With living in Florida come hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts. While in a perfect world everyone has the means and the intuition to do their best to be ready. I find that this is often not the case

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With @timcliff wanting to promote #discussion which can be further read about here. I felt this was a perfect opportunity to have the community talk about dealing with disasters.

Part of this discussion I will be sharing my own personal way of dealing with hurricanes like the one we had recently—Irma. Along with my experiences from Irma.

When it comes to Natural Disaster I tend to break it down into three phases:

Stage One: Preparation Before

• Supplies
• Preparing Areas
• Get Out Bag
• Up to Date on Information

Stage Two: The Disaster Itself

Stage Three: Aftermath

This way of thinking about it helps to break down the different time frames when having to deal with a possible disaster.

Below is my own experience of preparing for and dealing with hurricane Irma.

Preparation Before

When it comes to hurricanes here in Florida we usually have a lot of time to get ready. Sometimes even week(s). The biggest issue is once it's close enough to know for sure Florida is going get hit it’s starting to be way too late to do certain things.

Supplies

Many people just assume they will be able to buy water, food, gas, and repair supplies anytime they need it. It’s easy to get into this kind of mindset when living in a country like America.

Food and Water

Once a major hurricane is announced to impact Florida the shelf at the store are empty out. Desired food and water become in short supply.

• 1.5 packs of water per person
• 2 weeks’ worth of nonperishable food,
• Extra propane for grill

Before hurricane season roles near we start making budget plans to have these things on hand.

Governments love to reassure the population that you only “need” 3 days of food, and water. By the time they are saying this there not enough to go around so they need people to believe this.

I have been in situations in the past in Florida where this was NOT the case. Many years ago they thought they could get restaurants and stores back open in time. The damage took weeks of: repairs, clearing roads, and reinstalling powerlines. Thankfully we were over prepared many years ago during that hurricane of which I forget the name of.

When we do go out shopping it’s just to fill up on products like meats, things to grill, and maybe some fresh vegetables.

I also make a lot of ice for our own personal use. Few days in Florida heat and humidity without ac and are very thankful over a couple of ice cubes and swimming.

Gas

One first thing goes dry up are gas stations. In fact, it got so bad during preparation time before Irma the State of Florida lifted weight restrictions on gas haulers and offered police escorts. Our local gas station was shut down by the police hours before it was refilled. They did not even allow people to form lines. They wanted zero issues in refilling, and getting the gas truck out and onto the next station ASAP.

We tend to keep some gas on hand however it’s the first thing you do is top off on gas. You still have no idea if you have to evacuate, maybe you suffer building damage and have to relocate. No matter what happens gas tends to be very important to have. It can take a while if infrastructure gets damage to be able to refill again.

Repair Supplies

Looks like tarp taking a beating
If you think you can just call up an ac/roofing/window repair and get a “fair” rate and “fast” repair-- good luck. It could be weeks, months, even years depending on how bad the damage is.

• Plywood
• 2 by 4s lumber
• Nails
• Pool screening
• Tarps
• Epoxies

Whatever we think we need to repair, cover, and replace that is cheap and we can store we have on hand. Again, stores will be long out within a few hours of a major storm being announced.

We have already repaired most of the damage we have taken and applied both short term and long term solutions to things that we can't-do on our own.

Preparing Areas

With high winds from hurricane and possible flood waters you have to prep the area. Also, have to set up place indoors

Outdoors

Cleaning up and moving things around for storage and safe keeping.

Before the hurricane season even stars any tree we think will impose an immediate and direct danger to the house if it just falls right over gets removed. I love trees but if they are in range to fall on the house they can and will.

Small objects also have to be picked up and put away. Loose items such as: benches, lawn furniture, tree branches. Anything you can pick up and toss at a window needs to be taken care of best you can. This usually includes having to clean up the garage or where ever you are going to store things just to get everything indoors.

Placement of cars and other vehicles around the property. Where will they take less damage or provide added protection to the property?

Making sure rain gutters and other drainage systems are clear of debris and will run off further away from the house

Draining some of the pool, making sure large pools of water will not just stand to breed mosquitoes or cause flooding in our property.

Indoors

• Unplugging and bagging electric devices and moving things into safer places for storage
• Removing things from the walls, tipping things over that are easy to tip over.
• General clearing up
• Getting a mini refrigerator on 48 in advance
• Checking and getting ready flashlights, candles, and radio
• Safe room setup. For us, it’s a walking closet that we can convert in around 30 minutes to for long-term needs of space for people and supplies.

Get Out Bag

If the sheriff knocked on your door and said you had 5 to 30 minutes to Evac could you?

