To say the world’s weather has gotten a little unpredictable is an understatement. Because of this, preparing for all types of conditions is crucial. Surviving a period of extended rainfall or flooding can be a huge challenge when you’re ill-equipped, but with the right approach and the appropriate survival systems in place, you’ll do more than survive — you’ll thrive.
A week of constant rain can be an inconvenience. When there’s a downpour that leaves roads and shops flooded for longer than a week, proper preparation will ensure you and your loved ones are safe and sorted.
Learn how to approach wet weather, extreme rainfall and flooding with a responsible mindset to stay safe and sound.
1. The Challenges of Extended Rainfall
When you prepare for any survival situation, plan for all contingencies. This means you must start with a deep dive into what to expect when a particular weather phenomenon presents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends setting an emergency plan in place to help you manage any disaster weather. Start by evaluating what the reality of heavy rain or flooding could be like.
Flooding Risks
What happens when it floods? Aside from large volumes of water, expect drainage to overflow and homes, roads and fields to flood and become impassable. Preparing for water challenges before they happen is essential, as you may have little to no warning. Heading out to buy supplies at the last minute reflects poor planning and could be dangerous.
Health Challenges
While it’s raining and even after the rainfall stops, the whole area could be waterlogged, and oversaturated soil may take weeks to absorb water or allow adequate runoff. Standing water breeds infections and diseases like leptospirosis and cholera. Even minor cuts and injuries can become infected after exposure to stagnant water.
Isolation can also affect your mental health, causing “cabin fever,” where panic sets in and you can’t think logically.
Resources
Flooding disrupts access to resources. Once supplies run out, getting fresh water and food may be challenging. Downed power lines or cell towers could make it difficult to contact authorities or call for help.
Physical Damage
Extensive water damage may affect buildings, roads, bridges and the natural landscape, causing landslides and cave-ins.
2. A Rainproof Shelter
You must evaluate your shelter. Your home, cabin or camper must be adequately protected from extensive exposure to remain dry during flooding. If you’re still setting up your structure or building your home on your homestead, construct it on higher ground and assess the type of soil you build on. Consider these steps:
Floodproofing
Install sump pumps to drain lower areas of your home, such as the basement, and maintain them with regular inspections. Stock up on sandbags and waterproof sheeting to block windows and doors where water can seep in. Use them to shore up foundations and other vulnerable spots to prevent post-flooding damage.
Warmth and Dryness
Your home should be dry and warm, and you should also have waterproof clothes. Maintain your gear by wiping it down after each wear, and hang wet jackets and coats to dry before wearing them again. It’s best to machine wash your foul-weather items at least once every two weeks.
Emergency Supplies
Since you can’t count on local infrastructure like power lines, you should have a generator, extra fuel, communication equipment, a weather radio and a satellite phone. Advanced models allow two-way messaging, alerting first responders to your location and condition. The weather radio informs you of the storm’s passage over your area, helping you decide whether it’s safe to go outside for more supplies.
Regular Inspections
The reliability of your home is only as good as your inspections. Animals may burrow under your basement, which can lead to flooding, or your supplies may no longer be safe to use. During each check, charge emergency devices like power packs, radios, phones and reusable batteries for flashlights.
3. Pre-Rain Preparations
You must prepare or evacuate if a storm is due to hit your area in a few days. Do these pre-rain prep tasks before the first drop falls.
- Food: Pack dry food, cans and animal feed for you, your family, livestock or pets to last several days longer than what the predicted storm is said to last. Remember: Roads may remain impassable for days after the rain stops.
- Water: Bottled water may seem unnecessary when a flood is coming, but flood and rainwater are only drinkable when chemically treated. To be safe, store a gallon of water per person daily during the foreseen disaster period. Your animals also need hydration, so keep a gallon per cat or dog for every three days. Set up catchment systems to collect rainwater as it falls, which you can efficiently purify.
- Light and power: Get spare flashlight batteries and keep several boxes of matches or a flint to make fire with when needed. Candles, rechargeable lights and a hand-crank generator are also great additions. A camp stove is another valuable item for preparing hot meals, heating water, drying clothes and sanitizing drinking water. Store enough gas, propane or portable kerosene for the stove during the rain event.
- Medication: Your medication kit should include wound treatment supplies, a cleaning solution like iodine for disinfecting, eye-flushing liquid or eyedrops, soap and medicines for pain, fever, allergies, diarrhea or constipation. Refills for prescriptions are also wise, especially for heart medication and inhalers. Sanitizing tablets are also crucial so you can sanitize rainwater for drinking and cooking.
- Tools and equipment: Pack a good knife or two for emergency work to skin a deer, cut tree branches or slice a tarp. Essential tools like a screwdriver, heavy-duty screws, a hand saw, a hammer, rope and a plier are excellent for disaster repairs. Store enough dry blankets, carefully packing each in a practical vacuum-sealed bag to keep them dry.
- Sanitation: You’ll need to use the toilet when stuck indoors during a storm, but your system may not work. Innovative products like sanitizing crystals help solidify liquid waste, but a steady supply of toilet paper, sealable plastic packets, a camping toilet or a bucket with a sliced pool noodle on the rim works wonders. Correctly dispose of your waste to avoid contaminating the water outside. A large plastic crate can keep filled bags secure since you can’t bury them during a flood.
