The offical hurricane survival question and answer thread

Field notes - you might find one more useful hint.

Good video



~~ moderator edit ~~

Please do not copy/paste from other sites.

Kev




my bad (although I did give appropriate source credit)

I've been getting a lot of people asking me questions about the hurricane on facebook.
One of the most asked questions was about food in thier fridge and freezer. I recommended eating as much of it as possible from the time they hear about a storm, till the time their power goes out.
Eat nothing but frozen and fridge contents.

Then after the power goes out, continue to eat it until its no good. Then switch to your canned and dehydrated foods.

For those that want to extend the amount of time their fridge stays cold, you can use this simple trick.

FILL large containers 3/4 of the way with water to make large ice blocks. These ice blocks melt 10 times slower than a bag of ice cubes.

Try to use square or rectangle containers to prevent bursting as it freezes and never fill them all the way up.


You can even use milk jugs also, just make sure you don't fill them up too much or this might happen. I got lucky here as the water froze before the container popped, but i will need to put a large tray under this as the ice melts again.


Putting a LID on the square containers is important. The container on the LEFT froze perfectly, the one on the right without a lid froze on top first, then the water expanded out the bottom until the container burst. A tray will be need under this one as well, as the ice melts.


Those are my tips for today. Good luck!

I have a few thoughts/additions.

There's obviously going to be a lot of water. Do your best now to make sure it doesn't loiter around your house. Make sure gutters are clear, any outdoor drains are clear of leaves or debris. Check culverts you may have (e.g. at the mouth of your driveway) to make sure there's no obstructions. Clear any ditches, creeks... of branches that may obstruct aforementioned culverts.

Potable water may be hard to come by. Stock up on bottled water now. You can also fill your coolers, bathtubs... so you have extra.

If you think there's a possibility of flooding in your house, get things from the lower levels out now, or at least have a plan of what's a priority to get should the water start coming in.

If you have a sump pump, make preparations to be able to pump it without electricity. Buckets, generator, battery with inverter...

Be careful with the Widow Makers!!! These are the trees that snapped but didn't make it to the ground as they got hung up. If you're not a logger, arborist or very skilled with a chainsaw, don't try to cut these yourself.

Share your generator(s) with neighbors. If there's more houses then generators, try to work something out now with your neighbors and friends. It's normally best that the generator gets moved from house to house every few hours. Moving your freezers or contents to the house with power doesn't work well. If you're the one without the generator but a neighbor has one, offer to pay for all the fuel in exchange for a few hours a day of usage.

Besides stocking gas for your generator, also get motor oil for it. You'll want to change the oil every 2-3 days if you're running it all day.