Big Country Expat offers an acerbic, occasionally profane, and very practical look at hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina after Hurricane Heléne, and what he's doing to prepare near Tampa, Florida. (His home is right in the bullseye of where Hurricane Milton is expected to come ashore tonight or early tomorrow). An example from his report:
Speak of fuel and whatnot… a interesting thing we saw: On the way home we saw ‘cop lights’ coming up going Northbound on I-75, not in hi-pursuit but escorting -something- That in itself wasn’t the odd thing… we see **** like that everywhere, all the time right?
In this case, Sapper and I both thought “oversized load” until we saw it was Two Florida State Police Cruisers escorting a RaceTrac Fuel Truck!
THAT was a first in 20+ years and multiple -other- storms I’ve been through in the past. I’ve not seen an ‘armed escort’ ever here stateside… Mind you, I did see on Twitter a mention of a near-riot in or around Sarasota (south of me) that some asshole pulled a handgun and tried to hijack a gas truck that was trying to refuel a service station… Mind you also there’s been ZERO mention of anything like that on even the local news, so the Memory Hole is activated like a mother****** I’m guessing. I’m personally not sure if I’m more worried about the memory hole or that things are already that potentially bad already. Time will tell.
Load another magazine and watch my lane I suppose…
There's more at the link. Entertaining and worthwhile reading (albeit profane in parts).
Karl Denninger reminds us of several essential basics in preparing for any sort of disaster. There are many more, but these are fundamental and must be addressed first. Emphasis in original.
Concentrate your efforts on the basics of human need because in a disaster that's what matters most and expect even in a population area to be able to self-provide for at least a week. The first and most-basic human need is air; if you can't breathe it you're dead. Fires and toxins are real risks, but they're also ones that when it comes to breathable air your best option is to run at the first hint of trouble no matter where you are.
Second is drinkable water. Assuming you are not inordinately stressed you might make three days. You're probably worthless in two days and children are more susceptible to serious dehydration because their skin area is larger on a percentage basis, so they typically cannot make it past two days and are effectively useless in one day. Do not expect help to reach you under any circumstance until roughly that amount of time and perhaps more. Even with "local" relief that ignores exhortations to not go help personally (like here after Helene) it still will take that long because until people can get in there that's just how it is.
Any allegedly "fresh" water source after a disaster has to be presumed contaminated and unsafe unless you have the means to treat it, and there are chemical contamination risks that cannot be reasonably mitigated in a disaster situation at all with water at ground level. If you have a traditional hot water heater and your home or other residence is physically intact you have somewhere around 50 gallons of usable water in it. It should still be filtered with a Sawyer and/or treated with Aquamira drops (yes, buy both well in advance!) before consumption, particularly after a few days, but it will not be full of contaminants because it was full of clean water when the system went down. Keep a short hose around for this purpose and make sure you turn off the electrical or gas feed so once you start using it when water is restored it does not "dry fire." If you do not have any source of stored water (e.g. you have a tankless system and didn't fill anything in advance) then bottled water is your next and last resort. Everyone needs to be prepared to deal with this all the time; even if you're on a private well if there's no power the pump won't work (more on that in a minute.)
Third is personal shelter from elements, which includes clothing and similar. Enough to be out of the wind and elements (e.g. rain, etc.) is frequently enough but not always. Being wet, particularly in wind, can nail you with hypothermia even in moderately cool temperatures and in colder temperatures it is rapidly deadly. Some of this is beyond your control and if your housing is destroyed in adverse circumstances securing from that problem is, after immediate threats (e.g. incoming flash flooding) your first priority. Tools of some description, all the way down to a pocket knife, make a difference -- perhaps a really big difference. Having some preparation against this (e.g. a shell rain jacket, disposable space blankets, etc.) is inexpensive and everyone should have at least some elements of that available at any time.
The last utter essential is personal protection. It would be nice if people didn't try to take advantage but some will. Remember that the option to accept a "lesser injury" does not exist when there is no prompt medical care available, and there won't be in this situation. Exactly what you choose to do in this regard is a personal choice and I won't go into it on this side of the blog but it is critical to remember that any significant injury can trivially wind up being fatal if you can't get medical attention for a day or two.
The rest is very situational but these first points are not.
Again, more at the link. Recommended reading.
Good luck to my friends and acquaintances in Florida as Milton draws near. We'll be praying for you.
