Perilous P’s Lessons from Hurricane Ike

I was out in the truck on a lunch run when the radio news update reminded me that June 1st is the official start of the hurricane season (we’re already two letters down in storm names, so a tropical something jumped the gun).

I’d taken classes through my church. I’d made 72-hour kits and refined the contents (mostly with chocolate). I’d watched a multitude of weather broadcasts and could talk the hurricane talk like a pro. I’d been side-swiped by larger storms, driven through floods for smaller ones, and evacuated a couple of times.

The only thing I hadn’t done was sit out an actual, big, bad hurricane in my own house. Until Ike.

Ike was an interesting storm and really worth it’s very own blog, but this about lessons from Ike, not Ike.

While I still stand by these items from my suggested list:

I would like to proffer the following suggestions for being actually prepared, as opposed to believing you are prepared.

We didn’t have a flooding problem where we live, because we’re like 50 feet above sea level (I seriously almost got a nose bleed when we ascended our little mountain after 18 years below sea level), so the boat was not needed (though close at hand). But I’d have to say, after a gas powered fan and the boat, there were two things I was grateful to have:

An old style phone that didn’t use electric power and emergency head beam flashlights.

When the power went out, our son could watch our television station on his computer (from distant high ground) and call to tell us when and how we were going to be hosed. Flashlights we could strap to our foreheads allowed us to find the phone to answer his calls. It also had some other uses, since it was hands-free light in a very dark world.

What I did have to do for the first time was use the 72 hour emergency kits. Eat from them. Wow. All those suggested items might make sense from a calm, logical, planning kind of place. But here’s how I’d suggest you buy food for a 72-hour kit if you plan to actually eat from it:

When you are STRESSED TO THE EYEBALLS, and hungry enough to eat your own arm…

….go to the grocery store and buy at least twice what you need and typically get when stressed…

…then save at least half of it for your 72-hour kit.

And when you’re pretty sure the storm is heading your way? Buy donuts.

You’ll be really glad you did. 🙂 (You won’t even care that they aren’t totally fresh.)

Anyone else have any hurricane enduring tips to share? Deep, dark hurricane fears? Other storm stories? Something you wished you’d had when disaster struck? New to the Hurricane Risk Zone and have questions?

Here are some useful Emergency Preparedness links:

Hurricane Preparedness – lots of good advice here.

Are You Prepared?  – More tips here.

National Terror Alert Suggested 72 hr kit contents

LDS Church has lots of preparedness suggestions and an extensive list of links.

Buy a headlamp, hands-free flashlight here.

A Bug-Out Planning Guide with some very useful advice.

And we can’t forget that hurricanes aren’t the only thing to prepare for:

A Basic Guide for Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse– Includes the CDC list.

Wired.com look at how to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse – information on types of zombies and weapons here.

More Survival tips and a place to share ideas on Tumblr.

Want to know your chances of surviving zombies? Take the Quiz.

Perilously,

Pauline