Hurricane Season: tips to prepare

[hereyago]

This is a spin off of the Katrina and Sandy thread and my thread about Va tax free week for hurricane supplies.


Here are a couple tips: Leave if in evacuation area. There is nothing in your house that is worth risking your life and lives of rescuers.


If you get a generator, do not put it in your house or garage when it is running.

Make sure you have all laundry done. No power means no washing or drying.

 

[disney1990]

This is a spin off of the Katrina and Sandy thread and my thread about Va tax free week for hurricane supplies.


Here are a couple tips: Leave if in evacuation area. There is nothing in your house that is worth risking your life and lives of rescuers.


If you get a generator, do not put it in your house or garage when it is running.

Make sure you have all laundry done. No power means no washing or drying.

Double emphasizing about the generator. Make sure it is back away from any open windows also. Every winter we have people in our area die from incorrectly using a generator and it is so sad.

 

[Mrs.Malone]

Fill your car(s) with gas. And keep the tank at least half full throughout hurricane season.
Actually, after being caught low on gas one time in an emergency, I keep the tank at least half full year round.

 

[AntePrincess]

Invest in a top notch NOAA radio -there are many available that you can charge by cranking, solar power, USB, or the car AND that can charge your phone or laptop for you if it's got enough charge in it- and make sure that it's properly set to the right stations for your area with alarms turned on. Put it somewhere central so you'll hear it.

If you have camping gear, which doubles as good emergency gear, make sure to take it out regularly, seal the seams of your tents, and waterproof it in case you need it. Tents are even useful indoors if you lose power in a cold climate (a tent is a lot less space to heat up than a room).

Invest in appropriate supplies for the temperature extremes in your area. For us that's layers of thermal long underwear and we also got mummy sleeping bags that are highly rated for each of the kids plus a set that zip together for ourselves.

If you shop at a warehouse store like Costco, keep an eye out for large, sealable plastic buckets that are labeled #1 plastic on the bottom. These are food and water safe. We save the buckets from our cat food and when we expect bad weather, we fill them with water. They don't seal very tight once used, so they aren't very useful for keeping things dry.

Stockpile LED lights. You can never have too many LED lightsticks and lanterns. I also stockpiled replacement batteries. It makes an enormous difference having safe light with no risk of burning down the building. With lots of lights we kept the family sane and entertained by playing the piano (which brought over neighbors with instruments of their own), reading out loud, doing puzzles, playing card and board games.

Make sure you have good boots, excellent wool socks, moleskin, and backpacks. Ideally practice their use. We live miles from the nearest supermarket, we ended up with a lot of guests once our power came on, and we needed more food, but the roads everywhere were closed, so we strapped packs on the kids, the guests, and ourselves, and we hiked into town, carrying back 50+ pounds each (well, on the adults). It turned out to be a great memory, but my boots were old and fell to pieces, so I was in flip flops.

If you have small children and live anywhere near water, I'd have life vests and child carriers such as slings or wraps (not strollers) in case you need to evacuate by water. Turns out you can carry a large toddler on your back with an improvised silk wrap. Don't know about less sturdy fabrics.

 

[minkydog]

Always have at least a weeks worth of prescription meds on hand, a week's worth of diapers (if you have a baby), a week's worth if pet supplies, a week's worth of canned, nonperishable foods your kids will eat, and a good first aid kit. Likewise, keep a stash of cash. If the power goes out, the ATMs don't work.

 

[ironpig70]

If you have a generator please do not under any circumstances hook it up to your electrical panel.

If you want to hook it to your panel have it permitted and done by a qualified electrician.

By hooking it back into your panel you can back feed the grid and energize the power lines and when a lineman comes to fix a line he thinks is denergized.

Rant off


Not in hurricane area but live with rain and grew up with snow.


My recommendation is every time you shop get a couple extra can/boxes of what you eat. Pretty soon you have a stock pile. I have on hand about 3 weeks of food. Now it wont be gourmet food but hey its food to keep you alive.

Lastly have a plan B and then a plan C and a last fail plan D. For example if power fails I have flashlights, kerosene hurricane lamps, hand crank lights and candles

 

[christineann]

If you have pets, DO NOT LEAVE THEM BEHIND. Stock up on canned food and bottled water for them. Have an emergency plan in place, which means knowing a pet friendly hotel (or friend's house, relative's house, etc.). If a storm is headed your way and you will have to evacuate, make your arrangements immediately.

FYI, some local animals shelters keep a list of pet friendly hotels.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Fill your car(s) with gas. And keep the tank at least half full throughout hurricane season.
Actually, after being caught low on gas one time in an emergency, I keep the tank at least half full year round.

Actually, DH has a gas can that he has gas in during hurricane season. And we always keep an extra supply of batteries. When we lost power last hurricane, we were out for over 4 days. We also keep some bacitracin handy-handling fallen limbs can cause scratches, and it's a good idea to use bacitracin. And I strongly agree about doing the laundry. When we were without power, the worst was the smells! After a few days, even a cold shower seemed good.

