#DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

[zinjanthropusboisei]

Noticed something a little funky in the world around you and want to figure out what's up? Especially if there might be something you ought to be doing about it? Not sure what information sources to trust these days? If you're in the US, federal agencies like NOAA, USGS, EPA and more collect massive amounts of scientific data every day, much of which is publicly available online - if you know where to look.

A PDF version with clickable links is available for free on my itchio page (quakeandquiver); I'll add a direct link in a reblog.

[thatdisasterauthor]

As climate shocks worsen, U.S. disaster agency tries a new approach to aid.

Another win for the Biden administration. They just made a lot of great changes to how people can get aid after disasters. It includes immediate payments, better protections for renters, and removing some weird hoops people used to have to jump through. It also has new stuff to help self-employed people replace lost equipment.

A great step forward in fixing some of our janky disaster aid system.

[artemis-pendragon]

Okay so I'm not in the hurricane evacuation zone by any means but I do live in a horrendously natural disaster-prone region SO!! Here are the best tips I've gotten for surviving in a disaster zone.

1) Write your name and your emergency contact's phone number in DARK PERMANENT INK somewhere visible on your skin (wrist is good) so if you're unconscious or dead emergency response can ID you and get in contact with your family/friends

2) If you have any particular medical needs or conditions write that too!! Specific medications + doses, warning signs and symptoms to watch for, etc

3) During the disaster, if your circumstances change or may change soon, record a new voicemail message explaining these changes so anyone who calls you knows your most recent status and location. Whatever details you think might help!

4) Stock up on Rx meds before pharmacies close. Get some OTC meds too and make a watertight and portable first aid kit. If you're gonna be in flood conditions and your Rx bottles aren't fully sealed, wrap the lids with duct tape to make a tight seal. If you've got tampons and pads in the house, stuff those babies in there! Good for everything from periods, to bloody noses and open wounds in an emergency! Plus they're super absorbent and can be used to temporarily block up small spaces and cracks

5) If there's no bottled water left in stores buy the biggest and cheapest bottles of soda you can, dump them out, and fill them with fresh water. If you have sinks and bathtubs that aren't expected to flood, fill those bad boys up with fresh water, too. Store as much water as you can!!

6) Put all important documents such as Social Security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, or anything else you want to save into waterproof bags. Ziplock baggies double sealed with duct tape along the closed seams are great! Double bag if needed!

7) Special cool new thing I learned about hurricanes that I'm probably the last dumbass on earth to know but just in case I'm not: even if a hurricane makes landfall as a Cat 3, if it was a Cat 5 over the ocean on approach it will bring in Cat 5 surge. Downgrading the wind speed doesn't downgrade the flood potential

8) TAKE THE BACKROADS OUT OF MAJOR CITIES OH MY GOD PLS DONT GET STUCK ON THE FREEWAYS IT'S HELL

9) Last but not least, if you can't afford to evacuate or don't have a place to stay, some people under videos and posts tagged with current natural disasters are offering temporary places to crash for those in affected areas for free!! I've seen multiple cases now of people offering up their guest rooms or couches to evacuees and their pets in the last week that have worked out ❤️

If anyone else has more tips, and more experience with this type of disaster specifically, please add on!! Love you all and hope everyone stays safe 💕

[neolithicsheep]

We are getting towards winter in the northern hemisphere so it's time for me to share my number one tip for surviving winter power outages from my time living off grid that isn't "get a wood stove installed".

Get a bed tent. You don't have to permanently install it with your mattress inside it although you will have to do some macgyvering if you don't. It will create a little cocoon that will stay warmer anyway but you can level it up a notch by buying a cheap king size comforter and draping that over it for more insulation. If your power goes out and you need to stay warm, load every pillow, blanket, and living creature that will reasonably fit into it and close the door. You will have a warm and cozy little cocoon to which you can add battery powered lights, a gallon jug of water to keep it from freezing, etc.

Also grab you solar lanterns (LumenAID makes great ones), soft beanie hats, hand warmers, and socks to sleep in, and consider sweaters for your pets for whom they're appropriate.

[writingwithcolor]

[Running Commentary] Zombies are Zombies: Cultural Relativism, Folklore, and Foreign Perspectives

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina: OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

Marika: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

Rina: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

~ ~ ~

Based on the reception we received the last time we did one of these, the Japanese moderator team returns with another running commentary. (They’re easier to answer this way) (Several of Marika’s answers may be troll answers)

Our question today pertains to foreign perspectives on folklore—that is, how people view folklore and stories that aren’t a part of their culture. CW: for anything you’d associate with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, really.

Keep reading for necromancy, horror games, debunking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Hong Kong jiangshi films, Japanese disaster prep videos, and Vietnamese idol pop...

Essentially, in my story there’s an organization who wants to end the world. They think this one woman in particular, a woman of mixed Vietnamese (irreligious, Kinh) and Japanese descent who spent her formative years in Japan, is the person to do it because she’s (for lack of a better term) a necromancer; powers are semi-normal in this world. She prefers not to use her powers overall, but when she does she mostly talks to ghosts and spirits that are giving people issues. She could technically reanimate a corpse but she wouldn’t because she feels that would be morally wrong, not to mention she couldn’t start a zombie apocalypse in the traditional sense (plague, virus, etc.) in the first place. 

(Marika (M): Your local public health officials would like to assure necromancers that reviving the dead will not provoke a zombie apocalypse. This is because necromancy is a reanimation technique, and not a pathogenic vector. Assuming that the technique does not release spores, airborne viruses, gasses, or other related physical matter that can affect neighboring corpses in a similar way, there should be no issue. However, necromancers should comply with local regulations w/r to permitting and only raise the dead with the approval of the local municipality and surviving family.)

