CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — All it takes is strong winds and flying debris to damage or break your windows during a hurricane.
For those of you without hurricane shutters, the million dollar question is when do you start boarding up?
Experts say the rule of thumb is generally about two days out.
For many of us, it won't be our first rodeo preparing for hurricane season. However, there are still plenty of folks who are new to the Coastal Bend.
Part of the prep work is just making sure you have all the tools you need.
"Basically, in the off season, we make sure we have plenty of boards that are already cut to the proper size," Chief Dale Scott said. "We have our self-tappers and everything we need to do. All of our windows and then we actually put the numbers on them so we know which board goes to which window."
How important is it to have those numbers on there?
"It helps us because we know which window correlates with which board, sometimes you have to make a few adjustments," Scott said.
Why is it so important to prepare ahead of time?
"You always want to prepare ahead of time because with panic buying everything flies off the shelf," Scott said. "If you do it a couple of weeks early and just store it in your garage, or if something does happen, you are already prepared and you are not in a long line and hoping for the best."
What kind of tools do you need?
"We have self-tapper screws," he said. "We've already done all the windows ahead of time to make sure all the boards fit and then about 36 hours prior to a storm arriving, we go through and put all of our windows up, make sure our generators are fueled, equipment is fueled. And if we have windows, we can't put boards on, we tape them to prevent flying glass."
It's always a good idea to pick up all the decorations, the trashcans, things like that to prevent those from flying around and hitting your window.
"I've actually seen a 2x4 go through a telephone pole so anything you can secure get out of the yard and put into the garage or a secure area," he added. "You are helping yourself and you might be helping your neighbor."
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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