Some Lessons Learned from Hurricane Michael

The best way to learn how to deal with future disasters is to learn from past disasters.  In the case of Hurricane Michael, there have already been some good information coming out that can help others prepare for such an event in the future:

• A reddit post about lessons learned from Hurricane Michael
• Puerto Rico provides lessons on resilient power
• This house was built to withstand Hurricane Michael
• Lessons learned from Hurricane Irma
• More lessons learned from Hurricane Irma

10 Tips for Hurricane Prep

If you are in the Gulf Coast you probably already know a hurricane is heading your way.  For those of you who have recently moved to the area from somewhere that doesn't have hurricanes, here are some tips to get prepared:

1. Go to the store immediately and stock up on food, water, and supplies.  Don't wait until 24 hours before the hurricane is set to hit before you go to the store or the shelves will be empty.
2. If you need to sandbag areas around your home to keep potential flood waters out, find out if free sandbags are being given away in your area (check city/county emergency management department, public works, roads department and local news for this information).
3. Bring in or tie down anything in your yard that could fly away during a storm (garbage cans, patio furniture, building supplies, yard tools, etc).
4. Follow the news on potential hurricanes heading your way multiple times a day.  Local news as well as the NOAA Hurricane Center are good places to check.
5. If you have hurricane shutters determine when and how to put them up.
6. Be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice if an evacuation order is given.  Also, learn ahead of time where your local evacuation shelters are if you have no other place to go.
7. If you decide to stay in your home, be prepared for a power outage and water source failure.  Store lots of water (a gallon per person per day), food, alternate methods for cooking food, alternate heating sources, alternate ways to charge your electronics, etc.
8. If you or a family members is ill or infirm, consider evacuating way ahead of time (ie: someone who requires electricity in order to live shouldn't wait until the power goes out to figure out what to do; if someone is 8.999 months pregnant they should evacuate to a secure area with adequate medical services ahead of the hurricane because EMS may not be available during the worst of the storm).
9. Gather the family together prior to the storm (no one should be traveling through the storm to get home; if they can not get home before the storm hits they should stay somewhere safe until the storm passes).
10. Once the storm has passed, be prepared to do minor to major clean up.

Find general hurricane prep tips here, here, and here.

25 Hurricane Dangers

If you have been watching the news today (literally every station) you will have seen the non-stop reporting on Hurricane Irma which is hitting Florida as I type this.  All of this coverage provides a lot of 'lessons learned' about prepping for a major hurricane.  These are the many dangers that a hurricane can pose and what you need to prepare for if you live in a hurricane-prone area:

