The Storm Season Readiness Checklist (Print This)
The complete pre-storm-season checklist: home, kit, documents, generator prep, and the week-before punch list.
Every region we serve has a season: tornado spring in the plains, hurricane summer on the Gulf, ice winter in the middle. The checklist is the same discipline everywhere, and doing it in the calm month before costs a Saturday morning. Print this.
Sixty days out
Service the generator (or finally price one: lead times balloon in-season), test sump and battery backups, photograph your panel and possessions for any future claims, refill prescriptions to a 2-week buffer, and check tree limbs over service drops, the #1 preventable outage cause on private property.
Two weeks out
Water: one gallon per person per day, 3+ days. Shelf-stable food, manual can opener, flashlights and batteries (not candles), battery banks charged, cash in small bills, fuel in vehicles, propane tank topped, and the printed contact list on the fridge: utility outage line, insurance, family, and your generator dealer.
When the forecast turns
Charge everything, pre-cool or pre-heat the house, freeze water jugs (thermal mass plus drinking water), stage the battery station at the medical device or desk, confirm the generator's status light is green, and park cars clear of trees. Then you're done: the storm is now weather, not an emergency.
Quick Answers
What's the single highest-value prep item?
Water, then power. Everything else on the list improvises; safe water and a power plan don't.
How much does storm prep cost?
The kit: $100 to $300 assembled from what most homes half-own already. The power layer scales from a $500 battery station to whole-home standby.
Where can I get the full guide?
Our founder wrote the book, literally: When the Lights Go Out / Cuando Se Va La Luz, the bilingual outage-preparedness guide, available through this site.