A Simple Hurricane Guide for Valrico Residents
Protect Your Family and Your Home!
From the start of June to the end of November, hurricane season brings wind damage and flooding risks for homeowners throughout the Valrico area (particularly near the Alafia river). Discover resources that can help you be better prepared!
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Why Valrico Homeowners Should Get the Guide
The Karoly Hurricane Prep Guide is a free resource for Valrico homeowners that contains useful tips to help prepare them and their families for the hazards that hurricane season can bring. Also, it’s a free resource for homeowners throughout the area.
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What’s in the Hurricane Guide?
Evacuation Information
A section detailing how to make an evacuation plan and a checklist of things to share with your family prior to evacuating.
Hurricane Supply Checklist
See a list of critical supplies to have on hand during a major storm to keep your family safe, healthy, and happy during a storm.
Hurricane Tax Holidays
A section detailing some of the items that can qualify for sales tax breaks in Florida during hurricane prep season.
Hurricane Windows for Valrico
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Hurricane Impact Doors
Windows may be one of the most obvious ‘weak points’ a home has when it comes to flying debris impacts, but they aren’t the only weak point you need to reinforce. Your doorways are also a point where hurricane debris can impact and breach your home. With a well-made, expertly installed impact door, you can protect your doorways from flying debris during the next big storm.
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FAQs about Hurricane Preparedness
What Do You Need to Survive a Hurricane?
The basic needs for surviving a hurricane are the same as you’d find in the lowest two tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s just that fulfilling your basic needs is more difficult during hurricane conditions. The basic things you need to survive a hurricane are:
- Food
- Shelter
- Sleep
- Clothing
- Security/Safety
- Health/Hygiene
Beyond these basic physiological and safety needs, you may also want to consider entertainment and connection with your loved ones as well as a means of communicating with others even when cell phone towers are inoperable. Any “hurricane preparedness list” should address these basic needs so you aren’t left without.
Communication via radios can be especially important, as it can help you reach out to emergency rescue teams in case of an emergency situation.
What Are the Top Ways to Prepare for a Hurricane?
For hurricane season, preparation is key. Some key preparations to make include:
- Assess your home’s wind damage risks. Identify potential weak points in the home that might fail in the face of a storm and make improvements as needed (such as installing impact windows or reinforcing your home’s roof connection to the building frame).
- Build a hurricane supply kit. Make a list of the things your family will need in a hurricane to shelter in place, and another list of things to take with you if you have to evacuate and create a kit that includes these items so you can evacuate on a moment’s notice.
- Create an emergency plan. Include things like how to prepare for an evacuation, what to do if you get separated during a storm, and a list of tasks each person will be responsible for (and who should check the work to ensure it was done correctly).
- Bring in any loose decorations and yard furniture. If you get a severe wind alert, remove any loose items that might get picked up and thrown by the wind.
- Keep your vehicle well-maintained. During the evacuation is not the time to discover that your car or truck needs maintenance. Give your vehicle a thorough inspection and fix any major issues that might affect your ability to use it when a storm makes landfall.
Why Should I Fill My Tub with Water During a Hurricane?
This is an old trick for homeowners who plan to shelter in place during a hurricane. By filling your bathtub, you can have a supply of water that you can use for sanitation purposes for a few extra days if there’s a power outage or issue with your municipality’s water systems.
For example, you could use the tub water to manually refill your toilets for flushing, soak towels to scrub yourself off, do laundry manually, or clean around the home.
Your drinking water, however, should come from sealed containers like bottles and jugs during a storm. Standing water can develop bacteria or other problems that make it unsafe to drink.
What Supplies Should I Buy Before a Hurricane?
There are a lot of supplies that you’ll want on hand during a hurricane. A short list of some of the highest-priority items includes:
- At least 1 gallon of drinking water per person/day for 7 days. So, for a family of four, this would be at least 28 gallons of water.
- A seven-day supply of non-perishable food that doesn’t require extensive preparation (such as MREs).
- First aid supplies (bandages, tape, antiseptic wipes, prescriptions, etc.).
- Power for portable devices (portable chargers, batteries, etc.).
- Radio for communication.
- Light sources (flashlights, candles, matches, camping lamps, etc.).
- Documentation (ID, medical records, etc.).
- Sandbags to help hold back flood water.
