Hurricane Help Tips From Our Readers

The best teacher is experience and our readers have a lot of it. Here are the tips they felt would be most helpful to you in the event of a hurricane. Do you have a helpful hurricane tip you'd like to share? Tell us about it. Just click here to submit your tip to us. You could win a free T-Shirt!

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From Debbie in Florida

Purchase a phone that plugs directly into the phone line and does not require an electrical connection (ie: not a portable phone). When the electricity goes off, you may still have access to phone service.

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From Sandy in Florida

• We were hit by three of the four hurricanes that came to Florida in 2004. We have small kids, and it pays to have a battery operated TV and DVD player. Also get a few new toys that the little ones don't know about. When you need to bring them out it will really help to keep the kids happy being that they are new and fun to play with.

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From Angela in Florida

• Use up your perishible foods before hurricane season hits! We lost over $1,000.00 in food because we had two fridges and a deep freezer full of meat! Now we plan to get down to the bare essentials for food and fill the space with water and drinks to maintain the temperature in the frige if we lose power.

• Also we bought battery operated fans attached to spray bottles last year and filled them with ice water when we lost power. They were great!

• It also pays to have somewhere out of the area arranged to go to if you have no home so you don't have to fight for a hotel room or sleep in your vehicle. One of my coworkers drove all the way to kansas to stay with family because there were no hotels available except from a distance and they were so expensive that going to Kansas was cheaper.

• Everyone also freaks out about gas so never let your tank get below 1/2 tank and plan on going early in the morning or really late at night with extra gas cans to avoid lines.

• Our neighbors are getting together this year with a plan. If the neighborhood loses power, the houses with generators are where the food will be moved and where everyone will be hanging out.

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From Russ in Florida

• How to Make great Coffee Without Electricity: We saw neighbors boiling ground coffee - ugh! Here's what I did: I took the pot from our electric unit and filled it. Next, poured the water into a small pan that could be heated on our little single-burner propane gizmo. Next, I took the filter holder from the coffeemaker (most easily detach) and put in a filter and the usual amount of coffee for one pot. I got the water to almost boiling, then carefully poured it into the filter holder with the regular coffeemaker pot underneath. Be careful and don't pour too fast. It goes pretty quick, and your coffee is just as if you had electricity!

• If you feel you need to evacuate - then do it yesterday. We almost went crazy in that Frances evacuation mess. Don't wait for the last minute or you are doomed. That is what everyone else is doing! If going, go when the storm is still a few days out, not the day before landfall. Otherwise, take your chances at home. Be careful of people wanting to tag-along and slowing you down. This isn't play-time. It is hard for a group to stay together in separate vehicles. We had a tag-along with his boat trailer and big van. We waited and left at their convenience - putting us right in the worst of the traffic! Never again.

• LED Flashlights are the way to go. Batteries last a lot longer, and the LED won't break like a bulb if dropped. There is one little LED light out there that has a mini tube-light in the handle. This is great for spot lighting or area lighting. Many of the LEDs use AA/AAA batteries. Smaller and cheaper. Try to find "D" and "C" cells! Really, these things put out some good light.

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