M: I think it makes sense for most people of E. Asian descent, including Japanese and Vietnamese people, to find it culturally reprehensible to reanimate the dead. I imagine the religious background of your character matters as well. What religion(s) are her family members from? How do they each regard death and the treatment of human remains? Depending on where she grew up, I’m curious on how she got opportunities to practice outside specialized settings like morgues.

M: It’s true, space in Japan is at a premium, even for the dead. You note that most of Japan cremates, but, surely, it must have occurred to you that if there aren’t that many bodies in Japan to raise…she doesn’t exactly have much opportunity to practice with her powers, does she? I yield to our Vietnamese followers on funerary customs in Vietnam, but you may want to better flesh out your world-building logic on how necromancy operates in your story (And maybe distinguish between necromancy v. channeling v. summoning v. exorcisms). 

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina (R): OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

M: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

R: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

R: And yes, the Tofugu article uses Resident Evil and those games to support its theory, with the reason that they are set in the West. But that only suggests that Japanese people consider zombies a Western thing, not that Japanese people consider zombies nonthreatening if they were to exist. 

M: Same with vampires - series like Castlevania also use Western/ European settings and not “Vampires in Japan '' because vampires just aren't part of our folklore.

(M: Also, realistically, these series deal with individuals who quickly perish after their bodies are used as hosts for the pathogen in question, rather than the pathogen reanimating a corpse. Although the victims are initially alive, they soon succumb to the pathogen/ parasite and their organic matter then becomes an infectious vector for the disease. It should be noted, infecting ordinary, living humans with viruses to grant them elevated powers, is not only a major violation of consent and defies all recommendations made by the Belmont Report (in addition to a number of articles in the Hague Convention w/r to the use of WMDs) and is unlikely to be approved by any reputable university’s IRB committee. This is why the Umbrella Corporation are naughty, naughty little children, and honestly, someone should have assassinated Wesker for the grant money.)

R: wwww

From what I know Vietnam didn’t have a zombie movie until 2022. 

R: Do you mean a domestically produced zombie movie? Because Vietnamese people have most certainly had access to zombie movies for a long time. The Hong Kong film Mr. Vampire (1985) was a gigantic hit in Southeast Asia; you can find a gazillion copies of this movie online with Viet subs, with people commenting on how nostalgic this movie is or how they loved it as a kid. 

M: “Didn’t have a [domestic] zombie movie” is not necessarily the same thing as “Would not have made one if the opportunity had arisen.” None of us here are personifications of the Vietnamese film industry, I think it’s safe to say we couldn’t know. Correlation is not causation. It’s important to do your research thoroughly, and not use minor facts to craft a narrative based on your own assumptions.

(R: …Also, I did find a 2017 music video for “Game Over” by the Vietnamese idol Thanh Duy which features… a zombie apocalypse.)

(R: The MV has a very campy horror aesthetic and zombie backup dancers (which I love, everyone please watch this lol). But the scenes at the beginning and end where people are biting their fingers watching a threatening news report clearly establish that the zombies are considered a threat.)

So at one point, she laughs about the idea and remarks how ridiculous it is to think zombies could end the world. What I’m struggling with are other ways to show her attitude on the issue because I’d assume most non-Japanese readers wouldn’t get why she thinks like that. Are there any other ways to show why she thinks this way, especially ones that might resonate more with a Japanese reader?

R: The problem is this does not resonate in the first place. Your line of thinking is too Sapir-Whorf-adjacent. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, otherwise known as linguistic relativity theory, claims that language shapes cognition—that you can’t conceive of something if you can’t express it in your language. This is a very weak theory that you can easily bring evidence against: think of the last time you felt an emotion you had a hard time putting into words; just because you didn’t have the language for it doesn’t mean that you didn’t feel it, nor does it mean that you won’t be able to understand or recognize it if you feel it again. Similarly, it’s not a sound assumption to say that if some kind of subject matter does not exist in a culture, then people of that culture couldn't possibly conceive of it. This excerpt from linguist Laura Bailey sums it up quite well. 

M: Just because ghosts may be more culturally relevant doesn’t mean that zombies (or vampires, or whatever) are nonexistent in a Japanese or Vietnamese person’s imagination when it comes to horror and disaster.

R: Really,  if anything, Japanese people are much more attuned to how easily a society’s infrastructure can be destroyed by a disruptive force without adequate preparation. Japan is natural disaster central. A Japanese person would know better than anyone that if you aren’t prepared for a zombie epidemic—yeah it’s gonna be bad. 

M: Earthquakes, tsunami, typhoon, floods: Japan has robust disaster infrastructure out of necessity. 防災 or bousai, meaning disaster preparedness is a common part of daily life, including drills at workplaces, schools, and community organizations. Local government and community agencies are always looking for ways to make disaster and pandemic preparedness relevant to the public.

M: Might “zombie apocalypse prep as a proxy for disaster prep” be humorous in an ironic, self-deprecating way? Sure, but it’s not like Japanese people are innately different from non-Japanese people. Rather, by being a relatively well-off country practiced at disaster preparation with more experience than most parts of the world with many different types of disasters (and the accompanying infrastructure), it likely would seem more odd to most Japanese people within Japan to not handle a zombie apocalypse rather like might one handle a combination of a WMD/ chemical disaster+pandemic+civil unrest (all of which at least some part of Japan has experienced). Enjoy this very long, slightly dry video on COVID-19 safety procedures and preparedness using the framing device of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

M: Living in Los Angeles, I’ve often experienced similar tactics. We do a fair amount of advance and rehearsed disaster prep here as well. In elementary school, the first and last days of class were always for packing and unpacking home-made disaster packs, and “zombie apocalypse” simulations have been around since I was in middle school for all kinds of drills, including active shooter drills, like the one shown in this LAT article. The line between “prepper” and “well prepared” really comes down to degree of anxiety and zeal. So, it wouldn’t be just Japanese people who might not be able to resonate with your scene. The same could be said for anyone who lives somewhere with a robust disaster prevention culture.

