What one thing did you forget?

[DanKellFla]

For Wilma, I forgot a few things, but let's keep this to one thing that you forgot to do before a storm.

I forgot to take in the globes over my exterior lights. Seems innocuous enough, but I had broken glass on the lawn to deal with after the storm.

[SouthFloridawx]

I forgot to buy a noaa weather radio.

[Patrick99]

I forgot to buy a noaa weather radio.

I forgot to have my freezer make ice, and plenty of it. It would have been helpful.

[SouthFloridawx]

I forgot to buy a noaa weather radio.

I forgot to have my freezer make ice, and plenty of it. It would have been helpful.

I did not forget to do that.... I was making ice since the morning it was a cat 5.

I did however forget to buy a portable ice maker.

[HurricaneHunter914]

I forgot to wake up in time to see the real good wind gusts.

[weatherlover427]

I forgot alot (even though I don't live anywhere near hurricane alley). The one I regret the most is not saving any sat / radar images from the season.

[jusforsean]

my friend just bought this really neat cooler for hre new deck that claims to keep ice at freezing temperature for at least 3 days? also, bed bath and beyond has a cool 10$ cell phone charger and a battery fan. The one thing I forgot to take: enough clothes: I had to walk aroung the hotel in my pagama pants for 2 days until we could get into our community. I was so worried about the kids and hubbie I short changed myself

[DanKellFla]

jusforsean, so that was you in the hotel. You looked cute in your PJs.
I will add one more thing that I forget since this thread is kind of slow. I forgot to engage to top pin of my double doors. Even though I had shutters across the doors, they still opened, and broke my door. I have the old style door. The replacement will be $2000. I suspect that the doors were sucked open because I had a window break.

[weatherlover427]

I will also add one more. Not going into Teamspeak to track the storms with my fellow S2K'ers.

[melhow]

This year I will be planning better protection for our interior sliding glass doors. We have a Florida room that is an addition on the back of our house - you know the type, all windows and aluminum - completely impossible to board up, mainly because there is nothing to adhere the boards to - just aluminum between window panes. The sliders lead out to the Florida room fronm our dining room.

Last season we didn't board the sliders - we didn't know how until it was too late and all of the plywood was long gone (we now have additional uncut peices stored with our sealed pre-cut window boards). Halfway through the season last year it dawned on us that the sliders (aside from the garage door) were the largest threat for wind intrusion on our house, and maybe we should board those too. This year, we will be making some handy-dandy slider guards.

Also, just a note - if you are thinking of trying Plylox, it rocked as far as hanging and removing boards. As far as protection during a storm, I couldn't tell ya. The most action we got was Wilma, and noone was even expecting that one to do as much as it did in these parts...

[southerngale]

Several things but the one thing that I cant't believe I forgot was my NOAA weather alert radio. I left it hooked up on my kitchen counter. While I wasn't expecting Rita to be nearly as bad as it was in Jasper, where I evacuated to, I thought we would get some storms and likely lose power. I had no clue how bad it was actually going to be that far north, and that I'd be fearing for my life and my relatives' lives, including children.
We did have a portable radio, so we were able to get updates from Jasper officials who did their best to stay on the air all night.
If there's a next time, I'm evacuating to Canada. That should be far enough!

[alicia-w]

my cell phone!

[Valkhorn]

Cell phones usually don't work when there is no power or cell towers are gone - as what happened in Hattiesburg thanks to Katrina.

What I reccommend is plenty of bread and spam. When there is nowhere to get any meat for sandwiches you really can't knock the stuff. That was a life saver for the full week until grocery stores could be re-stocked.

Another thing you can never have too much of is water. Buy empty containers and fill them - its cheaper than buying jugs of water. Plus you just fill them the night before and you're set.

Stocking up on ice is never a bad idea, either. You don't always have to leave your ice maker running overtime - you can just buy two or three bags of ice cheaply whenever the cone is 3 days away. Most people try to get ice AFTER a storm, not before it.

And don't forget a weather radio. During Katrina the power went out in most of the town at 8am, and for me it was lost during 11am - about an hour before the eyewall hit. That was quite interesting indeed not having any source of outside information during 135mph gusts.

Batteries are good as well. Can't have too much of those - even for a game boy

[Dionne]

Valkhorn is right! Our last commo with our daughter in Hattiesburg was at 11AM via cell phone......it was...."Daddy, trees are on the house, I'm in the bedroom closet...I can't get out....come get me" and then everything went silent. God knows....I'll never forget that moment.

[HurricaneHunter914]

OMG! Your daughter is okay now right?

[BayouVenteux]

A few items that we overlooked before Katrina...not essential, but once we snagged them were very helpful during the long wait for power to return:

1.) as cel phones are for the most part totally useless in an affected area, get a good old-fashioned non-portable wall-plug telephone, which works no matter whether you have electricity or not....as long as the phone lines are operational.

2.) plenty of LONG extension cords to run off the generator, which needs to be a safe distance away from the living areas to avoid any possibility of carbon monoxide fumes getting into the house.

3.) 3 or 4 inexpensive box fans...buy 'em at someplace like a Dollar General or a Walgreens and store 'em in the attic. When the storm's gone, the temps are back to the normal late summer swelter, and you still have no power, the fans are a great help in allowing everyone a half-decent night's sleep.

[southerngale]

I wish I had known it at the time because it was very hard to get cell phone calls out, and usually impossible, but I heard afterward that text messaging still worked. That would be very beneficial in getting an "I'm ok" message out, and where you are, etc.

[Lindaloo]

When I wanted to use a cell phone, I would go sit on top of a bridge. Found out that worked. That is how I actually got in touch with vbhoutex from my Mom's cell phone from atop the 63 bridge. My cell had NO signal at all for a long, long time.

When I was in line for gas in Mobile my cell phone worked, believe it or not. That is how I got in touch with Duckie.

Back on topic, the one thing I forgot was storm surge. I will know next time.


Kelly, I tried using the text message. I was actually getting OLD text messages back on my phone. So, mine didn't work. Even old voice mail I had deleted a long time ago was showing back up on my phone when I tried to check it. It was quite scary because like I said I had deleted those but could hear them again? VERY STRANGE!!

[vbhoutex]

What a timely thread!!! Thank you!!!!

[Dionne]

OMG! Your daughter is okay now right?

Yes, our daughter.....Courtney is okay. She was dehydrated, had a few bruises and was showing signs of shock. It took us 12 hours to get to her and her two friends. We evacuated them the following sunrise. Her new "home" is in Memphis. She was very fortunate. Thanx for asking.