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What to tell a 4-year-old about a hurricane

A four-year-old cannot hold a weather forecast in their head. What they can hold is a short, true sentence about what is going to happen to them, specifically, today.

Official document · free

Hurricane Information Sheet

Ready.gov (FEMA) · 2 pages · retrieved 2026-09-16

The official one-page overview of what a hurricane actually does and how it is tracked - useful for you, not for reading aloud to a four-year-old.

Download the PDF ↓Check the current version on Ready.gov →

A U.S. government work, free of copyright. We host a copy so you can have it immediately, and link the live version too, because an emergency document that has been updated matters more than a convenient copy. We are not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, FEMA, DHS or any government agency.

Skip the forecast, give the plan

The news is talking about wind speed and a five-day track. None of that means anything to a four-year-old, and repeating it in front of them mostly transmits your own worry. What they need is smaller and more concrete: where we are going, who is coming with us, and what happens to their things.

"We are going to stay at Grandma's for a few nights because of the storm. You, me, Dad and the dog are all going together. You can bring three things." That sentence answers every question a young child actually has, even the ones they have not asked yet.

Name the sound, before they hear it

Wind against a window, a generator, a battery radio — these are unfamiliar sounds a young child will read as danger unless someone has named them first. "It might get loud outside. That is just wind. We will be inside, and it will pass." Said calmly, once, before it happens.

Let them do something

A child who is packing their own bag, choosing which stuffed animal comes, or holding the flashlight has a job, not a wait. Fear shrinks when there is a task attached to it.

Questions people ask

Should I let my child watch the news coverage?

Turning it off when they are in the room is a reasonable default. Storm coverage is built for adults tracking a forecast, not for a small child, and the footage is usually more frightening than the actual event is for them.

What if they ask if we could die?

Answer the real question underneath it, which is almost always "will you keep me safe". "We have a plan, and I am going to be with you the whole time" answers that directly, without you having to engage with the literal one.

Is it bad that they seem excited instead of scared?

No. A sleepover-at-Grandma's framing that produces excitement rather than dread is doing its job.

Part of our guide to Talking to kids about emergencies.