M: A zombie apocalypse is not “real” in the sense of being a tangible threat that the majority of the world lives in fear of waking up to (At least, for the mental health of most people, I hope so). Rather, zombie apocalypse narratives are compelling to people because of the feelings of vague, existential dread they provoke: of isolation, paranoia, dwindling resources, and a definite end to everything familiar. I encourage you to stop thinking of the way Japanese people and non-Japanese people think about vague, existential dread as incomprehensible to each other. What would you think about zombies if they actually had a chance of existing in your world? That’s probably how most Japanese people would feel about them, too.

[victusinveritas]

[refugedepot]

Before you run those dandelions over with the lawn mower or douse them with weed killer, check this video out. Dandelions have various benefits, edible leaves rich in vitamins, diuretic properties, potential antioxidant effects, and use in herbal medicine. via @bodylovebytal

[wachinyeya]

This Hurricane-Proof Florida Development Easily Endured Helene, Ian, and Idalia–Proving Climate Designs Work https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/this-hurricane-proof-florida-development-easily-endured-helene-ian-and-idalia-proving-climate-designs-work/

[25centsoda]

I am Once Again thinking about disaster preparedness

and, like, what are we doing?? D’y’all know how many tornadoes we’ve had in my area in the last month?? Way more than usual! A lot more flooding in the past 8 or so years also. What are we doing.

also shoutout to FEMA (US Federal Emergency Management Agency) for finally including considerations for disabled people on their easy-to-find infographics on disaster preparedness, I’ve been reading these articles since I was like 7 years old and it’s nice to see more than the assumption that everyone in a household is young and able-bodied. It just takes a few extra lines to say, or one more infographic to make

[justalittlesolarpunk]

This is my last post before I head off on my ten-day minimal-internet tidalpunk adventure (expect pics when I return!) so I thought I’d make a nice long list-type thing for all you solarpunks before I go.

Now, this might not seem very cheerful compared to my other topics - certainly all the people I’ve brought this up with irl have acted like I’m being alarmist and depressing, but I don’t see it that way. I view it as being prepared and maximising your ability to keep yourself and your community safe, which is after all what solarpunk is all about!

So without further ado, here is my *extremely idealised* suggestion for an emergency kit list to help you cope with increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events. The goal is that with the supplies in this bag you could either shelter safely in place or get up and go, and be well supplied in either case to care for yourself and share with those in need. In fact, in both scenarios you would hopefully be able to temporarily ‘start from scratch’ in terms of infrastructure should the frameworks of society around you no longer be reliable. I based mine off suggestions by climate scientist Kendra Pierre-Louis (you can check out her advice on the ‘Unnatural Disasters’ episode of the How To Save A Planet Podcast), but yours might look subtly different depending on who you are, what you can afford/carry, and where you live.

Emergency kit list:

-Big hiking rucksack, to keep everything in

-Sleeping bag

-A small portable tent and camping stove

-A penknife or multi tool

-Matches or a lighter

-Kindling or firestarters - I use wood wool balls held together with wax

-Torch (with up to date batteries!)

-Towels

-Non-perishable or long-life foods, such as protein bars, rice cakes/breadsticks/crackers, dried fruit, bagged nuts/seeds, crisps, tinned soup, pot noodles

-A seedbomb of edible plants (you can get some for slightly excessive prices here in the UK, otherwise they can be made fairly easily by combining clay, straw, paper or flour with the desired seeds)

-Two large water bottles (600-650ml) and a water bladder

-A water purifier (preferably one capable of filtering out both natural pathogens like bacteria and viruses and synthetic pollutants like heavy metals and PFAS)

-A collapsible bucket

-A first aid kit, including plasters, bandages, sterile wipes, hand sanitiser, latex gloves, antiseptic/disinfectant, (K)N95 masks to filter out particulates (whether ash or pathogens), painkillers, antihistamines, rehydration sachets, anti-emetics and anti-diarrhoeals, steroid creams, aloe vera gel, iodine tablets in case of radiation, and any medication you regularly take (including epipens and inhalers if needed)

-A pair of goggles to protect your eyes from air pollution such as smog, wildfire smoke, etc

-Toothpaste tablets and a spare toothbrush

-Period supplies (pack these even if you don’t get periods - someone you run into might need them)

-A solar charger

-A satellite phone

-A mechanical handheld fan, with working batteries, to keep you cool in extreme heat

-A magnetic heat belt for extra warmth

-A change of clothes, including a sun hat, a scarf, woolly hat and gloves for extreme cold, and waterproofs (plus an umbrella!) for wet conditions

-Pliers or secateurs for cutting through dense debris or vegetation

-Some strong, climbing-grade rope

-A trowel (for planting and digging up but also for burying…waste 😅 - a long-term wild camping scenario isn’t infeasible here)

-Your passport and any other documents (marriage certificate, adoption papers, savings bonds if you’re like a hundred years old) that you might need if fleeing your country becomes a necessity

-As much cash as you are comfortable withdrawing/leaving lying around your house/carrying with you in an emergency

-A personal locator beacon is a radio-transmitter that signals your location to emergency services via satellite. These tend to have a 24-hour battery life, so if you foresee being in any way ‘stranded’ for longer then a useful trick is to switch it on for one hour each day, and then turn it off again. This not only saves power but shows emergency services that there is conscious intention involved, proving you’re still alive and lucid

-Some things to keep your spirits up, like a chocolate bar and your favourite/funniest book

-It’s worth having a sturdy pair of hiking boots for if you have to pick up the bag and go

Obviously this list is super extra, a bunch of these things are prohibitively expensive, and some items would need periodic replacement if a long time passed without the necessity of using the emergency kit. You could also likely build a fairly functional emergency kit with only a fraction of these supplies, I’m just trying to anticipate every eventuality here.

