As a current and native Floridan, I have been through many a hurricane. If you’ve attended any of my courses or watched some of my Facebook lives, then you know when my parents had to evacuate their home during a hurricane last year, the only thing they asked me to help grab was all of their framed portraits. In all that chaos those were the only things they wanted to be sure were safe. The last hurricane that hit us just days ago, Hurricane Helene, impacted so many of my clients and families in the Tampa Bay Area – destroying homes, businesses and precious, irreplaceable memories. We are currently working with our album and framing companies to create a relief plan to replace the memories lost in Hurricane Helene.

As Hurricane Milton approaches the Florida coast, I thought I would sit down and provide my five ways to protect irreplaceable memories during a natural disaster. I urge you to be please take this hurricane seriously – evacuate if you can and prepare your home, families, and memories for this storm that is heading our way.

• TAKE IRREPLACEABLE ITEMS: Upon evacuation, take anything with you that is absolutely irreplaceable.  Anything you don’t have backed up digitally, including family portraits, loose prints, heirloom albums, should come with you.
• SAFE STORAGE: For irreplaceable, sentimental items that cannot be taken with you due to the physical limitations of what you can bring, store them in a safe place before evacuating. The safest places to store your most cherished possessions include; the second floor of your home, in a closet, off the ground (in the event that it floods), and away from any windows.  In the event that there is water damage from a leaking roof or flooding, be sure to wrap frames, photographs, and all other irreplaceable items in plastic.
• BACK UP YOUR MEMORIES: Computers can be replaced but the memories on them cannot be if you don’t save them somewhere else. If you don’t have an external hard drive (or the time to buy one) I highly recommend backing up all of your digital images to a cloud system. We always back up our photos to Dropbox and recommend our clients do the same. If this isn’t possible, please take all hard drives and USBs with you.
• ALBUMS: Any of your photo albums can be stored in a watertight safe/container for safe keeping while you’re gone.  Although, if space allows, your most treasured BEP albums are compact and easily transportable, meaning they most definitely can be taken with you; one of the many reasons why we LOVE albums.
• BEP ARCHIVES: If you don’t have the time or space to gather and transport your BEP artwork and images, don’t stress that your memories will be gone forever!  We keep a digital archive of all of our clients sessions, ensuring your most precious moments are backed up and safe.

The TLDR – take what is truly necessary. Value the heirlooms, i.e. vintage photos and passed down objects over frames taken in the last year that you have digital backups for. Be sure to keep your precious memories in safe containers during a natural disaster. Look around, and be sure of what can be remade so you don’t waste space on them or lose space for more important things.

Stay safe!!