How To Prepare Your Home for A Natural Disaster in 4 Steps

No one is immune to the impacts of mother nature. While it may feel like it will never happen to you, severe weather — including tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, high winds, wildfires, hail, snow and rain — can happen nearly anytime, anywhere. Knowing how to prepare your home for a natural disaster is essential for ensuring you're ready when these events occur.

Data from U.S. government agencies has shown that natural disasters are becoming more prevalent. In 2024 alone, there were 27 individual weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion in damages.² In fact, between 1980 and 2023, the annual average of weather/climate disaster events was 8.5 events while the annual average for the most recent five years (2019–2023) grew to 20.4 events.³

 It’s hard to find the time to stop and plan ahead, but by taking a few minutes to understand your risks, you can better prepare for a potential natural disaster. These four important steps can help ensure you are prepared if disaster strikes.

1. Know Your Risks

The first and most important thing to understand is what weather hazards pose the highest risk to your community. Depending on the region where you live, your home could be at risk from a variety of natural threats. Do you live in a tornado zone? If so, when is your tornado season? Do you live in an area that’s prone to wildfires? Do you live in a flood zone? It’s essential to do your research so you know how best to prepare.

However, it’s not just extreme weather that poses risks. Everyday activities and household conditions can also lead to fires. Whether it’s cooking, using candles or maintaining fireplaces, these common sources of ignition can be dangerous, especially if weather conditions exacerbate the situation. Being prepared for both weather-related and everyday risks is crucial to ensuring your safety.

Once you know the risks in your area, sign up to receive alerts about weather risks through your local emergency notification system, so you can prepare your home and shelter or evacuate as needed.

2. Have a Family Emergency Plan

Once you understand your risks, it’s time to make a plan. When you’re under the stress of an emergency, it’s hard to think clearly or rationally. An emergency disaster preparedness plan helps to ensure that everyone in your family knows what to do when the time comes, which is especially important if you have children or elderly family members living with you. It may include things such as:

• A communication plan

• Your meeting place

• How to care for your pets 

• Evacuation routes — both out of your house and your local area  

 After creating your family’s emergency plan, you should also consider how you’ll protect your home and property during a natural disaster. By using lock boxes to securely store keys or fobs, you can allow trusted neighbors or emergency contacts to access your home or vehicle if you’re unable to get there yourself during a crisis. Strategically placing these lock boxes ensures that help can reach your property when needed. Be sure to think through different scenarios, like during work or school hours, and have a plan for those, too. Practicing with the whole family can make it easier when the time comes. Visit Ready.gov and take the first step in creating a disaster plan.

3. Safeguard Documents

Another important part of emergency preparation is making sure key documents, like insurance policies and personal documents, are up to date and secure. It’s especially important to ensure you understand your homeowner’s insurance coverage and adjust it to protect your property against the risks in your area. Many people assume that insurance covers everything in a catastrophic event. But all too often, they are surprised to learn that a critical component, like flooding, is not covered until it is too late. Make copies of your documents, including digital copies, and keep your originals in a secure location, like a safe.

Choosing a highly-rated fireproof and waterproof safe is critical to protecting your documents in a natural disaster, as well as other valuables you may need to leave behind if you’re forced to evacuate at a moment’s notice. It’s important to remember that not all safes are truly equal in their fire ratings, despite what some may claim. Be sure to review the specifications carefully and choose a safe that’s classified by a best-in-class testing standards agency, like Underwriters Laboratories (UL), to ensure your valuables are well-protected.

Beyond safeguarding your documents, consider other essential security measures to protect your property. Although padlocks might seem insignificant compared to the power of nature, they can play a crucial role in protecting valuable items or securing sensitive areas within damaged structures. Whether you're locking up a storage room or securing a shed to prevent theft, a Master Lock padlock can be a small yet effective tool in maintaining security in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

4. Gather Essential Supplies

When a natural disaster hits, you never know how long you will be displaced or when you will be able to return to your home for necessary items. So, it’s a good idea to build an emergency kit with essential items.

 What do you need in case of a disaster?

Every disaster is different, but it’s important to gather basic emergency supplies that will help sustain you, your family members and pets for at least three days. Your emergency kit should include:  

• Medications
• Water and food
• Infant formula and diapers
• Pet supplies
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Power cords, a power bank and charger
• Whistle to signal for help
• Cash
• Moist towelettes and basic personal hygiene products
• Garbage bags
• A multi-tool

Put these items near the door or in your car for easy access when you are in a hurry. Try to keep your phone charged when possible as it will be a valuable tool to help you stay connected with family and to understand instructions from local authorities.

 It’s also essential to have a go-bag for important documents and valuables that you can’t afford to leave behind, like birth certificates, passports and irreplaceable items. The SentrySafe Fire Bag allows you to keep all your must-have documents in one place, so you can safely transport them while protecting against unexpected fire and water threats. Natural disasters often lead to mass evacuations, making it difficult to find accommodations on the road. A portable safe can help provide additional peace of mind in times of crisis by keeping your phone, wallet, keys and small valuables safely secured in your car or hotel room.

We can’t control when severe weather comes our way, but we can make sure we are better prepared to deal with it when it does. Take the time to plan ahead now to provide peace of mind when the time comes. It can make all the difference. To learn more, visit Ready.gov.

Sources

1. Natural disasters such as fires, hurricanes hit 1 in 10 U.S. homes in 2021 (cnbc.com)
2. 2024: An active year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters (noaa.gov)
3. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (noaa.gov)