@birdsinparadise,

Good post.

Now that my daughter attends university in Gainesville, I have to worry about hurricanes on both coasts. Arrgh.

Here's a couple of additional tips:

1.) Fill those gallon milk containers with water, put them in the freezer and freeze them solid (leave a couple of inches empty as water crystallizes as it freezes causing its volume to expand).

Such large blocks of ice last a LOT longer than would ice cubes (large volume, low surface area) and will keep your fridge and freezer cold much longer. Refrigerators/freezers consume a lot of electricity and reserving your generator/fuel for when you absolutely need it is an additional precaution.

I've lived in Florida for 30 years (and lived through more hurricanes than I can count). Preserve your electricity-making capacity to the greatest extent possible ... it can take 7-10 days to restore the power if the damage is widespread.

2.) If you have a pool, you possess a huge water source for drinking and bathing. Make sure, though, you have additional liquid chlorine on hand to keep the water from going green as no electricity means no pool pump and no pool filtration.

3.) Your barbecue makes a great kitchen and water heater. Besides cooking, your can boil water from your pool. The pool water will undoubtedly get filled with debris so let it drip through a coffee filter before using. Obviously, make sure you have lots of propane handy.

Quill