It’s up to you whether you think the investment is worth it - it’s a big outlay for a possible zero return. Personally I think it’s at least somewhat worth it as extreme weather is only going to happen more often and have more serious consequences, and preparedness turns what could be a disaster into an inconvenience, often saving money in the long run. But it will depend on the relative likelihood of severe weather events in your local area. It’s also worth saying that these work for ostensibly non-climate related problems, from a power cut in your town to an authoritarian coup in your government to your house falling down! It isn’t just for wildfires or tornadoes.

Over the next few months I’m hoping to slowly build up the aspects of the kit that are affordable and accessible to me, with the aim of being able to keep myself safe and aid my neighbours should disaster strike.

[zinjanthropusboisei]

Since the wildfire smoke has been hitting the east coast, I've been thinking about doing a flowchart-style infographic on where to find US hazard information - so many of the comments on the info I posted were like "huh. I was wondering why the sky looked so funny." With the state of the Internet, search engines, and social media today, it really isn't intuitive where you can go to find reliable information on something so vague as "I noticed something a lil funky today," and so many of the platforms and accounts that emergency managers have spent years building up trust and visibility for have disappeared or become unverifiable because of Twitter's meltdown. Best to go to straight to the source when you can, as long as you know where to start.

This would just focus on the federal government, and mainly on immediate warnings and alert information...I'd rather just focus on natural hazards as well since those are the resources I'm familiar with, but that might be too narrow. Any ideas for questions and flowpaths besides what I've sketched out so far are welcome!

[thatdisasterauthor]

Wildfire Preparedness Day 2024

(Alt text included within image.)

May 4th is not just Star Wars day, it's also Wildfire Preparedness day! So what better time to finally share my new preparedness poster?

One thing I hear a lot when discussing wildfire preparedness is that people want to protect their most treasured items, so they have them pre-packed to make them easy to grab in the event of an emergency. I've always found this kind of sad. Understandable! But sad. You shouldn't have to hide away the things you love.

Which is where the concept of a preparedness shelf comes in. The idea here is to keep all your evacuation based stuff AND your "save first" items in one spot where they can be displayed instead of hidden away, but still easily grabbed and evacuated.

This has several advantages. For one, you don't have to hide away the things you love but they will still be easy to access in one central spot. For two, if you are not home at the time of evacuation and someone else is (maybe a partner, or your neighbor, or an older child) and they call you and ask what you want them to grab, you do not have to direct them all over your house, just to one central location.

As always, use your best judgement about the hazards in your area and what works for you.

If you are in the U.S.A. and experiencing disaster related anxiety, call the Disaster Distress Hotline at 1-800-985-5990 for support and resources.

If you would like a print of this poster, you can get the high quality digital file on my website for $3, and discounted rates are available if you would like to purchase the right to make more prints! You can get files of the evacuation prep poster the same way!

[captawesomesauce]

Disaster Preparedness...

This is going to be a little bit of a different post. Not everyone likes being told what to pack or wants checklists, so I want to help you think of what you will need if something happens in your area

So a disaster has hit in your area. There are fires, there's flooding, debris is everywhere, and help is always slow to come.

There's also no cell communications, no power, no internet, gas lines and water lines are shut down too.

It's 110 degrees during the day, and 40 degrees at night with high wind.

So what do you do? What do you need?

Communication

When a disaster hits, how are you going to communicate with your family members who may or may not be nearby?

How are you going to tell people in other cities / states / countries that you are ok or you need help?

How are you going to stay informed about what is going on?

Do you have little handheld radios, or noaa radio with solar panel? Do you have a ham radio?

Food

Everything in your fridge/freezer is junk unless you have a generator, and even then, do you have enough energy to last a week or 2?

What are you going to eat? How are you going to prepare it and cook it? What about plates, utensils, and napkins that you can dispose of since you can't wash anything?

You're going through a traumatic event... you will either stress eat, or shut down. Prepare for that.

Water

That's great that you have bottled water... but do you have enough?? Do you have enough for basic sanitation? Do you have a way of carrying it or dispensing and rationing it? Do you have a bunch of small bottles that are a bitch to move from a to b or do you have heavy water jugs that you can't move and it's hard to dispense from? Do you have a way to filter water as well?

Stay cool

It's hot... it's blistering hot... it's humid... being indoors or outdoors is dangerous without a/c which you don't have... so what do you do? Do you have fans or chemical ice packs or cooling towels? Do you have a way to erect some type of shade/shelter if you're stuck outdoors?

How do you stay cool, how do you keep your pets cool?

Stay warm

It's cold, it's insanely cold, and the wind is even worse... so what do you do? How do you stay warm and block out the wind? Do you have chemical hand warmers, warm clothes, blankets? Do you have a way to be warm away from your shelter where you'll be going to the bathroom?

Get out of your damaged house/building

Shit just happened and your house/building isn't safe. Do you have all of your important stuff handy? Papers, photos, meds?

Doors are jammed and blocked... do you have the tools to open them? Do you have the ability to use another exit point like a window?

Do you have a way of writing/marking on the door that all of you are out safely so Search and Rescue knows?

Shelter

Inside of your home or outside of your home... do you have the ability to build a shelter that provides privacy and safety from the elements?

Maybe a tent, or a canopy, or some tarps? Maybe a portable bucket for a quick makeshift toilet?

Where are you going to sit, eat, sleep, piss and shit when it's insanely hot out and incredibly cold too? Can you carry this stuff far if you need to? Floods breed mosquitos and disease like cholera... you might have to leave and go far to be safe, even if your home is fine.