4. Crucial Connectivity
It can get incredibly lonely when isolated during prolonged rainy weather or flooding. A radio helps keep you connected to the outside world. Weather radios have better reception and different noncommercial bandwidth than the usual FM radio. Knowing what’s going on in the downpour is a great relief and can help banish paranoia.
Walkie-talkies are another excellent addition if you need to go outside. They use different frequencies from smartphones, and you can keep track of each other more efficiently during the storm. A CB radio to contact your neighbors or the local sheriff’s department is also wise.
Creating a local prepper network before the storm helps support neighbors and your community. You can count on each other if you need help.
5. Thriving Despite the Rain
With all the basics in hand, your emergency plan should include how to spend time while you wait for the rain to pass. Boredom and being cooped up inside are bad for your mental health. Healthy routines and a thrive mindset can help you and your family make the most of the time.
Mental Health Routines
Give everybody a task to keep them motivated and mindful while inside. Take turns cooking, have tea and cookie breaks, clean up the area around you, and play games to keep your mind occupied.
Pack a couple of good books. Remember that the internet will likely be unavailable when the storm hits, so don’t count on death-scrolling for days.
Ensure everybody has a place to sleep, comfortable seating and access to an area where they can clean up. With enough planning, you can easily create an emergency shower to warm up after a cold trip outside. Plan exercise routines you can all participate in to avoid getting cramped. A game of Twister is sure to provide laughs and entertainment.
Use the Rain
It’s so easy to become disgruntled and ungrateful for the rain, and while it does a lot of damage, it can also benefit your prepper lifestyle. Create water collection systems to refill tanks and storage units for dry months.
If the rain isn’t quite as bad in your area, but you are staying put to avoid damaged roads, use the time for gardening projects — seeds thrive in wet soil.
If you’re not stuck in the basement or a high-ground cabin, continue with other prepper tasks like canning food, tending to your animals and building retaining walls. You can also plan and make DIY projects that channel future rain toward storage points or experiment with science projects that teach your kids about force, energy and weight using rainwater.
6. Crisis Control — When Things Go Wrong
Despite your best planning, things may go wrong. Perhaps the rain lasts longer than your supplies, or someone gets injured and you need help. Your emergency plan also requires an evacuation section detailing what to do when leaving your home during heavy rain or flash flooding.
- Leaving your home: Have a bug-out bag ready and a planned route to higher ground for when you must leave your home because you’ve exhausted your supplies or the flooding has become too dangerous. Leaving supplies at higher-ground destinations is also wise if you’re in a very rural area. Ensure someone knows where you are heading to send help if needed.
- Saving your home: Prepare for how you can repair the water barrier, dry out the mess and save your valuables if one or more of your water defenses breaks and your home or shelter floods. Keep buckets, mops and silica gel pads to dry things out. Old towels are a good staple to keep around. Pack all valuable documents and photos in resealable containers or waterproof bags.
- Dealing with a health crisis: You may be doing well during the flooding, but a health crisis can hit at any time. Chances are your kids picked up a waterborne disease if you notice that they suddenly have diarrhea and are spiking a fever. Boil all water before drinking, even after treating it with purifying chemicals. If the fever doesn’t respond to pain medication, you may need to call for an emergency evacuation, as many waterborne diseases require medical treatment.
- Providing emergency care: Diseases spread easily, so quarantine anyone who’s sick and take measures to wash hands when handling their food or treating them. Studies show that there’s a 48% greater chance of developing waterborne E. coli after exposure to rainwater in flooded areas. You could also deal with other infections and injuries from floating debris, so ensure you have basic first-aid knowledge and training.
7. Rain-Recovery Property Management
The rains finally stopped, and you’re ready to return to your normal day-to-day activities. First, take time to assess the damage and determine why it occurred. Should you improve the drainage around your property, change the angle of your roof, install more rainwater tanks or build a pond to slow the rate of water coming down the hill behind your house?
What supplies worked well and what did you run out of? Plan accordingly and take notes. Survival is about adapting and learning from each experience to be a better prepper and ready for the next challenge.
8. Flooding Do’s and Don’ts
It might be best for your kids to break things down with a do and don’t list to help them know what’s safe during heavy rain or flooding. Here are some handy pointers to help prepare them:
Do’s During Floods or Rainy Weather
- Call your parents if there’s a severe storm while they’re not home.
- Use the family emergency plan.
- Go to the emergency gathering point if your family becomes separated.
- Use your flashlight to signal for help if it’s dark.
- Tell someone where you’re going if you leave the shelter.
Don’ts During Floods or Rainy Weather
- Never cross streams higher than your ankle when the current is fast.
- Avoid stepping into murky water — it might be deeper than you think.
- Don’t leave on your own.
- Resist panic — follow the prepper plan.
- Never drink from rivers or runoff sources.
Prepped and Ready
Your next foul weather adventure may be flooding or heavy rain. The right preparation can ensure you and your family are ready. Planning, considering all eventualities, following the plan, and sticking together increase your chances to survive and thrive during the storm.
[Note: This is a guest post.]
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