dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Since it is hurricane season- I thought a thread about it might be a good idea. Anybody is welcome to post tips to help things go safer or recover easier- or just talk about their experiences with hurricanes.
I grew up in central Florida, so when the coasts got the hurricanes -we felt pretty safe. Took lawn chairs and stuff like that inside, bought some water, some canned goods, emergency candles and batteries for the flashlight. . . . Then you wait it out, and pick up some stray branches and some trash the next day. A few people would get roof damage from old or weak trees falling over, but that would make the news. Your lights might blink a few times or you might lose power for part of a day. The general advice was to have a full freezer so the stuff would stay cold till the power was on again. Sometimes a community would have a boil water alert for a while.
I always felt safe, after all, I lived far in from the coast. It wont happen here . . . Hurricanes always lose power by the time they hit Orlando.
After all, the last one that hit Orlando hard was in the 1950's- before I was even born. There was unwritten rule that hurricanes leave it alone.
2004 broke the rule. Charley was the first hurricane in 40 years to still be dangerously strong - in Orlando. It arrived on Friday, August 13th, 2004.
Hint- When a hurricane is coming on Friday 13th, it might be a bad one.
Around lunchtime- they said the hurricane was turning NW and would go through Orlando. I got off work early, cleared the yard, trimmed some branches and stuffed them in trash cans. I put the cans against the house in the walled courtyard. They were under the roof drip-line so the rains would fill them and weigh them down. It actually worked- got lucky.
By late afternoon, the storm tracker radar was saying it would get to my neighborhood at 10:20 pm. They were right.
The winds were howling by 9:30. It got pretty wild around my old place. I made myself remember the prep stuff I'd done. Then I looked at the pets, cause they tend to find the best spots around to weather storms. They were still in the room- which was reassuring. Then I remembered that I'd already asked for protection from the storm, and got calm. The electric went off when the eye was close.
At 10:18, I heard a new sound. WOMFFF WOMFFF WOMFFF I fell asleep soon after that. I didn't find out what that sound was till morning. Found out Charlie's wind speeds were clocked at Orlando's airport at 105 mph. They were probably weren't too much below that in the neighborhood.
Woke up once, used a candle to get to the bathroom, then tried to look outside. Opened the door and couldn't see anything but black. Not even stars. . . .
Opened the door in the morning and everything was green in front of me- instead of black. Couldn't see the sky. Walked around a bit, and realized that we had 3 big oak trees- laying on their sides, in the front yard. It was challenging to find any of the driveway, . . . or the yard. Realized that when a entire leafy oak tree gets uprooted and laid over by the wind it sounds like WOMFFF. We had 3 nice wide tree trunks sideways between the house and the street. It was only about 30 feet from the front door to the sidewalk.
2 of them weren't our trees either, but Mother Nature was feeling generous, so we got them. I learned to use a chain saw.
Checked the phone lines and told the family I was okay. Later that day the phone didn't work. We only had service half the time for a week. Same situation with the cell phone because of overloaded networks.
Hurricanes Frances, and Jeanne also got to Orlando soon after. Once the 40 year lucky streak was ended- we made up for lost time.
I missed work each time from the bus system shutting down and road closures. Some of the roads were closed off from trees and downed power lines.
- Mass transit was suspended during the hurricane and 3 days afterwards, till they assessed the damages, to see if the roads were safe to travel.
Speaking of power lines- our electric was off for 10 days. I had lots of candles, and some tiki torches and oil to see with.
I got food poisoning once from guessing Wrong
if something was still safe to eat. Pitched the rest of the frig contents when I recovered.
I got real tired of cold showers too.
Tips-
Power failure meals- My job had a good generator and got grid power back a week before my home did. I made hot food at work. Put some frozen dinners in in my lunch bag and stuck it in the freezer. I ate stuff that didn't need cooked at home or heated up the grill and cooked on it. Pans can go on the grill too but smear soap on the bottom so they will wash easier.
Communication- Charged my phone at work (turned off so they wouldn't notice). Make calls quick so other people can use the network too.
Hot showers- Got a solar shower bag later. I Love it! Fill it, put it outside in the AMand let the sun heat it up. Hang it on a strong shower curtain bar later when your ready to shower in your real bathroom. Or hang it from a strong tree branch and shower in a bathing suit. You could make a privacy curtain for more options.
Repairs- Have a couple big tarps for emergencies. The stores will run out of them after the storm.
Have a chain saw too if you have trees or live near them.
