With hurricane Irene making its way up the east coast, she is a good reminder of the need to protect your home in the event a hurricane hits your area. USA Today has some great information on their website about what to do if a hurricane is approaching.

If your house is in danger of being hit by a hurricane, protecting windows and sliding glass doors is almost always the number one thing you can do to ensure you’ll have a livable house if the worst happens.

But, if you wait until a hurricane watch is posted, you are almost surely too late.

Taping up windows is a waste of time because tape isn’t going to keep your neighbor’s garbage can – which he should have stashed in a place where the wind can’t grab it – from breaking your window when a 100 mph wind flings it at your house.

True, the tape just might keep the glass from flying around the room when the garbage can hits it.

But an important rule for any wind storm is to not be in a room with windows that can be broken. If your house doesn’t have a windowless room, you should at least do something like cowering behind an overturned table or a heavy sofa in case glass starts flying.

If you waste time taping your windows, about the best you can hope for is that the storm will miss your house, and the tape won’t be too hard to remove.

While tape doesn’t do much, heavy plywood or metal shutters are vital. But you can’t wait until a storm is bearing down to go buy the plywood because by then it’s almost surely too late.

This is because the plywood has to fit the windows and it has to be firmly attached to them.

Experts recommend using 3/4 inch plywood and drilling screw holes 18 inches apart all around it. Are you going to have time to do this after a watch is posted?

This is the kind of thing that should be done well ahead of time so the window covers will be stored with the screws started, and everything you’ll need to install them,such as a ladder and the correct size screwdriver handy.

The big question you have to answer ahead of time is: Who’s going to install the plywood covers, maybe with a 20 mph wind gusting to 30 mph as a storm approaches? It’s probably a sure bet it’s not going to be your 70-year-old mother, by herself.

Why is protecting windows so important?

Once a window is broken, the wind blows inside to not only wreck the interior, but also to apply upward pressure on the roof, which might be enough to sent if flying. If this happens, the walls collapse and your house is done for.

Protection can include impact-resistant glass or other permanent materials that have passed the state of Florida or Miami-Dade County (Fla.) impact standards tests, sturdy shutters, or pieces of marine plywood, marked and cut to fit each window and glass door.

Here are some other things you should do before a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning is posted:

• Remove weak and dead trees or tree limbs on your property.
• Know whether your home is in a zone that could be flooded by storm surge, meaning you’d have to evacuate.
• Have plans for where you will go if you evacuate, when you will leave (maybe early to avoid traffic jams), and how family members will contact each other.
• If you might have to evacuate, have a “grab and run” bag ready with important papers, such as your home owners insurance policy, and prescription drugs.
• If you live outside possible storm surge zones, and your house is sturdy, you should plan on riding out the storm in a “safe room” inside the house. (Related story:Home shelters can save lives).
• Have an evacuation or survival kit ready with nonperishable food, water, a first aid kit and other things you’ll need.
• Have a battery-powered radio, maybe a battery-powered television set for keeping up with the latest advisories.

After a watch is posted, you should have done all of the things listed above. How you should stay tuned to forecasts and possible warnings. If you are in an area that could be flooded, you should be ready to evacuate.

Of course, if you are living in a mobile home, or a house that isn’t sturdy enough to stand up to the wind, you should evacuate early and avoid the rush.

Make sure you always practice common sense and err on the side of caution.

For Boating and Water Safety gear visit SafeLifeJackets.com.

Hurricane Irene is headed for the East Coast in the next few days. It may or may not make landfall but either way it is sure to create some choppy waters along the coast. Is your boat ready? The Coast Guard Auxiliary has some great information on preparing your boat in the even of a hurricane. We have taken some information from their website in order to help you prepare should Irene venture close to the coast this week!

The most important thing to remember when thinking about hurricane preparations is to act early. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until a hurricane is forecast to hit to go out and shop for anchors and extra line. These items should be a part of your vessel’s essential gear.

Photo by Terry Modica

If you own a boat that is too large to bring home on a trailer and you must keep it in the water year round in a hurricane-prone area, you need to seriously consider what you will do when a hurricane approaches. When storms strike a coastline, those properties nearest the shore sustain the most damage, and boats often fare worse than buildings, getting seriously damaged, destroyed or sunk. You can save your boat from damage, however, if you take the time in advance to make a plan and to purchase the storm-survival gear your boat will need.

In most hurricane-prone areas, it is not safe to leave your boat tied up in a marina slip. The hurricane will cause the water level to rise by several feet, and boats in marinas are frequently battered by breaking waves that wash over seawalls because of this water rise. The other danger is that the boat will be swept over the dock or on top of submerged pilings and then impaled and sunk when the water level drops and lowers it back down.

Plan to evacuate the marina early at the approach of a storm. You will have to study the area charts and talk to experienced locals about where you can go to evacuate. Most boat owners seek to move their vessels as far inland as possible, into the more protected waters of bays, rivers or bayous where the boat can be secured with anchors and, hopefully, even lines to trees or other solid objects on land.

