New perspective about hurricane preparedness

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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.

I have a hand crank radio, but I also have a little radio I got from Amazon for about $15 that takes 2 AA batteries, which I use daily. Why not have one of each?

A single friend told me this morning she often makes soups or pizza roll type dishes. She freezes them in meal size containers and usually has about twelve small containers in her fridge. Her plan during the storm was to pack them frozen in a cooler which she planned to open once a day to take out a container or two that she could heat up on her little Coleman stove.

another good idea if a really big storm is about to hit. Gather you whatever you have left of you freezer items into a big heavy duty plastic bag and put back in the freezer. Then place some bowls of ice in there as well. If you lose power you can see if the ice has melted And freezer is warm. If so you can just grab the plastic bag and throw the whole thing out. The last thing you need is to eat unsafe food.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

I have a hand crank radio, but I also have a little radio I got from Amazon for about $15 that takes 2 AA batteries, which I use daily. Why not have one of each?

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great idea. Plus it is easily portable with a small flashlight if you need to evacuate

These are all great ideas/suggestions for in-place preparedness, but what if you have to evacuate? While I have grab 'n go bags, I don't think they are as good as they can be and there are a lot of other things I would like to evacuate with, but just am not prepared. I think I need to at least start with a list of what I would need/want to take. And I guess a lot has to do with how much time I would have.

Do you have your photos scanned and backed up somewhere online as well as a hard drive or physical albums? All important papers together? Cash, ID, phones, chargers, other small valuables such as jewelry?

I live in a place where wildfire is a real danger. During fire season, I am prepared to leave the house with 5-10 mins warning.

So, most of my "go bag" is not on-site. Documents and devices are backed up in the Cloud, financial resources are available remotely, and so on.

My plan, if forced to evacuate on sudden notice, is to grab the pets and a few other things, and hit the road. Most physical items here can be replaced, and aren't necessary for my immediate survival, so those get left behind, I will repurchase as-necessary.

I'm cheating a little bit, there are bags of specific gear/clothing already in my vehicle:

- structural firefighting bag
- wildland firefighting bag
- 72 hour wilderness search/rescue pack
- medical bag
- marine search/rescue bag

With the contents of those, training, and experience I should be able to muddle through most local disasters.

We actually have a small bag in each car with a change of clothes. Important papers on the cloud plus copies in local safe deposit box. thumb drive also. I just got the small radio Tradd mentioned. We really can’t keep much in the car as it’s too hot here. But after discussion we are going to pack go bags this week.

contents to be small weather am fm radio. Flashlight with extra set of batteries. Charging cords. Plastic bags to put wallet and so on in. Contact info of kids. Not sure yet what else would go in there. Need to do research.

we scanned all our old pictures of both sides of the family and made discs up for all the kids, nieces and nephews and siblings. Originals went (out of the albums) to a son who lives in the house least likely to suffer a disaster.

I’m going to find a copy of Zeitoun and read it again. Written by Dave Eggers it is about hurricane Katrina and lots of stories of what people did right and wrong. I believe Bae recommended it originally.

by the way the Cajun Navy was here. These volunteers rescued many people during Katrina and some drove here to help.

you hear about looting but disasters also bring out tremendous generosity, bravery and compassion in most people

The Listening to Katrina blog has a lot of good stuff. Some is rather dated now, but it’s a good place to start.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

Do you have your photos scanned and backed up somewhere online as well as a hard drive or physical albums? All important papers together? Cash, ID, phones, chargers, other small valuables such as jewelry?

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I do have most (but not all) photos scanned along with many of our documents. They are on an external hard drive, not in the "cloud". Most of the important papers are all in one place. I think I need to remind other family members what file boxes to grab in an emergency departure. Jewelry... never even thought about that or other small-but-valuable mementos. Thanks for that reminder.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

The Listening to Katrina blog has a lot of good stuff. Some is rather dated now, but it’s a good place to start.

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thanks. I forgot about that site. Some of the links are to extreme prepper sites which involve stockpiles of guns. But many tips on preparedness.

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Originally Posted by happystuff

I do have most (but not all) photos scanned along with many of our documents. They are on an external hard drive, not in the "cloud". Most of the important papers are all in one place. I think I need to remind other family members what file boxes to grab in an emergency departure. Jewelry... never even thought about that or other small-but-valuable mementos. Thanks for that reminder.

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I would have your photos backed up somewhere online as well as the external hard drive. Google Photos, Dropbox, whatever, but choose a second option. Redundancy is something I’ve been practicing long before I started diving.

I just bought a Jackery 300 backup battery generator. $280 on Amazon. Would allow me to keep my iPhone charged a lot, plus I can also take it along for my weekends away when I outside a lot.