Do you have camping beds? Chairs? Tables? Lights? Bug sprays?

What do you need to be comfortable ... think of it like camping.

Travel

Do you have a paper map of your area and areas you might have to evacuate to? Cell towers are down, there is no internet, and you might be saving your cell battery for important communication.

Do you have good shoes/boots to walk through the broken glass and debris and everything else? Are they waterproof because any standing water is toxic after a disaster?

Do you have enough gas in the car if the roads are open?

Do you have cash on hand to pay for gas and other stuff since credit cards won't be usable?

First Aid & more

Do you have a first aid kit in the car and in your home? If someone cuts their hand on broken glass, can you fix that? If someone broke their leg or arm, can you take care of that? From cuts to scrapes to burns to splinters and more.... do you have what it takes to patch things up since help isn't available?

What about bigger issues - What if power lines fell and sparked a small tree fire that can spread to your home, but the water is shut off, do you have extinguishers and shovels or fire blankets? Do you have hard hats and safety glasses? What about N95 masks? Good gloves?

Do you know how to turn off the water, power, and gas to your building and neighbors if you need to? Do you have the right tools?

Do you have everyone's meds and enough to go a couple of weeks?

What if you can't get home, do you have it in your car too?

Get help

If you do need more help, how are you going to do it?

You see it all the time, someone signals a passing helicopter with a signal mirror, or a bright orange signal panel, or writes on their roof in paint or chalk.

Do you have a personal audible alarm that will alert rescuers to where you are? Or a loud whistle?

Find each other

It's 10am on a weekday... and a sudden tornado hits, or an earthquake, or a tsunami, or a volcano... something totally unpredictable.

You are at work/school, someone else is at there spot, no one is near each other... how do you get together? Do you have preset meeting points? Do you have preset contact points?

Remember - local communications are sometimes down, but long distant lines are often free! I like the idea of picking someone out of state where everyone checks in and that person can pass along the info.

Sanitation

This is one people often don't think about but do you have a shovel to bury feces and stuff? Do you have wet wipes and hand sanitizer to keep clean? Do you have garbage bags and zip ties for bloody bandages, poop, and food waste?

Do you have brooms and things to push away rotting vegetation that rats love to nest in? What about just to clean up broken glass and other crap so you can shelter safely? Do you have what ever you need to get rid of mud and dirt?

Sanity

Remember... this is a traumatic event... do you have what you need to keep yourself occupied without electricity? Do you have books to read, do you have toys to play with, do you have a guitar to just mess around with?

There's nothing to do, no where to go, you're STUCK.... you're stress eating through your supplies like crazy... what can you do to stay busy, relaxed, and safe?

----------------------

These are all things to think about because no two people need the same stuff or can use the same stuff.

Make your plans with the thought that you might not be home when it happens, you might not be able to ever GO home... home might be gone!

Make your plans with the thought that you need to reunite with your loved ones.

Make your plans with the thought that you might need to leave your home and travel quite a bit away.

Make your plans with the thought you might be stuck at home, with all of your windows broken and no gas, water, or power.

Think about what YOU need. And then make it happen.

[neolithicsheep]

Ok so you're looking at the aftermath of Helene and you're thinking "shit, how would I keep my phone charged? What about my neighbors?" and you have some outdoor space and some cash. Your friendly formerly off grid sheep farmer is here to help.

You need this set up right here:

To that you will need to add:

Y connectors:

The 100aH (amp Hour) deep cycle battery of your choice - lead acid AGM will be cheaper, lithium (LiFePo) is more expensive but lasts much longer.

Finally, you need a small pure sine wave inverter like this one: https://a.co/d/70vRd79

Plug the panels into the Y connectors then into the single wire to run to the charge controller. They are now connected in parallel. Take them outside to a sunny spot and face them south and prop them up at about a 45 degree angle. This isn't perfect but it will be good enough.

Connect your battery and charge controller. Connect the panels to the charge controller. All of the places to do this are labeled and all you need is a Phillips screwdriver. I recommend doing it once in a non-disaster situation so you know you can do it but you'll be fine. Boom, you are getting electricity from the sun!

The inverter draws power even when it's not running so don't leave it hooked up when you're not using it. When someone needs to charge their phone, put those alligator clips on the matching color battery posts, turn the inverter on, and plug in the phone/radio. Voilà! A single 100aH battery is not going to run a bunch of things but it will help keep cell phones charged without using up the gas in your car.

The panels are weatherproof but everything else needs to be protected by the way so you'll need to set this up in a shed or garage or in the house. Lead acid batteries can produce hydrogen gas when being charged but just having one isn't a big risk.

FAQ:

Yes, you can permanently mount the panels to your roof if you own your home etc. They're designed for that!

It is true that places sell "solar generators" - those are a charge controller, battery, and an inverter in one box at a very high price point. When a component goes bad you will be unable to replace the component and must replace the entire $1000 box. They are also not upgradeable or expandable, this is.

You do not have to buy Renogy, I recommend them because they kept me in electricity for the years I was off grid.

You do not have to buy the kit, you can buy the components of it as and when you can afford them!

Remember to keep your battery on a trickle charger.

[eskiworks]

Colorado friends!

Xcel energy may be cutting off power Saturday April 6th during the high winds to prevent wildfires! Boulder, Jefferson, and Gilpin counties are the ones that will be affected.

https://co.my.xcelenergy.com/s/outage-safety/update?fbclid=IwAR3bEEbri2hujt32w214D0Kmxc4AXWJCBv9753vrG01yfpj4B_r5QtDrXMQ

Stay safe! 🔥👀

[annakie]

I do not, in fact, have the power.

