Being a native Florida girl, I have ridden out many a hurricane in my day. Â My Mom kept hurricane supplies stocked all storm season long in a special cabinet.
The first hurricane I ever remember was when I was about 3 years old. Â My family’s small home, which my parents still live in, is just a few feet above sea level right on the water in North Pinellas county in West Central Florida.
I remember like it was yesterday huddling with my family with the power out in a darkened room while the wind howled for hours on end like thousands of ghosts as my father and mother prayed the roof would hold.
I also remember asking my mother if I could go outside with my little umbrella so that I could fly like Mary Poppins.
Fortunately, that Cat 3 storm with 120 mph winds came ashore south of us so the storm surge never came and our home and perhaps even our lives were spared. Â Â In hindsight, our family should have evacuated but back in the 1960’s most folks chose to ride out the storm and stay in their homes to protect the homestead.
The last hurricane I rode out was in 2004 when I was just a couple of months pregnant with my daughter. Â The stress from that particular storm was high and we were without power for close to a week during very hot and humid August days which added to the misery. Â I remember thinking that this poor baby I was carrying who was no doubt being flooded with my stress hormones would end up being a nervous wreck. As it turns out, my daughter is one tough little cookie and not much at all seems to faze her. Perhaps riding out her first hurricane before she was even born contributed to her steely edge.
Since I lived my entire childhood and most of my adult life in a hurricane prone area, learning to stock hurricane supplies in a storm cabinet is a skill I learned very early and a practice I have continued to this day.
I keep hurricane supplies stocked all year long as it comes in handy if the power goes out for any reason not just because of a bad storm.
I don’t stock snackie foods of any kind as boredom eating can easily take hold in those hours or even days without power and overconsumption of these foods can lead to grumpy kids which is not helpful during such a time of increased stress.
I really focus my hurricane supplies on foods that will nourish and fill you up with just a few bites if necessary.
In my experience, you really need less food than you think during a hurricane, so if you focus on the nourishing foods, an adequate hurricane supplies cabinet really doesn’t require that much space.
Hurricane Supplies in My Emergency Cabinet
If you’d like to check out the specific brands of many of these items listed below that I am currently using, check out my Shopping Guide. Â Note: I re-check ingredients and update this list frequently as sometimes, manufacturers can change things for better or for worse over time!
- MSG free beef and buffalo jerky
- Pemmican, the Power Bar of the Native Americans for centuries. Can be stored for years!
- Canned red salmon
- Tins of sardines packed in olive oil
- SPAM (one of the few canned meats that doesn’t contain MSG)
- Raisins
- Dried apricots
- Dried prunes
- Dates
- Yogurt covered goji berries
- Dried mango
- Dried pineapple
- Soaked/dried almonds
- Soaked/dried cashews
- Soaked/dried pecans
- Soaked/dried pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Popcorn (for popping on the barbeque pit)
- Peanut butter
- Sunflower butter
- Raw honey
- Coconut butter
- Ghee
- Cod liver oil
- Paper plates/plastic utensils
- Plenty of jugs of water
- 7-8 gallons of kombucha (brewing all the time .. doesn’t need refrigeration)
- Bottles of oil for the hurricane lamps
- Bags of charcoal for the barbecue
- Lighters/matches
- Flashlights/batteries
- Both cars tanked up with gas
- Wind up radio
Of course, it is important to have a source for cooking when the power is out. Â I have jugs of frozen water in our spare freezer so if the power goes out, everything stays nice and cold for several days. Â If stuff starts to thaw, you start cooking on the outdoor barbecue or firepit while you wait for the lights to come back on.
In my experience, this list will easily last you a few days to a week without power. Â If the power is going to be off longer than that for a very severe storm, it is best to seek another location until normalcy is restored.
What hurricane supplies do you stock in your storm cabinet?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Don’t forget books and games to keep the children happy. Stash a couple of small new toys.
Also you will need heavy duty plastic trash bags and a 5-gallong bucket to make a toilet if you are without power and water for any length of time. Kitty litter for the bags, to soak up liquids.
Thanks to your list I’m back from buying sterno so I can heat water for my French press and finally remembered to get a manual can opener – don’t ask. They say we are supposed to get rain/snow mix after the high winds. While I can heat water outside on our camp stove if I need to I don’t necessarily WANT to in rain/snow mix.
I saw Spam at the store and checked the label. It is gluten free. Who knew?
@Amanda yes, SPAM is definitely not something I would ever eat under normal circumstances, but in a hurricane situation it is believe it or not a pretty decent choice as an emergency item. When the power is out, you get tired pretty fast of the sardines and salmon … SPAM offers a good alternative for a nonseafood item to break the monotony.
What a great list. The West Coast could keep the same things in case of earthquake or — as it was reported 2 days ago– a tsunami warning for the north coasts of OR, WA, BC and Alaska. We’re supposed to have an El Nino year this year, which likely means loads of rain and winds… preparation is always a good thing.
P.S. I wouldn’t keep Spam in my cupboard… the nitrates and nitrites in it are as bad or worse than the MSG that it doesn’t have.
Just heard today that the experts have called off El Nino for this year, but the oceans are still so warm here in SoCal, I wonder? However, our last huge rain event, back in I think 2003 or later, our 100 year storm, brought us record amounts of rain and it was a La Nina year. La Nina? El Nino? What really brings the rains on is that Jet Stream. 😮
Yeah, why is Spam in our WAPF Shopping Guide anyway? Please tell us Sarah! 🙂
We are campers, so I always make sure we have extra cans of coleman propane and I cook on the coleman stove just like I do when we are camping. One little can lasts for about 2 days, depending on how much you use it of course. We also fill up the bathtubs with water for flushing toilets and fill lots of jugs of filtered water. I make sure that the deep freezer is full. (I also freeze jugs of water to fill it up if it’s not completely full, and then I wrap it in lots of blankets, bubble wrap, newspapers, or whatever I have that insulates and then I make sure that no one tries to open it. Food will stay frozen a lot longer that way.
Some sourdough loaves would be a good idea, especially since they keep a while.
I haven’t been in a hurricane since we stopped eating conventional food, but cooking and eating the meat in your freezer isn’t a bad idea, since you may lose it if the power stays out a while.
A lap top wih back up batteries is an essential item- staying informed on issues is very important, hurricane notwithstanding. We just rented “2016, Obama’s America” A documentary of a true life story. Love him? Hate him? Then either way, this is the movie to see.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that you stock SPAM! lol That is something I would have just skipped over without much thought. Thanks for the nice list. It’s very helpful!
Cans of coconut milk! Also fruit and veg that don’t need fridging, like sweet potatoes and apples. We do have a gas stove so we’ll be able to cook when (not if LOL) our power does go out, but we’re keeping it to small enough portions that we can eat it all and not have to fridge leftovers.