Far too many people just assume if they need to evacuate they will be told a week ahead of time. Often not the case. On top of that, there comes a point where it’s too late due to weather to even get out. Being on the roads during a hurricane is just being stupid.

I have a Backpack that is partial ready, and just needs a few things tossed into it to be ready.

Always have packed:

• Spare clothing (2 shirts, 1 pants, 3 socks and underwear, water shoes)
• Mosquito Netting
• Sleeping bag and sleeping pad
• Towel
• Toilet tress (toilet paper, toothbrush and paste, deodorant, brush)
• Flashlight spare with spare batteries
• Map and compass
• Knives
• Tent with rain cover
• Water filtration device (I’m missing this. mine broke a few years back, someone else in group has)
• First aid kit (latex gloves, bandages, disinfectant, gauze, tape, scissors, Tylenol, wraps, and rope)

Things that get packed if I need to get out:

• Water/Food
• More clothing if space/time
• Important documents
• Cash (yep, your BTC and credit cards not going be working without power and no or bad internet access!)
• Medications

Now all these things I consider essential if I was going it alone. Since in a group I don’t tend to have the tent, compass, map pack, and someone else has water filtration packed leaving room for other stuff.

Up to Date on Information

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Staying up to date on government provided shelters locations, and evacuation routes and storm tracking is important.

You need to know what is permitted in government shelters such as a school. Most do not permit even a knife inside. They expect you to bring your own food and water. They might even restrict how much space you can take up with things you bring.

The State of Florida tends to have a set evacuation routes. Once enabled highways to turn into one-way streets. You might even be allowed to drive on the curb, ignoring certain traffic laws. If they need an area to evacuate you need to understand what is expected.

Things like these are often found on States website.

The Disaster Itself

The hurricane day(s) before it hits you and day(s) after it out sounds like an endless train. Now if you live up north the sound of a train when there is no train means a tornado!!! Yes, some unlearning had to be done on that one when I first moved down here.

Curfews will be enabled making it illegal to leave your house/land during certain hours. Your first priority has to be staying as safe as possible. If you need to be in your safe room the entire time do so.

During the different phase, you might get a break. Before the strongest of winds hit you, you might be able to go out and make repairs (it’s risky I do not advise) if needed. Rain and wind bands come and go.

At some point, the power is now out. You might even have to be in your safe room and things are hitting side and roofing of the house like crazy.

Now all you can do is wait. Hope you brought all your supplies into the safe room. Maybe the radio is working enough for you to make people out talking. I happened to be sleeping at the time because it was very early in the morning and I was just lucky to get a few hours of rest during it. Winds were also low enough in my area that I did not need sleep on the floor in the safe room for hurricane Irma

During the eye, its claim to even go outside and you got a few minutes to check and repair ASAP anything that needs it (it’s risky I do not advise).

Aftermath

This is where you deal with the consequences of any lack of preparation and what has happened to you.

Making sure everyone is ok, is drinking enough water, and is eating. It's a stressful ordeal you just dealt with. Some people have medical emergencies and you can’t get them any help right away. All you have is your first aid bag.

Check for property damage and make a list of most important repairs and debris removal first.

Break out the chainsaw to start cleaning up the mess. Making repairs to the building and property with what you have.

Then streets get cleared and repaired, business gets power.

Using ice smart by keeping what needs to be kept cool and not open up refrigerators and coolers unless you need to. Eating food that is most perishable first. Took them about half a week to get power back on for us. Some very unlucky people are still without power I believe.

Then you deal with long-term effects. Most damages we have repaired. We got some things we can deal with later. It’s still hurricane season so we put some things off that are not essential and are easy to get damaged again.

A medical emergency happens a lot during disasters. Even after the effects can still be playing out once everyone is no longer running on adrenaline and being in a state of “just got get things done.” We thought we were out of the woods and everyone was fine; then, my cat got very ill and passed away. It’s a reminder that even when you think everything good again it might not be.

My Questions For You

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Now that I have shared how I go about dealing with a natural disaster such as a hurricane and my experiences with Irma.

I would like to know. How do you prepare and what kinds of disasters you deal with in your part of the world?

There are so many different kinds of cultures, backgrounds, income groups, disasters that everyone has a different take and process on.

I think being prepared for natural disasters is something that can save lives. I know my plans and abilities are not the best out there.

We as a community have dealt with a lot in the past and I think it’s important to share so others can be better prepared and not suffer as much when disaster strikes if possible.

Information

Unless otherwise cited I have taken the photos with a tablet.

I have written this blog from my own personal experience most recently hurricane Irma.

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