Prevention: 12-week program

You don't have to do it all in one weekend. One big task per week, about 2 or 3 hours, gets your home ready in 3 months. If you're in a hurry (tornado or hurricane season is upon you), compress weeks 1 through 4 into one. Order matters: first what warns you, then what keeps you alive (water), then what gives comfort. The details of what to buy are in chapter 2, with its staged shopping plan.

Week 1: alerts and family plan

• Turn on emergency alerts (WEA) on every phone in your household. iPhone: Settings > Notifications > Government Alerts. Android: Settings > Safety and emergency > Wireless emergency alerts.
• Register every adult with your city or county alert system (ask your city's services line, 311 in many cities, or look it up on your city or county website), with your home and work addresses.
• Install the app for your city or county alert system.
• Buy a NOAA radio with SAME alerts, program it with your county's SAME code and your NOAA station's frequency (look them up at weather.gov), and keep it in the bedroom (chapter 1).
• Write the family plan: out-of-state contact, a meeting point near home and another outside the neighborhood (Appendix A).
• Everyone sends a test text to the out-of-state contact. If someone needs special help to evacuate, register them with your state's emergency assistance registry.

Week 2: water

• First goal: 3 days. That's 3 gal (11.4 L) per person, plus water for your pets according to their weight.
• Locate the water shutoff valve for your home or apartment and, if you live in a building, ask the office where the building's is (chapter 3).
• Check whether your water heater has a tank: it's your biggest hidden reserve (chapter 3).
• Buy unscented bleach and a dropper; learn the dose: 8 drops per gallon (6%) or 6 drops (8.25%), wait 30 minutes (Appendix F).
• Buy a bathtub bladder and 2 collapsible jugs to fill as soon as there's a warning.
• Final goal for the coming weeks: 14 gal (53 L) per person for 14 days (chapter 2).

Week 3: light, power, and detectors

• One headlamp per person, with a spare set of batteries. The same battery size (AA) wherever possible.
• One power bank per phone, cables, and a car charger for your cars.
• Battery-powered carbon monoxide detector near the bedrooms; test the smoke detector.
• Prohibited inside your home or apartment: candles as your main light, generators, grills, and outdoor stoves (chapter 9).

Week 4: food (people and pets)

• First goal: 3 days of ready-to-eat, no-cook food for each person. Then build up to 2 weeks (chapter 2 and chapter 22).
• Manual can opener, disposable plates and utensils, heavy trash bags.
• Your pets' food: 14 days + 3 days, in an airtight container; collapsible bowls.
• Thermometer for the refrigerator and for the freezer.

Week 5: first-aid kit, medicines, and health

• Household first-aid kit and a small one for each backpack (chapter 7).
• Prescription medicines: at least 7 days in the kit (Red Cross) and a 2-week reserve at home; talk to your doctor and your pharmacy.
• Spare glasses, contact lens solution, a list of medicines and allergies for each person and each pet.
• At least two adults sign up for a first-aid and CPR course (Red Cross).

Week 6: documents, money, and insurance

• Copies of IDs, policies, leases, car titles, and your pets' vaccination records in a waterproof bag; backup on an encrypted USB drive and in the cloud (chapter 2).
• Record a video of every room, closets open: it's your inventory for insurance.
• Check your renters insurance. It generally doesn't cover flooding; federal flood insurance (NFIP) offers contents coverage for renters and normally has a 30-day waiting period before it takes effect: don't leave it until the rain is already coming.
• Cash in small bills for several days of expenses (chapter 2).

Week 7: your home or apartment as a shelter

• Choose the tornado shelter: the most interior room, with no windows (interior bathroom or hallway closet) (chapter 10).
• Choose the nuclear shelter spot inside your home or apartment and the best buildings within a 5-minute walk (chapter 15).
• Heavy plastic, wide tape, and towels to seal a room if authorities say so (chapter 16 and chapter 18).
• Emergency toilet: 5-gal bucket with a lid, heavy bags, and cat litter or sawdust (chapter 21).
• Locate the main power switch and, if you have gas, the gas shutoff valve.

Week 8: communications

• Two-way radios: FRS (no license) or GMRS. The FCC GMRS license lasts 10 years and covers family members who operate within your system (chapter 19).
• Agree on a main channel and a backup one; write them on the contact card (Appendix B).
• Test the range: from your home or apartment to the parking lot, the complex office, and the nearby meeting point.
• Paper phone list in every backpack and every car.

Week 9: 72-hour backpacks and pets

• One backpack per adult (chapter 2); split up the shared items: radio, large first-aid kit, water filter, pet food.
• Your pets' kit: spare leash and harness, collapsible carriers, food and water for 3 days, bags, a recent photo with each owner, vaccination record, microchip with updated information.
• One person assigned per pet (see "Roles" below).

Week 10: cars and routes

• Car kit in each of your cars (chapter 2). Designate the vehicle with the most space as the main evacuation vehicle: more room for water jugs, carriers, and backpacks.
• Half-tank rule: none of your cars goes below 1/2 tank.
• Three exit routes from your area on paper, using the main exit routes, and the low-water crossings on your daily routes that flood (chapter 10 and chapter 24).
• Check tires, battery, and windshield wipers.

Week 11: heat, cold, and long blackouts

• Portable battery power station and, if you can, a foldable solar panel (chapter 9).
• Rechargeable fans, towels, dark curtains; locate the nearest cooling center (311 in many cities) (chapter 10).
• Sleeping bags, thermal clothing, hats, and gloves for each person; foam sleeves for exposed pipes (chapter 10 and chapter 14).
• Good-quality cooler.

Week 12: drill and calendar

• 24-hour blackout drill: flip the main breaker (or simply don't use electricity) on a Saturday and live off the kit. Write down what was missing.
• Nighttime tornado drill: how many seconds does it take everyone, pets included, to reach the shelter?
• Evacuation drill: backpacks and pets in the car in under 15 minutes; drive the planned route to the meeting point.
• Schedule a review twice a year, when the clocks change (March and November): batteries, expiration dates, water you bottled yourself (swap it every 6 months), medicines, documents (Appendix C).