Hurricane Florence: Caregiver Preparation

When you’re a caregiver, it’s crucial to be ready for emergencies. Especially with the threat of Hurricane Florence now is the time to think about preparing your loved ones for natural disasters.

Here are some things caregivers should focus on when preparing for emergencies:
Financial and legal preparedness: Ensure key documents for financial records, health care power of attorney and other advance directives are easy to access in case of an emergency. Perhaps make electronic copies available via a secure online storage app.

Medications: When evacuating, please make sure that you pack and bring medications and durable medical equipment to the shelter. Also, it is recommended that you take pillows, blankets and other comfort items to the shelter. Pet friendly shelters are located at Lake Marion HS, Orangeburg, Cane Bay HS, Marion, and DuBose MS, Dorchester.

Alerts and warnings: Set up wireless emergency alerts on smartphone; get a weather radio, check out other options.

Emergency communication plans: With contact lists always handy in our smartphones, few of us have memorized key phone numbers. But you can’t depend on cellphone service under severe conditions, so have a written list of key family members’ contact information. Would your loved ones know how to contact you in an emergency?

Emergency supplies: Get power-failure lights in the house. Keep emergency health supplies in cars and in the home. Have bottled water and a supply of canned foods in the house, and make sure medications are in containers that would be protected and easy to take. Keeping a basic disaster supply kit in a handy location is a good idea; if you’ve already done that, you need to check the supplies once a year to be sure everything is still in good condition.

Property and insurance: Take photos of your property and double-check your insurance coverage. Make digital copies of family photos and scan older ones.
There’s great information on preparing for emergencies, as well as advice on how to recover from a disaster from the SC Emergency Management Division.