Peter
The BCE writing of LEO supported fuel makes a lot of sense. With so many evacuating Florida at the same time, keeping fuel flowing to that area is imperative. Being stranded with a Cat 5 hurricane bearing down on you in less than 24 hours must be a bit stressful.
ReplyDeleteMight cause local fuel shortages as well for all of that fuel being directed over there. Better gas up now while YOUR fuel pump isn't dry. I filled up yesterday and noted over half of 20 pumps were covered due to out of gas.
" I’ve not seen an ‘armed escort’ ever here stateside…"
ReplyDeleteStateside. In the past 3.5 years we've involuntarily imported millions of folks not from "Stateside." I'd like to see some demographics and/or citizenship status on the offenders.
The police are escorting the fuel truck because the major highways being used as evacuation routes are logjammed with traffic. The police escort trucks filled with essential items like fuel so they can get through the traffic jams.
ReplyDeleteThe FHP police escort of fuel tankers is less "keep people from stealing it" and more "get out of the way, we're delivering gas!!"
ReplyDeleteThe good(ish) news for Florida is that we've had a few serious storms in the last decade, so people ARE paying attention to warnings for the most part. Especially here in North Florida, if we aren't impacted by a big storm every 7-8 years, we start getting cocky about it. I mean, last time we were actually hit by a hurricane in Jacksonville, the Beatles were a clean-cut boy band.
It's a stampede. Houston evacuated from Hurricane Rita, and the evacuees were in more danger on the road than staying. This led to a shelter in place recommendation for hurricane Ike, except in areas directly threatened by a storm surge.
ReplyDeleteLearned from my father as a wee lad. Carla back in the early 1960s, he lined the bathtub with a sheet of plastic of some sort. Fill it with water (allows it to fill completely to the brim). The excess plastic was used to cover over it. Now I use a plastic drop cloth. Filter if you want but using it a few times over a lifetime won't hurt you. Or just buy one of those tub bladders. About 20 dollars for those or 1.98 for a drop cloth. You can also use the water for washing or flushing.
ReplyDeleteThey make plastic tub liners (bags) specifically for this. Look up Water Bob. Some heavy duty bags don’t need the tub for support. They help keep the bugs out and stops the pets from drinking from you water! If you are in earthquake country staying in you home and using the water heater tank may not be an option due to damage/aftershocks. You can get 5 gallon “box wine” type kits. Mylar bag and cardboard box stores flat until needed. Finally,Water Bricks, 3.5 gal and they stack like legos - MacArch
DeleteYou love to see it. State of FL has gotten exponentially better at handling the storm/evac situation since I was a kid, and I've lived here most of my life. Always used to be an absolute trainwreck trying to get out of town-- schools did not shut down early enough, all the gas stations were out of gas, the roads were gridlocked. We have done so much to change that in the last twenty years. State and local LEOs organize ahead of an evac to get MORE fuel trucks in faster, to keep the gas stations supplied. The police escort isn't primarily to keep them from being robbed-- we're not that uncivilized yet--it's to keep them from getting slowed down in traffic. Cops flashing means everybody has to pull over and let them through. Before Helene, people were posting pictures on FB trying to figure out what the huge convoy of amblances on I-10 was all about: apparently, they sent them in from several counties away, to evacuate all the nursing homes and other special-medical-needs people ahead of the electrical grid getting knocked out. Thoughtful of them. But also in that time, I've watched all the main roads out of my hometown become four-lane divided highways with generous paved shoulders. During peak evac, they make all lanes go *out*. Evac is still a hassle, but everybody who wants to leave, pretty much can.
ReplyDeleteMust be a lot of positive incentives and a quality-of-life unmatched in the current "everything is still working" society to live in a place where a fast evacuation time preceding weeks of nearly-unlivable conditions and frequent rebuilding or gutting of domiciles is an almost certainty.
DeleteI'll take moving snow and possibly losing power for a long length of time while surrounded by frozen swamp and forest any day, but I'm from swamp Finn stock.
Kind of choosing beavers over gators, I guess.
Friend of mine had a bit of a side gig selling old fashioned manual water pumps for people to attach to their well heads when the power went out. Don't know how many he sold, not many I suppose, but it looked to me like cheap insurance. We try to keep about 300 gallons stored. One company sells a water purification product that keeps stored water fresh for five years.
ReplyDelete