Trying to find thread: Prepositioning supplies

Anyone remember a thread about prepositioning supplies in a u-stor-it kind of place along a hurricane evac route? This can't be an original idea, but it occured to me that storing some gas, food, money, etc. a few hours out along a major evacuation route might be worth considering. After watching people take 6 hours to go what would normally take an hour or two, only to sit in long lines at gas stations, maybe it's not such a crazy idea. You could even sleep there if you had to.

Groo - These might be the threads you're thinking of:

Cache for Survival

Radical changes in my assumptions for planning (about half way down)

Dan

An interesting idea. I haven't rented storage space in a long time so I don't remember what the rental agreement said, but wouldn't most storage facilities prohibit the storage of things like flammable fuels? Fuel would probably be the most critical item during the actual evacuation phase, as you point out, since you're actively using it up while driving.

If your storage facility is within the evacuation zone or "close enough", then it might be locked up tight to minimize the chance of theft, while the staff itself evacuates. Even self-service gates/doors may be locked down. Then you would have to break in to get your additional supplies. I can picture the news coverage now, "Mr. So-and-so is arrested as the first looter of Hurricane X, at a storage facility outside of Somewhere, USA, even though the hurricane is still 24 hours from landfall..." <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I don't know. Maybe. Probably. But really, how are they going to know?

Good point about carefully selecting the location of the storage. It needs to be far enough away that it's unlikely to be in the path of the hurricane (well outside the 24 hour predicted strike area), yet close enough to reach on a single tank of gas in bad traffic. It also needs to have good access from off the highway in case an accident or ten blocks traffic.

I don't think these are too difficult to solve. I found a couple of likely spots a few hours drive (under normal conditions) from my house. And while it sounds kind of "survivalist", it'd really just amount to a saturday drive. Rent the storage facility, fill up the empty gas cans in the trunk, take everything back to the storage unit, drop off, go home.

I'm still not convinced it'd be of much help. The scenario I have in mind is the "late evacuation". Deciding to evacuate when it's obvious there's danger means leaving town with all the other idiots. It might be nice to know that there's fuel and food cached along the evacuation route. And this does sound extreme, but if you rented a big enough place, you could just back the car in and spend the night. Wouldn't want to, but by the time you get there, you're no longer in danger (in principal), yet hotel rooms are probably impossible to find. Wait out the traffic, continue evac in the morning.

All this for, what? $60 a month? Rent from June 1 to November 1, that's $300 evac insurance. :-)

Yeah... I think so.

Thanks!

you could still use the same idea to store anything but gas.

Two BOBs come to mind. Maybe two stuffed backppacks plus a duffel bag with an additional change of clothes, cash, survival kits and few other goodies. Maybe spare glasses ..etc.

I believe in the basic pronciple of caching. Add or subtract details according to your specific circumstances.

Perhaps you could , for example, leave in your own mail box an envelope of few small bills, plus a page of encrypted personal data ( phone #s ..etc.) Be creative.

I have a similar gut feeling about the idea. Does anyone have any idea if most of the people running out of gas along the highways fleeing Katrina ran out of gas because the gas stations were closed/out of gas, or did they run out of gas because they were stuck in traffic and couldn't get to a gas station in time? Probaby both happened, but I'm curious if one reason predominated.

If it's the latter reason, then the storage facility idea may not turn out to be much help if you can't even get to it because the roads are so completely jammed with traffic that you can't even move. In this case, it's better to carry extra gas with you during the evacuation.

On the other hand, your idea makes more sense if the unavailability of gas along your route is your main concern--either gas stations for mile after mile are out of gas, or else the lines are so long that either it'll be out of gas or the hurricane will arrive, by the time you make it to the pumps. If the storage facility is still within the evacuation zone, then being able to get that extra bit of gas to drive to safety could be a lifesaver.

Also, remember that hurricanes have been coming in groups. In 2004, IIRC, one hit a (the?) port where fuel enters central florida. My favorite gas station was out for weeks. Weeks. Imagine if a couple of hurricanes come through, one draws the fuel supply down then a few weeks later another forces an evacuation. Bleah.

Or maybe one misses me, but flattens the area the evacuation route runs through. Then one comes along causing me to evacuate (of course, there goes my fuel cache).

How safe (I'm guessing not very) is it to put a couple of full fuel cans in the trunk?

Just remember where you put it. :-)

USA Today story of a Fall Out Shelter that was just found

And of course, the perennial problem with stored fuel comes up. Let's forget for a moment that you're probobly NOT allowed to stroe gas in a U-Store-It place (and peopl e do anyway), the question is how often will you drive out to that location to rotate out your fuel stores? Gas is notoriously finicky to store, even stablized. I know that it's a PITA for me just to manage the 20 gallons I keep in rotation at HOME.

Oh, yeah. In fact, I have 15 gallons I need to get rid of from last year. :-(