Download & Save The Weather Authority\u2019s Hurricane Survival Guide<\/a><\/p>\nThe financial go bag: What to pack<\/p>\n
Smith says the traditional go bag \u2014 stocked with first aid supplies, headlamps, food and batteries \u2014 is still essential. But in today\u2019s digital age, a second layer of preparation is just as critical.<\/p>\n
Experts recommend organizing what they\u2019re calling a \u201cfinancial go bag,\u201d a collection of key personal and financial documents. That includes passports, Social Security cards, birth certificates and driver\u2019s licenses \u2014 anything that establishes identity. <\/p>\n
Insurance policies, bank statements, utility bills and credit card account information should also be included, along with contact numbers for family members and emergency contacts.<\/p>\n
One often-overlooked tip: Shoot a home inventory video of everything inside your home, and consider storing it on a flash drive.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to cash \u2014 don\u2019t skip it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCash is king. That\u2019s a statement,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Smith recommends a couple of hundred dollars as a safe starting point for a small family. <\/p>\n
Why paper still matters<\/p>\n
While digitizing documents to a cloud service, email or sharing them with family members is ideal, having physical copies stored in a waterproof bag remains a practical backup \u2014 especially when you need to speak with local officials or access accounts immediately after a disaster.<\/p>\n
The need to move fast is real, Smith says \u2014 and it\u2019s not just hurricanes that demand it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour go kit is not just for a hurricane. It could be for a wildfire. This is that time of year, so somebody might come [to] your door. The department will be there and you have five minutes to evacuate, and they\u2019re going to tell you, \u2018Grab yourself and go,\u2019\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
For Cindy and Art Druhl, the idea of a financial go bag hits close to home \u2014 particularly in an era where identity theft is a growing concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea,\u201d Art said. \u201cEspecially with identification being able to falsify so easily now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple admits they don\u2019t have a survival kit yet \u2014 but say they\u2019re open to changing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf circumstances change, if it made sense to do that, we absolutely would,\u201d Art said.<\/p>\n
Florida Health\u2019s emergency supply kit guidelines<\/a> align closely with recommendations from the American Red Cross, which also suggests keeping local maps and evacuation routes on hand in case GPS is unavailable, along with cell phone chargers and backup batteries.<\/p>\nCopyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 With hurricane season approaching and wildfire risks rising from drought conditions, Florida emergency experts are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1039,704,28,30,29,1846,1847,121820,2159,5436,10782],"class_list":["post-287811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-duval-county","tag-emergency","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hurricane","tag-hurricane-season","tag-hurricane-season-2026","tag-money","tag-morning-show","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}