[kev]

Having been through hurricanes Ike and Rita, evacuated for hurricane Andrew, and having worked an evacuee shelter for hurricane Katrina, I am here to answer your questions.

People that have been through a hurricane are welcome to help answer questions.

Have at least 1 week of food and water for every person in your group
Evacuate low lying areas
LED flashlights are better then old style bulbed flashlights
Buy lithium batteries
Buy LED flashlights with long battery life and low lumens for inside the house
Candles and kids do not mix
Secure important papers
Do not forget about pets

Take hurricanes seriously, they are nothing to play with

 

[dontbuypotteryfromme]

Done cyclones ului and yasi. should be close enough to give some advice.

Generators are for outside considering that they expel poisionus gas.
I still swear by the portable radio for emergency information.(But I believe you have a different system)
Canned meat after a week or so will send you crazy. Buy some vegatables.
The smallest room in the house under your matress is the safest room.
remove loose crap from your yard. You can throw the lawn chairs in the pool.

 

[MuzzleBlast]

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)

 

[Tai]

LED candles (think the ones that go inside a jackolantern), solar lights, or glowsticks make a nice pathway to the bathroom.

Tune your radio ahead of time to a local news/talk station (may want to write down the numbers and stick it on the radio itself!)

Fill your freezers as full as possible using water jugs to fill the space (but don't overfill the water jugs!) A full freezer stays cold longer. Ditto for fridge.

If you can, fill enough jugs to also keep a cooler, then pull only what you need for that day out of the freezer and into the cooler. This way you're not opening and closing the freezer more than once a day.

Some power tool kits come with a flashlight that runs off the same battery as, say, your sawsall. So charge all the batteries!

Bust out the thermoses- if you lose power, and take the time to percolate coffee or tea, the thermos will hold the heat in longer.

 

[Monique]

Make sure your laundry is caught up beforehand. Cook any raw food (eggs, meat) and amen on the thermos -- make a pot of coffee or tea before the power goes. It will be hot the next morning, and I"m here to tell you, you will be grateful for it.

 

[Grinnan Barrett]

If you don't have a small trailer that is matched to your tow vehicle you should if you live in any coastal area. When we lived on coast we had a 21 foot travel trailer for one truck and a 12 foot closed trailer for gear for the 4 Runner. Load what you have to have and get out. While you are at the evacuation area you have a home on wheels to live out of so you are not in a shelter. If you have ever been in a shelter you will understand this.

 

[Dougzilla]

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!

 

[HanzoSteel]

Boarding up your windows, don't wait till news of a hurricane is on its way and run to home depot like the rest of the state is doing. Have them ready and cut to size sitting in your garage ahead of time. Also a fully charged cordless drill and extra batteries is a good idea.

 

[floss187]

If you're reading this, it's already too late.

stores are ransacked.

get to where you need to go, and stay there.

http://gawker.com/5834445/how-to-prepare-for-a-hurricane

 

[BScout]

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.

 

[ladyinblack]

I have a question...Close all windows tightly, or leave some open a few inches??? I live in an old house, so even if I close them, there will be wind whistling thru. We are expecting gusts of around 75 mph.

 

[BScout]

Close them tight. The barometric pressure drop in a hurricane isn't like a tornado where it happens quickly.

 

[Roger Wilco]

If you can't park your car in a garage...

Don't park under trees. Even small ones. The branches will scratch tick-tack-toe boards all over your car. (Also same advice for avoiding angering ex-girlfriends.)

Don't park by buildings with 'spanish tile' rooves. They become machine guns, firing 3 pound ceramic tiles at 100 mph at the same location. They Will put a crater in your hood.

off the top of my head...

 

[WrathofWoman]

Hmmm...are we the only people that have hurricane parties?? Have enough beer/whiskey/wine on hand for at least a two weeks for 15 people. That was mandatory stuff for Hurricane Katrina where we had no electricity for three weeks.

What else are you supposed to do after you clean the yard?? BBQ and beer. Important stuff

 

[MonsterMash]

Having been through probably 8-10 hurricanes in my life (first one at age 4), I am getting a little chuckle about Irene. Some folks are acting like its the end of the world. I'm not saying she isn't a concern. But some folks would do well to just calm down. It isn't Armageddon.

There's some good advice here so far. One thing I will add is this: Unless you are on the water with nothing protecting you from the storm, there's not much to worry about. As long as you're a mile or two off the water with a good stand of trees between you and the storm, you'll be fine. I don't get worried unless the sustained winds are 130mph or more.

 

[floss187]

We "yankees" may be over-reacting, but at least people up here are following directions and evacuating when told to do so....

 

[grizzlyman]

put solar powered lights outside when the sun is out and bring them inside at night. free lighting. heard this on the radio today. never thought of it. someone was thinking out of the box.:thumb:

 

[BScout]

Having been through probably 8-10 hurricanes in my life (first one at age 4), I am getting a little chuckle about Irene. Some folks are acting like its the end of the world. I'm not saying she isn't a concern. But some folks would do well to just calm down. It isn't Armageddon.

Agreed, but a lot of it is the media. All the people I know of have been calm, but acting prudently.

BTW, it's a 2-way street. The Northerners chuckle every time the South gets an inch or 2 of snow and shut everything down. :upsidedown:

 

[MonsterMash]

Agreed, but a lot of it is the media. All the people I know of have been calm, but acting prudently.

BTW, it's a 2-way street. The Northerners chuckle every time the South gets an inch or 2 of snow and shut everything down. :upsidedown:

We don't like polar bear weather down here. ::thumb:

 

[Tai]

I'm happy to use this as a dry run. It will accomplish a lot for me, getting my spouse more on board with buying a generator, for one.... I can stock up "under the radar" since everyone else is buying fuel canisters, batteries, and shelf stable food... I can give some of my skills a good workout... Not to mention some of our tools (DH is taking a walkie talkie to work so that we can stay in touch without cell phones)... I've also got a stack of books to read- Dare to Prepare has sat in the stack for a month now.