Hurricane Season is upon us

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preslove

Lifer
Sep 10, 2003
16,755
63
91
Originally posted by: RedSquirrel

Yeah but what about loosing all your stuff and having to rebuild? That's got to suck, or do you just get used to that too? I've seen pictures of after a hurricane. Just a huge pile of rubble.



Generally speaking, it's the barrier islands where the real destruction is. If you're inland & board up your house, you're usually fine. Unless a tree falls on your house.

Plus, you know that a hurricane is coming. Tornadoes have to be much worse. It just starts storming & then boom, its there. You can't really prepare well for them.
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,328
126
I know its already been touched on but having fuel on hand can not be overstressed. I have lived through the aftermath of over a dozen storms and by far the most valuable commodity is gas. After Katrina I could trade a single gallon of gas for a weeks worth of food/water or a case of beer/pint of liquor or anything else you can imagine. OTOH, you were real lucky to be able to trade anything FOR gas. All those folk that went out and got real nice generators and 2 5 gallon cans of gas found out how much gas those gennies suck real quick.

I keep 50 gallons of gas year round in 5 gallon cans. I have 2 55 gallon drums I fill up during hurricane season with a hand pump to transfer it into the 5 gallon cans. Its a bit of a pain to rotate but well worth it when you really need it.

One thing I wish I had during Katrina that I have now is a solar charger (or crank) for my cell phone. I know a few people that where litterally on hold while sitting on their rooftops when their phones went dead. If you get into a bind you definately want a way to tell someone. A lot of phones today can tell you your exact location via GPS making it much easier for them to come get you.... as long as it works. I added one of these to my kit this year as well. I always have plenty of AA on hand so it could come in real handy.
 

marvdmartian

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2002
5,548
19
81
I lived in Guam for a total of 7 years, and spent plenty of time inside waiting out tropical storms and typhoons (western Pacific version of a hurricane). While they build a bit more sturdily there (reinforced concrete structures, including the roofs......imho, what the rest of the USA's hurricane and tornado alley regions should've switched to years ago!), we still prepped for storms by preparing for the worst.

Here's what we did, that I haven't seen mentioned here:
1. Don't just remember to get drinking water prepared, remember that you'll want to bathe and possibly flush toilets too! We always kept 2-3 of the inexpensive Rubbermaid 33 gallon trash cans on hand, and filled them with a hose before the storm. If you have a sturdy post outside, you can lash them to it (clothes line works great for this), but remember to lash down the lids as well. In a pinch, you can even use this water for drinking, though you might want to add a few drops of bleach per gallon if the insides of the cans weren't pristine before filling.
2. Along with gasoline cans, you might consider getting a bottle of STP gas treatment. When my sister (who was also in Guam) got hold of a generator after one typhoon, we went down to the local gas station to fill the gas cans they had.....and immediately noticed that the generator speed governor wouldn't hold steady, and was constantly "hunting" for the proper speed to run the engine. We tried draining the gas, and filling it again, same problem. I ran down to the auto supply store, and picked up a little bottle of STP, and put one cap full in the tank (and vigorously shook the generator to mix......after that, I just added it to the tank before filling). Like I figured, the gasoline had water mixed in with it, from the storm forcing water into the filling station tanks during the storm (and it hadn't had a chance to settle yet). Not much, just enough to keep the gasoline from being good enough for the generator.....but the STP works well enough as a gas dry that it worked! :)
3. Battery driven devices. One thing I learned after my first typhoon was that batteries ran out VERY quickly, but only in the common, popular sizes. Within a day or so after the storm, we couldn't find a D cell or AA battery to save your life! After that, I made certain that my battery driven radio and flashlights were powered by C cells, which were found in abundance. In a pinch, you can find battery adapters that will allow you to put a C cell inside, that will substitute for a D cell, but not sure if they make them to substitute AAA for AA batteries.......easier just to have an oddball battery need.
4. If you're going to feed your generator into your house's electrical system, the safest way to do so is to make (or have made) a pigtail that goes from the twist-lock "contractor" 220vAC socket on the generator, and has a plug for a clothes dryer on the other end. This is assuming that your dryer is on an outside wall, with a short (through the wall) duct for the exhaust. You feed the pigtail from the generator, through the dryer duct, to the dryer plug, and then MAKE CERTAIN YOU TURN OFF THE MAIN BREAKER TO THE HOUSE, AS WELL AS EVERY OTHER 220 VOLT BREAKER!!! As was pointed out earlier in the thread, you can backfeed your generator voltage to the neighborhood electrical wires (which is why you turn off your main breaker.....also keeps the electric company from blowing up your generator when they kick power back on to your house!!). Also, you're not going to be able to run anything nice like the A/C with your generator, and you don't even want to think about running your electrical water heater with it either. Lights, fans, even your refrigerator can be run off a 4K generator, but that's about it. If you have a laptop, stick with that (you can live without your gaming desktop for a while, can't you?? ;) ).
5. If you can't (or don't) board your windows up, at least reinforce them with some duct tape before the destructive winds hit. Once you've opened up your house by having a window smashed, it's much more likely you're going to see major structural damage to the house. I survived a class 5 typhoon (Super Typhoon Paka, in December 1997) with my windows taped with duct tape in an asterisk pattern (up & down, across from side to side, and from corner to opposite corner both ways). Where I lived, we had winds that were gusting well over 150mph. People who taped their windows with cheap packaging tape (cellophane 2" tape) pretty much had broken windows after the storm.

