Tropical Storm Erin Is Coming: Here's How to Prepare Your Home

When disaster strikes, the difference between comfort and crisis often comes down to preparation. Tropical Storm Erin is brewing with 45 mph sustained winds and forecasters predict it will strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane within days. Though it's likely to veer away from the East Coast before landfall, this serves as the perfect opportunity to evaluate your emergency readiness.

A proper hurricane kit doesn't require a massive budget or specialized knowledge. Start with water - the foundation of survival. While guidelines suggest one gallon per person daily, I recommend doubling that to two gallons for cooking, drinking, and sanitation. For food, focus on easy-to-prepare options that don't require refrigeration: canned goods, protein bars, peanut butter, and dried fruits. Commercial emergency food buckets from companies like Augason Farms or ReadyWise offer convenient alternatives with impressive shelf-life.

Beyond sustenance, your kit should include a basic first aid kit, prescription medications, emergency lighting (flashlights with extra batteries), and potentially a small solar generator for power. Don't overlook the importance of communication tools - a battery-operated or hand-cranked NOAA weather radio keeps you informed when cellular networks fail. Store everything in waterproof containers alongside copies of essential documents like ID, insurance policies, and medical information.

The beauty of emergency preparedness is that it doesn't have to happen all at once. As my son would say, "don't go ham" on spending. Add components gradually, focusing first on absolute essentials. Whether you call it a hurricane kit, severe storm kit, or typhoon kit depending on your location, the principles remain the same: practical preparation creates peace of mind. Take this opportunity to start or supplement your emergency supplies - because when minutes matter, prior planning makes all the difference.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Tropical Storm Erin Update

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, all this is Keith and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast. This is your one minute survival tip for August, the 12th 2025. Again coming to you from our affiliate office in Dallas, texas, where it is a brisk 99 degrees today. Talk a little bit about Tropical Storm Erin 45 mile an hour, sustained winds. Now they are confident that she will become a major hurricane, probably a cat three maybe the next 72 to 96 hours. However, it is a very low probability that she is going to make landfall on the East coast of the United States. It appears she's going to be pushed out to sea and make kind of a heavy right turn before she makes, before she would have chance to make landfall. But I would go ahead and just keep an eye on the Weather Channel, the National Hurricane Center, whatever weather app or weather folks that you happen to listen to, especially if you live on the east coast of the United States.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Let's talk about a hurricane kit. A hurricane kit should have enough to cover your basic needs for three to seven days. Now this is in the event that you are not going to evacuate. There are always mandatory evacuations, which obviously mandatory is the key word. You should evacuate, or if you're voluntarily going to evacuate. That's a whole separate subject. This hurricane kit is for folks that are going to stay at home in the event a hurricane or the remnants of a hurricane makes landfall near them and they lose power. Very similar to a 72-hour kit, but we're going to beef it up just a little bit. When it comes to water, the suggested amount is one gallon per person per day for cooking and sanitation, if you have the room, my recommendation is two gallons of water per person per day in the event that you need extra. Let's talk about food Three to seven days of easy to prepare foods, canned goods, protein bars, peanut butter, dried fruit. You've got the emergency food stores that you can get in the buckets Augustin Farms, readywise, hourwise, patriot Supply. All of those are very good options. Now, if you have a grill and you're going to go ahead and cook on the grill another good option. However, if you're going to cook indoors and I say indoors, like in your garage, to stay out of the wind and the rain make sure you have plenty, plenty of ventilation if you're going to operate your gas grill.

Speaker 1: 2:43

First aid kit, a very basic first aid kit. You can get these on Amazon, any of the Walmart. Any drugstore will have basic first aid kit Bandages, antiseptic wipes, pain relievers, prescription medication. If you think you're going to be stuck at home for three to seven days because of a hurricane or severe storm storm and you're in the middle of a prescription, see if your doc will go ahead and write maybe half a prescription or another week. In the event you're going to be stuck, and these are prescription medications that you absolutely have to have.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Emergency lighting and power flashlights, plenty of extra batteries. If you have solar, all the better. Solar panels can keep your little solar generator charged up and you'll be able to run small appliances, maybe a little fridge, a 12 volt refrigerator, that sort of thing. I'll probably do a podcast here in the near future about solar generators, because there are a million of them out there and it really just depends on what you're looking for. Here's something to think about Personal documents Copies of your driver's license, passport, emergency contacts, insurance policy, any sort of medical records.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Keep copies of that in a waterproof container very close, if not in the same container as your hurricane kit. Basic tools multi-tools, screwdriver, crescent wrench, rain gear, plastic sheeting and duct tape. In the event a window gets broken, you can take the plastic sheeting and the duct tape and take care of that. Let's talk about communication Battery operated or hand cranked radio for weather updates, a NOAA weather radio again, there's a million of them out there and they are not that expensive. Talk about hygiene and sanitation Hand sanitizer, moist towelettes, dude wipes or all the other moist towelettes that you can get at the stores. Some are flushable, some are not. Soap, toothbrush and any feminine products that any females in your group might need. Miscellaneous stuff, matches, lighter matches in a waterproof container. Now to keep everybody busy books, games to keep the kids occupied. In the event, the power's out and you need to keep the little ones occupied so they don't go stir crazy.

Speaker 1: 5:18

So when you put these kits together, start out small. You don't need to go, as my son would say, don't go ham and spend a lot of money on these kits. These things can be put together very, very inexpensively and they can be put together over time. Make sure you store the kit in a waterproof container. It doesn't do you any good to put it in a cardboard box. If it gets wet, all the contents are going to get wet. If it's something that you've done you've put it together several months ago. Make sure that you rotate your food and rotate your water and canned goods last two, three, four years. So just check the expiration date and make sure that you're well within the expiration date. So we have our water, our food, we got our first aid kit, any personal essentials, and when it comes to Erin, again there is a very small chance she's going to make landfall, but practice makes perfect.

Speaker 1: 6:19

So take this opportunity to look at what you have. If you have a hurricane kit, see if you need to supplement it. If you don't have a hurricane kit, why don't you use this opportunity to grab one, two or three things that I've already mentioned? That way, you're ahead of the game. Call it a hurricane kit, call it a severe storm kit, call it whatever you want, depending on where you live in the world. Call it a typhoon kit if you're on that side of the world, and it's something that you do inexpensively and it's not very complicated. All right, folks, as always, take care of one another, be safe out there and until next time.