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Hurricane Tips & Tricks for Your Home & Office

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• Try freezing some of your plastic coke and water bottles the day before the storm. They work well to keep the fridge cooler longer when ice is scarce, and then can provide cool refreshment once unthawed.

• Save gallon water and milk jugs. When a storm approaches, fill them with tap water and store in the bathroom for sanitation.

• Start cooking! If you don't have access to a grill, cook all of your meat and freeze it before losing power. Cold steak and mashed potatoes tastes like heaven compared to an MRE!

• With video games so popular, most people don't buy board games anymore, but without power, kids (and adults) can get pretty bored - and become REALLY irritating! Keep playing cards, word puzzles, coloring books, and board games on hand. They will help reduce one of the many stressors you don't need in these situations.

• Try to complete any house work, especially laundry, before the storm. Once the storm passes, it's extremely important with no power and possibly contaminated water sources, to keep everything as clean as possible. This is much easier to do if chores are all done in advance.

OFFICE -

• Keep a paper trail on your last day of operation and keep that paper trail with you (or somewhere else safe) during the storm. If power goes out before that day's backup and there is severe damage, this data will have to be re-entered once systems are operational again.

• To prevent problems that occur, not so much when the power goes out, but more often when it comes back on, TURN OFF ALL EQUIPMENT: servers, workstations, monitors, printers, etc. UNPLUG everything from its UPS or surge protector and unplug the UPS or surge from the wall. You may have to power off the UPS to stop it from beeping.
  

• If you think there is a potential for flooding, disconnect any equipment sitting on the floor and place it on desks. You might also consider wrapping it in garbage bags for extra protection.

• Make sure you have a printed copy of employee and other important phone numbers. You may not be able to access your Outlook or CRM contacts immediately following the storm and you will want to check on everyone as soon after as possible.

• Follow your Disaster Preparedness/Recovery Guide. This should be kept in a safe place and have multiple copies available. These instructions will help you prepare and recover based on your specific needs. If you don't have a Disaster Recovery Guide, that's right, call H I T Solutions and GET ONE!

If you have any hurricane tips & tricks you'd like to share, please email them to ch...@hit-sol.com and we'll try to share them on our site for all of our readers.