Hurricane Preparedness Checklist for Families

It is the last week of July. Your neighbor mentions that the Atlantic has gone quiet, and it feels like the season might be a mild one. Then you remember that last year's storm formed on a Tuesday and had a name by Thursday.

Peak Atlantic hurricane season runs from mid-August through October, which means the busiest stretch is still ahead. That is good news, because you have time to do this calmly.

Why the 36-Hour Window Matters

A hurricane warning means dangerous conditions are expected within 36 hours. That is the real preparation window, not the days before a storm is named and not the week before landfall. It is also the window in which every other household in your area is buying the same gas, water, and batteries you are.

If a warning were issued for your area tomorrow morning, what would you still need to go out and buy?

Whatever comes to mind is your list. Everything on it is easier to get today than it will be in that 36-hour window.

Watch versus warning

• A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions, meaning sustained winds of 74 mph or higher, are possible within 48 hours. Begin or finish your preparations.
• A hurricane warning means those conditions are expected within 36 hours. Evacuate if you are ordered to, or finalize your shelter-in-place plan.

How Much Food and Water Does a Family Need for a Hurricane?

The guidance here varies by source, and knowing which number comes from where is genuinely useful.

Ready.gov, FEMA's preparedness campaign, sets the baseline: one gallon of water per person per day, for several days, with at least a three-day supply. The Red Cross goes further for storms, recommending a three-day supply for evacuation and a two-week supply at home. Emergency management agencies in hurricane states commonly land in the middle at seven days.

Three days is the floor. A week is a sensible target. Two weeks at home is the standard worth building toward, and it is mostly a matter of adding water and shelf-stable food you already buy.

The water math, done for you

Your household	Water to store
One person	3 gallons minimum, 7 gallons for a week, 14 gallons for two weeks
Family of four	12 gallons minimum, 28 gallons for a week, 56 gallons for two weeks
Family of six	18 gallons minimum, 42 gallons for a week, 84 gallons for two weeks

Those numbers surprise most people the first time they see them written out. That is the point of writing them out. If you are wondering why your kit does not simply contain all of it, twelve gallons weighs about a hundred pounds, which is the whole answer.

The Five Things Easiest to Overlook

Water and flashlights are the parts everyone thinks of. These five are the ones that tend to surface late, and each takes under an hour to handle.

• A second evacuation route. Traffic, flooding, and road closures routinely close the obvious one. Write both down, put a destination at the end of each, and make sure everyone in the house has seen them before a storm has a name.
• Documents in one waterproof, grab-and-go place. Insurance policies, medical records, identification, and account information, together rather than scattered. While you are in there, check your coverage: standard homeowners and renters policies do not cover flooding, and finding that out in advance is worth real money.
• Cash in small bills. ATMs and card readers go down with the power. Ready.gov includes cash on its emergency supply list for exactly this reason.
• A charged power bank. Reaching your family after a storm depends on a phone that still works. This is the most preventable failure on the list.
• Supplies for every member of the household. Children, older parents, anyone managing a chronic condition or medication, and pets. A kit sized for adults leaves gaps in the same places every time.

Your Hurricane Preparedness Checklist

Print this or work down it on your phone. Anything unchecked is simply the next thing, and store shelves are stocked right now.

Supplies

• ☐ One gallon of water per person per day, three days minimum, seven days better
• ☐ A week of non-perishable food per person
• ☐ Manual can opener
• ☐ Flashlights with fresh batteries, or hand-crank
• ☐ Battery-powered or hand-crank NOAA weather radio
• ☐ Power bank for phones, fully charged
• ☐ First aid kit
• ☐ A seven-day supply of all prescription medications, which is the Red Cross standard
• ☐ Cash in small bills

Planning

• ☐ Written evacuation plan with two routes and a destination
• ☐ An out-of-town contact everyone in the family knows to call
• ☐ Documents in a waterproof, grab-and-go bag
• ☐ Insurance reviewed, including whether you have flood coverage
• ☐ Local emergency alerts enabled on every phone in the house
• ☐ Whether you are in a mandatory evacuation zone, confirmed with your county

If you have children

• ☐ Comfort items, activities, and food your child will actually eat
• ☐ Your school's emergency protocol, confirmed
• ☐ A children's survival kit packed and somewhere they can reach it

