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Tampa Bay · June through November

Do the quiet work first.

Zones, a kit that lasts at least a week, and a short list for the house. For Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco. Nothing on these pages prevents a storm, and nothing on them is coverage.

General information, not professional, insurance, or legal advice. Always follow official evacuation orders from your county.

Updated 2026-10-09.

Why prep now

The useful afternoon is the one before anyone is in a hurry.

Ready.gov puts the Atlantic hurricane season at June 1 through November 30, and says storm surge is historically the leading cause of hurricane-related deaths in the United States. Tampa Bay sits in that water. The forecast lives at the National Hurricane Center and NWS Tampa Bay. The order to leave lives with your county.

Florida's Division of Emergency Management asks every household to know its zone and to keep a supply kit for at least seven days. That is a Saturday job. It is not a promise that the house will be fine.

Know your zone

Look up the address. Then follow that county's order.

Statewide map: Florida Know Your Zone. A zone letter is not an order until your county issues one.

Hillsborough

The county's Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Tool, HEAT, looks up an address, owner name, or parcel. The county describes five zones, A through E. A is mapped in red on their legend, then B, C, D, and E.

Open HEATEmergency Management

Pinellas

Use the county's Know Your Zone lookup and type the address. Pinellas also says people in mobile homes and manufactured homes evacuate for wind, separate from a surge order. The older know-your-zone address on the county site currently redirects to a map image, so the links here go to the live lookup.

Address lookupKnow Your Zone

Pasco

Pasco County's GIS finder takes an address and returns the evacuation zone. Use that result, then follow Pasco's order for it. A zone letter from a neighboring county is not yours.

Pasco zone finder

72 hours

Three days of work. Supplies that last longer.

The full write-up is the 72-hour home checklist. This is the short version.

  1. Three days outConfirm the zone, name where you would go, refill medicine toward two weeks, and stock water and food for at least seven days. Keep a gas tank at least half full during the season.
  2. The day beforeBring in anything that can fly. Clear gutters. Cover openings with rated shutters or properly secured 5/8-inch plywood, after you ask the local building official. Charge the phones.
  3. If they order your zone outLeave. Ready.gov says to do it immediately. Do not wait to see the water. The go-bag is what you carry.
  4. If they do notThe order can still change. An interior room, not a closed attic, is what Ready.gov describes for wind. Stay with the county's updates.

Guides

Read the one you need tonight.

72-hour pre-storm home checklistThree days of tasks. Supplies that last longer than three days. Leave when your county says leave.Hurricane supply kit for Florida familiesBuild it before a name is on the map. Store it where you can carry it.Protect windows, doors, the garage, the pool, and the yardWind gets in through openings. Loose things in the yard become the things that hit them.After the storm: safety, then a record of the damageStay out of the water. Then, if it is safe to be there, make a record. This page does not read your policy.Generator safetyCarbon monoxide does not smell like anything. The garage counts as indoors.

Checklists

Print them. Or take the PDF.

Get your stuff

A cart, not a brand list.

Generic items, grouped. Check them off here, or open the printable shopping list and the PDF.

Water and food

Power and light

Documents

First aid and medicine

Home hardening

Pets and kids

Pre-storm home check

A look at the house, on a calendar.

Membership is not open yet. When it is, Signature and Platinum include hurricane-season readiness: a scheduled walkthrough before the rush, and a post-storm inspection afterward. That is coordination for South Tampa — 33606, 33609, 33611, and 33629. It does not prevent damage, it is not coverage, and it is not a promise about the storm.

Contact us · (813) 330-0480Membership

Or write hello@banyanhomeco.com.

Questions

The ones that come up every June.

When is hurricane season on this coast?

Ready.gov lists the Atlantic hurricane season as June 1 through November 30. A storm can still form outside those dates. The National Hurricane Center and NWS Tampa Bay are the forecasts. Your county emergency management office is the evacuation order.

How do I find my evacuation zone?

Look up the address. Hillsborough County's Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Tool (HEAT) is at hcfl.gov/HEAT, and the county describes zones A through E. Pinellas County's address lookup is at kyz.pinellas.gov. Pasco County's finder is on the county GIS site. Florida's statewide Know Your Zone map is at floridadisaster.org. A letter in one county is not an order. Leave when your county orders the zone you are actually in.

How much water and food should we store?

Ready.gov says one gallon of water per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation, plus non-perishable food for several days. Florida's Division of Emergency Management says a disaster supply kit should last at least seven days. Pinellas County tells households to think about two weeks when they build the kit. Pack to the seven-day Florida floor, and longer if someone cannot easily replace medicine.

Does a Banyan membership cover storm damage?

No. Banyan is not an insurer and does not pay for repairs. A pre-storm home check, when membership is open, is a scheduled look at the house. It does not prevent damage, does not guarantee anything about the storm, and is not a claim. Anything you file is between you and your carrier. The Florida Department of Financial Services and the Office of Insurance Regulation publish the official starting points.

What if my zone is told to evacuate?

Leave. Ready.gov says if you are in a mandatory evacuation zone and local officials tell you to evacuate, do so immediately. FDEM says the greatest threat to life in a hurricane is storm surge flooding. Do not wait to see whether the order was cautious.

Where can a portable generator run?

Outdoors only. CPSC says never inside a home, garage, basement, crawlspace, shed, or other enclosed space, even with doors or windows open, and at least 20 feet from homes and buildings with the exhaust pointed away from windows, doors, and vents. Ready.gov gives the same 20-foot distance from windows, doors, and attached garages.

Sources