10 health tips for 2025

Tips on How to Prepare for a Hurricane Being from Miami, I have my fair share of experiences with category 3,4, and even five hurricanes. They are not pleasant. They are quite scary. Your emotions can get the best of you, especially if you don’t have family around you.  Right now, yes, at this very moment, as I write this post, I am without electricity because of Hurricane Sally.  Just a category two hurricane, but it just so happened to hit Foley, Alabama, and I guarantee this town was not ready for it, so  I have no power. Southeast FL is very well prepared for hurricanes. Their cable lines, their building structures, emergency services, everything. Foley, AL… not so much. So this hurricane may be just a category 2, but it has felt like a category 3 and 4 because of the nearby damage, loss of power, and severe floods. This post is not research-based, and it is the first post I will write, which is based purely on my experience with hurricanes. So, if I forget something or you had a different experience than I did and found better ways to prepare, by all means, share them with me. So let’s get right down to it! Here are 16 tips on how to prepare for a hurricane. Put up your Shutters early. Whether you have actual shutters or purchase plywood to hammer over windows, make sure you start early. The winds are the most dangerous early on. Their speeds can go up to 140mph, depending on the strength of the hurricane. Debris will be thrown around. So, protecting your windows with shutters or plywood is very important to protect your home and everyone inside it.  Not to mention it’s also labor-intensive and time-consuming. DO NOT underestimate it. Buy drinking water Dehydration is very dangerous. Make sure you buy enough water to last at least a week but plan for more. I know it sounds excessive. But when the electricity goes out, you won’t have A/C or fans to work. You will sweat, and you can get dehydrated. You also don’t know how long you will be without power. Buy food that won’t spoil easily and can be quickly cooked without the need for electricity, and if you have a BBQ grill, have extra gas tanks. In Miami, most people have BBQ grills out back. This helps because you can still cook things. My family did.✓ So, make sure you have extra gas tanks. BUT, if you don’t… then you depend on electricity to cook. This means that anything that needs the stove, pressure cooker, or oven will not be useful. Buy foods that you can eat without having to cook them, and foods that don’t spoil easily. Cereals are a good option.  Certain fruits are great! It will help you eat healthy, even if it’s unintentional! Bananas, Oranges, Mangoes, and peaches are a few of my favorites. Peanut butter, Nutella, and bread are also good options.✓ Cans of tuna are also great! Peanuts, mixed nuts, almonds, raisins, and prunes are great snacks, too. You can also get seeds: pumpkin, sunflower, flax, etc. These are just a few ideas. You can also get unhealthy but yummy potato chips, cookies, donuts, etc. But don’t overdo it. Stress can make you change your eating habits. Hurricanes are no different. Get a flashlight and batteries. When your electricity goes out, it will get very dark. With dark skies and no power, it can get pitch black. So have flashlights and plenty of batteries. If you have kids at home, the darkness is sometimes the scariest part for them.  They hear all this noise outside, but they can’t see what is happening around them, giving them light.  Those battery-powered hallway lights are great. You know, the ones you press down on, and they turn on and off. Fill up your car with gas. Even if you don’t plan on going anywhere…. Have your car tank full!  You never know if you will need to go somewhere to get extra food/water or help a family member.  We had to drive to my sister’s house to get water and extension cords.  Not a far enough drive to fill out the gas tank, but you never know. Get extra gas in those red containers. This gas can be used for the car, but also as a generator if you have one. Powering a refrigerator with a generator eats up a lot of gas. So make sure you pack plenty. Especially if you don’t know how long the lack of power will last.  We had to pull gas from our car because our extra fuel ran out, trying to power our refrigerator.✓ Buy a small generator if you can afford it. Lucky for my family back in Miami, we had one. During one hurricane, our power was out for five days. The refrigerator was full of food. But we had our generator and gas to keep it running and keep all our food fresh.  Besides, my nephew is asthmatic, and he started having anxiety attacks thinking that he had no power to use his nebulizer.  Some medications also need to be refrigerated, so plan for that as well. Buy one or more fans. When you’re out of power, loss of A/C can be very dangerous for certain people, such as the elderly.  Our wiser generations cannot tolerate heat well.  Having portable fans will help keep a room cool and prevent heat exhaustion and heatstroke. Buy extension cords Since the generator uses gas, it throws off fumes. You do not want the generator inside the house! Extension cords will allow you to power your refrigerator safely. You can also plug in lights and charge your phones. We were also able to keep my nephew calm as we had power, and he’d be able to use his nebulizer if he had an asthma attack. Do not open your refrigerator unless you need to Opening the door will let the “cold” out. If you have no power, you must limit