Looks like those of us in South Florida will only get some TS force wind and lots of rain from Isaac.
Those of you in the panhandle may get something more so get ready.
How prepared were you for this storm or any other storm we may have this season?
Did you have everything ready or did you have to start from scratch?
20 years ago my wife and I were both living in Miami so we had some direct personal experience with Andrew and it has effected the way we see hurricanes and preparations.
Every year in May we go through our stock of supplies and replenish or replace items as needed. We stock everything we need for 15 days or more. This includes food, drinking water (45 gal), personal hygine products, batteries, gas, propane, paper plates/cups, etc. Everything is packaged in waterproof buckets placed in a closet. Most importantly we have shutters and braces for every window and garage door. We can clean up outside and button up the house in about 2-3 hours.
Last night we went through the supply again and found only thing we needed was some more milk (my wife and son can't live without milk), coffee and needed gas for the generator. I normally don't keep gas around the house.
Overall I think we were pretty well off compared to most people. You hould have seen the mess at the local grocery store last night.
I also rode out Andrew in Homestead and know where you're coming from. We always have enough food to last at least a month at all times. We always have a couple cases of water also. I have a pump on a well to get water if needed and have a purifier that works good to make it into drinking water.
I've got a generator that will run my whole house that I keep at my shop. Every July I take it in for service whether it needs it or not. I also have an 11kw honda for my office that will get me by if needed. We pulled both of them out along with a few others and ran them for a bit Wednesday to make sure we were ready just in case. At the house I always have a spare full propane tank so we're good there too. I have about 25 5 gal gas cans I keep at the shop and was waiting till yesterday to see if I needed to fill them up along with the vans but decided not to.
The house takes about 2 hrs to get ready. While I put up the shutters the misses brings most everything else in. We wait till the day before to do that. Decided we're not gonna do a whole lot of that for this storm. My office takes the most work but I've decided all we're gonna do is pull everything off the floors to prep for any water. I've got like a 15' garage door at the shop so the braces will be put in this afternoon.
I eventually built another new home after Andrew and I can tell you that it ain't going anywhere. I poured all the exterior walls solid and double strapped all trusses along with way too much x bracing. My master closet is a poured solid safe room including the ceiling. When a storm hits I have to be ready to go right to work so heading north is not an option for me. The family will head north but within an hour of the wind slowing down I'm out working. I would say that anyone that has gone through a major storm is probably always prepared for the most part. I think we're gonna be ok down south so you boys up north need to keep an eye on this just in case.
lOOK AT PUTO RICIO HOUSES.
They are concrete roofs they survive.
Never been thru a major storm live here in Orlando for 48 years the strongest storm was Charley That was not bad. I do remember being kicked out of Tiger bay WMA (i believe it was Francis) when on was coming it. I was blood trailing when an fwc offer came up to me and told me i had to leave. That he did not care if i had a blood trail i had to leave now. I think i pissed him off with ok, i go grab my surf board and I'm off to the beach.
I've got a small generator sitting in my storage unit that has never even had gas in it. I bought it 3 or 4 years ago from a guy who bought it right before Charley came through, and since we didn't lose power here in this area but for a couple of hours at a time, he never even took it out of the box. So if we have a threat of a Cat 2 or higher coming near, here's what I'll do:
• I'll head over to the storage unit and get out the generator, tarps, gas cans, etc.
• Fill up the truck and 6 5gl gas cans.
• Put several gallon jugs of water in the freezer.
• Fill up 4 5-gallon water bottles at the filtered water machine up by Walgreen's.
That takes about an hour at the most. In general, I also do the following:
• Make sure I have at least one full propane tank for the grill in addition to the one in use.
• Make sure I have at least one large bag of charcoal and lighter fluid.
• Make sure I have at least a couple of boxes of 00 buck, .357, .40S&W and a couple of bricks of .22lr (which I try to keep around anyway).
• Keep enough canned goods (Spam, tuna, veggies, chicken, soup, chili, etc.), peanut butter, crackers, rice, coffee, tea, sugar etc. to keep my wife and I from starving for at least 7-10 days. Of course I could probably afford to miss a few meals here and there!
I believe the landlord has some panels to put over the windows since there are clips in place for such. It's a block structure, and the way the house is oriented the eye would have to pass directly over us to have wind directly impact any large windows. If it's too bad a storm, we wouldn't be here anyway.
Everyone should find out what evacuation zone they are in and their evacuation routes. Visit http://floridadisaster.org/publicmapping/index.htm to find out.
I have never had to board my windows in 48 years.
