March 31, 2006, Newsletter Issue #61: Living alone in hurricane country

Tip of the Week

If you are an older adult, living alone, you don´t have to ride out the storm alone. Form a Hurricane Club" with other older persons who live alone as well. Listed below are things your "club" can do to prepare for a hurricane.

Meet at least twice a month to discuss what must be done for hurricane preparedness.

Decide in who´s home your "Safe Room" should be. This should be a central location that can be reached in a matter of moments with little to no difficulty.

Assign persons to help those who will need assistance in reaching the safe room.

Form a "Phone Tree" to pass on information should a hurricane threaten.

Make a list of hurricane supplies and assign each person several items to contribute to the stash. Each person should also have a hurricane emergency kit suited to their own needs, (see the category on this website dealing with 72-hour emergency kits). Have a meeting to discuss assembling these kits and see if anyone will need help in acquiring the contents. Sometimes deals can be had if purchasing cases of items that can be divided up for individual kits, thus saving you money and time. If this is the case, assign each person items to purchase for the individual kits. I am always running across bargains to share with my friends. These kits should be stored either in the home of the safe room or in a highly accessible place in each members homes so as not to be overlooked in times of evacuation to the safe room.

Make a list of things to do, such as making window panels, tapping windows, making the safe room safe.

Make a chart showing who will help do what to ensure that each member´s homes are prepared for the hurricane. (Several of the men could be responsible for putting up shutters or plywood window panels, women could be responsible for filling water jugs, making sure that everyone turns up refrigerators and freezers, etc.)

Assign one person to keep updated on the weather and what watches and warnings are issued. This person would then call the head of the phone tree to start the process of notification of other members. If a warning is issued, the phone tree would then advise all members to meet at the safe room and remind them to bring any emergency supplies they are in charge of.


A club of this nature keeps you from having the added stress and fear of weathering a storm alone. A lot of seniors are not living close to family members and are anxious when faced with the possibility of being alone during a disaster such as a hurricane. This way, you are not alone and it is a great way to make friends and be totally prepared. As it is often said, there is safety in numbers!

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