COLLEGE STATION, Texas — With the hurricane season approaching, a tax-free weekend on emergency supplies is here.
Starting at midnight on April 23 until midnight on April 25, you can get emergency supplies tax-free to help you sustain severe weather.
It is important to pick up the essentials you need in all circumstances.
“You got to ask yourself ‘what do I need in the event of an emergency' if I don’t have electricity or if I don’t have water or if I don’t have food, if I can’t function without my cellphone,” said Jason Ware, Deputy Emergency Coordinator for Brazos County. That type of stuff you have to ask yourself what do I need. People tend to have different things that they need during an emergency.”
“Just be prepared,” said Ware. Storms are here. Severe weather season is here and hurricane season is right around the corner so being prepared is what you need to do.”
Hurricane season starts June 1 and it’s better to stay prepared, so you don’t have to get prepared in the midst of a storm.
“Think about stuff you can’t live without, water for several days, non-perishable food items that are available for several days, flashlights, a whistle,” said Ware. That may seem kind of awkward but if you are trapped in your house or if something happened and you need some way to alert people, having a whistle available.”
Batteries, flashlights, and backup power supplies can be found at local stores like battery plus.
“We have flashlights here, Streamlight's brand specifically, Mebo flashlights as well but we service the Streamlight's but we also have the batteries and we can repair them,” said John Sanchez, Manager at Batteries Plus. “The AAs, AAAs, Cs, and Ds are essential for if the power goes out. You don’t want to be the person without batteries.”
They also have battery packs with enough power source to power up a large truck in the event of power loss.
“We do have the NOKO jump packs which can jump anything from a small vehicle all the way up to a large diesel,” said Sanchez. “So in case your car battery is not starting or something like that because you’re using it for a power inverter source, you can use one of those and get it going again.”
Being prepared with essentials is better than being stuck in a storm without.
“The severe weather potential is here and we’ve got hurricane season beginning June 1,” said Ware. “One of the things we look at are the history of what’s going on with the storms. They seem to be getting worse and more people are being impacted by these storms so the better prepared you are, the better you are going to come out on the backside if a storm should take place.”
A list of approved items from the comptroller’s office can be found here: Emergency Preparation Supplies Sales Tax Holiday (texas.gov).