Posted on 11/10/2012 2:13:09 PM PST by SquarePants
Superstorm Sandy's really turned a lot of people's lives upside down here on Long Island. The watchword for myself and my family is "thankful." We're thankful that we're safe. We're thankful that our home is largely undamaged. We're thankful that God protected our family and that we've had the resources to more or less rough out the conditions for the past week and a half without any ridiculous hardship.
It's been 11 days since my car got swamped by a storm surge. I haven't been able to get gas with any degree of regularity, and when I have there have been lines. Oh man, have there been lines. 2-3 hour waits are considered reasonable. They started rationing gasoline today, with odd/even tags being able to fill up on odd/even days. A couple of lines I noticed seemed like they may be a little shorter, but most of them, and for sure the ones in my neighborhood seemed just as long as ever. My car has an even tag, so I won't be able to get gas until tomorrow. I guess we'll see how that goes.
At any rate, we're the lucky ones. Long Beach is pretty much destroyed. We have friends in Wantagh we haven't heard from. Lindenhurst is beaten up. And of course our neighbors to the west in Queens and Staten Island literally can't buy food, get in or out of their neighborhoods, or protect their property from looters.
This whole mess has driven home the importance of being prepared. Prepared for what? The next storm for sure... Long Island gets hammered pretty regularly by Nor'easters and the occasional hurricane, but we're also an island, and not just any island. We're an island that requires you go through New York City in order to get off it. My guess is that a nuke in Midtown Manhattan could strand us for weeks before we could reasonably expect to get boated or flown off the island. So this has me thinking of how to be better prepared for the next Sandy... or whatever. Here's three things I thought of:
1. Get a generator. I had one delivered this week. It's only 4500 watts, but that should be enough to run our two refrigerators, a window unit A/C, a TV, and a computer.. and maybe a light or two. Whatever size you get, make sure you get a transfer box installed - that's the easiest and safest way to get your essentials online and running in a blackout. I'm not sure how much that cost, since I haven't gotten the bill yet from the electrician.
2. Store some gas. That's absolutely necessary. The generator is no good without fuel, and there's no guarantee that fuel will be available in an emergency. It sure as heck wasn't in this one. I'm open to ideas on the best way to do this. My plan as of now is to fill 5 or 6 five-gallon gas cans and, at the beginning of each month, use the gas in the cars and refill the cans. If someone has a better idea about gas storage, I'm pretty open to it.
3. Store some food. I was looking at MRE's, but they only have a shelf life of five years. I don't want to rely on expired MRE's in an emergency situation, or risk getting sick from one, and I sure don't want to spend a month or two every five years eating MRE's before they expire, so I found freeze-dried food. It looks like I can get 360 meals, or about two months food for my entire family, for around $550.00. The best part is that it lasts for 25 years, so that's the direction I'm going. Store 'em and forget about 'em. Till we need them.
4. Batteries, extension cords and lanterns. Make sure you always have several lanterns and enough batteries to run them. You still can't find D batteries on Long Island, and extension cords and lanterns have also been really hard to come by.
Anyway, I'm sure there's a lot of other excellent things that can be done to prepare for emergency situations, but these are all things I had overlooked. Above all, don't rely on the government or the Red Cross to take care of you. They might, or they might not. There's a lot of people in Staten Island and the Rockaways right now who are paying a huge price for their misplaced confidence that government would be there for them.
I've always been able to just go to the corner and get gas. Our electric went out a few times a year in storms, but it was always up in 3-12 hours. I've never had trouble buying things like gas cans and extension cords, but Sandy woke me up. And I'm thankful for that.
Preppers’ PING!!
Funny you should say that, 'cause that's exactly what I told my daughter a couple of days ago as she packed for a trip to the heart of the Sandy disaster area. She's bringing supplies up to some relatives and is even carrying her own extra gas.
She easily solved the problem ... her pitbull is riding with her and is sleeping the the van. The dog would probably lick someone to death before biting but she is an excellent barker and will deter any break in.
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(Nice job on them all!)
@Kart- thanks for the excellent scriptural references. I always find the applicability of the Bible to pretty much any situation amazing
@Carriage- I’m already on it! Thanks
Years ago, my friend put his pit bull in his car during a hurricane to protect the dog.
The dog SHREDDED the interior. Looked like someone used a chainsaw. Seats, dash board, carpet, everything. That dog must have gone crazy during the storm.
No doubt your daughter’s dog is better behaved.
