This year’s hurricane season may be winding down, but residents of southern Florida are still weatherproofing their homes and businesses, beefing up their kitchen stockpiles, and gearing up for whatever Mother Nature decides to bring their way over the next few months. The first half of this year’s season was more active than usual, and meteorologists predict that the Atlantic Basin could still see several more named tropical storms this year, a marked increase on the usual average of 12.
Now, hurricanes are a serious matter. And we are not here to make light of them. Those of us who have spent enough seasons living near Hurricane Alley know, however, that our South Florida apartments are equipped to help us weather most of the powerful storms that come our way. Sometimes, the most important safety precaution one can take during a strong tropical storm is to stay indoors, limiting exposure to gale-force winds, pounding rain, and flying debris.
The next time you are advised to stay indoors because of weather conditions, you want to do more than check your West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale apartment kitchen’s inventory to make sure you have enough food and water to sustain your household during the storm. You also want to make sure that you have enough excitement generating mechanisms and entertainment merchandise on hand to keep you from becoming painfully bored as you wait hours or days to hear that business is running as usual.
Watch a Movie (or 10!)
Over the past several years, the movie marathon has evolved into the classic way to pass those hours spent on weather-related lockdown. Volunteer to host the lockdown party at your place, and use whatever time you have before you and your friends need to be inside wisely. Someone should be tasked with picking up the movies or television series you will be screening. Someone should be in charge of getting more snacks than you could ever eat over a three- or four-day period. Someone else should be given drink duty. Just in case you lose power early on, everyone should bring their fully-charged laptops. After you’ve lost power and the last of your friends’ laptops has been drained of its battery, light those candles and switch from movies to board games.
Have a Spa Day
You may not be happy about the storm that is brewing outside. Sure, you might enjoy a day or two off of work unexpectedly. But your work will still be waiting for you when you return. If you’re not up for having an exciting yet energy-draining party but would like to indulge in life’s pleasures in some way during these unexpected days off, why not use this time to rejuvenate? Assess your current inventory of spa products, and add a few to your shopping list so that you are equipped to carry out at-home spa treatments that will make your bathtub seem so far away from the storm blowing outside.
Prepare a Gourmet Meal
For once, you’ve got time to cook. Add the ingredients required to make your favorite meal to your pre-storm arrival shopping list, and devote some of your time spent under hurricane-induced house arrest to cooking it. Make the dish early on while you still have power, and enjoy leftovers the entire time you are on lockdown.
Read a Book
For bookworms that do not generally have enough time to read as much as they would like, a tropical storm lockdown can be something of a blessing. Make sure that your Kindle is fully charged and that you have backup batteries for your reading lamp, and read your way through the storm.
Reorganize
A lot of people would tell you that the last thing they want to spend their “forced” time inside doing is cleaning. But the old adage “different strokes for different folks” seems to be just as applicable during natural disasters as it is at times of normalcy. If you’ve got a light source and the motivation to clean, then getting organized at home is a great way to spend the days on which your work is on “lockdown.”
If you’ve lived in Florida for a number of years, hurricane preparedness is probably second nature to you. But have you always been prepared to make the most of the time you have to spend on lockdown during the storm? Follow government-issued safety measures and take the advice dished out in this article to heart, and you should be prepared to live out your ideal tropical storm lockdown experience in your West Palm Beach or Downtown Ft. Lauderdale apartment home–no matter how wild or calm you would like for it to be.
View All Posts by Jason Ernst