Hurricane Sales Tax holiday, here we come

The 2018 Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax holiday is underway. Here we come.

Sixty-three days ago, I started combing the St. Johns County Emergency Management website for the hurricane preparedness guide. It’s been the guide for getting ready for hurricane seasons for years. Although we are still awhile away from getting back home to our Anastasia Island home base, that doesn’t deter our preparedness at the rental we are in about 15 miles southwest of our future home-to-be on our former home’s upgraded, elevated ground.

No matter where you live in St. Johns County, hurricane preparedness is a must.

So, Thursday and Friday, we started our list for the tax-free disaster shopping now through June 7. We’ll probably see friends in the stores, filling their carts, too.

By the way, if you don’t have the tax-free shopping list from the Florida Department of Revenue, you can download it from www.sjcemergencymanagement.org, cut it out of The Record (June 1, Page A3, “Stock up on tax-free storm supplies during holidays”), go to your St. Johns County Public Library website (sjcpls.org), or its Facebook page, or the county’s website (www.sjcfl.us). Library System director Debra Gibson assures me that if you don’t have a computer, the staff at your library will help you print one out. I’ve also seen them in stores, too.

Here’s our list so far:

Flashlights, battery-powered lanterns but not rechargeable (if the power is out, recharging is not an option), fuel containers, batteries (AAA, AA, C, D & 9 volt), bungee cords, tarps, and visqueen plastic sheeting. We already have non-electric coolers and portable radios, including a weather radio. We’ll buy the non-perishable food and water items in the next week, too.

My late mother, Angela Cox, survived World War II with the American Red Cross in the South Pacific, and later ran the Red Cross chapter in St. Johns County for almost 20 years. She always worked during tropical storm/hurricane threats at the old county emergency center – 1960s-mid 1980s. She never took those storms for granted and always reminded us, long after we left home, “Don’t take ignore any of them.”

There’s just no excuse for not taking advantage of this tax break for the sake of safety. Read the list of eligible items carefully before you shop.

But, even if you don’t go out and buy at this time, it’s still good to know about this. As former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham told me last week during a catching up conversation, “at least this gets you started thinking about (storm) preparations.”

It’s never too early for that in the Sunshine State.

Margo C. Pope was associated with The St. Augustine Record for 24 years, retiring in 2012 as The Record’s editorial page editor.