Preparing for Hurricane Season 2020

[clean]

The "official" start to hurricane season is only 48 hours away.
This year we have faced the added CV19 issues.  So the entire country has seen what it looks like when hurricane watches and warnings are issued! Shelves empty, prices rise, and people go nuts (more so than usual!)
In the CV19 panic buying the stores sold out of water (I have no idea why), soup (again, no power losses expected, so cooking is still possible) and TP (not usually a hurricane supply!)

So what are your stocks now?  Are you ready for a hurricane?  What changes have you made in your plans given the CV19?

I have too much food.  My freezers are usually close to empty, but both are now mostly full. IF I lose power for an extended period of time, I have a very small generator, but I suppose that I iwll have to power it up! 

Usually, my default plan is to evacuate!  Im not a pioneer!  I would rather not be without power (actually AC and TV) for 3 or 4 days in a boarded up house listening to my or my neighbors generators and fighting the influx of skeeters!  I dont want to wait in lines for gas and ice!  I d rather pay money to be 200 miles away and enjoy my "hurrication"  (trademark!)

THIS year, however, I think that my health might be better served staying put for a lower level category 1 or category 2 hurricane.  Im not crazy!!  I will always leave in front of a 3 or higher storm!  IF it is even possible that it will be a Major Hurricane, Im out of here with days to spare!  My neighbors can have my freezer contents, or whatever they can find in the house!! 

So with less than 48 hours until the "official start" (note that we have already named 2 storms already!)  Are You Set?

Even if you are not in a Hurricane Zone, ARE you set for whatever local emergencies could impact you?  Are you ready for Zombies? 

[clean]

The CDC IS ready for Zombies:

https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/educate-checklist.htm

And if you google Zombie Kit several Amazon sites pop up! 

So No Excuses!

[apl68]

Not in a hurricane zone, but we have lots of violent storms each year.  Any given household is likely to lose power two or three times a year, and the whole town at least once.  Tornadoes hit our county every year, but rarely in a populated area.  Some low-lying dwellings are vulnerable to flash flooding.

I've gone back and forth on whether to get a small generator.  So far all I've got is several flashlights--one hand-cranked--that I keep around the house and at work.  Rumors of bad weather sometimes cause runs on supplies at stores, but nothing like the shortages of certain things we've seen with COVID-19. 

TP now seems to be in good supply.  I guess everybody finally has as much of a stockpile as they feel they need.  Cleaning supplies are still hard to find.  Actual consumer use of them has gone up drastically, so naturally that's harder for manufacturers and suppliers to catch up with. 

You should try having to keep a business or institution that's open to the public stocked!  Every week or so I go on a scavenger hunt through several local stores trying to obtain wipes, disinfectant sprays, hand soap, and disposable gloves.  Only this morning a staff member got a hot tip regarding a shipment of wipes.  I sent her out with the company credit card to snag some.  We've been able to order adequate hand sanitizer from a regional supplier, but even they haven't had disinfectant sprays.

[Thursday's_Child]

It's a good time to be thinking about hurricanes, since there have already been two named storms...

[polly_mer]

It's fire season here and we're ready.

However, everyone's fingers are crossed in the community because it's an anniversary of a memorable disaster and we don't know if all the changes will be enough while we're on lockdown.

We're much better prepared for zombies in this community than for hurricanes!

[onehappyunicorn]

Hurricane season makes everyone around here nervous. While I'm far enough inland to usually avoid the worst of it I have volunteered several times in the last couple of years to go and help with cleanup down closer to the coast.
We have over a month's worth of dry food storage and probably a week's worth of water. I should probably go pick up some more water but it's such a pain to store. 

[clean]

Strawberry Pop Tarts!

Included on the list of things that WalMart ships to stores in the impact zone is Strawberry Pop Tarts!  It seems that those are big items for storm preppers.

So... IF you are preparing for a hurricane OR Zombies, be sure to add them to your shopping list!

It is not too early to stock up on Campbells soup!  It should be back in stock now. 


