Hurricane Evacuation Plan for Families: Child-Proofing Your Home Before the Storm

Child-proofing your home is important, even when there isn’t an emergency. But severe weather like tropical storms and hurricanes can make it even more essential to plan ahead, create a hurricane evacuation plan child checklist, and make your home safe. With proper child-proofing, you can minimize the risk of accidents, keep everyone safer, and even shelter-in-place for moderate weather events. At Precious Baby Protectors, we provide child-proofing solutions for any weather and situation.

Why Hurricane Preparedness Looks Different for Families With Young Children

Infants and toddlers can panic during a storm. Loud thunder, creaking trees, and stressed adults can make children behave erratically or even try to find hiding spots that are out of the norm. When you have young children, it’s important to take hurricane preparedness steps like:

• Having safety gates and other barriers so children stay safely upstairs or downstairs if the power goes out.
• Having locked cabinets and closets so that distressed children can’t hide away in small, dark spaces without your awareness.
• Packing to-go bags and placing them away in secure areas so you can grab and go in a hectic evacuation scenario.
• Anchoring furniture and appliances in place so there’s much less risk of them toppling and causing injuries.

A professional can help assess your home and make sure you’re ready for the unique risks of hurricanes when you have infants or toddlers in the home. Thorough home safety assessments conducted by an expert can help your protection efforts go beyond day-to-day child-proofing so you’re ready for emergencies.

Room-by-Room Guide to Child-Proofing Your Home Before a Hurricane

Want to start preparing your home before the next hurricane season? Here’s a quick room-by-room guide you can use to cover the basics:

Living Areas

These big spaces have a lot of heavy furniture. Anchor your furniture and shelving units to the adjacent walls. You can also bolt heavy non-furniture installations, like televisions, in place so a storm can’t knock them over. Also consider covering outlets as a general precaution.

Bedrooms and Nurseries

Similarly to living areas, secure furniture in place so it can’t move or fall over. If you have time before a storm, stowing loose objects away in a closet or in cabinets can keep them out of the way and minimize trip hazards. Also, consider installing storm windows and guards so the windows can’t crack and break from high winds.

Kitchen and Bathrooms

In kitchens and bathrooms, many of the storm preparedness tasks are similar to everyday precautions. Keep the cabinets locked and make sure heavy appliances are also secured in place so they can’t fall over and injure someone. Whenever possible, keep outlets covered—even those that seem out of reach of small children.

Hallways and Stairways

The in-between spaces between rooms can also pose hazards. Consider installing baby gates at the ends of hallways and at the top and bottom of stairways. This can help keep children in safe spaces in the event you’re staying home during a tropical storm and also stops many trip and fall risks if the power goes out.

Creating a Family-Friendly Hurricane Evacuation Plan

Along with proactively addressing hazards in your home, there are additional steps you can take to build a comprehensive family-friendly hurricane evacuation plan, just in case it’s not safe to stay home. Consider:

• Packing an emergency kit with everything you need to be away from home for a couple of days.
• Practicing evacuations with a communication and transportation plan so the adults know what to do, and it’s not a scary first-time experience for young children.
• Print out a physical hurricane evacuation plan child checklist that you can use if the power goes out and you lose signal.

For many storms, it’s advised to shelter in place rather than evacuate. Proactively installing child-proofing locks, gates, and covers means you can shelter in place quickly and have fewer last-minute to-dos.

How Precious Baby Protectors Can Help

Precious Baby Protectors provides parents and guardians with tools for covering outlets, anchoring furniture and appliances, and securing windows. We also provide gates and child-safe barriers. Schedule a consultation today to create a plan for child-proofing and storm-proofing your home and have professional support as you build your hurricane evacuation plan child checklist.