#storm preparedness

[caregivervent]

Devastating flooding in my mother's hometown of Newport, TN

I was sad to see the destruction that Hurricane Helene caused in Newport, Tennessee. While all eyes were on Florida where the Category 4 storm made landfall, areas far away such as Asheville, North Carolina and Newport also suffered significant damage. Newport was my mother’s hometown, and always held a special place in her heart. The east Tennessee community in the shadow of the Great Smoky…

[justposting1]

Weather Preparedness and Safety: Essential Guide for Hurricanes and Wildfires

Weather Preparedness and Safety: Essential Guide for Hurricanes and Wildfires Weather-related disasters, such as hurricanes and wildfires, pose significant threats to life, property, and the environment. Preparing for these events is crucial to ensure the safety of your family and home. This article delves into how to effectively prepare for a Category 4 hurricane, the best survival kits for…

[westvalleyfaultph]

"Handa Pilipinas: Showcasing Local Innovations in Disaster Preparedness"

Scan the QR code to get this post on the go. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is set to host an exposition titled “Handa Pilipinas” in Laoag City from July 3-5. This event aims to highlight locally-developed technologies designed to enhance disaster preparedness, particularly in the Ilocos Region. Dr. Teresita A. Tabaoag, DOST 1 Regional Director, emphasized the urgency of this…

[walks-the-ages]

For anyone without timestamps for any reason, this is for the oncoming Hurricane Hilary, who will be making landfall in the USA in the next 2 to three days , August 2023!

HEY CALIFORNIA PEOPLE!

HURRICANE ADVICE FROM A FLORIDIAN!

Make sure you've got shelf-stable food and water for everyone in the house, including pets. The rule of thumb is a gallon per person per day. Freeze water bottles if you want cold water.

Make sure you have enough meds!

Make sure you have batteries, candles, flashlights, and a manual can opener. 

Make sure your electronics, including backup batteries, are charged. Unplug things you don't want fried in case of a power surge. 

Don't tape your windows, it doesn't help and you'll just be stuck scrubbing goo off of them later.

Put a mug of frozen water in it in your freezer with a quarter on top of it. If your freezer defrosts, the ice will melt and the quarter will sink and tell you you need to throw things out.

Get everything that's not nailed to a foundation out of your yard. That dead branch hanging on by a thread? Time to get it down (it was probably time to do that three days ago, but now’s better than never).

Park away from powerlines and trees if you can. Rain makes the ground soft and then trees fall over.

Have an evacuation plan to a shelter. Evacuate if they’re telling you to.

If you start to flood, don't go in your attic. You'll get trapped if the water rises too high and you can't hack through your roof. This happened to a lot of people in Texas and Louisiana. Get ON the roof.

Be safe, be well <3 

[bumblingbabooshka]

There should have been a cold open where everyone on the ship woke up in the middle of the night to a red alert and everybody's half out of their minds panicked and half asleep (shown by a chaotic all-in-one-take type shot as we sweep through Voyager's halls) but they manage to get it together and make it to their battle stations only for the bridge crew to find Tuvok standing there with a stopwatch in one hand, Janeway and Chakotay to either side of him, eyebrow raised. It took you eight minutes to reach the bridge...five minutes or less is the goal. (Janeway looks amused and Chakotay is literally asleep.)

[etraytin]

Emergency Preparedness On A Budget

Hey all, just a reminder that even though many of us are looking at a warmer-than-average winter this year, warm on average does not mean we won't see winter storms! In fact, warm winters can produce some really unusual weather patterns that are even more likely to produce severe storms. The best time to prepare for a winter storm, or any other natural disaster, is well before it happens, ie, right now.

"But wait," you might say, "the economy is stupid and everything is expensive! I'm afraid my survival bunker is just going to have to wait until my lottery numbers come up, which will take awhile because I also can't afford to play the lottery." First off, good job not playing the lottery, and second, preparing for a disaster does not have to be expensive. In fact, if you start early enough, disaster preparedness can be done a few dollars at a time without much of anything in the way of special supplies.

In order to not make a single post that is a billion lines long, I am dividing my advice into a few different posts and will link them together when I am done. The links will be right here: Part 2: Medicine and Power

Food and Water Preparedness

FIrst and most important: food and water. The motto of disaster preparedness is "The first 72 is on you." In a major disaster situation, if the situation has not resolved itself within three days, that's about the amount of time it takes for outside help to get itself organized and start arriving in a meaningful way to a disaster area. Objectively three days is a pretty short period of time, subjectively it is a small eternity if you are not prepared.

