What's your areas most likely disaster and how are you prepared?

[ticks]

High winds, hail, tornado!, snow, ice.
We are not prepared and we really don't have anything, because we really don't live in fear of this stuff. I'm not waiting for a storm, so I have no use being Pre-prepared. If its in the forecast, we might go buy a couple jugs of water in case. Probably not though, if we don't have any thing than tough luck.

 

[Fairacre]

I'm in SE Florida and must be prepared for hurricane season, which if from June 1 - Nov 30. Though Aug & Sept are the most likely months, there have been storms at some time during most every month. We can also get tornadoes, during or outside of hurricanes.

Fla still has a tropical storm washing over it at this time, causing all sorts of problems with heavy rains causing flooding and bringing some tornadoes. TS's have weaker winds than hurricanes & usually don't cause so much damage as this one has.

For hurricanes you need to have sufficient supplies to sustain your household for 2-3 weeks without electricity or outside help. You also need to have protection from the wind for your home, which usually consists of panels to fasten over the windows. You also need to store or secure loose objects in & around your yard. Folks in flood-prone areas, or by the sea, or in trailers should evacuate to shelters or other's homes that are more stable or on higher ground.

The worst of the hurricane itself usually only lasts for 12-24 hours. But the aftermath varys, and could leave you with days/weeks without power, phone or running water, and cause you to spend weeks/months doing clean-up, replacement or repair.

I have most of the tools & equipment I need for my household's hurricane survival, the water barrels, camp stoves, lanterns, battery-operated fans & radios, etc. I don't have a generator & haven't missed it. Each spring I begin collecting extra cans of soup, fruit, tuna, etc, and jars of PB, jelly, spaghetti sauce, boxes of powdered milk, cereal & pasta, and the big 5 lb boxes of matzo. I get them a little at a time when they're on sale (after Passover those big boxes of matzo go on clearance). If they're not needed during the hurricane season, they're consumed during the winter and replaced the next year.

My biggest liability is all the loose stuff I have around the yard. I'm always scrounging & collecting stuff, building materials & other useful items, and don't have a great big storage place for them. I know I need to be more mindful throughout the year to stash my stuff safely as if there were a hurricane already on its way.

 

[heatherv]

mostly likely disaster around here would be getting snowed in from a blizzard, and we're so far out in the woods, w/out 4X4... it takes several days (or a week or more) to get the roads plowed out this far. Then we live on a private road, which doesn't get plowed.

Other things that happen around here:

There are also tornado warnings, I saw a funnel cloud this Spring, but it went past us and landed a couple towns away. We are up on a hill, in the middle of the woods, so DH swears that a tornado can't land/form right here. (don't know why he thinks he's a meteorologist)

There was a pretty large wild fire this Spring also. We live right next to state land (300acres) so we worry about that. The one in the spring wasn't anywhere near us.

For the first time in my life I felt an earthquake!!! It was several states away, but we felt it in Northern MI! Crazy! The funny thing about it was that I thought there was a ghost in my room shaking my bed! Not kidding either! I started praying, and it wouldn't stop. So i got up and went downstairs to get away from it. LOL! DH was up b/c he couldn't sleep and the news was on and he told me there was an earthquake, and they mentioned it on the local news b/c they were getting calls about people feeling it.

I moved away from FL to get away from the hurricanes! I couldn't stand living w/out power for several weeks to a month after the hurricane. I'm not a heat loving person anyways.. but no fan in hot humid summer of FL is no fun! I worried about running out of water. I just felt like I couldn't care for my children after a couple wks of going through our emergency supply! I was nursing, and the heat was making me get dehydrated, and I didnt' want to drink all the water b/c the other kids needed it too. I just didn't like that... two whammy's in a row, too close! I can handle the slight possibility of a tornado coming (duck for cover and pray) but when a hurricane comes... it's much more damage than a tornado... which makes the aftermath last much longer. I can handle being snowed in for a couple weeks... not prepared to do it w/out heat though.. working on that one!

 

[Betsy]

I guess I would have to say, Straight Line winds (very damaging) - hail - possible tornados - and as dry as it is... fires from individuals burning trash unattended, ice storms.