Thanks.
Great post, thanks!
But the first time I left my male Shepherd alone in the house, he just about ripped it apart trying to get out. Curtains and blinds were shreaded by the windows and carpeting was torn up by the doors. He is now an "outside" dog unless someone is home.
That's my upcycle doggie bed. Instead of throwing out three old bed pillows, I stuffed them in a garment. He loves it!
Thanks Kart. Couldn’t have said it better.
Always have a Plan B & Plan C, etc.
I like to start with Loss of Electricity.
Start planning from there...
You won’t have to rotate your gas as often if you use NON-Ethanol gas (pure-gas.org)with preservatives. My favorite preservative is PRI-G (PRI-D for diesel).Also you should not use ethanol gas in your generator.
It would be near impossible for a Cat 5 hurricane to hit NYC. For that matter, even a 4.
A 3 would also be unlikely.
Hurricanes need warm 80+ degree water to spawn and maintain. Cut off the warm water by either land or colder water, and they diminish rapidly.
I think what happened with Sandy is about the worst case scenario as storm surge is biggest destroyer of property.
Winds can down trees and take off roofs but precious little can stand being battered by tons of (incompressible) water for hours on end.
I bigger hurricane might actually do less damage if it didn’t come with a storm surge at high tide.
For a bomb scenario, the only way out would be boats.
If you have natural gas, convert your generator to run on it.
Natural gas usually doesn’t run out because of a storm.
Otherwise convert it to run on propane. Then you don’t have to worry about old bad gas, or a varnished up carburetor.
1800 rpm generators are more rugged and last longer.
If you kitchen range and oven are electric then have a propane burner set up to cook with.
I would add candles and matches. For both light a a little heat. And a portable propane stove and a converter hose to allow you to connect it to your standard 20 lb. tank as well as a few 1 lb. cannisters. And keep at least 1 full 20 lb. tank. I also have a camp stove and a case of Sterno just in case.
That's a good place to start. I often lose power during storms. After hurricane Charlie in 2004 I lost power for two weeks and after Jeanne, a month later, for 10 days.
I have a generator that powers the freezer, fridge, a window A/c, TV and a couple of lamps. But I usually don't use it unless there's an extended outage.
Every room has alternate lighting, hanging oil lamps flank the fireplace (I have loads of oak stored for warmth). I have plenty of flashlights, lanterns and, light sticks for the grandkids. Outside, all my fence posts have solar light tops ... they can brought inside for extra indoor lighting at night and be put outside to recharge during the day.
I have a gas stove/oven and a gas/charcoal/smoker char-griller for cooking.
When most New Yorkers move to Florida they head to the beaches. But I grew up and lived on a beach all my life, so I looked for something different. I opted for very rural area and bought two properties close to each other. My daughter lives on one, at the end of a dirt road on an under-fished spring fed lake. Mine backs about 25,000 acres of forest with deer, turkey and wild boar. There's only one road in and out the neighborhood . . . easy to defend if necessary. The lake has crystal clear water and wee bit down the road there's a natural spring. I've used pool water for flushing toilets.
My grandson is an archer and knows how to kill, skin, and cook a rattler.
I'm about 12 miles from a major truck stop on an interstate. In the past they seemed to have their power back before anyone else ... maybe to supply gas and services to first responders, utility crews, and such. It was a blessing to be able to use their laundry, showers, and restaurant.
I have a couple of German Shepherds that guard the property and have chickens that run around my yard. With a couple of neighbors, we raise and butcher our own beef. I have fruit trees and plenty of room for a vegetable garden.
Life is good.
” - - - precious little can stand being battered by tons of (incompressible) water for hours on end - - - “ , unless the Engineers from The Netherlands are hired to consult to the politicians, who are owned by The Unions, who are owned by The Mafia.
Now if the Mafia hired the Engineers - - - - - .
I wonder if anyone has thought about moving away from the coast .... just a thought? Especially since there was nothing “super” about the storm Sandy. It was just a big tropical storm that zeroed in on a populated area of the coast that “knew” it would never get hit and was appropriately prepared.
I hadn’t even thought about the storage unit. That’s a brilliant idea — as long as you can find one that won’t flood out if a hurricane is accompanied by drenching rain that causes inland flooding.
Exactly. In this recent storm, I was prepared to drive as far as I could on a single tank of gas in my pickup truck. That would be about 600 miles from my home in New Jersey -- probably somewhere out in western Ohio or eastern Indiana.
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