Hurricanes in Central Florida: what to do before, during and after

Once a hurricane is on the way, phone lines jam and store shelves empty. These steps take 15 minutes, and now is the time:

• Sign up for your county’s emergency alerts (table below). They arrive by text or email, and only for your address.
• Look up your address at floridadisaster.org/knowyourzone to see if you’re in an evacuation zone.
• Save your electric company’s outage page on your phone (see below).
• If someone at home depends on electricity for medical equipment or needs help evacuating, sign them up for the Florida Special Needs Registry.
• Decide as a family where you would go if you have to leave, and who picks up the kids.

County	Emergency alerts	Hurricane information
Orange (Orlando, Pine Hills, Apopka…)	OCAlert	ocfl.net/storm
Osceola (Kissimmee, St. Cloud, BVL…)	Alert Osceola: text AlertOsceola to 888777	osceola.org
Seminole (Sanford, Altamonte, Oviedo…)	Alert Seminole: text SEMINOLE to 888777	seminolecountyfl.gov
Lake (Clermont, Leesburg…)	AlertLake	lakecountyfl.gov
Polk (Davenport, Poinciana, Haines City…)	Alert Polk	alertpolk.com

Alerts are free. You can register several addresses (home, work, your kids’ school), and you don’t have to live in the county to sign up.

• Water: 1 gallon per person per day, for at least 7 days
• Food that needs no refrigeration or cooking, for 7 days, plus a manual can opener
• Two weeks of medications and a first-aid kit
• Flashlights, batteries and a battery-powered radio
• Charged power banks
• Cash: without power, ATMs and card readers don’t work
• Important documents in a waterproof bag, plus copies in the cloud
• Food, water and vaccination papers for your pets
• Gas: fill the tank when the storm is announced

This surprises a lot of people: standard homeowners and renters insurance don’t cover flooding. That takes a separate flood policy.

• Policies from the federal program (NFIP) usually start covering 30 days after you buy them. If you buy one when a storm is already in the forecast, it’s too late.
• Renters can insure their belongings too (furniture, clothes, electronics) against flooding, even though they don’t own the building.
• Compare options and prices at floodsmart.gov or with your insurance agent.
• Record a video of every room and your valuable items and keep it in the cloud. It makes any claim much easier.

• Follow your county’s alerts and the forecasts from the National Weather Service in Melbourne, which covers Central Florida.
• If you’re ordered to evacuate, go. If you live in a mobile home or a flood-prone area, plan to go to a shelter or to family even without an order.
• Counties announce sandbag locations and which shelters are opening through their alerts. Not every shelter opens for every storm — confirm before you go.
• Check road conditions at fl511.com before you leave.
• Bring in or tie down anything outside (chairs, trash cans, decorations).
• Fill the bathtub with water so you can flush the toilet if the water goes out.
• Charge every phone and battery, and turn the refrigerator to its coldest setting.

Shelters take everyone. Some accept pets — confirm before you go.

• Stay inside, in an interior room with no windows on the lowest floor (a bathroom or closet works).
• Hurricanes often bring tornadoes. If you get a tornado warning, go to your safe room immediately.
• If the wind suddenly calms, it may be the hurricane’s eye. Don’t go out — the wind comes back hard from the other direction.
• Use flashlights, not candles.
• Use your phone only when needed, to save battery and keep lines open for emergencies.

Report the outage to your company. Don’t assume a neighbor already did.

Company	Report and see the map
OUC (Orlando, St. Cloud)	Report · Outage map
Duke Energy	Report · Outage map
KUA (Kissimmee)	Outage map

• Downed lines: always assume they’re live. Stay away, don’t touch anything in contact with them, and report them.
• Food: an unopened refrigerator keeps food safe about 4 hours. A full freezer, about 48 hours (24 if half full). When in doubt, throw it out.

• Don’t walk or drive through flooded streets — the water may hide live wires or be contaminated.
• Photograph and video the damage before you clean up, for insurance or FEMA.
• Beware of door-to-door “contractors” asking for money upfront. Check licenses at myfloridalicense.com and don’t pay in full before the work is done.
• Price gouging: after an emergency declaration, extreme price increases on water, food, ice, gas or hotels are illegal. Report it to the Florida Attorney General at 1-866-9-NO-SCAM (1-866-966-7226) or myfloridalegal.com.

• FEMA: if a disaster is declared in your county, you can apply for help with housing, repairs and expenses at disasterassistance.gov or 1-800-621-3362. Applying is free.
• Food (D-SNAP): after some major hurricanes, Florida opens a temporary food assistance program for people who had losses, with different rules than regular SNAP. It’s announced and applied for through ACCESS Florida.
• 211: connects you with food, shelter, rent help and cleanup in your area.