If you are preparing for an older parent

• ☐ A thirty-day medication supply, which is what the Red Cross recommends for older adults, plus a written current medication list
• ☐ Backup power for any medical device that needs it
• ☐ A kit they can open and lift themselves, which usually means easy-open packaging and low overall weight
• ☐ If they live several states away, a power outage kit is the practical place to start, because an extended outage is the part of a hurricane most likely to reach them inland

If you have pets

• ☐ A week of pet food
• ☐ Carrier accessible, and familiar to your pet before the day you need it
• ☐ Vaccination records in the go-bag, because pet-friendly shelters generally ask for proof
• ☐ A pet-friendly shelter or hotel identified along your route
• ☐ A pet emergency kit packed and ready

Why Pets Are the Gap That Closes Last

The reason is not indifference. Gathering food, finding the carrier, locating vaccination records, and calling around for a pet-friendly hotel is a twenty-minute job on a calm Tuesday and an impossible one during an evacuation.

It is worth knowing what the law does and does not do here. After Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed the PETS Act, which requires state and local emergency plans to account for people with household pets and service animals as a condition of federal funding, and which lets FEMA fund pet-friendly shelters. It does not require every shelter to take animals. Where pet-friendly sheltering exists, you are typically expected to bring your own crate, food, and proof of vaccination.

Which means the four things above are not a nice-to-have. They are the price of admission. A hurricane pet bundle handles them in one purchase, so the only open question during an actual evacuation is which hotel still has a room. If you have a cat, evacuating with a cat is its own problem and worth reading before hurricane season rather than during it.

Hurricanes Are Not Only a Coastal Problem

The National Hurricane Center's report on Hurricane Helene attributes at least 250 US fatalities to the storm, including at least 175 direct deaths, making it the deadliest hurricane in the contiguous United States since Katrina. The freshwater flooding deaths clustered in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and northwestern South Carolina, hundreds of miles from where Helene came ashore in Florida.

High winds, inland flooding, tornadoes, and multi-day power outages all reach well past the coast. If you live anywhere in a hurricane-prone state, this checklist is yours too.

The Standard Worth Holding

Ready.gov's guidance is to gather enough supplies for several days while accounting for the specific needs of children, older adults, people managing chronic conditions, and pets. The Red Cross adds that families should be ready both to evacuate and to shelter in place, because which one is right depends on the storm and on where you live.

If your plan already includes two written routes, a week of food and water, documents in one place, and a pet kit that is actually packed, you are in good shape and you can stop reading. If two or three of those are still open, you have weeks before peak season rather than 36 hours, and that is a much better position to work from.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning?

A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions, sustained winds of 74 mph or higher, are possible within 48 hours. A warning means those conditions are expected within 36 hours. When a watch is issued, finish your preparations. When a warning is issued, evacuate if you are ordered to, or make your final shelter-in-place decision.

How much water does my family need for a hurricane?

Ready.gov recommends one gallon per person per day, with at least a three-day supply. A family of four needs 12 gallons to cover three days and 28 gallons to cover a week. The Red Cross recommends working toward a two-week supply at home, which is 56 gallons for that same family. Plan for more if you have pets, infants, or family members with medical needs.

Should I shelter in place or evacuate?

Follow the direction of your local officials first, and leave early if you are in a mandatory evacuation zone. If you are not ordered to evacuate, the sheltering choice depends on the main threat. For high winds, a small interior room on the lowest level, away from windows, is the standard advice. If flooding is the greater risk where you are, you want to move up rather than down. Decide which applies to your house before a storm is tracking toward you.

Do I need to prepare if I do not live on the coast?

Yes. Hurricane hazards extend far inland, including high winds, freshwater flooding, tornadoes, and extended power outages. Helene's deadliest flooding happened in the southern Appalachians, hundreds of miles from landfall. Every household in a hurricane-prone state should have a plan.

Find related reading at the Emergency Preparedness Hub, or shop hurricane preparedness kits.

Peace of mind, packed and ready.

Sources: Ready.gov, FEMA's preparedness campaign, Build a Kit and hurricane preparedness guidance. American Red Cross survival kit supplies and Older Adults Emergency Preparedness. National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Helene (AL092024). ASPCA national pet owner disaster preparedness survey. Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006.