Securing Your Home in a Hurricane Evacuation
Hurricane season is coming up, and with hurricane season comes the potential for evacuation. Every year hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens are evacuated due to the threat of potentially deadly hurricanes destroying their homes. This leaves whole communities susceptible to vandals and burglars who choose not to evacuate for that very reason. Do not allow yourself to be an easy target for these vandals. There are a few steps you can take in securing your home while you are away, and make it harder on the thieves who take advantage of evacuation efforts.
Make sure all of the entrances to the home are as secure as possible. This includes dead bolting the doors, adding support bars to your garage door, locking the windows, and covering your windows with plywood or other similar protective measures. You can buy shutters for your windows made specifically to withstand hurricane force winds. This helps in the event that your windows get shattered, would be burglars aren’t given an open invitation to enter your home. This can also assist in keeping the windows from shattering in the first place, not only offering you protection but saving you money on repairs.
Taking your belongings with you seems like an obvious step, but there is no way you will be able to take all of your valuables along with you. Evacuations are usually done on short notice, and in a rush so it is inevitable that under these extenuating circumstances you may leave something behind. To prevent something like this from happening you may want to consider renting a safe deposit box. This will be a great, and safe, place to store valued items such as family jewelry or the important documents such as deeds, birth certificates, and other items that are in danger of being taken by potential looters. Its also a good idea to purchase an in-house safe. This will be a valuable asset to storing items you can’t take with you or put in a safe deposit box. This is especially essential for guns, and serves two purposes. It will not only keep the guns safe from hurricane looters, but will keep guns out of the hands of any children throughout the year.
What might be your most valuable tool in deterring home predators during this time is having a home security system installed in your home. Some models come equipped with a secondary power supply to keep it working effectively even when your home has lost electricity. Providing that phone lines haven’t been destroyed, it will also alert police once a break in has occurred. A loud, potentially nauseating, alarm will be sounded after the grace period is allowed for your pin code to be punched in. That alone is enough to keep looters at bay, but coupled with the law enforcement notification feature a home security system will be your best bet in securing your home while you are away during evacuation.
If you take time to ensure these few measures are followed, you will be well on your way to have a secure home in the event of a hurricane evacuation. There is no way to make sure your home is completely protected in your absence, but these are a few tips to secure it to its maximum potential. For more information in protecting your home against looters you can contact your local authorities.
