Hurricane Sandy

[so lucky]

Well, I'm glad to see that somebody in that area was prepared for a disaster. Good for your brother! Hope things continue to improve there.

 

[FarmerChick]

oh yea my bro is nothing like me for prepping, but he is smart enough to have some small preps like water around LOL

that genny he will wire into the propane tank will certainly help him in the future with storms and snow and all that

 

[so lucky]

I am really really wanting to get a generator or some kind of power converter to keep the freezer from thawing, and maybe for a little heat, in a winter emergency. DH is resisting me ("too much trouble, too expensive") but a few more scenes like Sandy and maybe he'll be convinced.

 

[FarmerChick]

heat is so important! we bought a 100 gal. propane tank, and small decorative propane fireplace for the living room. It has saved us a few times already. No power my elec. heat doesn't work--but with the fireplace the house was 74 and comfortable and we did great thru winter outages. Best darn money I spent.

I need a new genny. Our little one died and we haven't replaced it yet. I also have 2 big freezers in the garage that are very important. my freezer food is alot of money

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I know what I think about the whole situation, but hard to say this.....Well, we always hit. So everything we do, is with the knowledge that a flood will come. Even my coop has a place for the chickens to climb up on, when the water rises. All the houses are up on chainwalls, blocks (of varying sizes, depending on the need) or (like me) very high up on pilings. Most people are changing their roofs to metal, because they seem to be much stronger. Things that are built on the ground and need to be protected, must be sandbagged and have a few pumps, with an extra power source to access. All moveable items must be picked up, high and dry......In short, we pretty much always prepared and what extra preps we do is just to look around and pick everything up or tie it all down.
The very things that most of us talk about here on SS, regularily are probably completely foreign to a city dweller, who has lived their entire life in a huge building with 50 other families. Smart of the brother to have gotten a few supplies to use as power sources though.
It is sad. Wouldn't want anyone to think I don't sympathize, but I really think its not so much the strength of the storm, but where it hit. I guess its not really necessary to contract to build something with a hurricane in mind when no one really thinks a hurricane is coming. We saw footage of a beach home being ravaged by waves.....the thing was build flat on the ground, which absolutely never happens here. I saw pics of a subway with water washing in....where was the blockade.......and the pumps?
Alright......I probably said too much already and I'm sorry. I live in the south and I don't know about the north or their problems, but when the monster comes, I'm generally all picked up, with lots of food, water, clean clothes, toilet paper, baby wipes, fuel (of various types), batteries, meds and prayer books. I won't need to go to the store for a few weeks. A lot of these people must have been completely freaked out to see how dependent they are on outside services.

 

[Denim Deb]

Big problem is that people want beach front homes, so they got rid of the dunes. W/out the dunes, the protection from this type of storm is gone. While we've never been hit by a storm of this magnitude B4, we do get frequent nor'easters and the remnants of hurricanes. And, I know that years ago, there was a bad storm in Ocean City, NJ. I don't recall when it was, nor what kind. I just know it wiped out several blocks. When I was a teenager, those areas still hadn't been rebuilt. I don't know if they ever were. That was when I learned about what storms can do and made the decision then that I'd never have a house that was vulnerable to that type of damage.

If you look at a map of the Jersey shore and see how narrow these barrier islands really are, it's not surprising that there was this type of damage. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

I know I'm better prepared than most, but we didn't have enough gas for the generator if needed. And, I didn't have the money to go out and get more. We were lucky in that we didn't need it. But, if we do get hit w/the nor'easter next week and our power goes out, I don't know how soon they'd be able to fix it w/all the mess up north. So, I'm planning on talking to hubby about getting more gas for just in case. Our generator is not full and we only have a 5 gallon container filled.

Now, the bike is full and I even have spare gas for that. I just haven't been able to ride all week since it's been nasty out. This is the most miles I've put on my truck in a week in a long time. We went from nice, warm sunny days to cloudy, miserable cool days. We've not really had any sunshine since B4 Sandy hit.