My daughter lives in Wilmington, NC, her husband is in the Coast Guard (Station Wrightsville Beach, he will be taking one of the boats to the docking near the USCG Defiance.

She, my 1 year Granddaughter and their two dogs are headed west to a Warrior Dash event in Huntersville, NC. She is boarding the two dogs about half way to the event. She and number of friends had rented a house, so they should be okay, but may have issues getting home.

Stay safe-

Pete

LOL, yes the ratchet thing is spectacular for getting it nice and secure. Especially when you have little upper body strength and know practically nothing about tying knots! I just hope I can get it dried out enough that it won't rust when it's all over with.

ParamedicPete, (I haven't figured out how to quote more than one person),
I'm about an hour and a half from Wilmington, it's beautiful down there! Glad your family was able to get out of the storm!

They are admittedly overkill. However, again, I am on the southeast coast of Florida. In an Andrew or Katrina scenario, there's not a safe place in the state, I would evacuate to North Carolina to stay with family and my van would make it to somewhere near Jacksonville before running out of gas. I don't recommend it, but in a worse case scenario, two of those cans were going to the very back of the van with me. Not recommended, but better than fighting off zombies with a pick axe stranded on the side of I-95.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26...y_n_938251.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/26/us-irene-newyorkcity-governor-idUSTRE77P5AI20110826


Looks like I got that wrong as well.

As with the public mass transport getting closed down by Saturday afternoon, it might be worthwhile setting the alarm clock early to do what you need to do to Escape from New York.

I've attempted to pass on some lessons learned after 55 years living on the Central Gulf Coast..

for Hurricane Donna in 62 we had about 2 days notice, lost both power and water.. extreme debris (septic tanks and caskets were popping out of the ground) and flooding...local river was 12' over the bridge railing..the one local grocery store was stripped bare of goods...no local hospitals or emergency service..it was an important teachable moment

infrastructure and warning and communication options have much improved since then

there is a reason I choose to live where I do, and hurricane season is part of the package...

I live about 3miles from the Gulf, but at 34' elevation..my personal emergency plan is to stay through a Cat 3 and evacuate to a relative's home (built to post Andrew code)following the "run from the water, and hide from the wind" dictum

I try to improve my preparedness a little each year...the O4 season was unique..three storms in about a month's time..and significant length of power outage....trying to sleep in the extreme heat was the greatest challenge...especially if you are used to air conditioning, and prepare for work at 6am..an open house with neighbor's generators running added to the challenge..

I added a class session of leassons learned with my students after each storm, and edited my hurricane preparedness lab, and 72 hour go bucket labs....you get a different viewpoint talking to 150 14year olds...

I tend to think of more pragmatic, day to day challenges, and welcome the opportunity to help

member of the Gator Nation since 1974

Hey, a fellow Gator! Cool. My first hurricane was Betsy '65. The eye went over our house. Lived through about six or seven others including Andrew. Andrew took my grandfather's house and only left a flat slab of concrete.

Like you, I was raised under the "ride it out" mentality and I would also stay home for a Cat 3 and under. Before Andrew, I would have said that I'd ride out any storm at home, but after Andrew, I've changed.

Press quick Quote at the bottom per post you wish to quote after each reply you make per person. Also id grab a few cans of wd40 and spray that thing down on the metal dunno how it would treat the non metal materials tho but you also take the non pressurized gallon cans and give it a good wiping down with a old handtowel.



Not overkill at all I would rather those beasts then the crappy plastic ones they sell now with the horrible safety features and nozzles so short you cant get the last half gallon into certain cars. Very depressing that the safety got to them and penalized everyone for the mistakes of the stupid.

Wow, these things are expensive.

Just to clarify: the regular storage cans (like the same company, Justrite's type II storage cans) release vapors automatically. This is good for storage (prevents pressure buildup) but not so good for transportation since if release occurs while in the car, it will smell and may possibly ignite. So they can be used for short distances only, like from the gas station home. Whereas these DOT-approved cans can be locked to prevent release while in transport. So they won't smell in the car and you can take them somewhat more safely over long distances. Is that the idea?

How unsafe are the regular plastic cans? Say I had to evacuate. In an emergency situation, is it worth it to take a few cans in the trunk, or is it so dangerous that it's better to risk running out of gas?

Jesselp, good luck with the storm. I don't envy anyone riding it out in Manhattan-it's gonna be ugly!

I have some of those, and even in the trunk, they make the car reek of gas just going the 1.5 mile home.

IMO, the safest place to carry loaded gas cans is strapped to the roof rack.

Sue