Just heard on the news that Tropical Storm Hanna is very likely to become a Category 3 in the next few days, and is going to hit anywhere from Jax to the middle of S.C. And the worst thing is I’m right in the middle of it! Good news is I am living in a new house designed for hurricanes with steel strips tied in to the foundation holding the walls and roof to the foundation. (Spaced out about every 6 inches). Also have a large brick house about 60 miles from the coast which is probably were we will go.
City water so pressure as long as tank is full. Have to tell folks to conserve in case of fire. Also a generator to power the house. Filled plastic gas cans, boat and tractor for extra storage.
Anyone living on the east coast needs to keep their gas tank full this time of year! Also buy extra gas for your generators. Fill all your gas powered equipment as well, you may have to drain it later for your generator useage. Also gas stations may be closed for two reasons; one no power, two NO gas. After hurricane Andrew hit (August 1992)our biggest concern was getting gasoline. Another concern is to have emergency services on speed dial, if your phone still works, Most cell phones will be dead after a couple of days, no power to the cell phone towers. Repeat most cell phones won’t work after a major storm!
Damage from storms WILL include downed trees and power wires!!
City or county water may go out after a couple of days if power goes go out for a week or more. Have a five gallon jug (or something similar)on hand so you can go to a nearby pond or lake to fill it with water to flush your toilets. Like Chief mentioned fill your bath tubs with water before the storm hits!!
After Andrew hit we had very low water pressure and NO electric for seven weeks!
Hurricane or Tropical storm tip, buy rubbing alcohol or something similar as you can cook with it and clean up any small cuts as well.
Well, if we lose water pressure, there’s 12,000 gallons of pool water to use to flush with. The city has enough generators to power all the lift stations,and the sewage plant has it’s own backup generators. If Ike comes calling, and power goes out, the generator comes out. I’ve also got several 12V rechargeable 55AH batteries and a 600W pure sine inverter for the important stuff(TV/computer,etc.) Also got solar cell panels ready too–
Just finished watching the weather channel on cable, three named storms out there now! Hannah is the closest and most powerful, back up to almost hurrricane strength, 70mph.
I would stil have some kind of power source in the event of power loss.
When hurricane Charlie hit SC a few years ago, it tossed my wife’s car so hard that it knocked one of the trees in the yard partway over, and we lost power for a few days. The sad thing was, being a Pontiac (actually a Daewoo with the Pontiac logo on it), it was already junk.
We used a heavy duty rectifier attached to my 1985 F-150’s battery. It kept the fridge going and some light, and that was about it. (Having a truck with a 50 gallon capacity for fuel made for a decent amount of power generation). Having the truck equiped with remote start umbilicals allowed for charging without stepping outside and having to breech the wrapping and chains applied to keep plywood panels in place to prevent breaking the midship windows (pain in the rear to replace).
We even stockpiled charcoal and BBQ supplies for after the storm, to provide hot meals. (And to boil water) We expended our supply of MREs, between us having some, and helping out our neighbors.
Having a source of water, light, power, and heat will make all the difference.
Tell Dad to buy a generator. I can run my whole house except house A/C on one protable generator. With natural gas, can heat the whole house with generator running fan in furnace. Did that several years ago when we had massive ice storm. Town is lucky in one way. We are on forced main sewer and some houses have holdign tanks with pumps. Can only hold about three days worth of sewer and then public health issue. This puts Town on top priority with power company to restore within three days per the State health regulators. So far, this “deadline” has been met due to outages due to hurricanes and ice storms.
