Sorry I haven't had a chance to post this, I've been very busy. Okay, the following is stuff I either didn't do and should have, or did wrong.

1. I didn't buy ice before the storm. I rearranged the freezers and filled up all our tupperware with water and froze it. This wasn't enough. I should have filled every cooler and empty spot in our freezers with bags of ice or dry ice.

2. I didn't seal the food well enough against the water from the melted ice. I should have either put the food in big ziploc bags or sealed the ice in heavy-duty garbage bag. I had to throw out a lot of food just because it became water-logged.

3. I didn't fill spare gas cans with gasoline. Both vehicles were topped off, but I had three 5-gal gas cans sitting empty. I figured since I didn't have a generator I didn't need the extra gas (and associated extra risks). Had I had the extra gas I could have helped supply my neighbor's generator with gas. Sidenote: a few days after the storm the company I work for began giving each employee 5 free gallons of gas each day.

4. I didn't put our extension cords in an easy to access location. Again I figured since I didn't have a generator I didn't need the extension cords. However, I could have run cords from my central battery system to other rooms.

5. While I had plenty of tarps and nails in case of roof damage, I didn't have long wood strips to help hold the tarps on the roof. Luckily, I didn't need the tarps.

6. I made my plywood shutters too heavy to install by myself.

7. I hadn't written the shutter's window location on each shutter, I just numbered them and wrote the location on a piece of paper. I then misplaced the paper sometime in the last few years.

8. After the hurricane I spent the day cleaning the yard rather than optimizing keeping my food properly cooled or cooking it.

9. A lot of the food I did cook still ended up going bad because I didn't have enough ice to keep it cool.

10. The first day I didn't realize how quickly it would get dark inside my house while still light outside.

11. After our power came on I took out the batteries from all our flashlights and radios to prevent corrosion damage from leaking batteries. Then while I was in Denver the power went out again, leaving DW/DWs without light until she was able to find the flashlight and reinsert the batteries.

12. Hauled large logs while wearing sandals. Luckily I didn't drop any on my feet.

Mistakes I saw others make:
1. One friend dumped out all their water after the storm ended then discovered their water was shut off.

2. Neighbor was walking around barefoot and stepped on a nail. He ended up having to spend all day waiting in an emergency room.

3. Too many incidents of horrible chainsaw safety.

4. People racing down unlit, debris-filled neighborhood streets at high speeds.

5. People drove across other people's lawns to get around fallen trees.

Feel free to ask for details on any of these.

-Blast