 

[worm761]

When Hurricane Ivan came through I lost my home and most stuff in it. A very good friend took me, my son, and my father in. We had no power for 21 days.

Have plenty of water! Keep a minimum 2 week supply of food/water/necessities at all times. Have some cash and hide it in an odd ball sort of place.
Make sure you have some sort of power (hand crank radio and flashlights). We have shaker or hand crank flashlights and they are kept all over the house. You never know where you will be when the power goes.
Make sure you have cards and games to keep everyone entertained with no power.
Make sure you know how to cook! We have a gas grill with a side burner for just this reason. We also keep a tank on the grill and two spares at all times during hurricane season.

And due to experience, have a weapon and ammunition. You never know when you might need it. There was a lot of looting going on during Ivan.

 

[doxdogy]

Remember to stay abreast of where it is headed. While true, the projected tracked is not etched in stone. Also, if you do decide to stay and not evacuate, stay inside. Remember that right behind the eye is the rest of the storm.

 

[iheartdisney]

I remember my grandmother would always fill the bathtubs before a storm hit so the drinking water didn't get used for washing.

Update or pack a bug-out bags/72 hour kit. Pack in bags that can be easily carried- nothing too bulky or heavy. Divide everything equally between all members of your family. You'll need:
CASH
seasonal clothing for everyone
water
non-perishable foods that everyone will actually eat. If you have canned food, make sure you have a manual can opener!
matches or a lighter
flashlights- at least one in each bag
copies of important documents
Wipes
Gerber or similar multitool
and a deck of cards. because you always need a deck of cards.

 

[teacherlisa1978]

While not in a hurricane area we are in an area that has storms and power outages. A few years ago we were without power for about 6 days. While I had a good stock of non perishable food I realized that the selection was abysmal. When you're cold and tired and in the dark and miserable yes, it will keep you alive, but you find yourself looking forwards to meals. Steady diet of ramen-Blech. So now I keep shelf stable pudding, some chips, our favorite apple sauce on hand just in case.

 

[Jedana]

Invest in a top notch NOAA radio -there are many available that you can charge by cranking, solar power, USB, or the car AND that can charge your phone or laptop for you if it's got enough charge in it- and make sure that it's properly set to the right stations for your area with alarms turned on. Put it somewhere central so you'll hear it.

If you have camping gear, which doubles as good emergency gear, make sure to take it out regularly, seal the seams of your tents, and waterproof it in case you need it. Tents are even useful indoors if you lose power in a cold climate (a tent is a lot less space to heat up than a room).

Invest in appropriate supplies for the temperature extremes in your area. For us that's layers of thermal long underwear and we also got mummy sleeping bags that are highly rated for each of the kids plus a set that zip together for ourselves.

If you shop at a warehouse store like Costco, keep an eye out for large, sealable plastic buckets that are labeled #1 plastic on the bottom. These are food and water safe. We save the buckets from our cat food and when we expect bad weather, we fill them with water. They don't seal very tight once used, so they aren't very useful for keeping things dry.

Stockpile LED lights. You can never have too many LED lightsticks and lanterns. I also stockpiled replacement batteries. It makes an enormous difference having safe light with no risk of burning down the building. With lots of lights we kept the family sane and entertained by playing the piano (which brought over neighbors with instruments of their own), reading out loud, doing puzzles, playing card and board games.

Make sure you have good boots, excellent wool socks, moleskin, and backpacks. Ideally practice their use. We live miles from the nearest supermarket, we ended up with a lot of guests once our power came on, and we needed more food, but the roads everywhere were closed, so we strapped packs on the kids, the guests, and ourselves, and we hiked into town, carrying back 50+ pounds each (well, on the adults). It turned out to be a great memory, but my boots were old and fell to pieces, so I was in flip flops.

If you have small children and live anywhere near water, I'd have life vests and child carriers such as slings or wraps (not strollers) in case you need to evacuate by water. Turns out you can carry a large toddler on your back with an improvised silk wrap. Don't know about less sturdy fabrics.

Lowe's carries food grade buckets as well. They're about $5 each.

Firehouse Subs sells their pickle buckets as well.

 

[ironpig70]

If you shop at a warehouse store like Costco, keep an eye out for large, sealable plastic buckets that are labeled #1 plastic on the bottom. These are food and water safe. We save the buckets from our cat food and when we expect bad weather, we fill them with water. They don't seal very tight once used, so they aren't very useful for keeping things dry.

Check Craigslist also. A guy local to me has 55 gallon food grade barrels for sale. While they would take up some space and not useful for anything but water. 55 gallons is a bit of water.

 

[jenben8426]

With hurricanes you generally always have time to grab things and decide to evacuate if you have to. Make a grab-n-go list. Many times during emergency situations people won't think as clearly and won't know what to take with them. Prioritize a list of the things that can fit in your car and also list where you keep them in your house. This will save time and you can grab until you run out of time. Put the most important thing you would want to take with you if you evacuated from the storm--for us during Hurricane Rita it was our safe with all of our passports, birth certificates, our back-up hard drive for our computers, and social security cards. After that I have things like the photos and albums, the journals, the sentimental things that can never be replaced.

