People aren't prepared for hurricanes

CNN just reveal a recent poll that showed many people along the coast line aren't prepare for hurricanes this summer.
Are you guys prepared for severe hurricanes for this season?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/31/hurricane.preparedness.ap/index.html

Yes, I am prepared BUT there are always improvements to be made.

Check out the Hurricane Condition Checklist.

I have received some feedback and have already instituted some changes. I have found that if I am prepared for a nuclear incident, then I'm prepared for anything.

I can't speak about the rest of the country, however most in PBC "Palm Beach county" arn't prepaired, or there not prepaired correctly. I have seen people focus on one thing, but not paying attention to anything else. I.E. They will buy shutters, plywood, or some sort of window covering, but they will forget however that they are in a 30 year old woodframe house, which is nowhere near code. Or they will have a modern concrete home, shutters, and food, but they won't stock any water. Some people don't bother doing anything, they still have the mentality that since no major hurricanes have hit Palm Beach since 1949 none will in the future. It's kind of the "it'll never happen to me" mentality. Thats the mentality that usually causes disasters. Unfortunatly there is no real way to get people to prepare, if you tell them they need to be prepaired, they call you a fear monger. It seems the only real way to inspire people to get ready is for it to happen to them.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

If they don't want to be prepared then the only thing to be done is.............Let them meet their mortality, if they survive, they will forever endeavor to be prepared, otherwise, they will never worry about it!!!!!!

Thats JUST THE POINT!
They are not, nor has the past taught them a thing.

Just remember: it's going to be the Federal goverments fault, never theirs.

picard120, I don't mean to be rude but the only thing that suprises me about that is the fact that you seem kinda suprised about it. I have lived near the gulf off and on all my life, and it's always the same when a hurricane is headed toward you section of the coast. Mass run to wally world, home depot, with ripples spreading out to all the smaller mom and pop stores as the supplies are depleated at the bigger stores. Then there's a lull and just before it makes land fall 80% of the folks all try to cramm onto the road at the same time. 5% having been at least semi prepared and left early, and 15% being to stubborn or unable to leave.

Well, I'd like to reenforce my roof trusses with some 2x4s and also reenforce my garage door, then I'm set. Two years ago I had custom plywood covers made for all my windows. The plywood was painted with exterier paint to waterproof them. It'll be a heck of a job putting them all up.

As for food, water, power, etc... we are ready.

-Blast

I was here in Cayman when Ivan hit. Nothing, and I mean nothing prepares you to see a ~40' shipping container flying through the air, by your window when your on the fourth floor of an office building.

Since then, I've moved from a crappy condo to one that is 7' off the ground, all concrete and as hurricane proof as any building can be down here. My hurricane supplies fills my second bedroom closest (its not small). Last season, we had so much stuff that my wife and I were eating hurricane supplies till last month (still think we have some stuff kicking around). We figure that where we live, its probably the safest home for all our friends, therefore its deemed the hurricane shelter and all of our closest friends have keys to get in.

I should inventory what we have for our hurricane supplies, its quite extensive. Food and water is 1/6th of the kit. Everything else is for the clean up, patch jobs till a professional can do something, survival, and tools to get into homes incase there is an issue (or better yet, to get you out of your home in an emergancy).

We figure 8 people staying there for a month, maybe 2. Its a good figure cause you never know what buildings will survive, and its amazing to see where you'll end up for the clean up afterwards.

And I've added some extra insurance for the last two years... Signed up for the company's evac flight. If a cat 3 or higher comes within a certian range of Cayman, the company has a chartered jet that will fly down, pick us up, and drop us off at an international airport somewhere not in the way of the storm.

And one more piece of necessary equipment... battery operated fans!!!!! I have a 6 of them, and 30lbs of D batteries to run them. For during and after the storm. Generator running all night has a good chance of getting stolen.

Man, you and Blast are READY!!!

That sure is the way it looks by watching TV...

Suddenly my 5/8" plywood seems flimsy.

-Blast

For a look at my hurricane preps go here.