1. Strong winds blowing down power lines.  These can electrocute you as they fall on you, as you are driving or walking near them and they arc, or if they fall into the flood water you are walking in and they are still charged.
2. Strong winds blowing things (signs, trees, debris, roof tiles, etc) into you.  This can also be deadly as it doesn't take a very big object, when propelled by high winds, to cut a person in half.  When the winds blow, stay inside!
3. Flood waters/storm surge.  First you see a little water blown in by the hurricane and moments later the entire first floor of your home can be inundated.  And it doesn't take much rising, fast-moving water to carry a person/car/home away.  Always seek shelter in a stable building, preferably with a couple of floors so you can go up as flood waters rise (and put an ax in the attic in case you need to escape through the roof).
4. Loss of power.  High winds bringing down power lines will result in no power, often for days or weeks.  If you rely on electricity for refrigeration/heat/air conditioning/hot water/etc. you will need to plan for alternate power sources until electricity can be restored.
5. Loss of drinkable water.  Municipal water systems as well as private wells can be subject to failure when the entire area is underwater.  As soon as a water system is deluged with untreated flood water (and all of the crap mixed into it), the stuff coming out of the pipes can cause illness and even death.  Store water, learn to purify water, and learn what water can't be purified (ie: water laced with oil and other chemicals).
6. Gas stations without gas.  Gas is critical for people to evacuate an area but even if you decided to hunker down in your own home, getting gas after the storm recedes can take days or even weeks to be brought back into a storm-ravaged area (especially if the gas stations have been flattened).
7. Stores without food.  First there is a run on food before the storm is set to hit and then...no more food for anyone.  Again, it could takes days or weeks for trucking and food supplies to get back on track to fill up grocery store for evacuees who are returning and for those who decided to ride out the storm at home.  Plan accordingly.
8. Looting.  Today on the news a video crew caught a bunch of people looting a shoe store.  I can kind of understand if people are looting a store for food because they are starving but Nikes and Adidas are hardly a life-saving commodity.  This just popped up on my news feed, looks like the scumbags got caught.
9. Evacuating to a shelter.  Getting to the shelter was part of the battle, wondering if the shelter would even remain standing was another concern, and then having to worry about what, if anything, the people would return to after getting the all-clear was another.
10. Staying home instead of evacuating.  One guy couldn't bring his monkey to a shelter so he decided to stay home with the creature.  Another person on the news said it would be too hard to evacuate her very ill mother so they stayed at home.  Others who voluntarily chose to remain home instead of evacuating were blasted by social media.
11. No work, no pay.  While there were some social media threads about very generous employers telling their employees to evacuate and they would still be paid no matter how long it took the business to get back on its feet after the storm, most people weren't so fortunate.  No work means no pay for many people and there was no way to determine how long these people would be without work.
12. Decimation of structures.  Homes, businesses, condos...every structure in the path of the hurricane will suffer some sort of damage, from a few missing roof tiles to broken windows to the building being completely flattened.  Housing is going to be a huge issue after the storm passes.
13. Tornadoes.  If being in a hurricane wasn't bad enough, many networks reported tornadoes being spotted around the hurricane's path.  Needless to say, the destruction from a tornado can be just as bad--and deadly--as from a hurricane.
14. Water everywhere.  Obviously not a good thing.  Water damage--from heavy rains to flooding to standing water after the fact--means ruined homes, washed out roads, washed away cars, and, if the water sits long enough, it can be a breeding ground for disease.
15. Evacuating ranged from stressful to impossible.  Many people drove (along with several other million people) to escape the storm only to find gas stations out of gas, and their planned six-hour trip to a drier part of the state took 20-30 hours.  Many people weren't prepared for such an extremely long evacuation.  And then there were those who tried to fly out of the area, again with several other million people.  There were only so many planes and so many seats and towards the end, when all planes had to be out of the area, many, many people were left stranded at the airport as there were no more seats left for them.
16. A hurricane hitting a major tourist area posed even more problems.  Each year several million tourists come to Florida whether for Disney World, to catch a cruise, or to go to the Keys.  So not only did emergency planners need to figure out what to do with all of these extra people, the tourists themselves, who may have been extremely prepared at home, had few if any preps with them.
17. No help when you call 911.  Emergency responders were very clear, and the news networks reinforced the message, that after a certain point in the storm, all first responders were going to shelter in place and no calls to 911 would be answered (well, they may have been answered but no police or medical were dispatched).  When you have people on stand-by to help after the worst of the storm passes, the last thing their bosses are going to do is send them out into deadly situations and hope they return in one piece.  This is common during all disasters so people are basically on their own during the worst of the storm and for some time afterwards (usually right after a disaster the first group of responders sent out are doing evaluations of the situation and not rendering individual aid).  Example here.
18. Sorting out the mess afterwards is going to take work of epic proportions.  There is insurance to deal with, FEMA, clean up, rebuilding...  Here's an interesting article on the topic.
19. Curfews are a thing.  For both people's own safety as well as quelling looters, many jurisdictions issue curfews before, during, and after a major disaster.  This is just something to be expected.
20. Many people rely on the internet for all sorts of things.  Apparently last minute hurricane preps shouldn't be one of those things.
21. But of course social media can be a lifesaver providing all sorts of information including a reddit live thread, local emergency info from local news stations, and the ability to check in as safe.
22. The down side of social media...dumb people.  TIL You aren't supposed to shoot at hurricanes.
23. As with any disaster, there are things people should and shouldn't do, check out this list of things not to do during a disaster.
24. And from the "I can't believe people would do that' file, many people abandoned their pets to the hurricane.  Sad.
25. Finally, some interesting things learned: Tesla can remotely extend the range of their vehicles (cool and creepy at the same time), some cool maps of the hurricane evacuation, and some lessons learned from Katrina.

