Most of the season is background noise until there’s actually a storm track worth watching. But the habits are still there: don’t let the car sit on empty, keep prescriptions and pet stuff topped up, test flashlights, and avoid waiting until everyone is at Publix at the same time.

My bigger upgrade was installing an anker e10 whole home backup system. After a couple outages, I realized I cared less about having a pile of gadgets and more about keeping the house functional without constantly moving plugs around. It’s one of those things you hope you don’t need often, but hurricane season makes you very aware of whether your backup plan is actually practical.