Virginia Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday set to run May 25-31

Hurricane season isn't far off, beginning officially in about 6 weeks' time.  Accuweather is predicting 4 hurricanes with 3 making landfall this year, and a total of 16 named storms.  Remember, even tropical storms can dump large amounts of rain and have strong gusts that can wreak destruction, so it's always good to be prepared, especially for power loss.  Virginia holds an annual Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday that begins May 25 and runs through May 31.

Items that you can pick up sales tax free include batteries, flashlights, portable and weather radios, duct tape, tarps, cell phone chargers and cell phone batteries, bottled water, and more.  These are subject to the $60 cap on price.  If you're eying a generator, you can skip the sales tax if it costs less than $1,000.  Go here to see the list of approved items. 

Caveat:  Don't just think hurricanes here, folks.  Virginia was wrecked with a derecho last summer, causing massive power outages during a major heat wave.  It's not just hurricanes you need to prepare for!

A flash back to 9-8-11, where we had a stalled storm over our town for hours, which followed a tropical storm by just a few days.  The ground was saturated and 20+" of rain had no where to go... but up.  This is my hubby's car early on in the evening before he had to go jack it up to get it to higher ground.  Our street's drainage was inadequate for the amount of rain received.