I grew up in central Florida, so when the coasts got the hurricanes -we felt pretty safe. Took lawn chairs and stuff like that inside, bought some water, some canned goods, emergency candles and batteries for the flashlight. . . . Then you wait it out, and pick up some stray branches and some trash the next day. A few people would get roof damage from old or weak trees falling over, but that would make the news. Your lights might blink a few times or you might lose power for part of a day. The general advice was to have a full freezer so the stuff would stay cold till the power was on again. Sometimes a community would have a boil water alert for a while.
I always felt safe, after all, I lived far in from the coast. It wont happen here . . . Hurricanes always lose power by the time they hit Orlando.
After all, the last one that hit Orlando hard was in the 1950's- before I was even born. There was unwritten rule that hurricanes leave it alone. 2004 broke the rule. Charley was the first hurricane in 40 years to still be dangerously strong - in Orlando. It arrived on Friday, August 13th, 2004.
Hint- When a hurricane is coming on Friday 13th, it might be a bad one.
Around lunchtime- they said the hurricane was turning NW and would go through Orlando. I got off work early, cleared the yard, trimmed some branches and stuffed them in trash cans. I put the cans against the house in the walled courtyard. They were under the roof drip-line so the rains would fill them and weigh them down. It actually worked- got lucky. By late afternoon, the storm tracker radar was saying it would get to my neighborhood at 10:20 pm. They were right.
The winds were howling by 9:30. It got pretty wild around my old place. I made myself remember the prep stuff I'd done. Then I looked at the pets, cause they tend to find the best spots around to weather storms. They were still in the room- which was reassuring. Then I remembered that I'd already asked for protection from the storm, and got calm. The electric went off when the eye was close.
At 10:18, I heard a new sound. WOMFFF WOMFFF WOMFFF I fell asleep soon after that. I didn't find out what that sound was till morning. Found out Charlie's wind speeds were clocked at Orlando's airport at 105 mph. They were probably weren't too much below that in the neighborhood.
Woke up once, used a candle to get to the bathroom, then tried to look outside. Opened the door and couldn't see anything but black. Not even stars. . . .
Opened the door in the morning and everything was green in front of me- instead of black. Couldn't see the sky. Walked around a bit, and realized that we had 3 big oak trees- laying on their sides, in the front yard. It was challenging to find any of the driveway, . . . or the yard. Realized that when a entire leafy oak tree gets uprooted and laid over by the wind it sounds like WOMFFF. We had 3 nice wide tree trunks sideways between the house and the street. It was only about 30 feet from the front door to the sidewalk.
2 of them weren't our trees either, but Mother Nature was feeling generous, so we got them. I learned to use a chain saw.
Checked the phone lines and told the family I was okay. Later that day the phone didn't work. We only had service half the time for a week. Same situation with the cell phone because of overloaded networks.
Hurricanes Frances, and Jeanne also got to Orlando soon after.
Once the 40 year lucky streak was ended- we made up for lost time. I missed work each time from the bus system shutting down and road closures. Some of the roads were closed off from trees and downed power lines.
- Mass transit was suspended during the hurricane and 3 days afterwards, till they assessed the damages, to see if the roads were safe to travel.
Speaking of power lines- our electric was off for 10 days. I had lots of candles, and some tiki torches and oil to see with.
I got food poisoning once from guessing Wrong
if something was still safe to eat. Pitched the rest of the frig contents when I recovered. I got real tired of cold showers too.
Tips-
Power failure meals- My job had a good generator and got grid power back a week before my home did. I made hot food at work. Put some frozen dinners in in my lunch bag and stuck it in the freezer. I ate stuff that didn't need cooked at home or heated up the grill and cooked on it. Pans can go on the grill too but smear soap on the bottom so they will wash easier.
Communication- Charged my phone at work (turned off so they wouldn't notice). Make calls quick so other people can use the network too.
Hot showers- Got a solar shower bag later. I Love it! Fill it, put it outside in the AMand let the sun heat it up. Hang it on a strong shower curtain bar later when your ready to shower in your real bathroom. Or hang it from a strong tree branch and shower in a bathing suit. You could make a privacy curtain for more options.
Repairs- Have a couple big tarps for emergencies. The stores will run out of them after the storm.
Have a chain saw too if you have trees or live near them.
We had a good storm roll in on us back in TN and I ran to the truck to get the windows closed. I no sooner closed the windows and truck door to have a clap of thunder boom directly overhead. Doc said my feet never touched the ground getting from the truck back up to the porch! 