Another thing to remember, and this is most important of all. If you're lucky enough to experience the eye of the hurricane, please don't make the mistake of getting too far from your shelter!! I experienced this during my first typhoon, and was amazed that all of a sudden we went from 130+mph winds, with white-out conditions (horizontal rain) to relative calm in just a matter of minutes. My brother in law and I went outside to assess any damage (and tied down a couple things that had been overlooked, as well as secured the tv cable to the neighbor's house, so it wouldn't whip around and hit anything). We pretty much had the eye centered right over us, and it was pretty large......we had 45 minutes or more of calm, before the other side of the eye wall hit us. But when it did, we literally went from calm conditions to murderous winds again within a matter of minutes. If you're caught outside when that happens, you will NOT enjoy it!! Also, don't be surprised if trees that survived the first half of the storm topple during the second half, since all of a sudden they're being slammed in the opposite direction, with a weakened root hold in some very soggy soil.

Best of luck to everyone within the hurricane zone. Personally, I now live ~350 straight line miles from the Galveston area (about the closest to the coast to me). If we see a hurricane up here, I'm likely going to go outside and watch it go by, in utter amazement!! :laugh:
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,894
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Claudette cranking up pretty well due west of Tampa, may be a Hurricane by end of today.

Bill looks like going to be a monster storm. Looks very impressive and just shy of being name a Hurricane right now.

Anna a little slower in developing but still chugging.

So much for the "slow" Hurricane season.

Glad I am up near Canada for a change.
 

JohnCU

Banned
Dec 9, 2000
16,530
4
0
claudette is only few hours away from land, no way it will make hurricane status

bill looks awesome on satelite
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,894
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: JohnCU
claudette is only few hours away from land, no way it will make hurricane status

bill looks awesome on satelite

depends on if it slows down, it;s not far away from 74.

Bill is cranking up so fast it has sucked all the energy away from Anna.

Bill is looking to be a mean one.
 

sao123

Lifer
May 27, 2002
12,648
201
106
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Claudette cranking up pretty well due west of Tampa, may be a Hurricane by end of today.

Bill looks like going to be a monster storm. Looks very impressive and just shy of being name a Hurricane right now.

Anna a little slower in developing but still chugging.

So much for the "slow" Hurricane season.

Glad I am up near Canada for a change.

upon further review, id says its been a slow season so far.
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,076
136
Originally posted by: sao123
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Claudette cranking up pretty well due west of Tampa, may be a Hurricane by end of today.

Bill looks like going to be a monster storm. Looks very impressive and just shy of being name a Hurricane right now.

Anna a little slower in developing but still chugging.

So much for the "slow" Hurricane season.

Glad I am up near Canada for a change.

upon further review, id says its been a slow season so far.

It really has been. My go-bag just sits in the corner collecting dust. :( I wish I had time to at least take it and go camping.
 

JDub02

Diamond Member
Sep 27, 2002
6,210
1
0
pretty disappointing hurricane season. this is my 3rd year along the east coast and we still haven't got a good one yet. :p
 

Minerva

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
2,115
11
81
What hurricanes?
This winter is probably going to be a bear with nor'easters though.