What can a person prepare for Hurricane? I wonder if coastal residents have to evacuate every time a hurricane hits the city. Katrina is coming to New Orleans fast & furious. <img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

I think that prepping for a hurricane is similar to prepping for a bad winter storm in the north. I lived in southern Florida for a number of years and the hurricanes were not that bad then. I now live in Ohio and use the same ideas with a few exceptions due to winter weather. I have enough supplies for my family to eat as if nothing bad were happening for three or four days. If I had to stretch it out a bit longer I could go for a week easy. Using resources in the home and some ingenuity with the help of my wife I know we could go for a month. It would be rough but we could do it.

A BOB and a fast car to get the H' out of Dodge.

For the short term review the many posts by members in the hurricane affected areas. Longterm we may be witnessing another one of nature's wakeup calls. Humanity came very close to being wiped out in Iceage Europe. With luck and no small degree of knowing their world those reindeer hunters survived and laid the groundwork of art, music and the oldest known expression of the godhead. Sometimes we don't have any option but to indeed leave Dodge City ASAP. Noah, or his probable Mesopotamian counterpart listened to his weather station and followed instructions while others planned a storm party with lots of barley beer. So, like Darryl Hanna listen to the great Mor-Gur, Noah his naval architect and your peers at ETS who have BTDT <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The advice I gave my cousin Terrie who lives in central Florida still sounds good to me: Get 3 days supply of food & water, gas up your car, grab your kid, drive to Nebraska, stay there till Thanksgiving!
gino <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Do insurance companies offer hurricane coverage?

Only up to the first big payout. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> There are still cases being mitigated in California courts after the Northridge earthquake.

what do you mean insurance cover only big payout? Is this covered only for institutions instead of residential owners? Do residential owners have to pay out of their own pockets to repair their homes & businesses?

The insurance industry has a nasty habit of discontinuing coverage for certain disasters after they actually have to pay up when it finally happens. Even then, there may be years of litigation as in the Northridge Earthquake just to get the promised benefits. Insurance is not one of my favourite subjects, being in a fight over a fire claim <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Ditto that, a cat 5 storm is no time to shelter in place, have plenty of gas and money and be packed to go somewhere else for an extended period of time. Unless you like gambling with your life of course.

Don't get me preaching.

the american insurance industry has been successful in tying the court system in knots for decades [not years] with ligitation over the definitions of rising water, flooding, storm whatever.

If you bought flood coverage you age covered. You may never be covered again, because flood coverage is underwritten by FEMA.

If you have 'hurricane' coverage, that is not well defined under Texas law, at least. You have to look to the policy, and the construction the the courts have placed upon the unsurance contract.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC POLICY PROVISION THAT SAYS 'HURRICAINE'?

There's no point to trying to shelter in place when the place is likely to fall down and fill with water. Get out. If the storm isn't as bad as expected, you can always go back.

Re: Insurance. An ins. agent friend of mine once pointed out that the insurance companies are in the premium-collecting business, NOT the claim-paying business. They only pay because they have to. BTW, I read somewhere that the insurance companies are trying to get the Bad Faith laws (the ones that force them to abide by their own agreements) overturned. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Sue

Damn well said.

Don't forget to have a chainsaw, battery operated saw, or an axe, crowbar or whatever in your home survival kit to allow access to the roof, when your house is flooded, after not heeding the warnings to evacuate!


ONE DAY CLOSER

It will be sad to see people that drown in their attics because they went up there with no way of breaking out to the roof. The death toll will likely be in the low to mid three figures on this one.

Well-stocked BOB, a full tank of gas and the sense to evac early?

I'll emphasize what others have mentioned – make sure you have plenty of cash.

My wife works in a regional call center for one of the country's largest credit card issuers. She's spent all day handling non-stop calls from corporate offices seeking help on behalf of employee cardholders trying to use their cards in the stricken areas. Some businesses – hotels, gas stations etc – are refusing to take credit card transactions because, without phone service, they can't obtain automated charge authorizations from credit card issuers.

As we used to say in the banking business: "Cash is king."

My wife works in HR and has been helping with payroll because payroll is in disastor mode and tomorrow is a payday. Seems in LA only 12% of their employees use direct deposit so the other 88% are unable to get their checks since they have nowhere to mail them to.