Preppers (people who do disaster preparedness as a hobby, to greater and lesser levels of unhingedness) spend a lot of time discussing the best types of food and water prep for long-term storage and/or end of the world scenarios. We are not going to do that. We want cheap, easy, effective preparations that we can ideally do while grocery shopping in a Walmart. The easiest, simplest and cheapest way to do your food prep is this: Buy one or two canned, jarred or tetrapacked (that waxed cardboard box pack) meal items every time you can afford it, then set them aside. Find a little space in a closet, a cupboard, a shelf, whatever, and just keep those foods there until you have three days worth for everyone in your household, including the pets.

"Fine," you might say as you look skeptically at the back of your cupboards, "but that doesn't seem very specific. There are a lot of canned goods out there!" And that is fair! The basic rule of thumb is "Buy something you will eat, ideally without heating it up if necessary, that doesn't require much prep or cleaning." For example, my family is two adults and one adolescent, none of us with major food allergens or aversions. If I were trying for a 72-hour food prep for us on the cheap with no cooking available I'd probably go with six cans of chunky soup, which I get for a dollar each on sale, three small jars of applesauce (smaller jars are better if you have no way to cool food), a box of saltine crackers, three cans of tuna, and a big box of granola bars if I could keep them out of reach of the kiddo long enough.

It's not fancy and it may not provide great long-term nutrition, but it's enough food to keep us alive for three days in a form that will hold in storage for 1-2 years without needing to rotate. Even on a very tight budget you can probably accumulate this much food in a pretty reasonable amount of time (and a lot of it is the sort of thing you might get from a food bank anyway!) For pet food, pack up three days worth of your pet's food, ideally in a glass jar but any sealed container will do, and add any cans of wet food they'd get as well.

Water is another big prepping topic that we're going to go easy-peasy on. You need, at minimum, a gallon of clean water per person per day, plus extra for cleaning and washing. Water is annoying to store and takes a lot of room, so for a quickie 3-day prep, minimizing water use is ideal. If you can scare up enough paper plates, cups and utensils to last you three days, you save ever having to wash dishes. If you can get hold of a pack of wet wipes, you reduce the amount of water for washing your body. If you can bring yourself to pee in the woods or at the very least let urine sit in the toilet unflushed, you save a HUGE amount of water on flushing.

For your water prep, you can use the bit-at-a-time strategy again. Every time you get groceries, try to bring home a gallon or two of purified drinking water. They should be very cheap, usually around 1.25 in my neck of the woods, and they last for awhile. If you have a few extra dollars, buy a flat of bottled water until you have at least three gallon containers and one 12-pack for each human member of your household Tuck them away somewhere out of direct sunlight, and rotate them regularly, taking out an old gallon and flat and replacing them with new every couple of months.

Once you have your basic setup, you can start thinking about getting fancier. There are ways to find things like camp stoves and water filters fairly cheaply, usually by hitting up garage sales or looking in the clearance sporting goods section when camping season is over, but that's basically gravy when compared to just having something to eat.

Next Time: Medicine and Power

[hillbillyoracle]

Preparing for a Winter Storm

I thought I'd share what I'm doing to prepare for the winter storm that's supposed to blow through on Sunday evening into Monday morning in case it's helpful to anyone. I know a few people got a lot out of my post on tornados and the first winter storm I went through on my own really rattled me so I hope it helps someone.

This wound up being longer than I thought it would be so TL;DR is stay warm, stock up on foods that don't require cooking, know when and how to bail.

The Challenges

Snow and ice cause different but related problems. The ice totals are what look more nasty for my particular area so that's what I'll be focusing on.

With ice there's some key issues I've experienced in the past:

Power Outages - this impacts all aspects of the home, lighting, cooking, hot air, hot water, communication, etc.

Cell Phone Outages - this can make getting help in an emergency very difficult, can make it difficult to search for information you need as well

Pipes Freeze and Burst - pretty self explanatory and also hell

Damage to Cars - tree limbs falling on it, ice can build up and cause issues if there are gaps that allow it to get into internal components, can cause damage to gas lines, driving in hazardous conditions can lead to a wreck, etc.

Trees Falling - Can fall on house, power lines, car, people, etc.