I also have a Little Buddy propane heater coming from Amazon. It takes the 1lb green propane bottles. I ordered 5 of those for pickup from the local Ace hardware. Also ordered more Sterno cans. They’re what I have for emergency cooking. Have a little folding metal stove to use with them. Really just a way to heat up water for tea/instant coffee or a can of soup.

Tradd, that Little $20 radio works great. Turns out our local.weather alert station is about ten miles away. we didn't even have the antenna up and got a ton of FM stations too.

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Originally Posted by flowerseverywhere

Tradd, that Little $20 radio works great. Turns out our local.weather alert station is about ten miles away. we didn't even have the antenna up and got a ton of FM stations too.

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Good to hear! Where did you get it?

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Originally Posted by Tradd

Good to hear! Where did you get it?

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Amazon. They had quite a selection of small units. I guess we are so used to super expensive gadgets with all the bells and whistles we forgot how good a little radio could be

If you truly want to make sure your photos and other digital stuff is fully backed up you should follow a 3 2 1 backup thought process. Have 3 copies of everything, use at least 2 types of storage media and 1 copy stored offsite somewhere. For me that means two external hard drives kept at home offline and a copy on Dropbox.

A 321 backup system is one of the things I look for when I am underwriting a cyber insurance submission at work. A company that has one in place is unlikely to have to pay the ransom to get their data back in the event of a ransomware attack.

Hurricane updates

As of October six, there were still about 500 people in shelters
Grocery supplies in my area still have big gaps as so much is shipped south of us. Rightly so. Eggs, milk, bread seem to be the biggest although there are sparse shelves all over the store obviously a lot of food was spoiled not only in homes, but flooded restaurants, grocery store, gas stations, schools.
A friend was visiting her mother when the storm hit and flew back to Orlando airport. Her car had been flooded parked there. She got it towed to a dealership but there is no word when they will even be able to appraise the damage there is such a backup.
Flooded areas still affect many inland. And of course the insurance adjusters and appraisers have a huge ahead of them. I have heard various statistics ranging from 18-25% are all the homes who had flood insurance.
One women in a shelter had two young kids with her and could not figure out how to get her kids to school as her car was washed away. Obviously some kind of school bussing is needed but.lots of kids are walkers here and buses would have been ruined and you just don't walk into a car dealership and get one.

So they lost their homes, cars, jobs, food, and are trying to figure out how to get back on their feet.

There are many rumors that FEMA will rebuild their homes, schools etc. FEMA has low limits and is there to help in an emergency. Maybe temporary help for shelter and some food, but there is nowhere for these people to rent. They were all washed away. even flood Insurance will not rebuild most houses, but would be a great help to clean up the mess if it was still standing

People standing looking at the destroyed Sanibel causeway saying they will return and the community will be stronger don't seem to be quite realistic. The widespread devastation seems insurmountable in both the physical rebuild and cost. Where will the money come from?

Thank you for the report. What devastation!

This area is far from the coast and is a mess

https://www.wesh.com/amp/article/st-...ooded/41507672

another unfortunate thing is much money flows into Florida from Dec to April. There will be substantially fewer this year. I was surprised to see there has been much work done to restore the sanibel causeway and get electricity going. It is not very populated. Ft Myers area has quite a large population. Pictures are on the local news of people picking through what used to be their homes. Alligators usually have no desire to hang around humans but I’m not fond of snakes and it would freak me out to sort through piles of debris from who knows where.

Tropical storm Nicole just passed. It was on TV nonstop here. Did you all see the east coast devestation? Houses swept away. Sea walls and dunes washed out. Portions of A1A caved in. Some areas will not be able to rebuild because there is no land to rebuild on. it reached hurricane strength briefly, but the damage from Ian combined with the storm coming in at high tide just collapsed numerous houses.

insurance premiums anywhere near the coast are bound to be totally out of this world. As painful as it will be for people who have lived in these areas for a long time, it seems like relocation will be the only answer.

again millions and millions in damage.

Flowers: Wow, I didn't really see or hear anything about it.

Yes, I have a friend who spends a lot of time in New Smyrna Beach now that she’s retired. Their beach suffered a lot of damage from the last hurricane. Now there have been condos that are teetering on the verge of falling into the ocean. Others have been evacuated as unstable. More damage to the beach. This is about a half mile from her place. She’s bren reporting all this on FB.

People are being rescued by airboat and fishing skiffs this morning from flooded neighborhoods. More condos and houses condemned this morning. More piers washed away. Landfall was at Vero Beach. About 25 miles south of there on a barrier island is an operating nuclear power plant. Who in the world thought that was a good idea?