You may have heard there were pretty bad storms that camd through Dallas Tuesday morning.

I haven't had power until about two and a half hours ago... about 125 hours.

Warning: Very, very long.

TUESDAY

First of all, I was dumb. I was real dumb. I got woken up by the cats and a neighbor's dog at about 5am Tuesday morning, but I mean, that's not unusual. I came out to the office, did a little gaming, and was going to head back to bed around 6.

I heard a little thunder when I was about to head back, and then the warning sirens going off.

I checked text messages/phone calls/emails for any of the THREE weather warning services I use to see if I'd missed any notifications. I hadn't.

I then pulled up the actual weather report just as the winds really started slamming into my area.

A minute or two later, when it was already hitting in force, I started getting notifications. I peeked out a window and holy shit.

I grabbed Fry and threw him in the hall bath. Pemily figured out something was up and ran under the couch. I spent the next like two minutes trying to get to her. Just as I grabbed and started lifting her, the lights flickered, then went out. Plunged into total darkness.

I managed to grab her and my phone... and then in trying to get us INTO the hall bath, in the pitch black, Fry got out. And when I tried to get him to come in, Pemily almost got out and... I settled on hoping he'd run under a bed or do something safe because I could only get one or the other in there. The wind was RAGING and the house was creaking a little. I heard cracks and booms booms that weren't thunder.

I was seriously scared that the roof would fly off. It's old, and was going to need replacing soon anyway.

And there I was in PJs and no shoes with just a cat and a phone in the bathroom. Not exactly the model of preparedness.

After awhile, the wind subsided. I crept out of the bathroom and looked through a few windows. I used my phone flashlight to look for ceiling damage/water and thankfully saw none.

After a bit I put on jeans and shoes and went outside.

Tons of shingles all of my yard from my house.

Then looking up... the one remaining tree in my yard was uh... angled. Greatly. Resting on the chain link fence between me and my neighbhors yard. It had taken down a big branch on one of their trees and... oh great.. the top branches were tangled in the power wires.

In addition to this, I had a couple of lines yanked partially from my house and laying across my yard, with some of it still attached to my house.

My neighbors across the street had their big tree in their front yard laying into the street and covering one of their cars that they street park.

I texted/checked in with my neighbors, and everyone was OK. I put in a ticket with my city's utility company, though that took about a half hour to get through. I logged onto Teams on my phone and told my bosses and team what happened and sent pictures. I expected it might be awhile til I got power back.

I would have no idea how long that would be.

I contacted my handyman and he said he'd be able to get some guys to help with the tree when it was safe to do so.

I'd needed a plumber to come out for a couple of days and confirmed with them that they can't come out til we have power.

I texted the roofer my parents had used a year or two ago and he said he'd be out the next day to take a look.

Annnnd... then I waited. Ate some protein bars, didn't open the fridge. Internet sucked so I played on my Steam Deck some.

After the Great Freeze of 2021 I'd done some stuff to be more disaster prepared including buying a 500w high capacity rechargable battery, some LED headlamps, an extra phone charger, etc. I could run a small hotplate that I bought off of the big battery and recharge most anything.

Day one passed, the 5G was terrible on my phone since everyone was using it, but that's fine, still no power. Our city utilities has a power outage map that I started refreshing nigh constantly. I started playing Hades on my Steam Deck and sat outside for awhile..

Eventually it was bedtime. It wasn't too bad, though I missed my white noise. Kept the spare bedroom window open for air and got through it.

WEDNESDAY

Day two the 5G was better. I spent a lot of the time sitting outside letting my big battery recharge via solar panel.

I felt pretty genius for thinking that far ahead. It worked pretty well. Played more Hades, the roofer came and evaluated things. Helped me file a claim with my insurance.

I started trying to figure out a solution for the two lines laying in my yard, still attached to the house.

Eric helped me figure out via pictures that they were old telephone and internet lines and were no longer in use. I called the power company, they said they didn't own them and couldn't touch them.

So I called an electrician to come out and take a look. He wouldn't get there til Friday.

The other thing that happened Wednesday was that... during the storm my cattycorner-alley neighbor's fence blew completely down in the storm. And then... he just left it there.

Look, my tree was half blocking the alley, but I was told by the city not to touch it. But like... this guy's fence was laid out in the near-center of the alley. and he Did Not Care to move it I guess. Like my dude, take some pictures for insurance and then stop blocking shit. You Could drive around/next to my tree OK, it was very difficult to ignore his fence. You can kinda see it in the solar panel pic a little bit above.

There are only 2 or 3 houses that use that alley, I had driven down it maybe once or twice in the 21 years I've owned this house, but those couple of houses NEEDED IT for access.

So like, the white truck that I most often see driving by it stopped on Wednesday night, and just picked up this dude's fence and moved it himself. And he was not gentle. There was wood cracking and the fence was pretty much non-functional.

I was outside for the whole thing and heard the homeowner come out and start yelling at him.

My next-door neighbors had their generator going and it was kinda far away (and in Spanish which, well, I am not so good at anymore) but the argument was pretty clear.

Bonus appearance in the pic by my feral friend Peter.

About ten minutes later... they were laughing and slapping each other on the back. I had to leave before it was all over but it was an entertaining few minutes.

That night I went to my buddy Eric's place. He let me store my meds in his fridge, throw a protein shake in there to cool as well. He let me leave my Steam Deck charger there to charge and lent me his phone charger.

I stopped and got fast food for the first time in awhile on the way home. Grilled chicken, but still. I was tired of plain Protein food.

THURSDAY

Thursday it was overcast. But it looked like a HUGE number of people had gotten power back in the last two days so I was hopeful.

Got some well wishes and funny memes in Teams when I didn't make our Thursday staff meeting.

And then it started raining at 10 and didn't stop til 4.

