When Hurricane Ian was located by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) on September 19, it was not yet at hurricane status. The storm slowly moved its way into the Caribbean Sea, bringing a lot of damaging winds and heavy rain to the Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao islands, Trinidad and Tobago as well as the northern coastlines of Venezuela and Colombia.
At this point, it was starting to develop into a tropical depression on late September 22. It then strengthened into Tropical Storm Ian and quickly became Hurricane Ian as it neared the Cayman Islands. Hurricane Ian grew into a category-4 hurricane once it moved into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and was heading to the west coast of Florida.
People had been scrambling to prepare for the impact of this hurricane but a lot of people are new to the hurricane type of weather. Many were asking the one question a lot of people ask before a hurricane, "How do we prepare?"
Preparing for a Hurricane according to advice from TikTok
A TikTok went viral after the TikToker @Dee_d13 gave a helpful tip on how to know if your power went out at any time during the hurricane.
Reaching one million views, Floridian resident, Dee, created a video by taking a glass of water and putting it in the freezer overnight before Hurricane Ian made landfall.
"Once the water freezes, put a quarter on top," she wrote in the video. "When you come back from an evacuation, if the quarter is still on top, your food is safe. If the quarter is at the bottom, your freezer lost power and you should probably throw out the food that was in there."
With almost 80 thousand likes and over 480 comments, this hurricane tip is something to know. People in the comments section were also giving more tips as well, with one commenter saying, "Freeze a full water bottle on its side then set it right side up before you leave."
Another commenter took the opportunity to thank Dee for the hurricane tip, "Finally, someone looking out for others and making sense. God Bless."