I took a class for 16 weeks called C.E.R.T (community emergency responce team) we were all trained to know what to do in any disaster. From bandaging a wound to marking a door on a house that we had just searched for survivors or fatalities. Mainly we were trained to keep our thinking straight in a disaster.

We were trained on what to store and how to properly store it and how long we could keep it stored.

It is a really neat program and anyone can take the class. You also get CPR Certified and Advanced First Aid Certified.

Hey, I'm a CERT too! I highly recommend the program. Not only do you learn how to be prepared for disasters and what to do, but you're trained and available to help your community.

Floods and tornadoes are the biggest threat in my area. We CERTs already got activated once this year to help sandbag during February's flood. Thankfully it was minor.

 

[Nuggetsowner:)]

We worry most about tornados (already had two hit our house) and blizzards/ice storms.

We are very prepared in both situations. Our pantry is always well stocked. The freezer always has plenty in it. I am a toilet paper freak and if we don't have at least three packages I start to freak out. I would hate to run out of TP. We heat with LP and we have a wood burning stove so we are good there. We have a generator to run the well pump, but we usually start by filling up the tub and then we always have gallons of drinking water in the pantry. I also fill plastic jusgs and keep them in any "extra" space in the freezer.

I feel pretty comfortable that if we can survive the "disaster" we would survive what comes after!

 

[k0xxx]

Here, in north Arkansas, it could be a tornado (we had an F4 pass about 100 yards to our northwest in Feb.), wild fires, ice storms, and earthquakes.

Provided our home is still standing after the event, we have:

1. about three months minimum of food in the walk-in pantry
2. a combination of gas and propane fueled generators
3. oil and kerosene lamps (5 gallons of each stored in the shed
4. 185 gallons of drinking water stored
5. 375 gallons of water stored for other uses (flushing, etc.)
6. a wood stove that can be used for cooking
7. a permanent shelter set up to cook outside using wood, charcoal, or propane
8. solar charged, golf cart type vehicle if there is no electricity to pump gas
9. Amateur radios that can run off of batteries that are either solar or generator charged
10. a nice first aid kit
11. A bunch of misc. supplies (tarps, different size trash bags and "zip lock" type bags, duct tape, etc.)

And I'm sure that I am forgetting some...

In the future, we hope to add:

1. additional solar capacity
2. solar space heating (being worked on now)
3. a diesel generator (for maximum flexibility)
4. a storm shelter

(edited for spelling)

 

[the simple life]

Wow! You are really prepared, good for you.
I hope you never need though.

 

[k0xxx]

We were without grid electricity for seven days in February due to the tornado than passed near our home. That was our longest test so far. We fared well, with only minimal inconvenience.

We learned a few lessons, though. Since then we have added the solar panels, and moved our large water tank for non-potable water up the hill, about three hundred feet from the house. We are in the process of installing an underground run of pvc pipe, so that we can gravity feed the water to our toilet. We could flush normally when we had a generator running and powering our well, but other times using a bucket to flush, got old quick!

Before the tornado, we only had 55 gallons of drinking water stored. We have tripled the amount now to enable us to be able to wash dishes more often. The paper products were great, but you can't cook in them. At some point I would like to add a solar pump for our well, but we'll have to do a bit of saving before then.

We bought a second generator because my live-in father-in-law is on an oxygen machine. We were (and he was) glad that we did. It makes re-fueling and checking the oil nice when you don't have to be in a hurry.

Originally living southeast of New Orleans, we learned the importance of being prepared due hurricane season. It just carried over when we moved into the hills.

Sorry for such long posts. This is just a subject that is "near and dear" to me.

Mark

 

[the simple life]

Not a long post, glad to hear it. I am impressed at how prepared you are.
If you don't mind me asking what kind of generators do you have?
We bought a Briggs and Stratton and then we were looking at a second one the other day and the only one they had in was a Champion, which we never heard of so we were hestitant to buy it.

 

[ams3651]

We usually end up without power due to snow or ice storm or stuck on this side of the river due to flooding. I bought a Buddy Heater a couple years ago that takes those propane cylinders. Its good enough to warm a room if I really had to for a few hours. We would never starve if we had to stay close for a few days, I keep basic supplies and my stove is gas. Theres a store that a family runs off part of their house about 2 miles away if necessary. My dad and gram live about 3 miles away and have freezers full of food plus they live on a different power line so even if mine is off theirs is on.