Pharmacy tips
The hurricane-season prescription checklist every Florida family needs
When a storm is three days out, the pharmacy line is not where you want to be. Here's the 15-minute medication checklist to run now — while the sun is still out.
Every Floridian knows the drill when a storm enters the forecast: water, batteries, gas, plywood. But in the rush, the item families most often forget is the one that can't wait out a power outage or a closed highway — medication.
We're in the heart of hurricane season right now. Here's the checklist we give our own customers, and it takes about 15 minutes to run.
1. Count out two weeks of every prescription
Open each bottle and count. If anyone in your house has less than 14 days of any medication they take daily, that refill goes on this week's list — not the day the cone shows up over South Florida.
Two weeks covers the realistic worst case: a few days of closures before the storm, and possibly a week of disrupted roads, pharmacies, and deliveries after it.
2. Ask about early refills — Florida has a rule for this
Many people don't know this: when a state of emergency is declared in Florida, pharmacies are allowed to dispense an early refill of most maintenance medications, even if your insurance would normally say "too soon."
Two practical notes:
- Don't wait for the declaration to think about it. Ask us now which of your prescriptions have refills remaining, so there's nothing to untangle when a storm is coming.
- Controlled medications have stricter rules. If you take one, talk to us early — the options are narrower and timing matters more.
3. Pack medications like documents, not groceries
- A waterproof bag (a simple zip-top freezer bag works) with all current medication bottles, your ID, and your insurance card.
- Keep medications in their original labeled bottles. After a storm, a pharmacy — any pharmacy, anywhere you evacuate to — can read the label and verify the prescription. Loose pills in a pill organizer can't be verified.
- Refrigerated medications: ask us about storage before the storm, not during the outage. A cooler with ice packs buys time; your pharmacist can tell you how much time for your specific medication.
4. Photograph everything
Take one photo: all the bottles, labels facing up. If you evacuate, lose a bag, or end up at an out-of-town pharmacy, that photo answers every question a pharmacist will ask — names, doses, prescription numbers, prescriber.
Send that same photo to a family member who lives somewhere else. Redundancy is the whole point.
5. Know your pharmacy's storm plan
Ours is simple: we stay open as long as it's safe, we reopen as fast as it's safe, and we post updates on our social media. And remember, we deliver free within 5 miles of every store — if you're a caregiver stocking up for an older parent, one message can save you both a trip in bad weather.
Do it while the sun is out
Every year, the longest lines of the season happen in the 48 hours before landfall — and they're full of people trying to solve problems that were solvable two weeks earlier, calmly.
Count your bottles today. If anything is short, message us on WhatsApp or stop by — we'll check your refills, flag anything that needs your doctor, and have you storm-ready in one visit.