Power Outage Prep

Food

Stock up on foods that don't require any cooking at all. Try to get 3 days worth. I'm getting things like crackers, chips, Bobo's PB&Js, dried fruit, fruit pouches, and peanut butter. You might consider trail mix, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, clementines, etc.

Get paper plates and plastic utensils if you'll be using a back up cooking method. Cleaning becomes infinitely more onerous in a winter storm so it's best to limit it. I'll be using my rice cooker plugged into my Jackery as a backup cooking method. Back up to the backup is an alcohol stove - which you might be able to find for pretty cheap at a camping store. Propane camp stoves are another good option you can find in most Walmarts.

Have a plan for your fridge and freezer. People not infrequently wind up with food poisoning after a power outage because they try to eat food in their fridges and freezers that they shouldn't. USDA recommends you discard all food in the fridge if the power is off for more then 4 hours - this is with not opening the door. For you freezer, the recommendation is 48 hours (for a full freezer). If the temperatures allow for it, you can place your frozen goods outside.

Heat

Layer, layer, layer. Find all the warm clothes in your wardrobe and be prepared to layer up. Socks and hats are particularly important. You do not want to sweat though! If you start sweating take something off.

Blankets galore. Make sure you've got plenty of blankets. If you've got a decent sleeping bag, even better. You can use sheets to help trap a little more air around you like a tent.

Know the signs of cold exposure and know when to call for help. Cold exposure involves more than I can get into here but it's one of those things that can kill very quickly and in a way where people are often too far gone before they notice. Basically if you are cold and having trouble staying awake - call for help.

Know where your local shelters will be. Emergency departments often put this information out on Facebook and Twitter. You can also call the non-emergency line and ask in most places. Keep in mind many won't accept pets.

Grab a spare heater if you can and know how to use it safely. I live in an area where woodstoves are common but my place doesn't have one (yet) so I have a propane heater (you can grab small ones for apartments even). If you have a spare heater, be sure to grab fuel if you're able (tends to go fast). I also have an air quality detector which is extremely important. A lot of ice storm deaths are from people dying of monoxide (and similar) poisoning.

Hot water bottles are a godsend. If you live in an area with propane for hot water, then you'll likely still have it if the power goes out. When I was younger we got through 8 days of no power in the middle of winter in part because of hot water bottles specifically. They're so handy.

Keep a fire extinguisher handy. Even if you're not using a heater honestly.

Power

Charge batteries and battery banks. Pretty self explanatory. If you're able to grab even a cheap back up battery, I would. So many people in past ice storms sat on their phones, drained it of battery, then didn't have it to call for help when they needed it. Even a small boost could be good in an emergency.

Know where your electrical box is. Sometimes power outages can cause issues with breakers. Know where it is in case you need to turn things off or back on.

Have a radio. I mention this all the time. With no power your radio is your lifeline to public emergency broadcasts, weather forecasts, and locating resources. Get a radio. A cheap one is better than nothing.

Lighting

Charge flashlights. One thing a lot of people don't realize about power outages in winter is just how much we've come to rely on artificial light. Have backups to your back ups if possible. They're a safety tool.

Consider a solar light. My solar lantern has saved my ass so many times not it's not even funny. They tend to be very energy efficient - so easy to recharge off of a battery bank - but the you have the option of charging them slowly in the sun you get during the day.

Turn a small light into a lantern. I've used this trick so many times I almost forgot to include this. If you need to take a small light and make it more of an area light, fill a bottle (ideally plastic and 1L+) with water and place the light right on the bottle. This works great for headlamps especially. It'll cast the light like a lamp instead of focusing it on one area, making it easier to do chores and play games in the dark.

Chores to do before the storm:

Laundry

Shower

Dishes

Take out trash

Cell Phone/Internet Outage Prep

Write down important numbers somewhere that isn't your phone or laptop. If you run out of power on either, you still might be able to borrow someone else's phone and call.

If you're unfamiliar with your area, print or buy a map. In the event you need to leave, you need to know your way around enough to get where you're going.

If you have a ham radio license and gear, make sure it's charged and has local repeaters programmed in. Check to see if any will be running any weather nets you can monitor. If you don't have a license, you are technically allowed to transmit if you're experiencing a true emergency so if you have access to that gear also make sure it's charged and you have an idea of how you'd do that.

When the power goes out, use the phone as a phone only. Something I see every ice storm ever since smart phones took over, is people having nothing to do so they sit on their phones and drain it of battery. Or everyone overloads the cell towers and they go down. I am begging you, please, if the power goes out, do not use your phone for anything other than calling for help or checking in with neighbors and loved ones (once or twice a day).

