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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The start of Hurricane Season is less than a month away and it’s time to stock up on essentials.

Manager of Our Hardware on Perkins Road Bridget Edwards said, people are coming in now to get supplies because they don’t ant to rush or come when they’re sold out.

“They’re looking for wood to protect their homes and their windows like ply board, pipe insulation, batteries, flashlights, propane and the burners,” said Edwards.

On the heels of a record breaking hurricane season, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness is warning you to really take this seriously.

“The activities of last year, some of which are still ongoing as we try to help people recover and get back home and get back into their homes. We know that some of those homes are still fragile to things like wind and so that makes it even more important that everyone have a game plan,” said GOHSEP’s Deputy Director Casey tingle.

Your plan should include securing a home insurance check-up, keeping cell phones charged and have a safety plan in place.

“We always encourage them to have things like bottle water and shelf stable meals, can good in case there are power outages so they can have food to eat and can sustain themselves for a few days if things go badly,” said Tingle.

Forecasters predict an above average season and say the time to get ready is now.

“Prepare, that’s about it. Just make sure you got everything before the hurricane time get here,” said Edwards.