Hurricane Harvey AAR

[Mortblanc]

This is information from a friend that lives in Texas. He remained in place during Harvey and is there now still coping with the situation.

This is his list of priorities. It is not MY list or opinion. It is information from someone on the ground in the middle of this mess. If you think you can do without 3/4 of the goods on this list or go down it throwing things out because "this is England" during your own disaster then I advise rethinking your approach.

I know from reading you guys posts for years that you do not have enough, but you feel like you are fine and if you are not it will just have to do. It does not just have to do and right now people who are British subjects are dying on small islands because they are in a situation where everything they have and do is not enough.

Remember, this is not homestead prep, or lights out overnight prep, this is life ending disaster prep.

______________________________________________

Some things I have noticed during a natural disaster.

• In this age of communication as never before in History, the hardest thing to get is valid information. We had internet as long as the power was on. We had Cell service throughout. I just installed the Zellow app on my phone. It allows access to information going on right now.
• Batteries are still essential but they are not enough any more. You have to have some way of charging cell phones for communication and obtaining information. I have a small “Justin” aux cell phone charger, a small “antigravity” battery charger and jump starter and a large battery pack jump started that will run or charge various devices. These items have to be well maintained and charged for when you need them.
• A (or more) generator is essential. They keep your food cold/frozen, your rechargeable devices charged and provide light and other amenities. They also can be used to run necessary medical equipment. It is important that you use your generator to its fullest. If it is on have everything that it can handle plugged in to recharge while you have it on. I only ran mine two hours every six hours to conserve gasoline and reduce wear and tear on the generator. You must have oil for the generator as well. It is continuous running and will use or at the very least break down the lubricating qualities of the oil. You must have sufficient oil in the machine or it will break and then you have no generator. Additionally, most generators have an oil level cutoff switch that will not allow the generator to run if the oil level drops below a certain point. It will appear to have oil in it but it will not run unless you raise the level. The only way to do that is to add oil.
• A DC/AC Inverter is good to have because you can create 110v AC from your vehicle battery. I have a 2000W Inverter.
• Fuel. You don’t just need gasoline for your car. You need gasoline for machinery (mowers/tractors, chainsaws, GENERATORS, and lanterns (gasoline type Coleman lanterns). If your vehicle or other equipment is diesel powered then you have to include diesel as well. Butane/propane. Butane burners can be used for cooking or heat. Butane BBQ grills for cooking. Butane Coleman stoves for cooking. Gasoline can be stored in regular gas cans or in any equipment that has a gas tank. Fill all equipment gas tanks whether they will be used or not. I filled my tiller tank and I did not intend to till the garden during the hurricane but I had that gas if I needed it. I also have a 27 gal tank on my boat. That is a lot of gasoline that I can use for a lot of purposes.
• Flashlights and lanterns. There are some very inexpensive but very serviceable lanterns and flashlights that have manually windup battery chargers in them. In fact they were the only lanterns that I have that would work, new batteries or not. I have two other battery powered fluorescent bulb lanterns that would not work when I needed them the most. The $12 Harbor Freight windups worked great. You don’t need to light up the world, just enough to see at night. You should have a very good, strong, unbreakable flashlight on hand all the time, which would include hurricanes. Plenty of batteries of all kinds is a must as well.
• Water. Of course buy all the bottled drinking water that you can and use it for that. Secondly, store and mark as such, as much potable tap water as you can. Certainly 5 gallon jugs purchased and kept for that purpose is preferable but any sanitary container capable of holding water should be filled and kept separately from other water. Thirdly, any other container not already in use should be filled with water. This includes tubs, buckets, children’s swimming pools, whatever... for flushing toilets and general washing of muddy items (you will have some mud after a hurricane). You cannot store too much water. One of my friends has an above ground pool. He has 27,000 gallons of water on hand for those non-drinking purposes. But still, you cannot have too much water. And, just because the water comes back on after an emergency situation does not mean it is safe to drink at that point. Having a supply beyond what you will ever need is not a bad idea.
• Food. Food should be of the non-perishable variety. Canned or dried foods. Peanut butter is a good food. Sardines, or canned fish is good energy food and after you eat a tin of sardines, you’re not hungry any more. Food is not really going to be an issue after a hurricane. If you had a freezer then you’re likely going to have some food you have to eat very quickly. Generators are a good thing, but they are not failproof.


List.

• Smart Phone and backup cell phone
• Recharging devices. Justin, Antigravity, 5InOne
• Batteries: D, C, AA, AAA, 9volt
• Generator. 6000W, Tailgators
• DC/AC Inverter
• 5 gal gasoline/day without power + plenty of 2 cycle oil.
• 5 gal diesel for Kubota
• 3 – 5 gal propane tanks. 2 – 7 gal propane tanks. Small bottle charger.
• Fill all vehicles and other equipment
• Two hand crank lanterns. One hand crank flashlight. Mag light. Two small unbreakable flashlights. One large unbreakable flashlight.
• 2 people. One case of water per day without water. Potable water – 5 gal per day without water. Non-potable water – 5 gal per day without water.
• Food. Sardines, crackers, canned goods, dry cereals, dehydrated foods,