Create an entertainment box. Grab an box. Put in things you can do with absolutely zero power. I recommend playing cards, puzzles, board games, books you might want to read, art supplies, TTRPG (there are solo ones). This way when you start to get the itch to check your phone, you know where to look instead. I know it seems simple but having it prepped ahead of time saves you a lot of brainpower (believe me).

Water + Pipes Freezing Prep

Leave facets dripping and cabinet doors open. Vital you do both. They help prevent your pipes from freezing and bursting.

Find out where your water shut off is. I just found out mine is underneath my house in the crawl space - hurrah for me. Most apartments have much more easily accessible shut offs. Even if you're not certain you can shut it off yourself, know where it is so you can save time and direct someone who can. In the event a pipe bursts, shut the water off immediately and do not turn on water in the house until a professional can service it.

Find a number of a well reviewed plumber (or two) ahead of time. Sometimes cell service and internet goes out. Consider having these written down somewhere other than your phone or computer ahead of time.

Find out how you can flush your toilet with no power. Most people can add water to the back of the tank and still flush. So if you still have water you're good. Some places require a pump that runs on electricity. So find out beforehand. During power outages my family adopts the "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, send it down" toilet rule to conserve water.

Consider grabbing a backup toilet option. I keep a five gallon bucket and extra trash bags for just such an occasion (and some cedar chips to help with smell but it's not strictly speaking necessary). Separating liquids from solids also helps with smell. I do this because if a pipe bursts, there's a good shot you won't be able to use your toilet any more. This is also important if your toilet runs on an electric pump and the power goes out.

Damage to Cars

Keep your car filled up to at least a half a tank. This protects the fuel lines and gives you enough gas to get out if you need to.

If you'll be traveling during the storm, make sure you have a winter car kit in the vehicle and know how to flag for help if you get stranded. It's beyond what I can cover here but there are a ton of great articles out there.

Check your levels and make sure nothing is running too low.

Have the number of your mechanic written down somewhere that's not your phone or laptop. Pretty self explanatory.

Trees Falling

I'm gonna be honest, I don't have a lot for this one given my disabilities. I have a plan with my neighbors who are in a better position to use it. You could consider grabbing some extra tarps in the event that you need to cover a window that gets damaged or similar. Basically, just have an idea of where your most vulnerable trees are and keep an ear out for them as the storm progresses.

Hope these spark some ideas for how to prep and stay safe out there!

[sincosma]

Well, I guess I make big posts on Tumblr now about hurricanes because WHAT THE FUCK.

So, I live in the Tampa Bay Area, specifically in Pinellas County, which is the most densely populated county in the state of Florida. We haven't had a direct hit from a hurricane in over 100 years. And despite that, Helene completely devastated our county with 5 to 8 feet of storm surge.

I have friends and coworkers living in hotels and other people's homes who have lost everything. Our barrier islands reek with raw sewage and dead marine life. As I speak, they are still trying to remove the FEET of toxic sand on the barrier islands that the storm surge pushed inland. There were 12 deaths in my county from that storm surge. It's the worst hurricane damage our area has ever received in the modern era. And that was from a storm that stayed 100 miles offshore.

Hurricane Milton is currently heading our way. Right now, models are showing a potential landfall in the Tampa Bay Area as a cat 3, maybe 4, hurricane. We're still struggling to recover from Helene, and now we're right back in the crosshairs. My point here is that things can change very quickly. If you live on the west coast of Florida, please prepare and please stay weather aware.

If evacuations are called in your area, please spread the word to your neighbors, especially if they are elderly, have disabilities, live in poverty, or have other evacuation challenges. CHECK ON YOUR NEIGHBORS. I cannot stress this enough. If you live near vulnerable people, check on them and talk to them about their plans if evacuations are called. Check with your county website to see what services are available for evacuation and shelters.

Stay safe, fellow west coast Florida friends. <3

[sinclairmaxwellao3]

All of my friends in the States,

if you are in the path of the coming snow storm, be safe and prepared. Plan for power outages please and keep in touch with your vulnerable people like elderly, disabled or sick, and those who may not have stable housing.

[intersexfairy]

As someone (from the USA) who survived a severe hurricane, if there is one piece of advice I could give, PLEASE listen to any evacuation orders. This goes for voluntary and mandatory, but ESPECIALLY mandatory. If you can't get outside the evacuation zone, even just getting closer to the boundary is better than nothing.