 

[AntePrincess]

I just remembered: before Sandy landed I packed up everything I could, starting with family photos and every item my children had a sentimental attachment to, in giant Ziplock bags that are sold for storing clothes. I put these in rubbermaid bins and double sealed them. You simply can't take everything with you if you evacuate, so I did my best for the things that mattered most to us. I put top priority on items I thought would help the children recover if we had to start over, followed by heirlooms and mementos of lost loved ones, followed by Christmas items (I couldn't help myself, we don't have many holiday items, but these were all things that mean a lot to us and make our annual traditions).

The other thing we learned, from talking to other families in the neighborhood: thermos cooking. Some of our neighbors have high end thermal cookers, which are basically state of the art thermoses with lidded pots you put inside, and were able to cook multi course meals with almost no fuel by bringing the pots up to boiling once and putting them in the sealed cooker to cook over time like in a slow cooker. We just had regular thermoses, but I made oatmeal, pasta, and soups that way. My aunt has sewn us a fabric 'haybox' filled with insulating beads that you can use as a bean bag chair, then in an emergency, you can fit a whole heated Dutch oven inside it, put the 'lid' on top and let it cook over the course of several hours without using additional fuel. It's pretty hideous and lives in the closet, but you bet I'll use it if I need it.

 

[worm761]

The other thing we learned, from talking to other families in the neighborhood: thermos cooking. Some of our neighbors have high end thermal cookers, which are basically state of the art thermoses with lidded pots you put inside, and were able to cook multi course meals with almost no fuel by bringing the pots up to boiling once and putting them in the sealed cooker to cook over time like in a slow cooker. We just had regular thermoses, but I made oatmeal, pasta, and soups that way. My aunt has sewn us a fabric 'haybox' filled with insulating beads that you can use as a bean bag chair, then in an emergency, you can fit a whole heated Dutch oven inside it, put the 'lid' on top and let it cook over the course of several hours without using additional fuel. It's pretty hideous and lives in the closet, but you bet I'll use it if I need it.

Never heard of them. I will have to look them up.

The other thing I thought of was all important papers are in a fireproof box that I can just grab and go. Everything on our computers is backed up to an external hard drive too. No more lost memories!
You should also have pictures of your stuff and the serial numbers in case you need it for insurance.

 

[North of Mouse]

Invest in a top notch NOAA radio -there are many available that you can charge by cranking, solar power, USB, or the car AND that can charge your phone or laptop for you if it's got enough charge in it- and make sure that it's properly set to the right stations for your area with alarms turned on. Put it somewhere central so you'll hear it.

If you have camping gear, which doubles as good emergency gear, make sure to take it out regularly, seal the seams of your tents, and waterproof it in case you need it. Tents are even useful indoors if you lose power in a cold climate (a tent is a lot less space to heat up than a room).

Invest in appropriate supplies for the temperature extremes in your area. For us that's layers of thermal long underwear and we also got mummy sleeping bags that are highly rated for each of the kids plus a set that zip together for ourselves.

If you shop at a warehouse store like Costco, keep an eye out for large, sealable plastic buckets that are labeled #1 plastic on the bottom. These are food and water safe. We save the buckets from our cat food and when we expect bad weather, we fill them with water. They don't seal very tight once used, so they aren't very useful for keeping things dry.

Stockpile LED lights. You can never have too many LED lightsticks and lanterns. I also stockpiled replacement batteries. It makes an enormous difference having safe light with no risk of burning down the building. With lots of lights we kept the family sane and entertained by playing the piano (which brought over neighbors with instruments of their own), reading out loud, doing puzzles, playing card and board games.

Make sure you have good boots, excellent wool socks, moleskin, and backpacks. Ideally practice their use. We live miles from the nearest supermarket, we ended up with a lot of guests once our power came on, and we needed more food, but the roads everywhere were closed, so we strapped packs on the kids, the guests, and ourselves, and we hiked into town, carrying back 50+ pounds each (well, on the adults). It turned out to be a great memory, but my boots were old and fell to pieces, so I was in flip flops.

If you have small children and live anywhere near water, I'd have life vests and child carriers such as slings or wraps (not strollers) in case you need to evacuate by water. Turns out you can carry a large toddler on your back with an improvised silk wrap. Don't know about less sturdy fabrics.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I had to LOL when I was reading your post on hurricane preparedness! Keeping warm, thermal long underwear, wool socks, etc. The last thing we think about down south when it's hurricane season is things to keep warm - we just want to stay as cool as possible when the power (and AC) is out!

I guess when Sandy hit it would have been cold in NE - those conditions are definitely not the case with hurricanes I'm familiar with

Most of our evacuations are moving inland away from low lying coastal areas.
Having water, food, battery lights, battery radio, cars with gas, and a generator (if possible). We have kept one 'ready' for years - haven't had to use it for awhile (thankfully).

It always amazes me that with all the warnings about using generators in inclosed places, there are always a few people that do it anyway, and there are usually fatalities because of this -

Everyone, keep safe this hurricane season.