Not a lot got done that day. From the city or from me. There wasn't much to do. I mostly sat/laid in bed. Played Hades a little, but mostly scrolled Reddit and checked my city's Twitter.

Two great things happened not long after though. First, my boss told me that he and his boss had talked and told me not to put in PTO for this week. It was out of my hands, they didn't want me to stress about it. I just got the week for free. I love a lot of things about my job, tbh.

I'll be honest, I'd started feeling pretty low that day as the rain went on and I knew that not much was getting done in the city. Most people who live here have municipal power, including me, so I just kept refreshing the map and taking screenshots two or three times day so I could see progress. I cried when my boss told me that, it was so kind and such a relief.

And then, an hour or so later, the Conviction happened, 34 for 45... it turned out to be a pretty great day after all.

And our across the street neighbors got their power on Thursday night! I was very happy for them, but sad ours didn't come with it. I knew for sure the Tree was the problem.

On the way to Eric's I saw work trucks in my neighborhood for the first time. I took pictures and texted both sides of my next-door neighbors. They didn't come to my house, though.

I left my big battery at Eric's overnight to charge since it couldn't solar charge. I also went to Sonic and got a Big Bag of Ice and a little food I did not enjoy. But the ice kept the freezer at refrigerator temperatures and I filled all my smaller thermal mugs with ice, so I had cold water with no worries from then on out.

By then I'd maxed out my Data plan for the month and the rest of the data would be free, 5G was working great by then, so I just watched the Taskmaster Season Finale and TMAustralia S2 E2... ending the night on a high note.

Until it rained for several hours at night and my across-the-alley neighbor let their dog bark for two hours straight because its terrified of lightning.

FRIDAY

Surely, I thought, today would be the day.

I was wrong.

Anyway, Friday I had an electrician out to the house. The city twitter said that if there was damage to the meter, that we had to get that fixed first. I had also been hoping he could help fix the two downed cable/phone lines running through my yard and all yanked out at the house.

First, he said that my power lines are completely fine. He also took a look at my neighbors who's yard my tree is in and he said theirs are fine, too. He also said he couldn't help with the lines, but to call my phone company. I've literally never had a landline, at this house, he said to try Verizon since they serviced the area when I bought the house.

Kindly, since he did no actual work and said I had enough to deal with, he didn't charge me. I plan on giving him some work later, anyway.

Called Verizon, they no longer operate in Texas.

I called my current internet provider, they have someone coming out this Wednesday, hopefully they can fix them. And by fix I mean just remove completely.

It's a mess. And still Like That.

Well that was a project that took like half the day. At least it was something to do.

When he left, I went to Eric's and spent about an hour working. Convenient since Eric and I work at the same place. We've worked together at four jobs since 2020. Basically my career path is "Eric finds job, Eric convinces people to hire Tori". We met at the first job in 2020. He left in 2006, I stayed. In 2012 he got me a job that we were both at from 2012 to 2018. I had a job I got WITHOUT his help 2018 to 2020, and then he and our old boss got me a job where they were. Then Eric left job #3 and in 2023 got me to move over to where we are now. He also lives like a mile away.

So after working I got lunch, got to keep the leftovers in the freezer-fridge, and cleaned out the fridge a bit. I need to do more of that. It's super annoying because trash day is Tuesday and ours didn't get picked up on Storm Day Tuesday so now my trash can is very full and I don't feel like I can put any more fridge stuff in there. Bleh.

I truly cannot think of anything else that happened Friday. It was in the high 80's and I mostly just closed up the house early (because it's actually well insulated) and stayed in bed all day refreshing Reddit.

I went back to Eric's that night to swap batteries and grab a protein shake I'd put in his fridge and on the way out there were a ton of work trucks in our neighborhood. I took pics. I texted people, I showed Eric and his family, I was SO excited.

SATURDAY

SURELY, I thought, Saturday would be our day for power. The power outage map said all of the big outages were taken care of, there were just a couple of medium sized ones left and a bunch of small ones like ours... about 5 - 10 house outages. The nicer neighborhood to the west now had NO outages big or small, and there was ONE small outage in the north side of our neighborhood now (also nicer than our side. Hmmm...) THIS was surely OUR DAY.

I spent a couple of hours that day out of the house. I met my friend Stephen for lunch and to loan him a bunch of D&D stuff halfway between his house and mine.

When I left my house to meet him it just started raining.

I drove up to meet him in the rain. It rained the entire hour+ we were in the restaurant. It rained most of the way home.

Not much got done in the nearly 3 hours I was gone.

I got home and drove around the neighborhood when it hadn't been raining in awhile looking for work trucks and there were none.

I'd gotten like 4, maybe 5 hours of sleep every night that week.

I was hot, tired and exhausted. I felt very... done.

I looked for work trucks when I left to go to Eric's and only saw a couple of brush clearing trucks trimming trees in an area that had no outages.

I was tired, y'all. Real low energy when I got to Eric's. They were really nice to me.

I went home, got more Sonic ice and cried as I refilled the stuff in the freezer with it.

Pretended I felt fine when I gave my updates to friends and family that night and that all was well. Truly, I didn't feel all that well. And there was one friend kinda snarky, saying more or less that I was soft and asking why I didn't go to a hotel. I was just like... find me a nearby hotel where I can take my cats and OK. Maybe. I'd looked into a few. Then he wanted me to abandon my cats there and just go myself.

No, I don't think I'll do that. I wasn't even whining in that chat, just giving updates as to the power situation in the city and me specifically. Pretty rankled about that still.

But I didn't feel like arguing, I didn't feel like gaming. I just caught up on Hacks, glad that even after maxing out my data plan the free 5G was holding up well, and went to sleep right after.

ANNND I finally slept decently even though it was the hottest night yet (high 70s which still... wasn't bad.)

