Hurricane Season Checklist: 30 Things to Do

The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season peaks between mid-September and October. That gives you weeks, not days. Below are 30 things to do, sorted by how much time you have left: 12 to do now, 10 when a storm is 72 hours out, and 8 in the final 12 hours.

NOAA is forecasting a below-normal season, 8 to 14 named storms, 3 to 6 hurricanes, and 1 to 3 major hurricanes. A normal year averages 14, 7, and 3.

So it’s a quieter forecast. Here’s the part worth pausing on: a seasonal outlook is not a landfall forecast. It tells you how many storms may form, not where any of them will go.

And one thing on this list expires before the others. Flood insurance through the NFIP takes 30 days to take effect. Buy it the day a storm gets named and you own a policy that starts a month after the water leaves.

Start now. It gets cheaper and easier every week you’re early.

What Is NOAA Predicting for the 2026 Hurricane Season?

NOAA’s outlook, issued in May, puts the odds at 55% below-normal, 35% near-normal, and 10% above-normal. Forecasters gave those ranges 70% confidence.

The reason is El Nino. Warmer water in the Pacific changes wind patterns across the Atlantic, adding wind shear, crosswinds at altitude that tear developing storms apart before they organize. NWS put the odds of El Nino arriving by July at 82%.

NOAA updates this outlook in early August, right before the peak. Worth a look then.

But every forecaster attaches the same caveat, and it’s not boilerplate. NWS Director Ken Graham said it plainly when the outlook came out: review your plan now, because it only takes one storm to make a very bad season.

Ask anyone in Fort Myers about 2022. That was a quiet stretch of the season right up until it wasn’t.

When Does Hurricane Season Peak in 2026?

The season runs June 1 through November 30. Activity climbs through August, peaks from mid-September into October, then falls off.

Here’s the practical translation, and it’s the hinge of this whole list: anything involving a contractor, an insurance company, a pharmacy, or a shipping window has to happen in July.

Tree crews book out for weeks. Insurers have waiting periods. Pharmacies can’t refill early without a reason. None of those problems get solved by a well-stocked garage.

That’s what section one is for.

Do These 12 Things Now, Before a Storm Has a Name

If I could get you to read just one section of this list, it would be this one. These are the tasks that get harder, or flat-out impossible, the longer you wait.

1. Look up your evacuation zone and write it on the fridge. Most coastal counties use letters, A through F. Yours is on your county emergency management site, not on a national map. Write it somewhere everyone sees it. When an evacuation order names Zone C at 6 a.m., nobody wants to be searching for their zone on a phone with 12% battery.
2. Check whether you have flood insurance, and start the 30-day clock today. Standard homeowners policies do not cover flood. They cover wind. Water that comes up from the ground is a separate policy, and FEMA’s NFIP takes 30 calendar days to activate. A few exceptions skip the wait, mainly a mortgage closing or a flood-map change. Private flood carriers often run about two weeks instead of 30 days. Start at floodsmart.gov.
3. Record a 10-minute video walkthrough of every room. Narrate it. Open closets, open drawers, walk the garage, say what things are. This is the claims documentation almost nobody has afterward, and it takes one Saturday morning. Save it to the cloud, not just to the phone that may be underwater.
4. Scan your documents and put copies somewhere dry and somewhere remote. Deeds, policies, IDs, birth certificates, medication lists, pet vaccination records. One set in cloud storage, one set in a waterproof pouch in your go-bag. Pet records matter more than people expect. Most emergency shelters require them.
5. Sign up for county emergency alerts and get a weather radio. The alerts that buzz your phone automatically are not the same as your county’s system, which is what tells you about local evacuations and boil orders. Sign up directly. Then add a NOAA weather radio, because when a storm hits, cell towers saturate long before they lose power.
6. Trim your trees and clear the dead limbs. This one is genuinely use-it-or-lose-it. Arborists book out for weeks in July and stop taking calls entirely once a storm is named. Municipal yard-waste pickup usually suspends too, so a pile of cut limbs at the curb becomes a pile of projectiles. Do it now or don’t do it.
7. Inspect the roof and check your garage door’s wind rating. Garage doors are one of the most common structural failures in a hurricane. When one lets go, the wind gets inside and pushes up on the roof from underneath. A bracing kit runs a fraction of what a roof costs. Check what rating your door carries, and whether your area’s code has changed since it was installed.
8. Measure and pre-cut your window protection, then label every piece. If plywood is your plan, cut it in July. Label each sheet by window, “kitchen east,” “bedroom 2,” and stack it flat in the garage with the hardware in a bag taped to the top piece. People get hurt cutting plywood in the rain at 2 a.m. That’s an entirely avoidable injury.
9. Refill prescriptions early and ask your pharmacist about an emergency supply. Many states allow early refills once a state of emergency is declared, but pharmacies lose power like everyone else. Ask now what your plan and your state allow. Then write out a paper list: every medication, every dose, every prescriber. Add it to the document pouch from item 4.
10. Run your generator or power station under real load. Untested backup power is decoration. Plug in what you’d actually run, the fridge, a fan, the CPAP, and time it. Write the runtime on a piece of tape stuck to the unit. Gasoline goes stale in about three months, so treat stored fuel with stabilizer and rotate it. And put a carbon monoxide alarm in the house. Generators kill people every single season, always indoors or in a garage, always by accident.
11. Build a cash reserve in small bills. Card readers need power and internet. Both go down. Small bills because a gas station running on a generator and a cash box will not be making change for a hundred.
12. Write the family communication plan on paper. Pick an out-of-state contact, because long-distance lines often work when local ones jam, and a meeting point. Write down the phone numbers everyone has stopped memorizing. Put a copy in every wallet and one in the go-bag. Paper works at 0% battery.

