The Survival Guide › Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
🌪Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
The wind gets the headlines and the category number. The water does the killing.
What actually kills people. Storm surge and inland flooding cause the large majority of tropical cyclone deaths in the United States. The Saffir-Simpson category measures wind and nothing else, which is why a Category 1 can be deadlier than a Category 4 that comes ashore somewhere flat and empty.
Before
- Find out now whether your address is in a storm surge evacuation zone. It is not the same as a flood zone, and the difference is measured in feet of water.
- Do the outdoor work during the watch, not the warning. A watch means 48 hours; a warning means 36, and by then the wind is often too strong to be up a ladder.
- Fit shutters or 5/8-inch marine plywood cut to size in advance. Tape on glass does nothing except make the shards larger.
- Trim branches back from the house and clear the gutters. Most wind damage starts with something that was already loose.
- Fill the car before the queues start, and fill the bath and every container once the warning is issued.
- Photograph every room and the outside of the house. Insurance arguments are won with timestamps.
During
- Stay on the lowest floor that will not flood, in an interior room, away from every window.
- If the wind drops and the sky clears, that is the eye and not the end. The far eyewall arrives next, with the wind reversed.
- Do not go out to look at the damage between bands.
- Keep the phone charged and off unless you need it. Text rather than call when the network is loaded.
After
- Assume every downed line is live, and every pool of water hiding one.
- Wait for officials to say the roads are open before driving. Washed-out bridges do not look washed out from a car.
- Photograph damage before touching anything.
- Never run a generator indoors, in a garage, in a carport or on a porch. Twenty feet from the house, exhaust pointed away.
The thing people get wrong
“The eye means it is over.”
The calm centre can last forty minutes and feels completely convincing. People go outside to check on the car and are caught by the far eyewall, where the wind arrives at full strength from the opposite direction, carrying everything the first half loosened.
On this site now: See whether a watch or warning is in force where you are ›
The rest of the guide
Sources: National Weather Service, FEMA, CDC and CPSC. Informational only, and no substitute for what your local emergency services tell you on the day — when officials say go, go.