The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today announced an unprecedented single-day effort to prepare residents in storm prone regions for the upcoming hurricane season. On Saturday, July 27, The Home Depot will host Hurricane Preparedness Workshops at more than 700 of its stores from the Gulf Coast to New England.

The expansion of the workshops is one of several preemptive measures the company is taking in preparation for 2013 hurricane activity, which is once again predicted to be above average.

Workshop leaders will cover critical hurricane readiness topics, such as storm prep projects, generator safety, sizing generators for specific home or business needs and assembling disaster preparedness kits.

"Just as The Home Depot pre-plans and prepares for disasters of all types, we want to help our customers ready their homes and businesses for hurricanes," said Marvin Ellison, executive vice president – U.S. Stores. "We play a critical role in the disaster response infrastructure before and after storms, and we have expanded that focus to more stores and facilities in our Northern Division."

In addition to moving Workshops farther north this year, The Home Depot has expanded its hurricane operating plan and has enhanced its supply chain readiness in northern facilities, including a new rail-connected distribution depot serving Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn. The company also recently announced the opening of a unique satellite storm recovery location in Seaside Heights, NJ for post-Sandy recovery.

Hurricane Preparedness Workshops are free and will be held on Saturday, July 27 from 10 a.m. –11:30 a.m. local time. Participating stores and registration information is located at workshops.homedepot.com, where customers can find information on all other Home Depot workshops year-round, including DIY, Do-It-Herself (DIH) and Kids Workshops.

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,257 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2012, The Home Depot had sales of $74.8 billion and earnings of $4.5 billion. The Company employs more than 300,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.