If you have a boat, and if you're worrying about hurricanes, there are things you can do today to prepare.
Stores seem to run out of batteries first.
If you plan to anchor your boat to ride out the hurricane, remember that a sandy spit or a seawall that normally protects a snug harbor can be washed out by the storm surge, which might be 10 feet high. The best anchoring sites usually are in sand, followed by clay, hard mud, shells, broken shells and soft mud. A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after 1985's Hurricane Gloria found that boats stored ashore were far more likely to survive than boats in the water. Boats stored ashore should be kept well above the anticipated storm surge and should be moved out of high-rise storage racks, which sometimes are vulnerable in high winds, the boat association says. After Hurricane Fran in 1996, boating association team members estimated that as many as half of the damaged boats at marinas could have been saved if better dock lines had been used.