Andrew, garage doors collapsed right and left, and once the wind gets in your house, it's pure luck if you live or die. Cap and cover ALL openings in the house. Period. Reinforce outer doors.

Let me relate what happens if the wind gets in...it peels the roof off of the house. Like a sardine can. If the wind breaches the structure of your house, you don't have a house anymore, you have rubble. You may live. You may not. In '92, Andrew destroyed the alert building at Homestead AFB. That structure was supposed to be able to take a couple of good sized bombs. According to CNN, Katrina's already punched a hole in the roof of the Superdome. Andrew peeled the wall off a Holiday Inn, and bent a 400' sunken freighter like a banana. Ponder that.

Check your roof. Is the primary sheeting particle board? If so, replace it. No matter the cost. Particle board will not withstand a hurricane. It's wood chips and wood glue. You get it that wet, it turns to slush, and gets slurped right off the house. Plywood sheets *hand hammered* are the minimum ,(Nail guns can overdrive the nails, shoving them in too deep to the wood, weakening the attachment strength), tongue - in - groove planking is the best. (you get that kind of planking, you have a bomb shelter. My ex in-laws house in Miami had that shit. You could see where it had take direct hits from debris, and just shrugged it off. Some tile damage. If it costs a lot, ask yourself what your family is worth to you.

That's just the outside. On the inside, make sure you have hurricane straps. These anchor your roof to the frame of the house from the inside, adding more strength to that bond.

Hurricanes are not to be screwed with. Respect them, and you'll survive. Take them less than seriously, and you best have good life insurance. That way, someone will at least benefit.

Wishing you a safe and otherwise enjoyable hurricane season...

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