- Pet supplies for at least 7 days.
- Portable cooking stove.
These are just a few examples of the supplies you’ll want to have on hand during a hurricane. For a full list, check out the Hurricane Prep Guide.
When Should I Evacuate During a Hurricane?
Hurricanes are extraordinarily dangerous. However, not every hurricane demands that you evacuate immediately as soon as you hear about it. For many homeowners in Florida, sheltering in place is a perfectly viable option.
But, there are times where it is safer to evacuate, even if your home is well-prepared for a big storm.
When should you evacuate your home for a hurricane? Some situations where evacuation may be necessary include:
- When a mandatory evacuation order is given for your municipality. If the authorities are telling you to leave, you should do it as soon as possible.
- If your home is in a designated flood risk or other high-risk zone and a hurricane warning has been issued.
- If the ‘safe zone’ is only a few miles away from your home. You don’t always need to evacuate three counties away. Some flood areas are close to low-risk areas where you can shelter until the danger passes.
- If your residence is in a ‘high-rise’ structure. Taller buildings experience more (and more severe) winds than ones lower to the ground, making them more prone to damage.
Leaving early before an official announcement can help you better protect your family during an emergency, avoid the last-minute evacuation rush traffic, and secure a hotel or other temporary housing before there’s a huge surge of other evacuees.
Ultimately, when to evacuate is your choice. But taking things like the severity of the incoming hurricane, whether you’re in a flood zone, and your designated evacuation zone.
Don’t know your evacuation zone? Check the Hillsborough County Evacuation Map for evacuation zones and the HART Bus Evacuation Routes (HART provides free emergency evacuation bus services to designated shelters).
What’s the Difference Between a Hurricane Watch and a Hurricane Warning?
The major difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning is just how likely the area is to face hurricane conditions and when.
A hurricane watch indicates a possibility, albeit a strong one, that the area may experience hurricane conditions within the next 48 hours. This is when you’ll want to start preparing to enact your hurricane plans and make any final readiness checks.
A hurricane warning indicates that hurricane conditions are expected to occur within the next day and a half, and may be the final warning a region gets before a hurricane hits the area. This is when you need to make sure that you have a secure shelter to take refuge in, if you aren’t already evacuating.
Can a Broken Window Really Cause My Home to Collapse?
During a hurricane, yes. A broken window can let hurricane-force winds act directly on the interior walls of your home and even push against the underside of your roof. This makes it easier for your roof to be torn from the building frame. And, since interior walls aren’t typically as reinforced against pressure as exterior walls, they may fail more easily once the wind gets inside.
A broken window can also cause a sudden and drastic shift in interior pressure in the structure, let moisture into your home, provide an infiltration point for pests and storm debris… the list of potential problems is endless.
Avoiding broken windows is a key way to improve your home’s protection against hurricanes and avoid catastrophic storm damage.
Get Your Hurricane Protection from Karoly!
Karoly Windows & Doors is one of the best impact window installation companies in Valrico. We have over two decades of experience in window installation and have become one of the most trusted installers out there. How? By consistently providing:
Excellent Service and Quality. We do the job the right way, every time. Our commitment to excellent service and quality is unmatched in the industry, and we have the reviews to prove it!
Top-Quality Brands. We partner with top impact window and door makers to find the best hurricane protection for your needs and budget. We aren’t beholden to any single manufacturer, so we’re free to offer the best products for your home.
100% In-House Labor. Every Karoly Windows installation is performed by a member of the Karoly team. We never outsource installation to a third party. This way, you know that you’re getting quality installation work from a trusted professional.
Best Price Guarantee. We’re confident that you won’t find a better deal elsewhere. We provide the best quality and will price match comparable products. If we can’t, we’ll tell you why so you can be better informed.
Our Platinum Standard Lifetime Guarantee. Our work is covered by a 25 year installation warranty and a 50-year material warranty so you can have peace of mind knowing that your new windows are not only high-quality, but are covered against material and installation defects.
We’re confident that we’ll provide the best windows, at the best price, and with the best installation quality in Valrico. Reach out to Karoly today to get started on protecting your home from hurricanes.
Areas We Serve
Looking for hurricane window and door installation, but aren’t in Valrico? We have you covered! Karoly’s expert installers can provide window installation in the following areas:
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