If you are in a mandatory evacuation zone and you stay, no one (no emergency services) will be coming to save you. You will have to hunker down for however long the storm lasts.

The time to prepare for evacuation is as soon as you know you're under evacuation order, at LEAST. Do NOT delay. You don't want to be like my family who only left once the flood began (thanks, dad). Not only did we have to hurry to pack, we weren't able to prepare. At that, here are some good things to do in a hurricane:

Have a radio - an emergency crank radio is good, since it uses mechanical energy. We also had walkie talkies.

Have a good first aid kit, especially if you cant get out.

Unplug anything that you absolutely do not need while home, unplug everything before you leave. We didn't do this and my house almost caught fire (fridge outlet) - only the flood put it out.

Have a working fire alarm, charge flashlights and devices. Make sure you also have candles and lighters, too.

Be VERY careful if you must wade or drive in flood water. There will be debris, there will be down power lines. It is deeper than it looks.

Stock up on water and nonperishable food. Eat your perishable foods now. Use coolers for any excess. MREs are good to have, you can order them online.

Put belongings you can't take with you as high up in your house as you can - prioritize things that cannot be easily/emotionally replaced. Leave space for you to go high up too, if you're staying.

Use sand bags (or DIY alternatives) as flood barriers. Tie or tarp down everything you can, and don't keep it in a wide open area.

Close windows, and stay away from them. You really don't want to be there when something comes flying.

This is all I can think of for now, others feel free to add more or correct me. Remember, your life is more important than objects. Losing your life is worse than losing everything but your life. Stay safe, and stay alive.

[threeriversforge]

My Feuerhand 280's flanking a Meva 863. Hurricane lanterns are a valuable asset to have around the house in case the electricity goes out, but they are also great just to create a wonderful ambiance. The warm flickering light is infinitely more pleasant than the harsh brilliance of modern lighting, so why relegate the lanterns to a life stuffed away somewhere until an emergency? When Hurricane Helene passed through here and made a mess of things, I was very glad to have oil lamps. Everyone else was scrambling for batteries or praying that the sun would peak through the clouds long enough to charge their solar jive.... but I was perfectly content with my aptly-named Hurricane Lanterns.

I didn't think of it at the time, but I had been inadvertently participating in my Culture, keeping those lanterns around, and it paid big dividends when the storm came through. I didn't have to scramble to find a way to bring light to the darkness. Culture is the collection of a million little things that you do every day. We cannot wait to celebrate the culture on one particular day of the year, throwing it on like a costume. The Hurricane Lanterns are a great example of one of those little ways we can participate. It might not seem like a big deal, but consider that no one brick in a wall seems like a big deal. I do have to admit that it's a little odd to see whole stores dedicated to selling candles, but people hesitate over using the much safer hurricane lanterns. This is especially true when you consider that Feuerhand offers their lanterns in a wide range of colors that are sure to match your decor.

[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

[sunny-rants]

little winter tips from your friendly neighbourhood Canadian:

- LAYER. layer leggings under pants, shirts under sweaters, scarves over hats, socks under socks if you have to, just layer everything

- tuck everything in: pants into socks, sleeves into gloves, scarf into coat, etc.

- if you can afford it, get yourself a pair of thermals to wear under clothes

- if you don’t have snowpants, leggings or thermal pants under a thick pair of sweatpants works pretty well

- wool socks

- shovel while it’s snowing. sounds counterproductive, I know, but a little fresh snow at a time is easier than a bunch of packed crusted-up snow

- run your car for a bit every so often, like when you’re shovelling, or right before bed. it keeps your engine from freezing or something, idk cars

- don’t go driving without a pair of boots & a coat, just in case

- salt your outdoor steps and walkways to prevent ice (careful if you have pets, this can hurt their paws)

- if you have a radiator in your house, put your wet and snowy socks, gloves, etc. on it

- moisturize more than usual

[afragmentcastadrift]

LA fires: Mother Nature is mostly to blame, but humans could have prepared better | CNN

[stevishabitat]

Meanwhile in other parts of the US not currently on fire...

Winter Storm Cora - A South Snow, Ice Threat | Weather.com

At a Glance The latest winter storm will spread across the South through Friday night. Accumulating snow and ice will stretch from Texas and Oklahoma to Virginia and North Carolina. Treacherous travel conditions, delays and closures are expected in some areas. Lighter snow from this system will likely impact the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and Northeast.