Hurricane Prep Tips from a Native

After only one day back at school, the kids are now home for two days due to Hurricane Fay’s impending arrival. Talk about a false start! Anyway, for those of you who’ve never been through a Florida hurricane, here are a few of my must-do items for hurricane preparation.

Prepare for long, boring power outages by stockpiling important reading material such as People, Us, InTouch and OK magazines.

Buy shelf stable liquids such as Parmalat milk, bottled water, Vodka, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Warm beer is just gross!

Make sure you have plenty of candles and matches for when the batteries run out for the flashlights and lanterns. But remember, DON’T MIX YOUR AROMATHERAPY! Those holiday favorite Cinnamon Apple candles burning alongside your stress relieving Lavender Dream candles are a recipe for sensory overload and will lead to a migraine of epic proportions!

Charge up those cell phones! They won’t work because all the circuits will be jammed, but you’ll be most upset if your cell battery expires along with everything in your refrigerator.

Hunker down alongside a mom-friend with kids your children’s ages. When the power goes out and the kids realize they can’t watch Nickelodeon or play video games, things will get dicey! Having friends to play with can mean the difference between surviving the hurricane and a post-storm visit from DCF.

Refill all necessary prescription medication. Don’t forget about those all important OTC items as well. Florida experienced quite a baby boom nine months after the 2004 hurricane season. During an extended power outage it’s hot, it’s dark, there are candles, well, I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.

Stock up on hair gel and powder shampoos to combat that “I haven’t taken a shower in 3 days so I look like a Mad Scientist” look.

And, from the cheap seats, Beloved submitted the following items from his "must-do to prepare for hurricane" list:

Stock up on gas for the generator – A cold beer and/or frozen popsicle are powerful bartering tools when there is no air conditioning and it is 95 degrees and 95% humidity outside. (Besides, Native Mom and her friends drink all of the wine…)

Charge the i-pod – It helps to drown out the squeals from MiniMe and assorted guest kids when the power goes out, the tree in the back yard cracks or a particularly loud thunderclap sounds.

Ensure you are part of your company’s storm response team. That way, when the power is out for the next 10 days, the kids are cranky and Native Mom is out of wine, you can take off for work and enjoy the air conditioning and warm water provided at the office by the company’s back-up generator. Not only that, you can get comp time for all of those extra hours that you work and later take the time to head for the mountains on your motorcycle for a long weekend with the boys!