With another hurricane on the warpath up the East Coast of the U.S. this week, many people are scrambling for shelter and safety. Evacuations are taking place, and while everyone is rightfully focused on their physical safety, our emotional health is at risk during times of increased stress too. There are ways you can better cope emotionally with an impending hurricane — to brace yourself emotionally from the significant amounts of stress you’re about to endure.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that a hurricane is a fairly short natural event. For most people, it means having to deal with a couple of days of moving out of the area and then moving back. While the effects of the hurricane may endure much longer — especially if your home was damaged or destroyed — the actual hurricane itself tends to move fairly quickly through each region.
The impact of having to deal with the significant damage of your home or even losing it altogether can be much greater than the stress of getting out of the hurricane’s path. People who lose part or all of their home go through a typical grief reactions — grieving the loss of all that they’ve accumulated or built.
The American Psychological Association offers this guide for how to prepare emotionally for a hurricane. Here are some tips from that guide on how to prepare for an impending hurricane or tropical storm:
- Get the facts. Gather information that will help you accurately determine your risk so that you can take reasonable actions. Find a credible source you can trust such as your governor’s office, local or state public health agencies or the National Weather Service. Limit your exposure to news reports that focus on damage and destruction.
- Make connections. Good relationships with close family members, friends and others are important. Even those separated from their families, can build connections among new acquaintances. Some of the most inspiring stories from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina spotlighted people evacuating from New Orleans accompanied by — and emotionally attached to — fellow evacuees they had just met. Coming together and helping one another can be positive for your emotional health.
- Stay healthy. A healthy lifestyle — including proper diet, exercise and rest — is your best defense against any threat. A healthy body can have a positive impact on your thoughts and emotions, enabling you to make better decisions and better deal with the hurricane’s uncertainties.
- Reach out to your children. Help children by restricting constant viewing of the news, giving them assurances that plans are in place to keep them safe and maintaining their routines as much as possible.
- Maintain a hopeful outlook. Remember that the federal government, your state government, and many non-governmental disaster services agencies have already mobilized to address the threat of the hurricane. Also, many improvements have been made to those response systems since the last large-scale hurricanes. Also, recall times when you’ve successfully managed challenging life circumstances. Draw upon those skills and experiences to help you through the current storm.
You can read more of these hurricane coping tips here.
And as an added bonus, here are some additional tips from the American Psychological Association to help you cope with a hurricane, even when you’re not directly affected by one.
- Take a news break. Watching endless replays of footage from the disasters can make your stress even greater. Although you’ll want to keep informed – especially if you have loved ones affected by the disasters – take a break from watching the news.
- Keep things in perspective. Although a disaster often is horrifying, you should focus as well on the things that are good in your life.
- Find a productive way to help if you can. Many organizations are set up to provide financial or other aid to victims of natural disasters. Contributing can be a way to gain some “control” over the event.
- Control what you can. There are routines in your life that you can continue and sometimes you need to do those and take a break from even thinking about the disasters.
After the hurricane has passed, you may need help managing the stress with dealing with the cleanup or returning to a home damaged or destroyed. After all, it’s not every day most of us have to deal with this kind of damage or devastation to our property and home.
If you’re in the path of this current hurricane, please seek safe shelter away from the hurricane’s path. And trust that if you prepare yourself as well as you can, you will make it through this storm unscathed — physically and emotionally.
Have you survived a hurricane?
What are some tips you can share that helped you emotionally make it through a hurricane or tropical storm?
3 comments
Be sure to gather as much water as possible especially if you have a well instead of public water supply. Use every container you have, you will need it. You will need it to flush toilets, (do this sparingly – gross I know, but, you’ll be happy, I promise!), washing up, brushing teeth, cooking, (on the gas or coal grill), basic cleaning in the house, drinking water and any water needed for pets. I’m sure there’s more but, you can see how quickly it will be used! I say all this because it’s normal to lose electricity when there’s a hurricane. If you have a well, you have NO WATER! A well depends upon electricity to run. And be sure you know how to prime the pump when the electricity comes back on, too, else you’ll burn out the pump.
Prior to the storm/hurricane, make as much ice as you can. You’ll need it when the refrigerator stops being cold. Don’t open it at all, unless it’s ABSOLUTELY necessary, and close it right away! Do *not* let kids stand there with the door open, looking for what they want to eat. Your food will spoil *very* quickly. The more the door is shut, the longer the refrigerator will stay cold.
The same goes with the freezer. Leave it closed. Open it *only* when you need the ice you made in advance. That will be for the coolers you have to use when the refrigerator has finally gone warm, and you need to keep the food in the iced coolers. Blocks work better than cubes; cubes melt faster. You should keep the coolers in the shade and cover them with canvas or tarps for more insulation, too.
Do you have oil lamps? They work better than flashlights for night time sitting, reading, talking, playing games, cards, puzzles, etc. Remember, there’s no tv, internet, stereo, etc…. You’ll have to find alternative entertainment. Stock up now if you don’t already have some fun things to do, or good books to read.
But, do have flashlights! Have enough for each person’s bedroom. If someone gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, there are no lights, remember? Have a flashlight near the bed, within easy reach, so no one is stumbling and smashing their toes! :>)
Did you stock up on batteries?? Get plenty! You don’t know how long you’ll be out of power…
I, personally dislike candles for storms. Too much of a danger, (especially if you have animals, like I do). That’s me. You can decide for yourself.
Keep foods that do not *need* to be in the refrigerator OUT of it. There’s no need to waste the cold of the frige opening it if it’s not necessary.
Finally, make this an adventure! :>))
Have cookouts on the grill, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Invite neighbors over to join you. After a few days, some of the food in your refrigerator freezer will begin to thaw, most likely, so, you may as well have a party with friends and neighbors.
Enjoy the peace and quiet…it’s a beautiful thing!!!
(Until the neighbors turn on their generators, anyway…) :>(
Hope this is helpful to some….
And I really hope the storm misses us or is downgraded to just a storm. In any case, be careful. Don’t do foolish things, like going surfing because the waves are “cool.” Safety first and always!
But, enjoy the adventure!
Peace!
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