Protect Your Home & Valuables

Protect Your Home

• Lawn furniture, trash cans, children's toys, garden equipment, clotheslines, hanging plants and any other objects that may fly around and damage property should be brought indoors.
• Leave trees and shrubs alone. If you did not cut away dead or diseased branches or limbs from trees and shrubs, leave them alone - do not do it now. Turn off electricity and water if instructed to do so. Turn off electricity at the main fuse or breaker and turn off water at the main valve.
• Turn off propane gas service. Propane tanks often become dislodged in disasters.
• Leave natural gas on. Unless local officials advise otherwise, leave natural gas on because you will need it for heating and cooking when you return home. If you turn gas off, a licensed professional is required to turn it back on, and it may take weeks for a professional to respond.
• If high winds are expected, cover the outside of all windows of your home. Use shutters that are rated to provide significant protection from windblown debris, or fit plywood coverings over all windows. Tape does not prevent windows from breaking and is not recommended.
• If flooding is expected, consider using sand bags to keep water away from your home. It takes two people about one hour to fill and place 100 sandbags, giving you a wall one foot high and 20 feet long. Make sure you have enough sand, burlap or plastic bags, shovels, strong helpers and time to place them properly.
• Remember that houses do not explode due to air pressure differences. Damage happens when wind gets inside a home through a broken window, door or damaged roof.

Protect Your Valuables

• Move television sets, computers, stereos, electronic equipment and easily moveable appliances to higher levels of your home and away from windows. Wrap them in sheets, blankets or burlap.
• Make a visual or written record of all of your household possessions. List model and serial numbers. Include expensive items such as sofas, chairs, tables, beds, chests, wall units and any other furniture too heavy to move. Consider storing the list in a safety deposit box.

If you have to evacuate your home for a prolonged period during a winter power failure, drain the water from the plumbing system.