Those of us who live in Florida know that Hurricane Season is upon us. Every year there are people who speculate on how many hurricanes we will get this year, and how much damage they’ll do. Honestly none of that matters to me. I just want to know how to protect my family, myself, and my belongings.
There are a ton of sites with tips and tricks for preparing your home and family for a hurricane. I’ll leave that to the professionals. I want to give you a few tips on how to protect your most important electronics from the effects of a hurricane.
Back up your important information. You can do this via CD’s, external hard drives or even flash drives. If your computer is ruined, it hurts less if you can recover all your important pictures and documents. You can even subscribe to a service that will back your information up to a secure online location. It’s worth it.
Make sure your cell phone has a full charge. This is really important for if you have to evacuate. Make sure, when you leave, to take your cell charger with you. Your cell phone may be your lifeline in an emergency and there is no worse time to have a dead battery.
Before you evacuate turn off all electronics, and unplug them.
Put your tower and printer in heavy duty garbage bags and put them up as high as you can. You may put them in the top of the closet or on the dining room table, just make sure they aren’t on the ground. This should help keep them from getting damaged if your house or office floods.
Put your cell phone, wall charger, and travel charger in plastic bags. Electricity may very well go out, so make sure you have the car charger with you. It may be the only option you have to charge your phone. The biggest threat to the items that travel with you will be water. Hurricanes are naturally very wet creatures. The storms that come with them can drench you and whatever you are carrying in seconds. You may get drenched on your way from the car to shelter, and that can be all it takes to put your phone out of commission. Make sure you protect your phone and keep it from getting wet so you can use it when it’s really important.
If you follow these tips it should keep most of your electronics safe. If you do happen to get water in your electronics, there is a great water damage resource at The Restoration Resource.
Find more hurricane preparedness tips here.
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