Do you have a plan now?

[txSleepingBeauty]

I've lived in Houston most of my life and never gave much thought to hurricane plans before (I know a little naive huh?). But after watching the chaos unfold right next door, my family's given it a little more thought. We've come up with a plan on what to do, where to go, where we'll have to stay. We know now not to wait for the rest of us to catch up woth each other, but just to get out of town and meet in our designated spot. We've told all of the family and everyone's on the same page.

Luckily we've had the time to think about it, unlike the folks in the Big Easy and Biloxi and Gulfport.

So, do you have a plan now? and if not don't you think you should make one?

 

[Honu]

Growing up on an earthquake fault, inspires one to get organized. We have meeting places, out of state contacts to call, two stashes of supplies/water and emergency cash. At the professional services firm I work for, every employee is First Aid/CPR trained and some of have Rescue/EMT training. There are supplies in the office to keep us sustained for a week. We have a back up generator and recently bought a couple satellite phones to stay in communication. I also keep a bike at work, although I could walk the 18 miles home, along with extra clothes, shoes and prescriptions. I've been through two big ones and I'm ready for the next. You have to take care of yourself and prepare for help not being available to you.

 

[Lil_Tink]

Good Job. We living in a Tsunami zone know where to go, as staying in our house would not be good.

 

[ilovepcot]

Oh yes There's no doubt!

 

[karebear1]

I asked something similar to this yesterday. Don't forget a 72 hour kit as part of your plan. Leaving is great.... but if you get stuck somewhere you'll need food and emergency supplies to get you through! This link has places to look for what to pack etc. You can also buy complete 72 hour kits if you do not want to put your own together. GOOD FOR YOU FOR THINKING AND TAKING ACTION TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=901752&highlight=hour+kits

 

[chrissyk]

Yes, we have a plan. We own another property just for evacuation (as we live in a mandatory evac. zone). We need to get that house stocked, so we're doing that asap. We are getting our disaster kit together too. That will stay with us in the house that we live in and travel with us if we need to evacuate. I went to look at floodproof/fireproof safes today, too. We need to get our essential paperwork into one of those so it could travel with us.

We are going to buy a bigger generator as well. Our current generator was bought to run the furnace and sump pump in our old house (cold climate) in the event of an outage in the winter (bought after Ice Storm '98). We need a much bigger unit to run the AC in this house. We had our old house well-stocked in the event of a catastrophic ice storm, and we even knew how many neighbors we could house (we had the only generator in the neighborhood as far as I know). I don't know why it took this tragedy to get us to stock our new house and think about our generator needs.

 

[grlpwrd]

Yes, we've always had plans and supplies. I am from Hawaii, lived in WA and then OK, and now VA and have lived thru earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornados. I keep everything accessible and throughout the house just in case of damage.

You just never know these days. A few years ago we had a tornado touch base at our apt. in Hampton and caused massive damage. Who would have thought it would happen? People were homeless and basically on their own for a while. I will never forget it. I want to be prepared for major or minor emergencies.

It's so vital to plan especially for children, the elderly, and others with special needs.

 

[HappyMommy2]

Yes, we have a plan! Not just for natural disasters but also for things like terrorist attacks or industrial disasters (we have large petrochemical plants nearby and I worry about explosions there).

If there's anything good that has come out of Katrina, it may be that people will be more likely to have a plan now, and will especially be prepared to survive on their own for a few days. I used to just assume that help would arrive within a few hours of any disaster--now I know that we really do need to be able to be self-sufficient for quite a while.

 

[Disney Doll]

I agree that a plan is a good idea, especially for those who are in more disaster or flood-prone areas.

My DSIL lives in the Atlantic coast of Florida, and she has a couple of those Rubbermaid boxes packed with hurricane evacuation supplies, which include a lot of what is listed in the website provided.

 

[arminnie]

I think it was over 20 years ago that a Hurricane almost hit the Houston area. It just missed, but we had terrible tropical storm winds and a lot of damage.

Downtown Houston was closed for two weekdays plus the weekend. Several people were without water or electrical service for some time.

My phone worked and I called my dad to tell him how I was and described some water that was coming in the house. He told what to do and it involved getting some lumber out of my garage.

I told him that I didn't have any lumber in my garage and he said "Yes you do, I put some there." and sure enough he had. He was 500 miles away but he had taken care of me.