Here''s a few things I noticed after hurricane Ivan. First, I noticed a lot of you mentioned the National Guard coming in after 2-3 days to save the day. We had minimal damage here, but we had NO assistance from the national guard/militaryt at all, and this is with 2 large military bases here, locally. We, here, should all know this but don't count on the government. Period. I'm in a different situation because I'm in the military. They did take care of us. But, I'm not going to get into that becuase it doesn't apply to most people.

I know most of us talk about being prepared for 3 days, but I would consider 1 week to be the bare minimum, 2 would be better. We were told to evacuate Tuesday, Ivan made landfall Thursday, and we weren't allowed to return until Sunday (again, being military, we do our own thing).

Usually I don't let my gas tank go below a half tank, when a hurricane is coming I top off about every other day. If possible, leave at night to minimize traffic congestion. Also, as soon as I had my living arrangements set up at my bug-out spot (hotel)I went and made the necessary phone calls (family and supervisor), then filled up my gas tank (If you can't tell so far I'm paranoid about gas, partly because of this forum).

Once I was away I just tried to relax and not worry too much. I did get a little anxious when I was watching the weather channel and saw one of their reporters showing some pretty serious roof damage on an apartment building only 3 blocks from my apartment. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> Needless to say, I started to get worried.

Well, when I finally got the call saying I could come back I did. I lgot the call late at night, and I was too tired to start driving. I left early Sunday morning, before sun-up. I topped off my gas tank before I left. Then I stopped in the last town, before getting home, that I felt confident had minimal damage, and short lines at the gas tank. Then I topped off the tank, again, and filled the 1 gallon tank I keep in my trunk. Then I drove, carefully, the rest of the way home. When I got home, and put the 1 gallon fom the tank, I still had 1/2 tank. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ok, I'm got home and it was time to asses the damage. I had power, water, but no phone, or cable. The payphones at the gas station down the street worked. The apartment building was doing good, just a few lost shingles. I was lucky among my friends.

Utility crews were brought in from 1/2 way across the country to repair damage. FEMA came in right away and were working hard to get people reimbursed for damages. I didn't see any of the price gouging I had expected. In fact, the commisary had their meat 1/2 off (of course, who knows what condition it was in). <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Some people were without power for up to 2 weeks. I was without a properly working phone for about 3 weeks (they fixed it, then it broke, then they crossed my lines with somebody else, then they fixed it). <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> The utility crews worked their butt off and I am grateful for their hard work.

This is kind of a long post (sorry), but hopefully you can learn a little from my experiences. Also, I didn't have to go through the 3 hurricanes southern Florida did. We just got hit by one tropical storm and 1 hurricane.


Robert