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• Stay out of any building that has water around it.
• Enter your home with caution. Beware of snakes, insects, and animals driven to higher ground by flood water.
• Inspect your home for damage. Take pictures, both of the building and its contents, for insurance claims.
• Use flashlights in the dark. Do NOT use candles.
• Avoid drinking or preparing food with tap water until you are sure it’s not contaminated.
• Check refrigerated food for spoilage. If in doubt, throw it out.
• Do what you can to prevent further damage to your property, (e.g., putting a tarp on a damaged roof), as insurance may not cover additional damage that occurs after the storm.
• Open windows and doors to ventilate and dry your home.
• Wear protective clothing and be cautious when cleaning up to avoid injury.

• Follow local media for official updates, weather reports and instructions. Remember that poor weather conditions, including flooding, can continue even after the storm has passed.
• Check-in with family and friends by texting or using social media. Limit telephone use to emergency calls.
• Return home only when authorities advise it is safe to return. Nueces County has a tiered reentry plan to allow residents back into evacuated areas; only higher tier personnel like emergency responders, utility operators, relief workers and health care professionals will be allowed back immediately following a storm.
• Keep away from loose or dangling power lines. Report them to your local power company or police/fire department.
• Avoid flood waters, whether in a vehicle or on foot. Turn around, don't drown! Just 6 inches of moving water can knock you down, and fast-moving water can sweep your vehicle away. Flood water might be electrically charged from underground or downed power lines and could hide dangerous debris or places where the ground is washed away.

ESN NEWS: The clean up period after a hurricane is often times more dangerous than the storm itself. People get hurt trying to move trees and big branches, stumbling on debris and touching or walking on live electrical wires. Unless you are a construction worker or firefighter, keep in mind that most people these days don't have a lot of experience in dealing with heavy lifting and climbing on roofs.

Take it easy. Carefully assess the task at hand relative to your health and capabilities. You don't have to do everything at once and, keep in mind, too, that you can be injured helping a neighbor, especially if the neighbor is trying to do too much, too fast, without experience in what is being done.

Generators to turn the lights and appliances in your house are highly dangerous. They have to be well outside the house and in a location so that the exhaust does not come into the house and kill those inside. If you want to run air conditioning overnight, MAKE CERTAIN that a generator is not in a location to put carbon monoxide exhaust into your house. You can't smell it and it can kill you while you sleep. 

HALF OF THE PEOPLE KILLED in Hurricane Laura were killed by generators after the storm, according to reports.

When the winds stop, don't go outside immediately, jump in your car and go look around. Hurricanes have a central eye around which the storm rotates and you could be in that eye. Otherwise, just wait before going out. Extra care is called for in every stage of a storm, before, during and after.

POWER LINES ARE DOWN,  another reason not to go outside immediately. The power lines will be charged with electricity at first and can kill, especially if they or you are in water or wet at the time. If you and your car should encounter a power line, you are safe as long as you stay in the car. If you attempt to get out of the car, you can be electrified when your foot hits the ground. Many people have died from electricity by trying to exit their cars with an active power line on the vehicle.

If you have to go out and drive to check on a relative, etc., be extra cautious around high water on the roads and streets. Is the water flowing rapidly? Is there anyway to tell how deep it is? Is there a point where water appears to be running in a hole because the road has been washed away? All of these are reasons not to chance it. Many people die or have to endure dangerous water rescues when they drive into an area that appears to be shallow then find it suddenly gets deeper, their car stalls and often is then washed away. If a wheel of your vehicle falls into even a small hole, the car could get stuck with water rising all around. Lots of serious problems driving or walking through flowing water.

#HurricaneStrong

"...is a national hurricane resilience initiative to save lives and homes through collaboration with leading organizations in the disaster safety movement.

The collaboration offers empowering hurricane safety and mitigation information for families and practitioners alike through business summits, digital channels, home improvement store workshops, kids programming, media outreach, school lesson plans, special events, and a social media campaign featuring a #HurricaneStrong “Pose". #HurricaneStrong partnerships are open to all qualified organizations who support hurricane safety and resilience."

https://www.flash.org/hurricanestrong/