Test Your Emergency Equipment Regularly BEFORE the Storms.
2024 ended with powerful storms. 2025 started with fierce wildfires, damaging cold, and snow. Winter may still have surprises for us. You may already have emergency equipment, but is it ready for this year’s coming storm season?
Have you prepared?
2025 Hurricane Season projections are yet to be released. Experts will tell us soon enough if the waters in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico are warmer or cooler than normal. Tropical storms and hurricanes love warm water. But, you should be prepared, or preparing, right now, with the right emergency equipment.
Those of you in county communities along the east and Gulf coasts are at the greatest risk. Have your emergency equipment in place. Devastating winds and storm surges cause tremendous damage. Even if well inland from the coast, winds damage power lines, down trees, and rain causes severe flooding.
Hurricane Helene showed us not only how much coastal damage hurricanes do, but also how much extreme inland damage they cause. Many areas hit by Helene have still not recovered; even homes that were not destroyed.
If you remain in place during or after a storm, hopefully you equipped your home with emergency equipment like a generator (whole-house or portable), a battery-powered, battery-powered whole-house emergency water system (provides drinkable water and water to flush toilets throughout your home) , and things as simple as radios and flashlights. But, do they work?
Test Your Emergency Systems
We recommend you test your emergency equipment at least once a month. During the prime hurricane season, perhaps test your equipment once a week.
- Start your generator. Even if you have a generator that starts automatically with the loss of power, activate the generator yourself. Do you know how? Did it work? Do you have adequate fuel?
- Activate your whole-house emergency water system. Do you know how? Are there multiple ways to activate it? Does it work?
- Check you emergency radio. Do you know where your emergency radio is? Does it work? Do you have spare batteries? Do you know where they are?
- The same for flashlights. Test them and make sure you have additional batteries.
Set a Schedule
When should you test your emergency equipment? Pick a day of the week or month and put it in your phone as a recurring event with a reminder. Or, test your emergency equipment when you are already doing something else that occurs on a regular basis, like taking out the garbage. For example, every week:
- roll out the garbage,
- give the generator a quick start,
- activate the whole-house emergency water system,
- turn on your emergency radio,
- turn on your flashlights,
- count your spare batteries.
And, consider turning your phone OFF and back ON. (The Apple tech guy told us this was a good idea!)
Don’t wait until you and several thousand of your closest friends are all racing through Walmart or Home Depot preparing just before the storm hits. Having emergency equipment, and knowing that your emergency equipment functions, makes a huge difference when the storm hits.
Know the location of your emergency equipment in advance , and make sure it works by testing it before the emergency.
Be prepared. Be safe!!
