#18,346
Sometime overnight, my internet came back to life. Considering the amount of damage my community (Zephyrhills) sustained from Milton, the restoration of my power (after 4 days) and internet after a week, border on miraculous.
Not everyone here has power, though. Many neighborhoods, and roads, are still under water. Thousands of homes here are damaged, some may be total losses. Utility trucks and crews are everywhere. Without internet, the predominant sound your hear are chainsaws.
I was lucky. I had a safe place to go, thanks to my `disaster buddy'. Over the years we've come to each others aid - for problems large and small - dozens of times. I also had a home to come back to. My neighborhood did not flood, although it was isolated by downed trees and flood waters for several days.
My home took moderate damage - and sprang a few leaks - but is habitable. My gutters are gone, metal shutters stripped from the outside, but the roof held. Everything was damp inside, as torrential rains driven by hurricane force winds, found every ingress (wall A/C units, jalousie windows, minor leaks around windows, etc.).
All in all, I count myself very lucky.
My preps provide us with light and NWS emergency radio information during our (relatively brief) loss of power and internet at my bug-out location during the storm. Since returning home on Monday, they have been of greater use.
In a disaster area, cash is king. Many stores are unable to process debit and credit cards right now. All refrigerated food stuffs - meat, dairy, frozen foods - were lost during the storm and right now - many grocery store shelves are devoid of such luxuries.
Yes, I could drive 12-15 miles out of the area to shop, but the roads are a mess and gasoline has been a precious commodity. Besides, I've got my hurricane canned food stash to eat out of.
One of my neighbors is still without electricity. I was able to lend him a propane camp stove, so they can cook. A redundant prep, since I have a propane stove, but glad it was useful for someone.
Without Internet, I'm fairly isolated. No TV . . . my primary access to the outside world coming from phone calls and text messages from friends (many thanks to Sharon Sanders of FluTrackers).
I do have a small multi-media DVD player, and an ample supply of music and movies. A small creature comfort that I highly recommend. I also have a personal MP3 player, and hundreds of hours of music and podcasts if needed.
My `big ticket' preps, solar panels and 12-volt LiFePo batteries did not come into play, although if I'd not had a safe place to go, they would have provided me with badly needed power for those first 4 days after the storm.
People often ask me why I prep.
- Why I keep 30+ gals of stored water, 2 weeks worth of canned food in the pantry, an emergency radio, (several) first aid kits, solar panels, and an array of LED lanterns, battery operated fans, water filters, and a camp stove.
- Why I have an evacuation plan, and a `disaster buddy'.
This is my 3rd forced evacuation since 2017, and the worst disaster this region has seen in > 100 years. As bad as is was here, it could have been far worse. Had the storm come in 30 miles further north, the entire Tampa Bay region would have taken a terrible blow.
As it is, my neighbors further down the coast took the brunt of the storm. Where I live, most of the damage has come from record inland flooding, which in many places has not receded.
If we are lucky, we won't see the likes of this again for another hundred years. But there are no guarantees of that.
Two weeks prior to Milton, hurricane Helene passed to our west, inundating Florida's west coast with the worst coast flooding in decades.
Nature has no memory. We may go years without another major strike, or it could happen again next year. My town was well inland, at a high (for Florida) elevation, and had never flooded like this before. But rainfall rates of 3 to 5 inches per hour, with some places getting 18 inches - after an extremely wet summer - was simply too much.
The impacts last month from Hurricane Helene in Georgia and in North & South Carolina remind us that you don't have to live along the coast to suffer extreme (and unexpected) damage from these tropical systems.
And it isn't as if hurricanes are the only threat we face (see #NatlPrep: Prolonged Grid Down Preparedness).
Earthquakes, wild fires, tornado outbreaks, blizzards, ice storms, infrastructure failures, cyber attacks, and even solar storms are all potential threats, and can affect anyone at almost any time.
So . . . if a disaster struck your region today, and the power went out, stores closed their doors, and water stopped flowing from your kitchen tap for the next 7 to 14 days . . . do you already have:
- A battery operated NWS Emergency Radio to find out what was going on, and to get vital instructions from emergency officials
- A decent first-aid kit, so that you can treat injuries
- Enough non-perishable food and water on hand to feed and hydrate your family (including pets) for the duration
- A way to provide light when the grid is down.
- A way to cook safely without electricity
- A way to purify or filter water
- A way to stay cool (fans) or warm when the power is out.
- A small supply of cash to use in case credit/debit machines are not working
- An emergency plan, including meeting places, emergency out-of-state contact numbers, a disaster buddy, and in case you must evacuate, a bug-out bag
- Spare supply of essential prescription medicines that you or your family may need
- A way to entertain yourself, or your kids, during a prolonged blackout
Disasters often boil down to unscheduled camping - for days, or sometimes weeks - in your home, in a community shelter, or possibly in your backyard. If you think of preparedness that way, it becomes far less daunting.