When a Storm Is 72 Hours Out, Do These 10 Things

This is the window where the shelves are still full and the roads are still clear. It closes fast, usually within a few hours of the first watch.

1. Fill every gas tank you own. Vehicles and fuel cans. Lines start forming before landfall, and pumps need electricity to run.
2. Charge everything with a battery in it. Phones, power banks, power stations, tool batteries, headlamps, tablets, the laptop you’ll want by day three. Stage them all in one spot so nobody hunts for a charged light in the dark.
3. Do the grocery run for food that needs nothing. Not bread and milk. Food that needs no power, no water, and no cooking: canned protein, peanut butter, tortillas, dried fruit, shelf-stable milk. If you’re building from scratch, our $100 pantry post is the two-week version with current prices.
4. Freeze jugs of water to fill the empty space in your freezer. A packed freezer holds temperature far longer than a half-empty one, because the frozen mass does the work. Fill milk jugs three-quarters full and freeze them. When they thaw, that’s drinking water. While you’re there: freeze a cup of water solid, set a coin on top, and leave it in the freezer. If you come home and the coin is at the bottom, everything thawed and refroze. That food goes.
5. Withdraw your cash. If you skipped item 11, this is your second chance. ATMs are down within an hour of the power going out.
6. Run the laundry, run the dishwasher, and clean the house. Nobody puts this on a checklist, and everybody regrets it. Five days without water pressure and a sink full of dirty dishes is a genuinely miserable combination. Start the storm with clean clothes, clean dishes, and clean floors.
7. Make the evacuation call and book the room. Decide before the forecast cone moves again. Inland hotels fill within hours of a watch going up, and the pet-friendly ones fill first. Deciding early costs you a cancellation fee at worst.
8. Get the animals on the manifest. Carriers, food for two weeks, medications, and those vaccination records. Most shelters won’t take a pet without them. Livestock and chickens need their own plan, and it’s a different plan than “open the gate.”
9. Fill your propane tanks and check your camp stove fuel. Exchange cages empty out fast, and nobody’s refilling anything for a while afterward. Two full tanks beats one full and one you’re not sure about.
10. Photograph the outside of the house and the yard. Fresh “before” photos with a visible date are what settle a wind-versus-flood disagreement four months later. Roof, siding, fence, vehicles, the trees. Five minutes.

In the Last 12 Hours, Do These 8 Things

Short, physical, and roughly in this order. The last one is the most important.

1. Bring in everything that can fly. Patio furniture, grill, planters, trash cans, flags, garden tools, the doormat. In 100 mph wind, a plastic chair is a projectile that finds a window.
2. Put up the window protection and brace the garage door. This is where item 8 pays for itself. Do it in daylight, and do it before the outer bands arrive.
3. Fill the bathtubs and every container you own. This water is for flushing and washing, not drinking. One bathtub is roughly a few flushes’ worth of gray water. If you want it clean and sealed, a tub liner does that for around $30. Fill pitchers, pots, and coolers too.
4. Turn the fridge and freezer to their coldest setting, and push the food together. Then leave the doors shut. Mass holds cold; air doesn’t. A full, closed freezer can hold safe temperatures for around 48 hours.
5. Move the vehicles. Away from trees, out of the low spot, onto the highest ground you have. Back them in so you can leave without maneuvering. Full tank.
6. Get valuables off the floor and unplug what you’re not using. Electronics and irreplaceables go up, upper floor if flooding is the risk, away from glass if wind is. Unplug the rest. Surge damage takes out plenty of things the water never reaches.
7. Stage the outage kit in one room and put shoes by every bed. Lights, radio, first aid, water, phones. All in one place, in the room you’ll shelter in, an interior room, lowest floor, no windows. And closed-toe shoes beside every bed. Broken glass at 3 a.m. is the injury nobody plans for.
8. Send your position to your out-of-state contact, then stop preparing and shelter. One message: who’s here, where we are, when we’ll check in next. Then you’re done. Sit down.

If the eye passes over you, the quiet is temporary. The wind comes back from the opposite direction, sometimes within minutes. Stay put until officials say the whole system has cleared.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Difference Between a Hurricane Watch and a Warning?

A watch means hurricane conditions are possible in your area, generally within 48 hours. A warning means they’re expected, generally within 36 hours. A watch is when you work the 72-hour list. A warning is when you’re on the 12-hour list.

How Much Water Do I Need per Person?

One gallon per person per day is the standard planning figure, and that covers drinking and basic hygiene. Three days is the evacuation minimum. Two weeks is the realistic number if you’re sheltering at home, and you need it for pets too. Full breakdown in our water storage guide.

Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Hurricane Flooding?

Generally no. Homeowners policies cover wind damage; flood is a separate policy through the NFIP or a private carrier. NFIP coverage takes 30 days to activate, which is why item 2 sits where it does.

Is a Below-Normal Forecast a Reason to Relax This Year?

It’s a reason to feel a little better, and not a reason to change what you do. The outlook predicts how many storms form, not where they go. A below-normal season with one landfall on your county is, for you, a bad season.

When Exactly Does the 2026 Season Peak?

Mid-September through October. NOAA updates its seasonal outlook in early August, ahead of that window.

The Short Version

The peak is on a calendar. Your list is on a clock. The twelve items in the first section are the only ones that get harder every week you wait, and everything after them can be done in an afternoon with a full tank of gas.

So here’s what I’d do: pick three from that first list this weekend, and make one of them the flood insurance clock. That’s a real hurricane season head start, and it costs you a Saturday.

Sources: NOAA 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook, National Hurricane Center, Ready.gov, National Weather Service, FEMA / floodsmart.gov, CDC, American Red Cross.