iLander
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- May 23, 2010
- Messages
- 6,731
As someone who's evacuated from hurricanes four times, I can give this bit of insight; if a hurricane is coming, just leave. I don't know what I'd do if we had those "no warning" disasters, like an earthquake or tornado 
I read the emergency kit thread with interest. We did get hit by one big hurricane, though, and maybe this will give you some hints about what else you might need.
ILANDER'S HURRICANE ADVENTURE
When we evacuated, we only had one day's notice and spent most of that time putting up our hurricane shutters (hint; shutters). We were only supposed to be gone one day, but the hurricane turned and hit us pretty directly, so we ended up being banned from our area for 5 days. When we returned, it was to find all 6 of our 100 foot trees completely uprooted and toppled. I think it was a miracle from God that none of them hit the house. One was directly across the drive way, and the rest of the yard was too water logged (we had 2 feet of storm surge in the yard) to drive around it. (BIG HINT; Gas Chainsaw) It was hard to even get to the house. When we finally got in, the stench was UNBELIEVABLE.
Did you guess the fridge and freezer? Without power for 5 days? There was brown liquid oozing out of it like a horror movie. We had frozen chickens that expanded 2X their size and turned purple. I got the job of cleaning it out, and it took about 8 wipedowns with pure bleach. (hint; garbage bags, bleach, gloves). Many of our neighbors gave up, and there were fridges lined up on the street waiting for the garbage men.
Here's my experience with kits; you tear through them really quick. After we returned to our (mercifully undamaged home) we spent 9 days without potable water, cookable food, or electricity. We ended up using about 30 bottles a day (hint; tons of water) that we got from the red cross and other charities. Most of them went to cleaning ourselves and washing out cuts that we got trying to clean up (hint; first aid supplies). We ate at the one area restaurant that was running on generators and mercifully selling $5 meals (hint; cash). Our emergency food was gone in 2 days. We had 2 generators (my DH planned ahead and had a "generator line" built into the kitchen, so we could use some lights and our fridge and microwave) one for the kitchen area and one for the bedroom A/C (hint: portable A/C or heat). It was 90+ degrees in my living room at night. There was one gas station that reopened and we used 40 gallons of gas a day to keep the generators going (hint; tons of cash and giant gas cans).
The trees took their root balls with them (each about ten feet by fifteen feet by eight feet deep) and left watery pits all over the yard. (hint; boots). We sank up to our knees in the yard, it was pure mud and with dangerous water (they thought the sewer had contaminated the water supply) we had to wipe ourselves down with bottled water (hint; paper towels). Our phone line was severed by a tree, so we had to blindly fish the ends out of the 2 feet of mud and DH reconnected it (hint; electrical tape, scissors).
It was an interesting experience, since we were probably the only people within a couple of miles that actually wanted to come back. Most people stayed in hotels. We ate at the restaurant with the national guardsmen, and a handful of people that were too stupid to leave in the first place (they ALL looked like this for weeks after; ). One night, I was walking the dogs and had national guardsmen send me home (those are REALLY big guns!) because it was past curfew (hint; working clock, ID at all times). Our area was deserted with the only sound being our generators. We had our neighbor's phone numbers (hint; neighbor's cell numbers) and gave them reports of their property.
But the biggest help was our little town had a plan; they knew for many years that a hurricane could hit us at any time. This is the MAJOR HINT; if you are in a disaster-prone area, force your community to have a plan. Our government had a place to evacuate to and establish an operations center. They had standing deals (with deposit$) with tree cutters to come in and dig our town out first. They had heavy equipment standing ready in a high area for decades. They had a work permit system that kept liars and con men out, we all knew to ask workmen for their permit. They had a reverse 911 call system to call every phone. They had a list of the elderly and infirm, with people designated to go and evacuate them. They have built the infrastructure and housing with flooding in mind. They have a website that is constantly updated with info that we all know about. They had roadblocks that kept out people without ID (ID again) showing a local address. They are now offering tags for our mirrors, so when we drive back in, it'll be quicker next time (that reminds me, I've got to go get mine). They arranged with FEMA to remove all the trees and wood (with giant grappling hook trucks) and burn them near town. The hurricane happened in the summer and they were burning trees until February.
But here's the miracle; we left our cat. I KNOW!
But we were only supposed to be gone one day, no one expected it turn and hit us. So we left her with some food and water, because our car was too small to fit the dogs, the people (including in-laws) and the cat cage (hint; BIGGER car!) but we figured we'd be back the next day, not 5 days later! Apparently, the city found out that many people had done exactly this and left their pets. The city people were back the day after the storm, but residents were banned due to downed power lines and trees. So on the website, they put up a request for keys. If you sent in your (tagged with address) key, they would go in and feed your pets. And they did! They pulled down hurricane shutters all over the city and went into people's houses and fed the animals. Heck of a town!
So, the biggest thing you can do is check your town's plan. What do they have already in place, if anything? This will make a huge difference in how you fare. We came through pretty unscathed, through sheer luck. Many houses in our area were heavily damaged (Hint: ROOF TARP!!!) and we were picking people's shingles out of our yard for years. Huge condo buildings had their roofs completely blown off and had to be gutted. There were giant piles of debris everywhere, some as big as houses, our landscape looked somewhat like Japan does now. Broken glass (Hint; Shoes!) is still everywhere, if you carefully look in the grass. We know people that took over 2 years to get the money from their insurance and they couldn't rebuild without it. My heart went out to the town's historian who had many important documents and photos that were washed away (hint; bank deposit boxes) when her roof was torn off. People chained their trailered boats to their houses, but not all the chains held (HiNT: bigger chain!) when the flood came through.
