You've seen the lists. Stock water, charge your batteries, fill your gas tank, find your insurance documents. That's all fine advice. But if you own a home in Cape Coral — especially if you're not here when a storm approaches — there's a whole other set of things that actually need to happen to your property before the wind picks up. We've been doing storm prep at client homes for years now. This is the list we actually work from.
The first thing to understand is timing. Seventy-two hours out is not enough. By then, hardware stores are out of supplies, traffic is a mess, and if the storm wobbles, you've already lost your window. When there's a named storm in the Gulf — even if it's not forecast to hit Lee County directly — we start making calls. Storms shift. The time to prepare is when you have time, not when you don't.
The outdoor stuff — and it's more than furniture
Everyone knows to bring in the patio furniture. What people routinely forget is everything else: potted plants on the lanai, the decorative anchor by the front door, the grill that's been sitting there all season, the welcome mat, the wind chimes, the bird feeder. Anything that can become a projectile in 100-mph winds needs to come inside or be secured — and "secured" usually means inside, because bungee cords and ratchet straps don't hold up in a major storm.
For canal homes, the dock matters too. Lines need to be checked, anything loose on the dock gets brought in, and if there's a boat, the decision about where it's going needs to be made early — not the morning the storm is 36 hours out.
The pool has its own prep checklist. Lower the water level by a foot or so — not drain it, just lower it to give room for the rain that's coming. Remove pool equipment like solar rings, automatic cleaners, and floating accessories. Turn off the auto-fill line. If flooding is a real possibility, disconnect the pump. Some people ask about shocking the pool before a storm; we generally do it, because the storm is going to dilute the chemistry anyway and you want the water as balanced as possible going in.
The lanai — the most vulnerable part of most Cape Coral homes
Screen enclosures are everywhere in Cape Coral, and they are, structurally, the most vulnerable part of most homes in a hurricane. This is a decision that needs to be made early and clearly: if you have screen panels that can be opened or removed, open them before the storm. Let the wind pass through rather than fight it. A screen enclosure that acts like a sail in high wind takes the entire frame with it. We've seen that firsthand after Ian. A frame twisted off its footings does more damage than a few torn screens.
If your enclosure doesn't have panels that open, the calculus is different — talk to the company that installed it. But the general principle is: don't let wind pressure build up inside an enclosed space. That's where failures happen.
"After Ian, the difference between properties that were prepped and those that weren't was visible from the street. It wasn't about whether something went wrong. It was about how much."
Impact windows and hurricane shutters need to be tested before you need them. This sounds obvious, but we've found rusted hurricane bolt tracks at properties that haven't been used in years, stripped wing nuts on accordion shutters, and panels that were stored in a way that made them nearly impossible to install quickly. Every year, a few weeks before the season starts in June, is a good time to actually open your shutters, check that everything moves, and replace anything that doesn't.
Inside the house
Don't turn the AC off before you leave. Set it to 78 or 80 — not off. A house that maintains some level of cooling after a storm has significantly less mold risk than a house that's been sealed up and hot for a week. Power may be out for days after a major storm; the goal is to start in as good a position as possible.
A few other things worth doing before the storm:
- Move anything important off the floor in case of water intrusion — documents, electronics, anything irreplaceable.
- Fill the bathtubs. If water service is interrupted, you'll have water for flushing.
- Note where your main water shutoff is. If a pipe breaks inside the house, you want to be able to cut the water fast.
- Unplug major appliances if evacuation is ordered — power surges when the grid comes back on can damage electronics.
The one thing most people skip, and the one we push hardest: photograph everything before the storm. Walk through the entire property — exterior, interior, garage, lanai — and take photos and video of the current condition. Send them to yourself so they're time-stamped and off the device. Your insurance adjuster will ask for documentation of pre-storm condition. Having it changes the conversation significantly.
After the storm, don't wait to assess the property. Water intrusion gets worse every hour it sits. A small roof leak that gets found and addressed in the first 48 hours is a very different problem than the same leak discovered a week later. If you're not in town, having someone on the ground who can get eyes on your property within 24 hours of a storm passing makes a real difference in how the recovery goes.
We're not going to pretend that all the prep in the world guarantees nothing goes wrong. Ian took out properties that were fully shuttered, fully prepped, and cared for meticulously. Sometimes the storm wins. But there's a difference between the properties that came through Ian with manageable damage and the ones that were gutted to the studs — and preparation was a big part of that difference.