The Hurricane Jeanne update.
Yet another hurricane this year to draw lessons from.
Would a moderator please be so kind as to modify the thread title again to read " [Prep] POST- <strong><i>Jeanne</i></strong>, Ivan, Frances & Charley Hurricane Prep Lessons Learned"?
Thanks!
Well, for a first in a life time of living in Florida we took significant damage to our home from a tropical storm. A tree fell and punched four holes in the roof, one of which was in our bathroom. Water immediately began to pour in through the hole, through the attic, and into the bathtub. I've got two feet of batting and blown in insulation up there that I was concerned would start soaking up that water not to mention the other damage it would do so the hole had to be covered right away.
Here are two lessons that I actually already knew but had not kept up with like I should have so had to relearn them. Maybe some folks here can profit from the mistakes of others.
The first is getting the chainsaw maintenanced regularly. I've got an extra chain, plenty of bar oil, fuel mix, gas, and so on. But there are certain items that wear from regular use, such as the dogs that engage the motor when you pull on the starter rope. I knew mine were getting close to needing replaced, but hadn't done it yet. Fortunately, the Sunday of the storm I had no problem cranking the saw so I was able to get the tree off the roof. This was partially because once cranked I never shut the saw off because with the wind blowing steady somewhere between 50-60 mph and higher gusts carrying intense rainfall with it so I was concerned that if it shut off it might not start again for being soaking wet. It was the next day after the storm when I wanted to get the part of the tree laying against the wall of the house removed that I couldn't get the saw to crank because the pulley wouldn't engage the motor. It was a twenty dollar repair that the mechanic had ready twenty four hours after I dropped it off, but it was lost time. The moral here is before the season starts get the saw maintenanced. I try to keep my serious sawing for the winter time, but from now on it'll be ready to go for serious work come June of every year. Chainsaws are part of the emergency equipment and thus must work the first time every time.
The second lesson is keeping a proper inventory of emergency gear. The food, fuel, water, weapons, communications, batteries, camping gear and so on I know how much of what I have and where it's at. My screw up here was my tarps. When the tree fell it punched a hole through the roof and ceiling over the bathtub which put it near to the outer wall of the house. The tarp has to cover from the ridge down to past the hole and be wide enough that water wouldn't seep in from the edge. Now I <i>knew</i> I had some large tarps, but when I had to find them on the run I couldn't. I came up with a half a dozen eight by ten tarps, but nothing larger and I needed at least a ten by twelve. Fortunately I was able to swipe the tarp we use for a pool cover that is ten by fourteen and use that. My carefully conserved and clean pool water is now full of leaves, but that's a small price to pay for keeping water out of the attic. I still think I've got some larger tarps somewhere in my McGee's Closet of a workshop, but as I can't lay hands on them it's the same as not having them at all. Next year I'll damn sure include these things in my physical inventory. Holes in the roof in a driving storm is a recipe for major interior water damage so big tarps should be considered emergency equipment. During the storm you won't be able to run out and buy one and immediately after the fact there may be none to buy. Get some now, keep them on hand, and know where they are when you need them when minutes count. I'll have more concrete blocks on hand too. The two dozen I used to weight the tarp down with included some I had to scrounge out of places like my wood rick, gate, and so on.
Non-home damage related lessons that we learned from Jeanne.
This time around we didn't try to keep the refrigerator chilled. Once the storm knocked out the power we moved everything we wanted to keep into the pre-prepared coolers and anything else that couldn't take being left on the counter we tossed - maybe five bucks worth of seldom used stuff. A bucket of water with Lysol and bleach and a cloth and we wiped the insides of the refrigerator and refrigerator freezer then left a bleach soaked rag inside with the doors closed. No spoiled food and stinking refrigerators to deal with and didn't have to run extension cords to keep it chilled using the gen-set. I had emptied the refrigerator freezer the night before and filled it with the spare plastic food containers filled with water to freeze. By the next day they were frozen solid and I used them in two of the three coolers. Could have used them in all three coolers, but we'd also bought some ice the day before so didn't need to. Next time we'll probably not buy any ice. Didn't have to touch the ice in the chest freezer at all which meant it stayed frozen longer than it would have otherwise.
We solved the bathing problem with a very simple device. A one-quart yogurt cup with eight holes drilled in the bottom in a ring. Each hole was 1/8th inch in diameter and I think 3/32 would have been better still. Each person got one four gallon bucket of warm water in the tub with them. Scoop the cup full of water and hold it over your head. It runs out slowly enough to make maximum use of the water flow while still getting the soap off. Could have taken a good bath on just three gallons of water to include washing my hair and shaving, but I splurged and used the entire four gallon bucket (the square detergent buckets we get from the grocery). Between one quart to a half-gallon of boiling water will warm up the remaining three and a half gallons of cold water enough to make it pleasant to bathe with. Would have preferred to bathe on the back porch to keep the humidity out of the house, but after Frances the mosquitoes have gotten so bad that after dark we simply had to use the tub in the bathroom out of self-preservation! The yogurt cup was actually a Model Two. The first was a margarine container that I'd drilled about a dozen quarter inch holes in, but that allowed the water to flow out too fast to make the most efficient use of it.
Since we had the luxury of advance warning we cooked a number of meals like stews, casseroles, and soups, then froze them in sealed plastic containers. These were used as part of our cooler ice until they were needed. A simple reheat on the camp stove and we had a real home cooked meal without the fuss and mess of preparing one from scratch after the power went down. We had actually cooked these for the approach of hurricane Ivan, but he went to the Panhandle instead of here so they were still in the freezer. MREs and Dinty Moore are OK if you are caught by surprise, but if I have the time to prepare in advance I prefer home cooking. Next time I'll freeze the meals in slightly smaller amounts so that we won't have any left overs, but it's hard to judge. If I've been sitting on my butt reading a book waiting for the storm to blow out I won't usually have seconds or thirds. If I spent the last four or five hours on the roof with the chainsaw in the wind and rain protecting the house then I may have thirds on the stew and a big stack of Oreos for dessert to boot!
To my surprise on the Friday before Jeanne arrived my local Target had three of the Coleman 8 D-cell lanterns that I've been wanting to try out so I bought one. These things are set up to take either 8 D-cells or two six-volt lantern batteries. I keep D-cells so that's what I used. We'll be buying one of the 4 D-cell lanterns as well (shorter) because they work well. The low setting is plenty for giving you enough light to see to get dressed, bathed, wash dishes and so on. On high it's bright enough to read and write with. Coleman claims 18 hours of operation on high, twenty seven (I think) on low. One caveat though is to buy at least one spare fluorescent bulb when you get the lantern. I was rather surprised that one of mine is already going bad. I think it's just a bad tube and not an indicator of short work life because fluorescent anything usually lasts a long time if not abused.
Anyone else have lessons from Jeanne they want to share?
Or maybe lessons from other hurricanes this year or in years past?
.....Alan.
