Hurricane Matthew is about to make landfall stateside any minute now. Not only do natural disasters take a toll on public services, but it also takes a toll on infrastructure. I wanted to put together a few things to know/tips to keep in mind in the event that you or your family is faced with having to decide whether or not to evacuate.
- Make sure you have some cash to use for food or necessities.
Pretty much everyone relies on debit or credit cards for purchases. Natural disasters not only knock out the power lines, but also the data lines used to transmit info back and forth. It’s best to keep a small amount of cash aside just in case. Small business owners should also have a manual credit card machine to use until services can be restored. - Buy an chargeable power supply to keep cell phones running.
Companies like EnerPlex make some awesome power supplies for phones and devices. It’s best to only use them as-needed, but can give you some additional power when you really need it. Plus, they make an awesome solar power charging system that could come in handy for prolonged outages. Cellular data circuits will become overwhelmed during the height of the disaster, so be patient and wait for service to be restored. A small set of close-range walkie talkies would probably be more handy than cell phones. - Your electronics will be destroyed.
This is one of the difficult parts of natural disasters that many people will have to deal with afterwards. If you store a large amount of personal information (financials, photos, important documents, etc.), consider removing your hard drive from the computer and placing it in a waterproof container- like Pelican Case. Just make sure your computer is unplugged before you remove the drive! Most information can be recovered from the drive even if you no longer have the computer.
It can be difficult and frustrating to find answers following a natural disaster. Crews will be dispatched as soon as it is safe to work on restoring things like electricity, telephone and internet service, but it can take time depending on the severity of the damage.
We’re hoping that everyone stays as safe as possible.
