Hurricane Harvey AAR

[Mortblanc]

Everything does not flood. That is one of the myths being promoted by the media. In Texas only 25% of the land impacted by Harvey flooded. Some of that area was surge flooding so it was over and drained within hours. And many of us refuse to live on flood plains. The insurance is higher and the risk is too great. If you live in a flood plain you will eventually get water, just like if you live on the beach you will eventually get a hurricane.

Irma is carrying less water than Harvey. Only about a foot of rainfall, Harvey had 5 feet. The elevated areas in the central and northern parts of Florida will drain even if flooded. The storm surge does not cover the entire world, just the coastal area. That is generally what the media focuses on because the sight of beached boats and swamped buildings is a big sensation.

You have to remember that everything shown my the media is for attention grabbing impact and not really to inform you of the truth. Same goes for the current predictions. Cat5, Cat 4, sounds bad, but the storm brushes off power as it moves across land and by the time it reaches the northern part of the state it will be cat 2. By the time it reaches Atlanta it will not be a hurricane.

Storage of materials is viewed differently over here. Unless one is just starting independent life as an adult, or lives in an apartment in an urban area where space is a premium and owns only the clothes on their back then storage area is considered a necessity of life. We insist on storage space because we have "stuff". In suburban areas as much as 1/4 of the square footage is storage area with more outdoor space, and most homes are larger than over there.

In addition we do not get rid of our "stuff" if we do not use it more than once a week to live a less encumbered life. We get more stuff. I bet a pint that CH has almost every item on that list stuck away somewhere, or a replacement to use instead.

The guy that dies with the most "stuff" wins!

Room for the workshop is a necessity, as is the place to store the gen-set, and the water, and the food preps, the garden tractor, the chain saws and weed whacker hanging on the wall and the power tools. And all this "stuff" is owned by the average guy next door. They are not even preppers!

Of course we are not talking about "end of the world preps". The average family over here will have a week or two of food in the pantry, most a bit more. Buying in bulk is the present fad as well as cooking family meals. Not everyone is stuffing their face at McDonalds every night, just like not everyone over here weighs 500 pounds.

10 years back hurricane Ike came inland and still had 70mph winds when it reached 1000 miles inland. Trees went down everywhere and the power was off for two weeks. While the winds were still blowing everyone in the neighborhood was out with chain saws moving the wood, running cables for the gen-sets from one house to another, snatching batteries out of the vehicles and hooking up inverters to run lights and fans, duct taping deep freezers shut to preserve cold air and cooking food on the propane grills. The whole neighborhood turned out.

I am a poor soul and I have more than 500 sq/ft of storage space including the workshop with space under two of the areas for parking garden equipment and storing lumber. Also does not count the full preps I keep in the vehicles. I could live a week out of either one of those suckers.

I also selected my place based on security from flooding and several other factors such as access to a large body of water, wood and open rural country.

If you do not have built in storage space you rent it. I am not kidding. If you live in an apartment you rent storage space or it is included in the apartment contract. Storage space rental is big business over here. I own the outbuildings I have because it is cheaper to buy the materials and build on site than to rent the same size space for a year.

You see we expect the weird, unexpected and excessive. That is our norm for disaster prep and you can not deal with the excesses unless you have the proper "stuff". Also one of the reasons many Americans view your preps as totally inadequate. They would be for our needs.