10 Lessons from Hurricane Matthew

Fortunately the direct hit to Florida from Hurricane Matthew didn't happen.  It was still a good learning experience, however.  Here are ten lessons learned from Hurricane Matthew...

1. Prepare NOW for the next hurricane and/or natural disaster that will happen.  There is no excuse to be playing tug-o-war over the last loaf of bread at your local grocery store, a couple of hours before a hurricane is set to make landfall.  This is what stores looked like just before Hurricane Matthew was set to hit Florida last week.  By stockpiling food and supplies now, purchasing plywood to board up your windows now, and (safely) storing extra fuel for your vehicle now, you won't be one of the people left with scraps when the next disaster happens.
2. Double up your emergency fund.  Here is what it cost one family to evacuate Hurricane Matthew.  A lot of poor people were SOL when it came to evacuating simply because they had to money to do so.  Fortunately the emergency planners in Florida were made aware of this sort of situation after Hurricane Katrina and were able to use school buses to take people to shelters who would have otherwise been unable to evacuate due to having no vehicle or having no money for gas.
3. I can't believe people would say that since they evacuated and nothing happened this time, they won't be evacuating again.  In the world of preparedness, 'plan for the worst and hope for the best' is the attitude to have.  This was an excellent way for people to test their evacuation preps, and most people were only inconvenienced and not seriously injured or killed--that is an excellent result.  I highly recommend following government orders to evacuate, even if it seems like in the past, out of an abundance of caution, the powers that be have "cried wolf" a time or two.  The time you don't evacuate could be the time your area gets a direct hit from a Cat 5 hurricane.
4. And realize that disaster forecasting isn't an exact science.  While disaster forecasts may be completely off (like the recent warning about a major earthquake which was to hit the southern California area) or they may be slightly off (Florida didn't sustain a direct hit from Matthew as was forecasted) at least people get some sort of warning ahead of time (which is better than the alternative).
5. While we are fortunate to live in a large enough and rich enough country that a hurricane such as Matthew can have a nearly immediate emergency response, that infrastructure can be put back together rapidly, and that there are places to easily evacuate to for safety, other countries such as Haiti are not so fortunate.  This is the initial after action report from Haiti.  Read and learn from this.
6. When it comes to priorities for preparedness, the lives of you are your family are paramount.  Stuff can be replaced but people can't.  There will always be some scumbags who take advantage of other people's misery, but staying home during a mandatory evacuation order just to protect your stuff isn't worth it.  This is where good insurance--and a good inventory system--comes into play.  Of course a good video surveillance system is also a way to protect your stuff (well, not so much protect as to capture photos of looters which can be used for later apprehension and prosecution).
7. And for the love of all that's holy, DON'T DRIVE THROUGH FLOOD WATERS.  People often associate the power of a hurricane blowing people away (or blowing things into people) for deaths directly related to hurricanes but drowning actually kills the most people during and after a hurricane.
8. After the preparedness and the evacuation, you will come home when given the all clear.  But your work isn't done yet.  Generally after any sort of disaster you will need to clean up and repair/rebuild what was destroyed (often with less that normal services available such as no power even after the disaster has passed).  Be sure to have clean up supplies and tools on hand for use when you return.
9. And even though Hurricane Matthew focused a lot of the nation's attention on Florida, much of its damage has been felt further up the coast.  This goes to show that while the national news can give you an overview of what is happening, you really need to pay attention to local news sources (local TV news, local newspapers, local social media reports from the DEM, law enforcement, etc) and react accordingly to what is happening in your immediate area.
10. Finally, I found this little gem of a website when keeping updated on the hurricane...marine traffic in real time.  Fascinating.

Hurricane Preps

If you are in Florida at the moment you (hopefully) are either evacuating or getting ready to ride out the hurricane heading your way.  All of the major news outlets are covering the storm, and reddit is lit up with useful news and information here, here, and here.

