Ten guides live here, covering two hazards that arrive together and are prepared for very differently. A hurricane gives you days of warning. A flash flood gives you minutes.
What they share is that the expensive decisions — insurance, elevation, your evacuation zone — all have to be made long before anything is forecast.
Before the Season, and When a Storm Is Named
Hurricane preparation splits neatly in two. Insurance, tree work and looking up your zone belong to spring — none of them can be arranged once a storm is forecast, and flood cover in particular carries a waiting period.
The rest is a short list executed in a day: fuel, cash, prescriptions, charging, clearing the garden. And the supplies should cover a week without power rather than the usual three days, because that's what hurricane outages actually do.
Watching a Storm Without Being Misled
The cone of uncertainty is the most misread graphic in American weather. It shows where the centre might go — not the storm's size, and not where damage lands. People outside it are routinely flooded.
The products that answer the question you actually have are the surge, wind and rainfall ones. And when the power goes, a paper chart and a battery radio keep working long after every screen has died.
EVACUATION ZONE
Set by your county from storm surge modelling. It tells you when to go.
FLOOD ZONE
FEMA insurance and building map. It tells you what cover costs. Not the same map.
Water, Which Is the Part That Gets People
Flooding is the most common disaster in the United States and the one households most often assume doesn't apply to them. A large share of claims come from outside the mapped high-risk zones.
Most of what helps costs nothing: move the irreplaceable up a floor, photograph the house, and check whether you have cover at all — standard policies don't include flood. The physical measures are worth doing in the right order, and a sump pump with a battery usually beats any door barrier.
When It's Already Happening
Flash flooding is the deadliest kind, and the reason is consistent across every year of data: it happens fast, often at night, and it kills people in cars.
Twelve inches of moving water carries away most cars. Two feet carries away SUVs and pickups. From the driving seat you cannot tell the depth, and you cannot tell whether the road underneath still exists.
If you only do one thing after reading this page: look up your evacuation zone and write it on paper. It takes five minutes and it cannot be done later.
Sources
- NOAA National Hurricane Center — advisories, the track forecast cone and hazard products
- National Weather Service — flash flood definitions and "Turn Around Don't Drown"
- FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program — flood zones, mapping and coverage
- Ready.gov — hurricane and flood preparedness
This page publishes no forecast, storm position or evacuation order of its own. When a warning is active or an order is issued, follow local authorities, the National Hurricane Center and emergency services before any general guidance. See our Editorial Policy and Sources & Fact-Checking.