Feb 15 2007

Recognizing and Coping with the Warning Signs of Hurricane Disaster Stress

Published by Jennifer at 1:28 pm under Hurricanes, Weather

Preparing for a hurricane can be stressful-before during and after. It is especially stressful for those who have lived through it or who have lost family members during that time.

You may notice it in people this time of the year if you live in a place where people have lived through the stress of a hurricane disaster. If you are visiting a place such as this, or if you live in a place such as this, try the best you can to be patient with one another, because this can be a high cause for anxiety.

People who are anxious have a tendency to also be moody, easily frustrated or angered, depressed, or irritable. If this is the case around this time of year where you live try to comfort one another during this time, and help each other prepare as well.

Hurricane season typically lasts from June 1st through November 30th on the Atlantic coast in places such as Long Island. Therefore, this is the time of year to be thinking about it, and even to prepare for next year if you have not already done so.

One very important aspect of preparing for a hurricane emergency is to make an evacuation plan. This includes setting up a place of shelter that is outside the hurricane hot spot. This will be where you can go to protect you and your family in the event of a storm.

You will want to draw yourself a simplified map to your safe emergency destination. It will both help guide you in the event you get anxious and scared and have a hard time concentrating if you are in the middle of a hurricane crisis.

It is ideal to know exactly how many miles away your safety destination is and how long it will take you to get there as well. Ideally it would need to be far enough away from the damage yet close enough for you to get do without getting caught in the middle of that damage.

One thing you will need to do to prepare as well is to make up an evacuation kit. You may even want to have one for every member of your family. This would be a small bag, box, or suitcase with emergency supplies in it. The emergency supplies that you would include in this bag could include a first aid kit, extra medications, clothes, cell phone, money, important papers, and the like.

You may also want to consider taking blankets and anything else you can think of that you could carry with you. It is a good idea to have all these emergency supplies stored in a place where you can easily access the materials and leave as soon as you think you would be in danger. This will help save your life, and the lives of you family.

Other precautions that you can take that will help ease your anxiety and the anxiety of the people around you is to make your property as safe as possible. For instance, you can make trees more wind resistant by trimming off dead limbs. Then you can remove branches in a way that will allow the wind to flow through the trees more freely.

Another precaution is the use of permanent shutters on the windows, and protection around areas with sliding glass doors. You will also want to strengthen garage doors and any masonry that is not reinforced. Furthermore, any unsecured object that could be picked up by the wind will need to be carefully stored or discarded.

Those who have been through it before want to do every thing they can to prevent from losing everything-including lives of the people in their family. Therefore, they will want to keep as informed as possible in order to prepare for this year’s hurricane season.

Information can be found through many resources. One place to find this information is through the Red Cross, or through FEMA. You can also read more articles just like this one that can help save your life-as well as other lives-in the case of a hurricane disaster.

 

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