Storm and Hurricane Season Family Plan
A family shelter-in-place plan that works for hurricanes, severe storms, flood risk, and multi-day outages.
Quick answer
What should I do before hurricane season?
Before June 1, build a 7-day home kit: water (1 gallon per person per day), shelf-stable food, lights, batteries, a phone power plan, and cash. Write a family communication plan with one out-of-area contact. Know your evacuation zone, and act at the watch stage, not the warning stage.
Watch/Warning Action Checklist + 7-Day Supply List
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Watch versus warning: the timeline that matters
The National Weather Service issues a hurricane watch when dangerous conditions are possible within 48 hours, and a warning when they are expected within 36. Those two words set your schedule.
At the watch: fuel the car, fill water containers, charge every battery, and do the shopping while shelves are still normal. At the warning: finish securing the house, stage the go-bags, and follow local orders. People who act at the watch skip the worst lines.
The family communication plan
Storms separate families at work, school, and errands. Agree on one out-of-area contact everyone texts when local lines jam, and one meeting place if home is unreachable.
Put the plan on paper: wallet cards for adults, backpack cards for kids. Phones die exactly when you need the number.
- 1Pick one out-of-area contact and tell them their job.
- 2Pick a meeting place near home and one outside the neighborhood.
- 3Write wallet cards for every family member.
- 4Practice the text tree once. Texts beat calls in jammed networks.
The 7-day home kit
Hurricane recovery is measured in days, not hours, so this kit runs deeper than a 72-hour box. Seven days of water and food, a week of medications, lights for every room you actually use, and enough battery to keep phones alive until crews restore power.
Use our quantity table in the download: it scales every line by household size so a family of five is not guessing.
Power and lighting stack
Layer it: a 100-hour candle or lantern per living area for area light, a headlamp per person for task light, power banks for phones, and a solar generator if medical devices or the internet router must stay up.
If you run a gas generator, it stays outside, 20 feet from windows and doors, with a battery carbon monoxide alarm inside. Storm aftermath is the deadliest carbon monoxide window of the year.
Never run a generator in a garage, carport, or near open windows. Carbon monoxide kills within minutes and has no smell.
The freezer and fridge plan
Before the storm: freeze water bottles to fill dead space, turn both compartments colder, and group items so the door opens once, not ten times. A full freezer holds about 48 hours unopened.
Drop a coin on a frozen cup of water in the freezer. If you evacuate and come back to the coin at the bottom, the freezer thawed and refroze: food goes.
If evacuation is possible where you live
Know your zone and route before the season, not during the cone-of-uncertainty week. Keep the gas tank above half all season. Stage go-bags per person and a car kit as covered in our evacuation guide.
Evacuate when told. Houses are replaceable.
The product pack for this guide
Each pick maps to a checklist line above. Read the when-to-skip note before buying: the fastest way to waste money on preparedness is buying gear for a problem you already solved.
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2-Week True Survival Food Kit
Emergency Essentials
- Best fit
- A sealed food reserve that covers the storm and the messy week after
- Why it helps
- Fourteen days of meals means one storm does not empty your pantry, and the leftover depth carries the next event.
- When not to buy
- If a 7-day grocery reserve already exists, spend on water and power first.
Alexapure Pro Water Filtration System
Emergency Essentials
- Best fit
- Boil-water advisories after the storm
- Why it helps
- Post-storm advisories can run for days. A gravity filter turns questionable tap water into drinking water without fuel.
- When not to buy
- It does not replace stored water during the outage itself. Store first, filter second.
Grid Doctor 3300 Solar Generator System
Emergency Essentials
- Best fit
- Households that need serious backup: medical devices, fridge bursts, comms
- Why it helps
- Enough capacity to matter for days, recharges from solar while the grid is down, and runs silent indoors, unlike a gas unit.
- When not to buy
- If your must-run list is just phones and lights, the small units cover it for far less.
Ready Hour 100-Hour Candle (3-pack)
Emergency Essentials
- Best fit
- Area lighting for multi-day outages
- Why it helps
- Three candles, three hundred hours of light, zero batteries. Storm season insurance that costs less than pizza.
- When not to buy
- Open flame and chaos mix badly. With small kids, battery lanterns take this slot.
5-Gallon Collapsible Water Container
Emergency Essentials
- Best fit
- Filling water fast at the watch stage
- Why it helps
- Folds flat in a closet all year, then holds 5 gallons per unit the day the watch is issued. Buy several.
- When not to buy
- If storage space allows, rigid containers stack better for permanent reserves.
Go deeper
Storm Season Pro System
Your family will move through watch, warning, storm, and recovery on a written timeline instead of a shelf-clearing panic.
- The season calendar: pre-season, watch, warning, storm, recovery
- Supply engine: 7 days of water, food, light, and power by household size
- The family comms plan and printable cards
- Shelter-in-place setup: safe rooms, windows, and the long night
Common questions
When does hurricane season run?
The Atlantic season runs June 1 through November 30, with the historical peak in September. Inland states get the remnants: flooding rain and tornado spin-offs, which is why this plan works far from any coast.
Should I tape my windows?
No. Tape does nothing against debris and creates bigger glass shards. Closed blinds and staying in an interior room protect people. Real window protection means shutters or plywood.
How much cash should I have on hand?
Enough for a tank of gas, a few meals, and a night somewhere: for most families $200 to $500 in small bills. Card systems and ATMs fail with the power.
What do I do during the storm itself?
Interior room, lowest safe floor, away from windows. Shoes on (debris and glass), phones charging while power lasts, weather radio on. Do not go outside during the calm of the eye.
Sources this guide leans on
- National Weather Service: Hurricane Safety
- NOAA: 2026 Atlantic hurricane season outlook
- Ready.gov: Hurricanes
Planning information, not professional medical, legal, or engineering advice. In any life-threatening situation, call 911 first.
Keep building
Emergency Water: Store, Filter, Treat, and Rotate
How much emergency water should I store per person?
2-Week Pantry Sprint: Shelf-Stable Food Without Waste
How do I build a 2-week emergency food supply?
Go-Bag and Car Kit: The 20-Pound Evacuation Build
What should be in a go-bag for evacuation?