Preparing Your Home for a Hurricane

By Sam Thrift Friday, August 26, 2011

Deana Laney from the True Value in Grafton had these tips to prepare your home before Hurricane Irene hits the Historic Triangle.

- Mind your outdoor furniture: Any object that can move needs to be taken inside or tied down. You can turn heavy outdoor tables upside down.

- Trees: Make sure that you check for loose branches in large trees and that smaller or newly planted trees are staked down.

- Make sure you have gas: Get gas in gas cans, fill up your vehicles and have propane for your grill to cook food.

- Be aware of flooding: Take your cars to high ground and buy sandbags for doors.

- Have the essentials: Assume that you will not have electricity, heat and wireless telephone service. Have water, batteries, flashlights and food that does not need to be cooked. True Value will have more generators to purchase on Saturday.

Below are phone numbers for local utilities to call in case of an outage:

Dominion VA Power: 1-888-667-3000

Virginia Natural Gas: 1-877-572-3342

Cox Communications: 1-757-224-1111

Verizon: 1-800-275-2355

Cavalier Telephone: 1-800-683-3944