Also find out on the radio where emergency housing and mass feeding
stations are located, in case you need to use them.

* SECURE YOUR HOME BEFORE LEAVING. If you have time, and if you have not
received other instructions from your local government, you should take
the following actions before leaving your home:

--Bring outside possessions inside the house, or tie them down securely.
This includes outdoor furniture, garbage cans, garden tools, signs, and
other movable objects that might be blown or washed away.

--Board up your windows so they won't be broken by high winds, water,
flying objects or debris.

--If flooding is likely, move furniture and other movable objects to the
upper floor of your house. Disconnect any electrical appliances or
equipment that cannot be moved--but don't touch them if you are wet or
are standing in water.

--Do _not_ stack sandbags around the outside walls of your house to keep
flood waters out of your basement. Water seeping downward through the
earth (either beyond the sandbags or over them) may collect around the
basement walls and under the floor, creating pressure that could damage
the walls or else raise the entire basement and cause it to "float" out
of the ground. In most cases it is better to permit the flood waters to
flow freely into the basement (or flood the basement yourself with clean
water, if you feel sure it will be flooded anyway). This will equalize
the water pressure on the inside and outside of the basement walls and
floor, and thus avoid structural damage to the foundation and the house.