How many 'canes a year do you plan for?

[DanKellFla]

I was just curious what everybodies outlook was for their own personal hurricane plans? Being that I have limited resources, this affects how I plan for storms. For instance, I have storm panels already, so I am not getting accordian shutters. But, if I was putting up the storm panels every other week, it would be worth it to get the accordians. I also live in a one story house. Personally, I take the long term view that I will be hit directly by a storm once every 5 years and inconvienced by a storm every year. (That isn't a weather prediction, just a planning tool that will get better with time.) I'll define a direct hit as a storm that causes insured loss and a power outage of more that 24 hours.

To illustrate the point:
I have been living in South Florida for 23 years. I became friends with somebody who moved to a brand new development of expensive homes in 2003. About 60 homes were built and occupied by people who just moved to Florida. I live in a more established community. After Frances and Jeans, about 1/3rd of the block went out and bought permanent generators that would power the whole house. The smallest was 11kW, most were in the 20 kW range. One my block, the good old 5500 watt gennerator was the item of choice. A few years down the road, and some of my friends with the big gennerators are wondering if there money would have been better spent on something a little smaller.

Thanks

Can somebody suggest a better title to this thread?

[DanKellFla]

anybody.... somebody.....

[HURAKAN]

I usually plan for the hurricane season. If a hurricane hits, then the plan is to get ready once again in case another ones comes just like in 2005. I really don't plan for a definite number of hurricanes.

Fortunately my parents have a gas generator and my house is pretty well-constructed and not in a flooding prone area. So I mainly get ready in the food department, gas in the car, and to have important papers in a safe place.

[Jagno]

You can only plan for 1 hurricane at a time. For instance, should you lose your home during the first storm then you'd lose both your current panels as well as your back-up accordians. If you are fortunate enough to survive it untouched then you still would have them for the next event.

I use to keep enough food, fuel and supplies in my home to last my whole family for months without ever having to go to the store. When Rita hit she cleaned them out as well as my entire home in 34 minutes. Of course I had the fuel, generators and some food and supplies with me but that didn't help save the other thousands of dollars worth of stuff. So now I keep enough on hand for a month. This is a manageable amount that I can take with me in the event that I have to evacuate again.

Honestly, I think I'll just load up an entire moving van and take it all next time so at least I'll have a set of nice sheets and a matress to lay down on when I return. LOL

[canetracker]

Interesting topic!

After Katrina, I hated being homeless and having to rely on relatives. So, my main plan is being prepared by having a house ready to support me or a back up place to go with out relying on family. I have the gas generator and supplies just in case I do not get wiped out, but as a previous poster posted it will not do you any good if a strong cane takes it away. Fortunately, my house survived Katrina with minimal damage as I am on a river ridge and high ground. However, after evacuation, my government would not let me back in to view my home or stay at my home. So, I became one of the many evacuees having to find alternate living arrangements.

I look at hurricanes differently now. I really don't care about back up supplies to live in my home, but I mainly have prepared for an alternate place to live in. Further, just in case I can sneak back in town to a liveable home, I have the generator with enough supplies to sustain me for a few weeks.

[DanKellFla]

I think I did a terrible job of asking my question. Let me try again.
If I had a crystal ball that said I was going to get hit with a hurricane once every other year for 10 years, I would plan for that with certain kinds of capital improvments to my house. If my crystal ball told me that for the next 10 years, I would get 3 stroms a season, then I would handle things differently. I would get accordians, camping equipments, better gas storage....etc...
The short term stuff like food and water is not really in this as that is done every year no matter what.
Have I confused you all enough????

So, what do you think?

[Recurve]

Since Cat 1 conditions are likely nearly every year, having hurricane panels for the windows was first priority, along with trying to replace vulnerable parts (doors) with MD-approved ones when I can afford to upgrade. When I redid the roof I had metal installed on the main part and rolled roofing with a sprayed on urathane layer on the flat porch part.
I'm not sure the house would survive any direct hit, so rather than more expensive shutters or a whole house generator or any big investment in after-storm living, I upped my insurance, despite the cost, to enough to rebuild something.
I've never had an insured loss, but I've been without power for as long as two weeks. I think about buying a small generator and might do it before the next storm. I keep enough food and water for us for a week. I don't plan to ride out a possibly catastrophic storm, so there's no point in having more supplies here.
So I guess I plan for a cat 1 every year and a Cat 3 or above any year.