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I received a phone call from a life-long friend today. He called to check up on me, and to see if I was ready for the hurricane (his words, not mine). As simply replied with, “Oh, there’s a storm coming? What do You think?”

This should tell you two things about me:

1. I really need to pay closer attention to the long range weather forecast. (Tropical Storm CHANTAL will be here in three days!)
2. I’m rather confident that I am ready for a hurricane.

I’ll only briefly touch on the first one, since it is true, I SHOULD be watching the long range weather a bit closer.

Several years ago, I had a customer dancing around all worried as I came up from working on the bottom of her pool (for those that aren’t aware, I scuba dive swimming pools looking for leaks), she all but yelled at me to hurry up, “there is a tropical storm about to hit us”.

Since I don’t have TV service (going on 6 years now), and rarely listen to the radio, I tend to be out of touch with current events. I had no clue we were about to be hit by a tropical storm.

“I guess I should cancel my next appointment then, eh?”, was my response to her.

Situational awareness also extends to weather. Don’t be like me! Keep an eye on it!

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Part of my flippant attitude towards tropical storms stems from my preparedness. I rest easy knowing that I am only a couple of topped off gas tanks away from being ready to hunker down for a week or three. Again.

(And with all the wind and rain that they bring, a tropical storm make for a good “dry” run for a true hurricane.)

Shelter
In the catastrophic event of losing the house, the rest of my plans go to hell since we normally bug in. If that were to happen, we’d probably not make it either, so the remaining preps are irrelevant. I’ll assume that the house remains in place (it should, it is over 60 years old having withstood multiple hurricanes already), and if so, we have shelter. If some damage occurs, we always have out tents, or friends and family in the aftermath.

Water
Our next concern would be water. We have rain barrels and a Berkey Travel water filter (that I LOVE btw!!!) , a well and a generator, and a recent addition, city water. I think we are good on the water situation.

Energy

With a propane grill a and turkey fryer, along with 6 bottles of propane, I think I can handle cooking. I also have an Emberlit stove for cooking (read my review on it here), along with a almost a half a cord of oak and maple firewood.

Yes, MAPLE. In south Florida. It was a score, I know. (For you northerners, Maple is a very rare wood for down here.) I also have a large section of wooded area behind my house that can also provide fuel for the Emberlit stove.

I also have a gasoline and a generator to power the necessities, fridge, freezer, fan, and lights. I also store a small window A/C unit for after the storm, moving the entire family into a single room while the power is out. From my personal experience living here through previous hurricanes, in the event of a direct hit gasoline is available 5-10 days after the storm passes.

Then there is my solar powered setup. Two panels, 98 watts of power, and a four battery bank can run 12V LED house lights almost indefinitely, as long as there is a bit of sun every day. Yes, I have 12V lighting for just such an occasion.

Food
Of course there is my pantry, my garden, and my animals. My biggest food concern won’t be food for the people, but food for the animals. I rarely have more than a months worth of animals feed, and the feed stores will be hard to get to for a couple of weeks, worst case. We do stockpile a few months worth of dog food, though. The pitbull is part of the team, we have already planned on eating her last for a multitude of reasons.

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Everything else is gravy, as they say. We have food, shelter, water, energy, and plenty of air. And a little hardship might be good to get rid of a bit of the softness in my girls. I suffered through some tough times, and have come out the other side a much better person for having done so. I appreciate the little things a lot more than I once did. I hope they learn this sooner in life, rather than later.

That is all I want to say on my hurricane preparedness for now. What you should think about is are YOU ready?

If you are not, fix that. NOW! 

If you ARE ready, go over everything. Now is the time, not when the wind has blown a tree down across your driveway.

Either way, here comes the rain again…

Peace,
db

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