Be Well: How to Prepare for Hurricane Season

<div class="block">Jose Dominguez, CEO of Red Cross Long Island, joined Cheddar News to provide some useful tips for hurricane preparation, as the U.S. heads deeper into the storm season. </div>

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We've seen the images devastated homes, flooded communities, families trying to pick up the pieces when a hurricane hits, the impact can be horrific. There is the chance of 12 to 17 names storms this year. That's the latest information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predictions for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. It runs all the way through November 30th folks. So joining us right now helping us stay safe is Jose Dominguez, he's the CEO of the Red Cross of Long Island and he's going to help us prepare this, go back. And I know Jose, you've worked with the Red Cross for more than 20 years. You've responded to 16 different hurricanes. What is it like? Elizabeth? Thank you for having me. It is, it's devastating. I mean, we can all look at the effect of what happens after large, you know, hurricanes, even smaller hurricanes. A category one still has tremendous impact on the community. So it's one of those things where we're always at the Red Cross trying to figure out a step ahead. What can we do to help prepare communities to be more resilient? And because hurricanes give us that luxury to prepare ahead of time. You know, a go kit is something very simple that you can prepare and you can start doing it now. And I know one of the things you were because we do know, right. Our great meteorologists say, hey, this is headed our way. One of the things you were saying too is make some phone calls as well because you want to find out what kind of insurance you have, if you know, possibly the different shelters will take an animal. Definitely pets. They're part of the family, you know. So one of the things that I know that we've worked with our partners and emergency management fema is to really integrate what a pet shelter looks like. So a shelter, you know, if you download the emergency app that we have through the Red Cross, if you go to your app, Store, Red Cross just type in Red Cross, the apps will come up and it will tell you whether that's has a shelter for a pet as well. And typically all of our shelters will, um, if not, we will work with the families to find help, you know, for their pets as well. So, and you don't want to be in that situation at the last second. What do I do? Because that's a family member. Yeah, you have to have a safe place to go. And to that point you actually have as part of the go bag for your animals. Yeah, any animal that you have, I mean, even one of the things that I was even thinking about while we were standing here preparing was the fact that you have fish, you know, plan ahead of time. You can buy water that's already premade. You know, having those things in your kit. Just look at expiration dates as well. But your pet is your family. I was, you know, as I was mentioning my pet kit, my pet go kit is much bigger than our emergency kit for me and my and my wonderful husband and it's like I'm always, you know, just concerned about buddy. He's, he's looking to us, you know, that that's our buddy, like my husband, he's fine, but our dog buddy needs us as well. So he has more water, he has more food than even we do. So, so now what kind of food did you pick to pack? You know, one of the easiest things that you can do is baby food. There is baby food. It has the same nutrients, probably better nutrients than what we're eating. But it's something that's very compact and easy to take with you. So it's one of those things where you can take that dry bars, like energy bars, you know, kind bars, things like that. Yeah, I love them too. And so they, you know, this would be something like these are just very dehydrated bars that you can munch on and it even has directions, eat one bar per day. So it's really, really amazing and of course you can never have enough water. You know, and you want to pack a go kit for at least three days if it's a go kit, if you're gonna stay at home, because some people do stay at home plan for two weeks. You know, it's just one of those things, you can't plan enough, you know, you wanna be prepared. Ok? And now you went with baby wipes, baby wipes of those in general. Yeah, I mean, we've, we've all been through the pandemic and this became the hottest commodity, right? It was in existence for so long before as well. And that's something that you just want just to clean. Absolutely. Ok. So now, you know, this is something, listen, you don't know, you don't know. So you have some sanitary products and sanitary products and some soaps. So products in general, you know, when you want to show, but you don't wanna shave all, don't. But by all means do you know some, uh, like a poncho, brain poncho because you don't know the circumstance of where you're going. So a couple of those, these are just things like to keep the ground dry. A tarp. So if you are going into a shelter, perhaps you want to put a tarp down underneath your mattress or whatever bedding you bring with you, you know, so it's just little things that you want to prepare. That's a g so this is not for the party. I mean, you can use it for a party. The shelter could turn into a party but you never know. But no, I mean, this is something if you're staying at home, especially, you know, and you need, I mean, obviously you never know what's gonna happen during a flood. You know, if it's a watch, you want to be prepared, But if it's a warning, you want to take action and these are gonna be, they're gonna come in great hand and great. And the same thing with the whistle right there if you're being rescued. I mean, this gives you give em, you know, and it's now, what's this the first day? You know, we always say it's obvious but, you know, sometimes it isn't, it's some things you just take for granted yet again, you know, and having a first aid kit is probably the easiest thing that you can buy at the grocery store. Ok. And then we have flashlights and we always want need batteries. Always batteries, but this is pretty cool. So I'm going to crank this a little crank radio that has a solar thing. So it's a little, so it's good. So this part is solar and this is a crank. So I don't have to worry if I didn't have batteries and then I know it's like you press and you can hear some static. I don't think we can get anything in here, but there's an antenna but it does, you know, it's something that you want to just keep, be informed, you know, radio is always going to be that, you know, that wonderful resource. So hopefully you never need it. But should you, you know, this is the time to get ready. And as soon as you hear that watch that warning, make those phone calls prepare for the worst and hope for the best, right, for the best. And as far as making phone calls also, you know, call your neighbors, your support group as well, keep your family informed, you know, that you want them to know what's going on. We have social media platforms as well that now have, you know, that ability to say I'm safe, you know, but you also want to be able to do that. Don't forget batteries for your cell phones. We're all on our phones, you know. So it's one of those things that chargers, the extra chargers that you can have whatever you can fit into this backpack, don't get overwhelmed by it either. It's the only thing because people will want to pack everything, you know, as we were talking about valuables, these are some of the things you want to prepare your home ahead of time as well. You're gonna have plenty of time to prepare. So think about what is the priority, you know, and that's your safety. Absolutely. Thank you. So much. I really appreciate this.