Hurricane Season Medication Checklist: What Every Gulf Coast Family Should Have Before June 1

The Fundamental Medication Rule for Hurricane Season

You need a minimum 30 day supply of every prescription medication you take, stored separately from your regular supply, before June 1.

This is the single most important medication preparedness step for any patient on chronic medications. Here is why.

When a major hurricane affects the Gulf Coast, pharmacies close. They close before the storm for evacuation. They close during the storm for safety. They close after the storm because of power outages, flooding, structural damage, supply chain disruption, and staff displacement. After Hurricane Katrina, many pharmacies in the affected region were closed for weeks. Some never reopened.

If you have a 7 day supply of your blood pressure medication when the pharmacy closes, you have 7 days before you are without a medication that is keeping you safe. If you have a 30 day emergency supply stored separately from your regular supply, you have 30 days, time for the acute crisis to pass, for supply chains to restore, and for emergency prescription services to become available.

How to Build a 30 Day Emergency Supply

For most maintenance medications: Ask your physician at your next appointment to write a prescription for a 30 day emergency supply to be stored separately. Explain that it is for hurricane preparedness. Most physicians in Gulf Coast states understand this request immediately and accommodate it readily.

Insurance timing strategies: Most insurance plans allow refills when approximately 75 percent of the previous supply has been used. If you are due for a refill and a named storm is approaching, fill your prescription immediately, do not wait until you are out. The pharmacy will be your best friend in the 48 hours before a storm makes landfall if you come in early. It will be your nightmare if you come in the night before evacuation orders are issued.

Talk to your pharmacist about early fill overrides: In the days leading up to a major storm, Mississippi law and most insurance plans have emergency provisions that allow pharmacists to dispense an emergency supply of maintenance medications even if the standard refill interval has not been reached. At Fairview we are familiar with these provisions and exercise them when appropriate.

The Complete Hurricane Season Medication Checklist

Prescription medications, 30 day emergency supply of each:

• All blood pressure medications
• All diabetes medications including insulin
• All heart medications including anticoagulants
• All psychiatric medications including antidepressants and antipsychotics
• All seizure medications
• All thyroid medications
• All COPD and asthma inhalers, both rescue and maintenance
• Any other medication taken daily for a chronic condition

OTC medications, at minimum a two week supply:

• Pain and fever relief, acetaminophen and ibuprofen
• Antidiarrheal medication
• Antihistamine for allergies, loratadine or cetirizine
• Nasal decongestant
• Antacid or proton pump inhibitor for heartburn
• Electrolyte packets or oral rehydration solution
• Topical antibiotic ointment
• Hydrocortisone cream
• Antifungal cream

First aid supplies:

• Assorted bandages including larger wound dressings
• Medical tape and gauze
• Digital thermometer
• Blood pressure cuff if anyone in the household has hypertension
• Glucose meter and extra test strips if anyone has diabetes
• Lancets and extra insulin pen needles
• Instant cold packs
• Medical scissors and tweezers

Special medical equipment considerations:

• If anyone in the household uses a CPAP or BiPAP: contact your equipment supplier about battery backup options before hurricane season
• If anyone uses an insulin pump: know the manual injection protocol and have insulin pens as backup
• If anyone is on home oxygen: contact your oxygen supplier about portable cylinder options and emergency protocols

The Insulin Storage Emergency

Insulin requires refrigeration. When power goes out after a hurricane, refrigeration fails. This is a genuine medical emergency for diabetic patients on insulin.

Insulin that has not been opened can be stored at room temperature for the manufacturer specified time period, typically 28 days for most insulin formulations, as long as the temperature does not exceed approximately 77 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In a Gulf Coast August after a hurricane, ambient temperatures inside an unventilated home can exceed this threshold rapidly.

Emergency insulin storage options include:

• Insulin cooling cases that use evaporative cooling to maintain safe temperatures without electricity, the Frio brand is the most widely available option
• A cooler with ice, ice being one of the first resources that runs out after a major storm
• Contact with an emergency shelter or medical station that has generator power and refrigeration

Plan your insulin storage emergency strategy before June 1, not after the lights go out.

The Documentation You Need to Evacuate

In an evacuation scenario your medications need to travel with you. More importantly the information needed to replace them needs to travel with you even if the bottles do not.

Prepare and store in your evacuation kit:

• A printed list of every medication you take, name, dose, frequency, and prescribing physician
• Copies of your most recent prescriptions for controlled substances
• Your insurance card information and pharmacy contact information
• Your physicians’ contact information
• Any relevant medical history that emergency providers would need to know

This documentation allows any pharmacist in any state to provide you with emergency supplies of your medications even if they do not have access to your regular pharmacy’s records.

What Fairview Does Before Every Hurricane Season

At Fairview we begin our hurricane preparedness patient outreach in April of every year, before the June 1 official start of hurricane season.

We contact patients on high risk medications, insulin, anticoagulants, seizure medications, cardiac medications, to ensure they have adequate emergency supplies and understand their options. We work with prescribers to facilitate early fills and emergency supply prescriptions for patients who need them. We stock emergency supply products specifically relevant to Gulf Coast post storm needs.

We do this because we have been here for 48 hurricane seasons. We know what happens when families are not prepared. And we have the relationships with our patients that make proactive outreach possible, the kind of outreach that a chain pharmacy with quarterly turnover in its patient population cannot consistently deliver.

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Before starting or changing any medication, including over the counter products and supplements, talk with your pharmacist or physician about your specific situation.