-Blast

And then half the people that bought supplies at the last minute return them after the storm passes. The home stores get all kinds of "defective" generators.

I HATE people who do that, no matter that the purchase was...

Yup. I saw a coconut go thru a roof (think winds were north of 200 mph at that point). Keep in mind, it was a old caymanian house with a tin roof, but still a sight nevertheless!.

After Ivan (things on this island are refered to 'Before Ivan' and 'After Ivan'), all this new construction took place, hurricane shutters are almost standard on new construction, and proper windows, etc.

If I had the money, i'd go for the steel shutters that roll up, and are controled electronically (like garage door) for every window and door. But the wife frowns upon things that are ugly on the house!!!!

But that experience taught me about how I would build my home if I go back to north america... Have a concrete safe room at least 15' above ground, don't need a basement, and jack that house UP (flooding can happen any time from anything), the house will be concrete (canadian company does poured concrete walls for homes inbetween two forms that eventually become part of the house), etc. I can go on and on... and on... ;-)

Hear Hear!!!!

Blast...Don't you live North of Houston?

I have the plywood, water, tons of food, beer, wine and extra propane, gasoline and a plan to leave if necessary.

Talked with a guy from NOAA and he live within a mile of me and he indicated that if the right storm hit Galveston Island we would have 4 to 8 feet of water in our houses. He said he was more worried about the winds since we are less than 20 miles from the Gulf as the crow flies!

My house has the hurricane straps and storm doors and window; not sure how much help any would be in a cat 4 or 5 storm.

My company is preparing by moving all computer equipment/servers offsite to a secure location away from the coast. We are within blocks of Galveston Bay. I think lots of people are preparing but not nearly enough.

See, my Burt Gummer philosophy works in many, many different scenarios...

And I wonder what percentage of folks here in NYC are prepared? I have plywood for my big glass doors in stock, but not for most of my windows - I live 3-4 miles inland, 98 ft above sea level... Water, food, Power, etc are taken care of, but...

Mr. Drysdale,

Yep, by Old Town Spring. It's about 70 miles to the coast so storm surge isn't a problem. Tropical Storm Allison dropped 39 inches of rain on our neighborhood but our house remained above the flood waters. Flooding isn't a concern but wind and tornadoes are.

-Blast

Not to gloat, but I sure am glad that I left Florida.

Three years ago, I had enough hurricanes to last a lifetime. Screwing plywood over windows sucks, especially when trying to re-line-up the board to the existing screw holes. I also have yet to meet a screw head that I can't strip. In Palm Bay, I lived in a 25-year-old wood-frame house. When a storm reached cat-3, I was gone. Evacuating to hotels gets to be expensive after a while.

I've seen so many people do the home depot/best buy rental, where they buy the tool/radio they need then return it when they are done. I have a garage full of tools because I don't play that game.

should have bought a camping trailer and drove a couple state north and parked, would save the hotel fees then.

Any excuse to buy new tools, new outdoor gear, nkife, or gun is a good excuse.

is it legal to build a concrete safe room? would city law enforcement object to building it?

HOLY SMOKES Blast. Where do you store all those gear?

Nice Blog by the way(Blast). I will have to take some time to read more.

We picked this house based on closet space, then added more. It helps that DW is into being prepared too.

-Blast

Better question is why would they object?

Thanks tfisher! That means a lot coming from you.

-Blast

Back to the RV BOV idea...

