I have lived on the East Coast for my entire life between South Florida and Charleston, and I’ve had to make the call to evacuate or stay in my home more than a few times as a hurricane has approached. I don’t know about you, but the recent devastation of Fort Myers Beach from Hurricane Ian made me reconsider my hurricane evacuation priorities.
There is nothing like a worst-case scenario to make you evaluate your hurricane planning. In truth, unless you plan ahead for these circumstances, panic can take over and you may not think clearly about what to bring with you when you make the decision to leave your home. For simplicity, let’s consider the 5 P’s of Evacuation:
- People (and Pets)
- Prescriptions
- Papers
- Personal Needs
- Priceless Items
Of course you’ll want to bring the life-saving essentials, necessary medical supplies and legal documents with you and your loved ones. But beyond these – and as a portrait photographer – I’d like to focus on the Priceless Items category (irreplaceable items such as special photo albums, family heirlooms and keepsakes) and how to preserve and protect your photos in case a hurricane evacuation is necessary.
MAKE A LIST
The best time to plan is NOW, well in advance of any storms. In an evacuation, it may not be possible to bring absolutely everything with you, so you need to prioritize what will be coming along and what will be staying behind. You may be able to reprint your recent framed pictures from the files stored on your phone, but what about that portrait of your grandparents’ wedding day or your child’s scrapbook you lovingly made?
Walk through your home and make a list of what you will bring with you, in order of importance. Keep this list handy on your phone so that you can access it and be ready to act quickly. If your physical prints, digital files and backups are organized, it will make this process to protect your photos much easier.
DIGITIZE YOUR FILM & PAPER ASSETS
It’s only within the last 20 years that we have the instant ability to create digital files, but don’t forget about the photographs printed from film that you have in your home. If you no longer have the original negative (and let’s face it, who really does?) make sure to scan your old photos to create a digital archive of your most important memories.
The same goes for film negatives and old home movies on VHS or film. This media will degrade over time, and it’s always a good idea to keep a digital backup. Sound like a monumental task and don’t have the time? There are services like LegacyBox that will do it for you – it is totally worthwhile for the peace of mind.
BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP
I said it three times, but it’s truly not overkill! Make sure to backup your phone camera roll regularly to ensure those photos are preserved (this is sound advice for everyday life, not just in the case of hurricane). I personally use Dropbox, which will automatically upload my camera roll to my cloud storage every time I open the app.
Also be sure to backup your computer’s hard drive and any important USB drives to an external hard drive, as well as to some kind of cloud storage. Yes, it does take an initial investment in money and time up-front, but the peace of mind that it buys is priceless. Schedule a little time for this each month to make sure that you are current on all of your digital assets.
PLASTIC IS YOUR FRIEND
If you have to leave some of your heirlooms and photographs behind, it’s important to have a way to protect your photos in case of evacuation and preserve them until your return. You will have to evaluate what are the most important items to protect when you leave if time and resources are scarce.
Water is the enemy of paper, so preparation and prevention are key. Paper-based materials and photographs are susceptible to damage from moisture, so they need to be kept dry to prevent mold growth in case of a catastrophic flood or leak in your home.
Make sure to have heavy freezer Ziploc bags, thick black yard trash bags, duct tape, and waterproof plastic storage bins on hard to make this process a smoother one (this is NOT a guarantee, but a strategy to minimize any damage):
- Place hard drives and USB drives in Ziploc storage bags, then double-bag with the zipper facing the opposite direction.
- If you haven’t had the time to scan your beloved framed photographs, take them out of their frames and double-bag in a Ziploc bag with cardboard to ensure they don’t bend.
- Place these bagged items inside of waterproof, watertight plastic bins. Make sure to put identifying contact information inside the bin in the event they end up someplace else (a tornado or flood could cause it to travel some distance). If you are extra, like my dad, you may also want to caulk around the edges of the box to REALLY make sure it is waterproof.
- Stack these waterproof bins in the highest possible place in your home to avoid floodwaters. However, do not place them in the attic in case there is severe roof damage.
- For larger items, such as canvas prints or large wall art, double- or triple-bag them with yard trash bags and use lots of duct tape to seal them closed.
“STUFF” IS USUALLY (BUT NOT ALWAYS!) REPLACEABLE
The most important thing to remember during a natural disaster is to stay SAFE: “stuff” is replaceable, and loved ones are not. But there are some things you can do to plan ahead to ensure that your beloved memories are preserved. By the time a storm is coming it’s too late to properly consider what you might want to save and how to execute that plan. Being organized TODAY will help ensure that you can protect your photos in case of evacuation and mitigate damage to your precious heirlooms.