Hurricane prep for your Florida home: a simple checklist

Before the season

Know your evacuation zone. Type your address into Know Your Zone, from the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and decide now where you’d go.
Check your insurance. Most homeowner policies don’t cover flooding. A new flood policy usually takes 30 days to start, so don’t wait for a storm in the forecast to buy one.
Test your shutters. Make sure every panel, track and screw is there and that you know how to put them up. Get anything broken fixed now, before everybody else calls.
Trim trees and clear the yard. Dead branches and loose things turn into flying debris.
Take photos of your home, room by room, plus the roof and the outside. It makes an insurance claim much easier.

Water: at least 1 gallon per person per day.
Food for at least 7 days that doesn’t need cooking, and a manual can opener.
The medicine you take every day, plus copies of your prescriptions and important papers in a waterproof bag.
Flashlights, batteries, a battery radio, phone chargers and power banks, and some cash.
Supplies for pets.

Listen to your county. If they tell you to evacuate, go.
Put up shutters or panels. Don’t tape your windows. NOAA’s hurricane experts call it a waste of effort, time and tape: it adds little strength to the glass and no protection from flying debris.
Bring everything inside: patio furniture, grills, plants and trash cans.
Fill the car’s tank, charge every phone, and get some cash out.

Generators go outside only, at least 20 feet from doors, windows and vents. Never run one inside the house or the garage, even with the doors open. Carbon monoxide kills fast, so keep a battery CO alarm inside.
Stay away from downed power lines and standing water.
Take photos of the damage before you clean up, and call your insurance company.

This is when scammers show up. Florida law gives you some extra protection:

Working as a contractor without a license during a state of emergency is a felony. Check the license before you hire anyone.
A roofer can’t offer you gifts, cash or a waived deductible to file an insurance claim.
If you sign a roof contract within 180 days of a declared emergency, you can cancel it within 10 days without penalty (or by the official start date, if that comes first).
Never pay the whole job up front. Here are 7 red flags and 5 questions to ask.

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This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Rules change, so check the sources and ask a licensed pro about your home.