Having grown up in L. A. (Lower Alabama) my family was always prepared for hurricanes (we never evacuated and the first one I remember was Camille that hit Mississippi). After running off and joining the Air Force for twenty years I moved back with family and built a house in 2004. We started preparing as soon as we moved in at Easter time and of course Ivan hit in September of '04. I'm 25 miles due north of Gulf Shores, Alabama and I feel I am fully prepared for another direct hit like Ivan. When Ivan was on the way I bought a generator and it made life so much more easier because the power was out for 7 days after it hit. I was able to run my water well pump, freezer, a few lights and the ceiling fans in each room. I hooked it directly in to my meter with the electrical head removed and no chance of electricity flowing back into the line.
I keep in stock two weeks worth and rotate out my gas, water, batteries, food, (and beer) and I have several cases of MREs left over that were distributed by our volunteer fire department after Ivan. I keep on hand two extra propane tanks for my grill and crawdad cooker.I had a GenerLink device installed into my electrical meter last month so that I can hook up my 7550 watt Generac portable generator into my house wiring. It cost a few bucks but it will be worth it when the power goes out after the next hurricane.I wanted to get the GenerLink installed to safely run my generator and necessities in the house to ensure the wife and kids were kept happy and comfortable (If momma ain't happy, nobody's happy!).
All of this preparation came in handy during Katrina, even though we did not take a direct hit. I do not evacuate because my wife is a nurse at a local nursing home and she must be there during every hurricane. My children and I batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. Hopefuuly this year will be like last year!! Nothing

"...crawdad cooker..."

Gotta love it!!!

Not here in Cayman Islands, and i'm quite sure not in Canada - could be wrong(engineer in old life and something like that would of stuck out in my mind). But down here, you can get a construction crew to build a hurricane safe rooms (for a nice price point), where usually your third bedroom or office is concrete block on all walls, floor (not sure of ceiling, but assuming it is), then usually a quite strong door with solid locks.

That's because we keep rebuilding the place for them & never make them change the design to seriously stand a chance of surviving a direct hit. The next time we rebuild someplace like the Gulf Coast it should be to seriously reworked building codes.

Edit.

It needs to require built in shutters on the coast & east sides among other things. IIRC some codes in FL require built in generators in new construction.

I work at a pretty young company. Most of the people are 20's and 30's. I tried to convince some of the friends I had, they should have a minimum emergency kit. Extra food and water. Mostly for electrical interruptions, or problems that could delay supplies for a day or two.

They felt they didn't need it. "The store is nearby". Every time I go shopping, they always seem to only have about 6 24 packs of water in the store. The shelves could easily hold like 50. They'll depend on the store and water from the indoor pipes.

I also mentioned skills like First Aid and CPR (not real useful in a disaster) to one person in particular. He told me "you have to be interested in that kind of thing" and he wouldn't take it. I asked him would he help someone who was injured? He said "yes". I asked, wouldn't you want to know what is the right thing to do? He said he'd do his best.

Scares me. The Good Samaritan law might just protect him.

I moved out of Florida to Connecticut, and I can already see the difference. Things are soooo much different up here. My "kit" has gotten bigger for a longer time without stuff.

Hope a CAT 3 or 4 hurricane never hits Long Island.

Maybe you should point out to your work colleagues the Long Island Express

From the Website



The results of a cat 3-4 storm if it struck New York would be even more catastrophic.

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20061024/



Edit - *** How Bizarre!! The main graphic showing the inundation of the New York Area has become just a cross since being first posted ***

yeah. That is the common attitude for most people. They just don't care if they get kill in hurricane. They think hurricane will just pass by in 1hr and why bother to prepare for it.

I had been asking for that I even asked DEMHS for Connecticut for something like it. They didn't have one. The do have SLOSH projections.

I did tell some of them that tens of thousands of people would die in the NYC if a CAT 3 or higher hurricane hit. They seemed surprised. Uh, with the density of the area, and already "normal" rush hour traffic. No one is going anywhere. I would think that evacuation times must be on the order magnitude of minimum 7 days or something. I mean, it takes people like 2 hours to get 50 miles during rush hour.

*shrugs* I'll do what I can to preach, but it's just like religion, if they don't want to be saved, they won't listen until it's too late.

Hi ki4buc,

If a Cat 4 hurricane struck New York, it would be one of the most catastrophic events in US history. 9-11 and New Orleans would pale into insignificance in terms of the death toll and property damage. The worrying thing is that the chances of this event happening even this year are better than not successfully playing Russian Roulette with a well oiled pistol.


Edit **I have found a new location for the New York Inundation Graphic SLOSH projection.**