SUNDAY

Woke up around 8 and felt... better.

I just spent the morning in bed, not really hoping, watching the map, seeing that some of the outages near me had been resolved. Wondering if my job would be cool with me missing more work and now thinking about tethering my phone to my work laptop, or just seeing if I could work half the day at Eric's tomorrow.

And then around 11 I heard work trucks.

Not unusual, lots had driven by my house many times a day almost every day.

But these were close. And they stopped.

Hoping against hope I looked out my back door and... there they were.

The most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

I put on shoes and went out to ask them if they needed anything from me. They said nope and that they'd have us back up soon. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart.

I went inside. Texted people. Cried a tiny bit in relief.

About twenty minutes later, I felt a cool breeze... and heard a buzzer going off.

Air conditioning and haha.. my stove timer. I turned it off then went back outside and thanked the workers again, sincerely. I wondered if they were just happy that they weren't being yelled at.

After getting my PC and internet back up and letting just about everyone know the situation, I headed to Eric's one last time to get my meds and shakes out of his fridge and give him his charger back.

It's over, here I am, sitting enjoying the full spoils of civilization again.

So here's a few lists.

Things I'm grateful for:

Eric & family, first and foremost. This would have been a lot rougher without having him to rely on for even the small stuff and he really helped keep my spirits up.

Honestly, the Tree situation could have been worse in SO many ways. It's something I'm still dealing with and will be for a couple of days -- the workers detangled the branches IN the wires but the rest of it is still there. But it fell on the shared fence and not into the alley, not onto the neighbor's shed, not on anyone's house or other people's property except that most of the tree is, ya know, IN their yard.

The roof looks ROUGH, there are a LOT of missing shingles and damage but it's still whole, as in, no leaks into my house. That is a FREAKING miracle to me. I've checked the ceilings and see no damage and I think by now I'd know. IDK if it'll withstand another storm like that but... it's fine for now.

I have good tradespeople who were helpful and I think will do a good job when I can employ them fully soon. My parents really liked the roofer and if my dad likes him, he's a good one.

My neighbors are being very kind and patient about the tree. I am of course going to take on all the expenses above what the insurance will pay for (and will be paying out of pocket for it and getting reimbursed for a lot of it.)

TBH I've been wanting to put up a sturdy wooden fence for as long as I've owned the house. Now I have a reason to and hopefully at least some seed money to do so from insurance.

The weather could have been a lot worse. At night it was in the low 70's most nights and stayed in the 70s until late morning almost every day. Today it's 86 out but overcast... this is the hottest day we've had I think. Maybe Wednesday it was like 88? But not that bad, for Texas this time of year. We could have done without the extra rain delays but... at least the temperature was decent most of the time.

Like I said earlier my house is well insulated so it never got too bad even on the hottest days. Later this week it's getting into the 90's though. Hopefully EVERYONE is back up by then.

I had plenty of nonperishable food and water to get me through the week if I wanted... and more. But honestly, gladder it didn't have to.

Lessons Learned:

Even when you look at the tree and think "Nah it's fine, it doesn't need to be trimmed this year." maybe think again. Of course... that no longer applies to me because I now have ZERO large trees on my property. When I bought the house I had... four. I'd like to plant another one where that one went down and one in my front yard to replace that one I had cut down several years ago but just... keep them relatively small this time.

Had to order batteries for the headlamp Friday. Keep more batteries in stock. The LED Headlamp is extremely useful and maybe I should order another one or two.

Keep rechargeables charged. I mean, I did well with that this time! Also I still have plenty of candles. Probably need another lighter.

I definitely needed to be more prepared at the very beginning. I didn't really take action when I heard the sirens go off for too long. I think I could have gotten both cats in the hall bath, clothes on, shoes on, supplies and a heavy blanket in the bath much sooner. In fact, I should keep some supplies under the cabinet in that bathroom in the future, and maybe a collapsible cage so I can get one cat secured while I go get the other one.

Stuff to do:

Call Plumber. The sewer situation isn't great but it's still moving. That just added to the stress this week but it was manageable.

Get garage door serviced. I didn't realize how much I needed to. My garage door is solid wood with real glass windows and it is FREAKING heavy. It's not bad when it's serviced and the springs are tight, but nigh impossible to open when it's not... and right now it's not. I can barely lift it. And now I can't get it back on the track to lift automatically.

Have already texted my handyman to take care of the tree, idk when he's coming though. May be a day or three =\ I don't love that.

Insurance called like Friday just to tell me they got my claim and are assigning an adjustor, but since my house is habitable and I'm not in immediate distress, I'm lower priority. I get it, but I don't love it because another bad storm and I may be in distress. But for now, just deal with all that.

I need to talk to my neighbors about the fact that I'm going to get a wood fence put up to replace our chain link one. It's time. They are lovely but I want the security of having my back yard fully fenced in. I've never done much with it back there and have shitty furniture because I'm like ehhhh.. it'll just get stolen if I put anything nice out there. I want the security and privacy of a full heavy fence. Gotta find someone to do that, too.

Get the electrician back to wire up the house for a generator.

Buy a generator (and gas cans) to run the fridge, an outlet for charging things, and either a window AC unit or space heater depending on season. That's all I need.

Clean out the garage, for real. This might wait until fall when it's cooler out. I can park my car in it but it's otherwise filled with clothes and just... stuff. I need to do a major wardrobe purge soon anyway. Need someplace to store the generator that I can easily pull it out and get it to the porch next time this happens.

So yeah, there's still a lot of work to be done.

This week sucked, but also it coulda been much worse and I had a lot of people being very cool with and/or concerned about me and that made it a lot easier.

And now I'm tired of typing. I hope anyone who actually read all this had a much better week. :D