New perspective about hurricane preparedness

[flowerseverywhere]

We skirted a major disaster with Hurricane Ian. We are not far from where people lost everything and our area had lots of rain and some wind damage and minor flooding. However those that live near the St. Johns river are still seeing the water rise and parts of the worst impacted areas have yet to see the water recede. We have reviewed our disaster plan and realize we had some shortcomings.
We should have had the car ready to be packed with clothes, cat food, water, food (even if it was peanut butter and crackers) some quilts and pillows and toiletries and medications. Also, having all of the things we could grab in a hurry, or even in the car like important papers, even if they were copies), the laptop ready to go, and anything else we thought was essential ahead of time.

We last went to the grocery store over a week ago and are trying to see how long we can go without visiting one.

[flowerseverywhere]

After speaking with some neighbors we got some good ideas. We have some collapsible five falling water containers we filled and put in the bathtub so between that and some cases of H2O we easily had two weeks of a minimal amount of drinking water. We have a hot tub that we could have used to flush the toilets. And our freezer was packed with ice blocks I had made in the week prior to the hurricane making landfall which would have been very handy in a cooler or to drink. We got the Coleman stove out and had two fresh gas canisters and a drip coffee pot.

One thing I am considering is getting a tent because in previous disasters some racetracks and parks opened up to campers as hotels fill up miles from here and it would at least assured we could have had a place to shelter.

[sweetana3]

We are not in hurricane country but tornados and electrical outages are possible. Got mom a Coleman battery lamp and a radio that can even be operated by a hand crank. She said she feels more comfortable. She has used the lamp a few times.

[Tybee]

These are good ideas, thank you. Winter is coming up here in Maine and we definitely need to make these plans for what we would do with blizzard and loss of power. Very smart of you, and thank you, this is inspiring me to have a discussion and start doing things like storing water.

[lmerullo]

We have a generator, so didn't lose food in the fridge. Gas bbq with side burner to cook. Battery powered lights galore. We did a fuel management plan on the generator, so ran for two hours and then off for two. Ran out of propane in one big tank, but we have two total bigs and a small. Our power is now restored and we'll refill after the power is restored to all so they can still get propane as needed.

What we didn't account for was my son, wife and five kiddos needing to evacuate to our home. Put a much higher increase on supplies but we still had enough.

Son is still here, but their power is anticipated to return on Wednesday.

[Tradd]

I talked with about 10 FL friends before the storm. I casually asked if they had a battery or hand crank radio. Only 2 did. Some of these folks were raised in FL or other parts of hurricane country in the south. Sort of shocked me. They were counting on getting their news via their smartphones. Not good when the power goes out.

[flowerseverywhere]

Tradd, we have one of those hand crank/battery/ solar radio with lights. Although we did not need it we tried it during the storm and could get three weather channels as well some local channels. Several working flashlights and a Coleman battery lamp and extra batteries we had would have come in very handy. Our grill also could have helped once we got it back outside.

im glad you are OK Immurulo.

[happystuff]

I have one of those hand-cranked with light radio as well. I should pull it out and see if it still works. This thread is a great reminder for me to check all the grab n go bags, documents, etc.

[jp1]

I talked with about 10 FL friends before the storm. I casually asked if they had a battery or hand crank radio. Only 2 did. Some of these folks were raised in FL or other parts of hurricane country in the south. Sort of shocked me. They were counting on getting their news via their smartphones. Not good when the power goes out.

Indeed. Cellular towers have battery backup that doesn’t last very long. And they are connected to the internet by wires that can be blown away.

[Rogar]

I have a solar and hand crank radio with bells and whistles. I have kept it in a window with plenty of sun thinking it would stay charged. Last big storm and power outage it couldn't keep a charge and I assume the rechargeable battery was shot. It was probably 5 or more years old, but the batteries do wear out and it pays to do a check occasionally.