A Storm During a Pandemic? How to Be Safe (Part 2: Evacuating Your Home)

9/21/2020 (Permalink)

Evacuating your home after a storm disaster is hard enough. In a pandemic, you'll need to take some extra steps to stay safe.

This year, if you need to evacuate your home during a hurricane or other natural disaster, you’ll need to take extra precautions to protect you and your family from a viral pathogen. Leaving your home in the midst of a storm and accompanying power outage puts you at greater risk of exposure to illness, so you’ll need to take extra care. SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield recommends you review your existing plans for evacuating safely and modify them to include protection against a pathogen.

(Read Part 1 of this article for ways to stay safe at home when a powerful storm hits during a pandemic.)

According to the American Red Cross, you should have on hand two kits of emergency supplies, one for sheltering at home and another for evacuating.

Prepare a Three-Day Evacuation Kit

Your pandemic-era evacuation supply kit should be a smaller, portable version of your stay-at-home kit—you’ll want to be able to grab it quickly as you leave your home. Include three days worth of the supplies you and your family will need:

• shelf-stable food and snacks
• water (1 gallon per person per day)
• personal hygiene items
• prescription and over-the-counter medications (up to a two-week supply stored separately in an easy-to-carry bag)
• cleaning and disinfectant supplies, such as tissues, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes
• at least 3 face masks for everyone in your household

Find Safe Harbor in a Pandemic

Finding a safe place to shelter in a pandemic is more complicated than at other times. Start by learning if your local emergency management agency has revised its sheltering guidance to reflect pandemic-related executive orders.

To maintain a safe distance from other evacuees, large group shelters like school gymnasiums are no longer the first option, although a large-scale evacuation may require their use. The Red Cross recommends that you stay in individual hotel or dormitory-style rooms instead. It’s a good idea, if you know a storm is on the way, to call hotels, motels or even campgrounds to determine availability.

Another option is to contact family and friends outside the storm-affected area to see if you can stay with them. Of course, you and your family or friends must take appropriate precautions. You’ll have to quarantine in a separate room if you or the people you are staying with have been recently exposed to a virus or are showing symptoms.

If you and your family do take shelter at a larger group shelter, be prepared for:

• a health screening
• wellness checks, including self-monitoring and temperature checks
• an isolation area for anyone who shows symptoms of infection
• required face masks
• staggered meal times
• extra space between cots, chairs and tables
• requirements for frequent hand washing
• more frequent and thorough cleaning and disinfecting 

If your home or business suffers damage from a windstorm or other natural disaster, call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield today at 860.649.0836

We’re Here for You

The team at SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield has specialized training and experience in natural disaster and storm damage cleanup, water damage remediation, fire restoration services and chemical cleanup. Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield (860.649.0836) any time.

Other Helpful Blog Posts

SERVPRO publishes educational articles on how you can protect your home and business from disasters and how to deal with mold, fire, water, sewage, storm and other damage.

SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield
53 Slater Street, Unit 2, Manchester, CT 06042
IICRC Certified
Ralph DiCristofaro 
Certified SERVPRO technicians
Call 860.649.0836
24-hour emergency service

If your home or business suffers damage from a windstorm or other natural disaster, call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield today at 860.649.0836