Hurricanes or flooding may threaten your family or your home. While cleaning up you’ll want to protect your family, especially if someone has lung disease, from the many indoor and outdoor air pollutants and other health threats that can appear.

Below are some resources that can help.

Preparing for the threats

• Ready.gov, an outreach from the Federal Emergency Management Administration and other federal agencies has information on preparing for hurricanes.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has hurricane preparation advice.
• Environmental Protection Agency.

After the Disaster

A downloadable version of this poster is available here.

• Returning Home has a list of helpful tips.

More detailed information about common concerns in the cleanup:

• Asbestos
• Bacteria and viruses
• Building Products
• Carbon Monoxide indoors
• Cleaning Supplies and Household Chemicals
• Flood Water Damage
• Formaldehyde
• Lead Indoors
• Mold and Dampness
• Treatment for asthma, COPD or other lung diseases

Lung Disease and Natural Disasters

• FDA’s guidance on preparing medical devices for hurricanes

Create an Asthma or COPD Travel Pack to ensure you have all of the medicines and instructions you need in one, easily accessible place. When creating your Travel Pack consider including:

• Copies of your Asthma Action Plan or COPD Action Plan
• An extra written prescription in case medication is lost or destroyed
• Insurance card and healthcare provider contact information
• Both quick-relief and controller medications (make sure there is enough to get you through your stay, and extra in case you get held-over unexpectedly)
• A spacer
• A Peak Flow Meter, if prescribed by your healthcare provider
• Allergy medication

Store your Asthma Travel Pack and medicines at the correct temperature. Medicines may be exposed to extreme temperatures.

Other resources

• See a chemical or oil spill? Call the National Response Center 1-800-424-8802 (24 hours a day every day) or 202-267-2675. Chemicals can give off toxic air pollution, so report them as quickly as possible.
• Need help recovering? Disaster Assistance.gov helps you to receive disaster assistance.
• What to do with disaster debris? Don’t burn it. This lists ways that work to get rid of debris without adding to the burden to your health.
• More recovery advice from Environmental Protection Agency
• American Red Cross has Safe and Well to help members of your family connect after a disaster