So, hopefully, this long litany will help someone else plan ahead as best they can. Think CHAINSAW!
I read the emergency kit thread with interest. We did get hit by one big hurricane, though, and maybe this will give you some hints about what else you might need.
ILANDER'S HURRICANE ADVENTURE
When we evacuated, we only had one day's notice and spent most of that time putting up our hurricane shutters (hint; shutters). We were only supposed to be gone one day, but the hurricane turned and hit us pretty directly, so we ended up being banned from our area for 5 days. When we returned, it was to find all 6 of our 100 foot trees completely uprooted and toppled. I think it was a miracle from God that none of them hit the house. One was directly across the drive way, and the rest of the yard was too water logged (we had 2 feet of storm surge in the yard) to drive around it. (BIG HINT; Gas Chainsaw) It was hard to even get to the house. When we finally got in, the stench was UNBELIEVABLE.
Did you guess the fridge and freezer? Without power for 5 days? There was brown liquid oozing out of it like a horror movie. We had frozen chickens that expanded 2X their size and turned purple. I got the job of cleaning it out, and it took about 8 wipedowns with pure bleach. (hint; garbage bags, bleach, gloves). Many of our neighbors gave up, and there were fridges lined up on the street waiting for the garbage men. Here's my experience with kits; you tear through them really quick. After we returned to our (mercifully undamaged home) we spent 9 days without potable water, cookable food, or electricity. We ended up using about 30 bottles a day (hint; tons of water) that we got from the red cross and other charities. Most of them went to cleaning ourselves and washing out cuts that we got trying to clean up (hint; first aid supplies). We ate at the one area restaurant that was running on generators and mercifully selling $5 meals (hint; cash). Our emergency food was gone in 2 days. We had 2 generators (my DH planned ahead and had a "generator line" built into the kitchen, so we could use some lights and our fridge and microwave) one for the kitchen area and one for the bedroom A/C (hint: portable A/C or heat). It was 90+ degrees in my living room at night. There was one gas station that reopened and we used 40 gallons of gas a day to keep the generators going (hint; tons of cash and giant gas cans).
The trees took their root balls with them (each about ten feet by fifteen feet by eight feet deep) and left watery pits all over the yard. (hint; boots). We sank up to our knees in the yard, it was pure mud and with dangerous water (they thought the sewer had contaminated the water supply) we had to wipe ourselves down with bottled water (hint; paper towels). Our phone line was severed by a tree, so we had to blindly fish the ends out of the 2 feet of mud and DH reconnected it (hint; electrical tape, scissors).
It was an interesting experience, since we were probably the only people within a couple of miles that actually wanted to come back. Most people stayed in hotels. We ate at the restaurant with the national guardsmen, and a handful of people that were too stupid to leave in the first place (they ALL looked like this for weeks after;
). One night, I was walking the dogs and had national guardsmen send me home (those are REALLY big guns!) because it was past curfew (hint; working clock, ID at all times). Our area was deserted with the only sound being our generators. We had our neighbor's phone numbers (hint; neighbor's cell numbers) and gave them reports of their property. But the biggest help was our little town had a plan; they knew for many years that a hurricane could hit us at any time. This is the MAJOR HINT; if you are in a disaster-prone area, force your community to have a plan. Our government had a place to evacuate to and establish an operations center. They had standing deals (with deposit$) with tree cutters to come in and dig our town out first. They had heavy equipment standing ready in a high area for decades. They had a work permit system that kept liars and con men out, we all knew to ask workmen for their permit. They had a reverse 911 call system to call every phone. They had a list of the elderly and infirm, with people designated to go and evacuate them. They have built the infrastructure and housing with flooding in mind. They have a website that is constantly updated with info that we all know about. They had roadblocks that kept out people without ID (ID again) showing a local address. They are now offering tags for our mirrors, so when we drive back in, it'll be quicker next time (that reminds me, I've got to go get mine). They arranged with FEMA to remove all the trees and wood (with giant grappling hook trucks) and burn them near town. The hurricane happened in the summer and they were burning trees until February.
But here's the miracle; we left our cat. I KNOW!
But we were only supposed to be gone one day, no one expected it turn and hit us. So we left her with some food and water, because our car was too small to fit the dogs, the people (including in-laws) and the cat cage (hint; BIGGER car!) but we figured we'd be back the next day, not 5 days later! Apparently, the city found out that many people had done exactly this and left their pets. The city people were back the day after the storm, but residents were banned due to downed power lines and trees. So on the website, they put up a request for keys. If you sent in your (tagged with address) key, they would go in and feed your pets. And they did! They pulled down hurricane shutters all over the city and went into people's houses and fed the animals. Heck of a town! So, the biggest thing you can do is check your town's plan. What do they have already in place, if anything? This will make a huge difference in how you fare. We came through pretty unscathed, through sheer luck. Many houses in our area were heavily damaged (Hint: ROOF TARP!!!) and we were picking people's shingles out of our yard for years. Huge condo buildings had their roofs completely blown off and had to be gutted. There were giant piles of debris everywhere, some as big as houses, our landscape looked somewhat like Japan does now. Broken glass (Hint; Shoes!) is still everywhere, if you carefully look in the grass. We know people that took over 2 years to get the money from their insurance and they couldn't rebuild without it. My heart went out to the town's historian who had many important documents and photos that were washed away (hint; bank deposit boxes) when her roof was torn off. People chained their trailered boats to their houses, but not all the chains held (HiNT: bigger chain!) when the flood came through.
So, hopefully, this long litany will help someone else plan ahead as best they can. Think CHAINSAW!
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