72-hour pre-storm home checklist

A clock, not a three-day pantry

Use this when a storm is aimed at Tampa Bay and you still have a few days. It is the work of those days. It is not a claim that three days of food is enough. Florida's Division of Emergency Management asks households to keep a disaster supply kit for at least seven days. Ready.gov starts from one gallon of water per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation.

Watch the National Hurricane Center and NWS Tampa Bay. Your county, not a forecast graphic, decides whether you leave.

About three days out

1. Look up your evacuation zone and write it where the household can see it. Hillsborough uses HEAT. Pinellas uses the Know Your Zone lookup. Pasco uses the zone finder. The statewide map is Know Your Zone.
2. Decide where you would go if that zone is ordered out, and who out of the area you will call. FDEM says friends or family outside the zone are often the easier option. Shelters are published by the county when they open.
3. Refill prescriptions toward a minimum two-week supply, and keep a written list of names and doses with the medicine. That figure is from the state hurricane guide.
4. Buy water and food for at least seven days. One gallon of water per person per day is the Ready.gov drinking-and-sanitation figure. The shopping list is the store run.
5. During hurricane season, FDEM says to keep a gas tank at least half full so you are not in the last-day line. Follow the vehicle manual for an electric car, and read Hillsborough's separate note on flooded EV batteries on the protect-the-house page.

The day before expected impacts

• When a hurricane warning is issued, Pinellas County says to bring in yard items such as furniture, toys, bird baths, and barbecue grills. If you can pick it up, put it up — that is FDEM's line for anything that can become a missile.
• Clear gutters and downspouts. Ready.gov lists that with bringing furniture in and considering hurricane shutters.
• Openings: FDEM says windows, doors, and garage doors should be impact resistant or have a protective covering — rated hurricane shutters, or properly secured 5/8-inch plywood. Ask the local building official what your city requires before you fasten anything.
• Charge phones and put a backup battery in the go-bag. Ready.gov says you may not be able to buy these things for days or weeks afterward.
• Set the go-bag by the door. The evacuation list is the short version.

If your zone is ordered out

Ready.gov says if you live in a mandatory evacuation zone and local officials tell you to evacuate, do so immediately. Do not wait to see the water. FDEM says the greatest threat to life from a hurricane is storm surge flooding, and that you should follow every evacuation order if you are in an ordered zone, a low-lying flood area, or a mobile home.

Pinellas County says residents of mobile homes and manufactured homes must evacuate because of the wind, even when a surge zone is not called for the rest of the street.

If you are not ordered to leave

That is still the county's call, and it can change. FDEM says that if you are not in an ordered zone, a low-lying flood area, a mobile home, or an unsafe structure, it may be safer to stay — and that knowing whether the house can take wind and rain is the homeowner's responsibility. Homes built after 2002 generally include stronger features, their page says, only if the roof, straps, windows, doors, and garage door are in proper condition.

If you stay, Ready.gov says to take refuge in a designated shelter or an interior room for high winds. If flood water traps you, go to the highest level. Do not climb into a closed attic. You can be trapped by rising water.