TreasureIslandFLGal wrote:I was out of electricity and fresh water for 28 days after hurricane Fran went through North Carolina back in '96. I learned a fe very valuable lessons for those wanting to hunker down. You need to be sure that you have:
1. lots of water. Besides buying some, fill every container you have with it and get a bottle of bleach to keep the water free of nasties when it starts to get old. You will need lots of water to cool down with when there is no AC. You also need to keep hydrated when doing tough cleanup work afterwards.
2. Bug spray. When screens are blown out, the bugs will drive you nuts at night! All that leftover standing water means that they will quickly overrun the area a week or two after the storm passes.
3. Plenty of toilet paper and a shovel. Your toilet won't be flushing and that wastes much needed water anyway. Plan to dig yourself a new toilet out back if you don't have lots of garbage bags and a bucket.
4. Batteries for a radio. When you are going batty in a few weeks, the last thing you want is for your batteries to all run out.
5. Food for Fido. Be sure you have plenty of pet supplies for them too.
6. Lots of paper plates and disposable silverware. Washing dishes takes up water you won't want to spare.
7. A good variety of foods you don't need to cook. Forget the 72 hours of supplies, you really need more than that if you are going to hunker down. Roads may be impassable for quite some time. If you can get to a store, it will be empty for a long time too.
8. antiseptic/antibacterials. Standing water is like poison and will quickly cause infections. Stay out of it if you can. If not, be sure to douse yourself in whatever you can to kill the germs. After Flloyd, NC looked like post-civil war. So many young people ended up losing limbs to simple infections that were not treated soon enough.
9. Patch a flat. Worth getting since the first few times you drive you will get flat tires. Best bet is to have a bike and its own patch a flat kits. Those with horses fared the best.
10. Medicines. If you take meds that need to be kept cool, you need to evacuate. Don't bet on having electricity back right away to be able to do that. If you don't have an extra month of meds stocked up, better plan to leave as well. If you need oxygen, go too. Keep a good first aid kit if you inted to stay, as medical help won't be available and you will need to be able to treat your own booboo's for a while.
11. A sense of community. If you don't have one yet, don't worry about it. It will be there immediately after the storm. You will get to know your neighbors and be awed by the incredible strength and resilience of those around you. You will all break down at some point, but you will also all get to lift eachother up.
Good luck and stay safe.
Flypaper. After Katrina, too many flys and not enough flypaper. And watch for all the roofing nails in your feet. Good luck to everyone. Please evacuate if you can.
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There were some members questioning my thoughts but like I said I just don't see IKE getting his act together prior to landfall. Possibly a CAT 3.