Inland canals offer some protection. Do not block other boats by anchoring yours in the center of a canal. Ground traffic receives priority in the event of an evacuation. Therefore, county bridges are locked in the down position 3-1/2 hours after the evacuation order is issued or when winds reach 39 mph, whichever comes first. Have your boat evacuation plan ready, and act as quickly as possible to ensure safe mooring.

The first step in your hurricane plan should be to have a list of everything that is necessary to evacuate your boat and to make sure that these things are on board before hurricane season arrives. You will need full tanks of fuel for your auxiliary engine, fuel for your cooking stove, drinking and cooking water, food and snack supplies for the time underway when evacuating, and such supplies as batteries and spare parts for all important systems on board. You should have the boat ready for a trip of at least a week, because after a hurricane hits an area, it is often impossible to return to the marina for several days in the aftermath.

With these basic supplies on board, you now need to think about how you will secure your boat in the storm. Even far inland, you may experience extremely strong winds that will tear your boat loose from your standard anchor. You should have on board no less than four anchors of the appropriate size for your boat. Ideally, one of these should be a greatly oversized storm anchor to set in the direction of the strongest expected wind. The anchors should be of different designs. Some are best for mud bottoms, some for sand bottoms and some for rock. Be sure you have all that you need for your boating area.

Each anchor should be accompanied by its own dedicated anchor rode, consisting of appropriately-sized nylon rope or chain, or a combination of both. If your boat does not have an adequate number of sufficiently strong cleats for securing all these anchors, be sure and install them before a hurricane threatens. All cleats and deck hardware should be reinforced with backing plates under the deck. Hurricane force winds often tear hardware out of the decks of improperly equipped boats.

In addition to the anchors and rodes you have on board, you should have several extra long lengths of heavy nylon line for securing your boat to trees and other solid objects. These lines cannot be too long. You never know how close you can get to such objects. I suggest carrying four such lines at least 200 feet long for a hurricane evacuation. You will also need anti-chafing gear, which you can make yourself, for all these lines and anchor rodes. Anti-chafing gear is anything you can wrap around the line where it is tied to a deck cleat or passes through a deck chock and is susceptible to chafing through. Many boats are lost in hurricanes because the lines chafe through and part in this way. Make chafing gear out of strips of leather or pieces of rubber hose that will fit over the line and protect it from abrasion at these critical points.

Here are guidelines for securing your boat at a marina:

• Tie high on pilings to allow for rising water.
• Run extra line and double tie every knot.
• Purchase rope, duct tape and other materials early before supplies run low.
• Cover all tie lines at contact points with rubber to prevent chafing.
• Disconnect shore power.
• Verify battery power is sufficient to run bilge pumps throughout and after the storm.
• Remove or secure all deck gear, radio antennas, outriggers, rafts, sails, tops, canvases, curtains, booms and dinghies and all other objects that could blow away or cause damage.
• Insert plugs in engine ports.
• Close fuel valves and cockpit seacocks.
• Install fenders to protect the boat from rubbing against the dock.
• Use duct tape to seal windows and hatches.
• Remove all canvas, chains, life preservers and other equipment to reduce wind load.
• Ensure fire extinguishers and lifesaving equipment are in working order.
• Keep copies of boat registration and insurance in a safe place NOT on the boat.

If you choose to take your boat out of the water
or have your boat on a trailer:

• Park the boat/trailer in the garage or near a building.
• Fill the boat no more than halfway with water to add weight. (Overfilling can damage the trailer.)
• Remove outboard motors (if possible).
• Let some air out of trailer the tires.
• Place blocks in front and back of the tires to prevent rolling.
• Lash the trailer down with heavy ropes or chains.

For more hurricane information, please go to the National Hurricane Center website at:www.nhc.noaa.gov.

Renting a boat this summer? If you don’t own a boat (even if you do) you may want to take a quick course on boating safety to familiarize yourself with safety tips and rules before you hit the water. The Coast Guard has a great site with Boat Rental Tips that we recommend you visit before you rent a vessel. It even as a check list you can print out and take with you.

After you watch the video they even have a quickassessmentto take to test your knowledge.

One thing to make sure you check before going out in a rental boat is the amount of life jackets on board. You must have one for each person on the vessel.

For more great safety tips check out the Coast Guards website on safe boating. For Life Jackets and boating safety equipment visit SafeLIfeJackets.com.

According to the Red Cross, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14 years. Drowning happens quickly and silently, and it can happen in only a matter of minutes. Children under 1 year most often drown in toilets, buckets or bathtubs. Children age 1-4 most often drown in home pools, and children over age 4 most often drown in natural settings.

Preventing drowning takes vigilance. You must maintain constant supervision of children whenever around water. Avoid distractions when supervising children around water. While you should not substitute them for supervision, have children and inexperienced swimmers wear a coast guard approved life jacket when around water.

Enroll in Red Cross water safety, first aid and CPR courses to learn what to do. Insist that babysitters, grandparents and others who care for children know these lifesaving skills.