As usual, news reports highlight the unprepared..."In Jupiter, resident Randy Jordan told CNN affiliate WPEC people were pushing and shoving their way through the local Home Depot to buy supplies ranging from batteries to flashlights.  "The vibe on the street this morning is pre-panic," Jordan said. "By tomorrow, it should just be a brawl."

Really, this shouldn't even be a thing but it takes something like looming death for some people to think that maybe they should stock up on a bit of food and maybe get a flashlight.

The bottom line is that EVERYONE should be prepared for any sort of disaster whether you live on a beach prone to hurricanes or inland where there are no real natural or man-made disasters.  There should be no reason for you to be slogging through the masses because you have no flashlights or batteries or stored water (but I'm sure most of you know that already).  It's pretty much a guarantee there will be some sort of emergency event during the course of your life which will require #1 stockpiled water, #2 stockpiled food, #3 stockpiled money, #4 stockpiled emergency supplies, #5 bugging out, and/or #6 bugging in.  And for the love of all that's holy, don't fire up your generator indoors (which you also know but I was rather surprised that many people on reddit had no idea why that was a bad thing).  

For more info on prepping for a hurricane, check here, here, and here.

Hurricane Irene: 10 Lessons Learned

Now that the East Coast is mopping up after Hurricane Irene, we can quickly parse the lessons learned:

1. Stay informed.  With some disasters, there is no warning, but hurricanes, wild fires, flooding, and other disasters usually provide for ample warning.  Pay attention to the news and plan accordingly.
2. Always keep your home stocked with food, water and other necessary items.  It never fails, right as a disaster is scheduled to arrive, the news crews are out videotaping people trying to stock up at the grocery store, fill their cars up with gas, and buy plywood to board up their windows. Don't be one of these people.
3. Use social media to get the latest info on what's happening.  FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit, text messaging, and emails were the most common way to get immediate information on what was happening.  The hurricane even got it's own Twitter handle here.
4. Expect that parts (sometime many parts) of the infrastructure will break down. In this case, people were left without electricity, roads were closed, and emergency response was not as quick as usual.  Plan accordingly.
5. Consider evacuation and have a plan to do so.  Mandatory evacuations are generally...well...mandatory, however there were plenty of people in mandatory evacuation areas who researched the risks and calculated worst case scenarios and decided to stay.  Which ever you decide to do, you of course should take full responsibility for your actions.  And again, plan accordingly.
6. Be ready to evacuate, just in case.  This includes everything from having a full tank of gas, to having your BOB ready to go, to being able to grab critical items (cash, ID, prescriptions, food, water) and being ready to head out the door at a moment's notice. 
7. Make a pre-event checklist for disasters that are likely to happen in your area.  Add to the checklist any items that are unique to your situation.  In the case of a hurricane, items on the list may include: tie down or bring in things that could fly away outside (garbage cans, outdoor furniture) and keep your yard free from items that could cause a problem (ie: cut down dying trees, route potential flood waters away from your home, etc).  Additionally if you are responsible for a sick or elderly relative, their needs should be on your list as well.
8. Realize that disasters can strike anywhere.  An earthquake in Washington DC?  That's pretty rare but it just happened.  A hurricane in Connecticut? Again, rare but it happened last night.  A tornado in Maryland? Ditto.
9. Work within the limits of technology.  Just a few decades ago, there would be a disaster and people would sit in their cold, unelectrified homes and read a book to pass the time.  These days, if people aren't online 24/7 they go into withdrawals.  Some hints: send text messages instead of making calls on your cell phone right before, during, and right after a disaster since text messages will go through but phone calls won't when the cell towers are overloaded, use the internet on your phone instead of internet at home (with no power your modem probably won't work anyway), and have a way to charge your electrical items in your car should your house be without power for a long time.
10. Check your insurance coverages.  According to this article, many homeowners impacted by Hurricane Irene won't have the proper insurance coverages to pay for damage done during the disaster. Yikes.

I hope all of our readers who were impacted by the hurricane are safe now.  Clean up will no doubt take a bit of time, but if you were prepared ahead of time, the after effects should be much less than for those who were totally unprepared.