In Zombie Land, one of the title characters craved Twinkies.  What should you make sure that you have in your containers to be sure that you are prepared for whatever you should prepare for?

I have 3 footlocker sized storage boxes filled with my hurricane supplies. They reside in my 'office' bedroom.  Where are your supplies stored?

(speaking of which... I should check the expiration dates on some of the things like batteries and glow sticks to be sure that Im not kicking myself soon!)

[Vkw10]

Flash floods are an issue here, with mid-April to mid-June being the main season for flooding that knocks out power and causes blocked roads. I am prepared with water, batteries, oil lantern, and sandbags for entry doors.

I check supplies on New Year's Day. I also update my insurance photographs on New Year's Day, saving a set online and ordering prints which are mailed directly to brother for filing a thousand miles away. I just filed brother's latest set of set of insurance photographs. He lives in hurricane zone, so he updates them on my birthday in May.

[backatit]

So there is a reason for Strawberry Pop Tarts. You cannot rot the things. I found a box (from one of the teenagers who is now in their 20's) in the back of the closet and popped it open the other day just to see what they were like after 10+ years in a closet. Yup, they are still fine. Cheap, sugar fuel that you can eat without electricity is prime hurricane supplies. White bread and peanut butter, too. Ick. I don't like any of it, so my hurricane supplies tend towards Campbells chunky soups, particularly sirloin burger, and spaghetios. For some reason I can eat both without heating them (they are both kind of gaggy but if you get hungry enough...). I also have boxes of clif bars - those are prime, though, and have to be rationed. Chips are good - you want stuff with a lot of salt to make you drink a lot, because it's hot hot hot. This year I have a screen tent (we already have a generator so the hack is you put a fan in the tent and it's not as bad to sleep in, if you can sleep through the unholy racket of the generator. Getting up at 4am to add gas isn't fun, either. I would be a lot happier if hurricane season came during the winter...

[apl68]

Raccoons apparently like Pop Tarts.  I once went camping and woke up in the morning to find that the Pop Tarts we'd planned to have for breakfast had all been eaten.  i assumed it was a raccoon because the packages had all been opened fairly neatly.

[mamselle]

Rascal and his buddies knew you were there....

M.

[clean]

Named Storm off Mexico. 

Current (probably unreliable) 5 day forecast shows that it could be somewhere between Houston and Mobile.  (The entire coastline of the  state of LA).

Are you ready?

How are your plans changing in these Covid19 Days?

Im in a hurricane zone.  My primary plan is evacuation.  However, the current forecast is calling for only a tropical storm by Sunday, so I would not be leaving for a tropical storm anyway.  However, these days, I may have to rethink my preliminary plans and make more plans to stay for a Cat 1 and even a Cat 2 storm.  Im still leaving for a 3 or above! 

[Vkw10]

Where will you evacuate to? Family, friends, motel inland?

When Katrina hit, I was working about 150 miles north of the Gulf Coast, in an area that had spinoff tornadoes but didn't lose power. University opened a couple of empty dorms, scheduled for demolition, to evacuees associated with university: relatives of employees or students, alumni, people who heard radio announcement while driving north. I think the longest anyone stayed was two weeks, but the first couple of days those dorms had families with five or six people sharing two rooms with bathing facilities down the hall.

[Hibush]

Not in a hurricane zone, tornado zone or wildfire zone.

There will likely be some periods of sunshine in the next few months, something we have not had since the middle of last year. So I am stocking up on sunscreen and making sure there are stores of water in the various places I might be.

[apl68]

Tropical Storm Cristobal's remnants are forecast to hit us next week after moving inland.  Could be some heavy weather, which always means a possibility of power loss.  We're probably too far north to receive any evacuees, unless there's a real catastrophe south of us this season.  I hope for their sake that those along the Gulf don't have to evacuate for long in all this COVID-19 business.

We're already looking at rain in the coming days.  If we get a lot of it, the downpours from Cristobal might hit an already saturated situation.  That would be a mess for low-lying spots in town.