Tech Talk: Tips to protect electronic devices, information during severe weather events

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - When severe weather hits, thoughts of preparation immediately jump to items such as food, water and flashlights.

Although these are a necessity during severe weather events, making sure that your electronic devices are prepared is another key component to ensuring you are prepared for an emergency.

“Battery packs are great, great way for you to be ready in case you do lose power,” said Roy Badillo with U.S. Cellular.

Making sure your phone is fully charged throughout periods of no power is vitally important in order to find and receive updates about severe weather. Ahead of time, it’s also a wise idea to bookmark helpful resources so that those can quickly be accessed.

“The New Hanover County emergency information page is a great resource,” Badillo added.

Residents outside of New Hanover County are encouraged to make sure they can quickly access their county’s emergency resource page.

Mobile phones can also be utilized to protect non-electronic things, such as physical documents.

“So we all know that we should keep our important documents in waterproof safes, but you should also consider backing them up in some sort of a cloud service, such as iCloud or Dropbox. That way, if you do lose your documents, or if they’re damaged, you have a good, solid backup.”

In addition to physical documents, using your phone to document damage can be very useful if storms impact your property.

“You should also take pictures of the inside of your home, as well as your outdoor property that way in case you do have to submit an insurance claim, you have all that ready.”

For more information on hurricane preparedness, please visit the WECT First Alert Weather Hurricane Center webpage.

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