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

Do not count on anyone's help after a disaster. Be prepared to take the challenge against the elements and other people. All the government authorities do what is right for them, not for you. That is the way it has to be to run the system. If you depend on the government or military etc. you have to live in the system they supply. This may not always suit you.

Depending on the magnitude of the disaster and how it affects you, you will either run a short term emergency plan for few days, or re-organize whole your life. This isn't a pretty thing to think about but it should be done in advance.

If you need to leave your house, do not wait and do not go with the crowd. Do not forget <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />own to devil or up to the throne he travels the fastest who travels alone.

Please take time to read some of the information here to see what you may expect after a major disaster. Belive me, what ever civilazition or system you live in, chaos is chaos since the begining of time and the dynamics of a catastrophic event never changes.

Susan,
just ran across this page. The Military doesn't start moving after 3 days - the Guard moves when called - ditto Red Cross, Salvation Army, Southern Baptists (big supplies of Canteens), ARES, etc

Thing is - they roughly figure it'll take about 72 hrs to have their resources in place once they get the call. I've taken the ARC courses on shelter ops and disaster ops, and have been in a few planning session (I'm the local Emergency Coordinator for ARES). They will NOT be FULLY up do speed at 72 hrs, but they will be a good way along. For instance - we do emergency radio comms - The Florida huricanes and the like show that we are really most useful in the first 48-72 hrs. After that, the phone companies will have enough teams out there that critical comms will be back on line - ditto CRITICAL power - The Cell phone companies will bring in "COWS" (poratable cell sites) etc

Basically figure that for the first 72 hrs, you are basically "on your own" and anyone that is supplying you with "stuff" is relying on the "stuff" that is in the disaster area - including HUMAN resources, which are always in short supply - they have THEIR families to worry about FIRST (all the Vol groups stress this - take care of YOUR family FIRST, then give us your time)

In the first 24 hrs, you'll then start to see semi local help, etc. It's just that things take TIME. I'll give a good example of a "non disaster disaster" The Blackout of 2 summers ago. The Red Cross was out fairly fast - by 8pm or so, there were canteens on the street with water/snacks at some of the major transport hubs. Why not all? Because the local trucks and vols were 100% committed. Why were they not out at 4:30pm when a LOT of people could have used them crossing the bridges on foot? Because it takes time to get people TO the canteens, get them loaded, and get them to where they need to go. The truck I was assigned to do comms with ran out of everything but water and cups by about midnight

The NEXT day, when I came back on shift in the early afternoon, we were sitting pretty - we had trucks from as far as Rochester, we had bottled water out our ears - we had packages of Gatoraide to make mix, etc (and of course no clients - power had been on for 12 hrs)

The first 4-5 hrs will mostly be spent figuring "what happened, and where are we needed MOST" and "what resources do we have RIGHT NOW, and what's coming". They know that they have XXX available ASAP, but that's no where near enough for a major problem - they need to activate stuff out of storage etc

Thank you for all your input. We don't have much in the way of disaster groups here. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> , despite being in earthquake/volcano country. I try to be prepared as much as I can, mainly so I can control my own situation and not be a drain on imported resources. I fully intend to stay home if I'm not forced out by the situation (i.e., firestorm).

Sue

For MANY disasters staying home IS the best thing - the technical term for it is "shelter in place"

Let's hope you never need it

Here is my experience from Hurricane Fran in 1996, in Raleigh, NC.
The storm hit at night, power was out by 10 or so. Battery powered radio broadcast the local tv station, so we got weather reports as the storm went overhead. Next morning, we surveyed the damage, lots of trees down, no electricity, streets blocked from trees and power lines.
Neighbors helped each other make temporary repairs, cleared trees from the streets, and generally had a neighborhood "meet and greet".
Power company employees came by later that day, and told us that it would be days before the power was restored. Radio reports told of the few areas that did have power, what supplies were available at which stores, and gas stations that had power. No big deal, kind of like camping.
Second day, food was starting to go bad, so we had group meals to use up the food, and neighbors continued to get to know each other. Gas grills are a great way to cook all that food before it spoils. Generators are starting to look like a good purchase about now, but they are all sold out. No ice available, food is getting tossed. Yard cleanup began, if folks didn't start the first day.
No help from Red Cross, National Guard, etc. Local authorities are beyond swamped, understandably.
Third day, grocery stores started shipping truckloads of ice and bottled water to the area, much appreciated by all. At that point, I had gotten some ice from work (hospital), and was sharing with the neighbors and friends. Hot water ran out, and I remembered reading about solar showers for camping. Now I realized that I didn't have a non electric can opener, other than a P38, which my 9 month pregnant wife nominated me to use. Okay, cooking on the grill was still working okay. Batteries held out for the radio, but flashlight batteries are in short supply.
Candles are working okay, and we start going to bed earlier. The lack of air conditioning in the hot and humid southeast is starting to wear on the pregnant wife. We heard on the radio that a local cafeteria had power, so we drove there to get some hot food, and cold sweet tea. My wife sat at a booth and drank tea for two hours, and no one said a word to her. She was grateful for the break.
Day four, some of our friends got power back, so the wife hung out at their house. I was working during all this, and we got in touch with her OB/GYN to find out what to do if the labor process started. Neighborhood cleanup continues, and some relief aid starts to arrive. Still cooking on the grill.
Day five, and power returns! Restock the fridge, enjoy air conditioning.
Hot showers! Starting planning on how to do things better next time.
Cable tv was out for three weeks. No rabbit ear antennas available anywhere.
Local radio simulcast the news for about a month, if I remember correctly.
Much price gouging occurred on chainsaws, generators, gas, and ice.
Many people were injured or killed using chainsaws they didn't know how to use.
Many people drowned driving into flooded areas.
Yellowjackets were out in force, as a lot of the nests were flooded, and snakebites were up also.
People drove up from unaffected states to sell us generators at 5 times normal price, and people gladly bought them.
Crooks charged little old ladies $15,000 to cut down single trees, and they went to jail.
And most of us helped each other as best we could, and despite some inconveniences, we got by, and are stronger for it.
And we had power going when our baby boy was born 10 days after the storm. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In my opinion, some type of Community Emergency Response training is an ideal way to prepare for such a situation. It is not a magic bullet, but it can definitelyt go a long way to creating an organized, self-supporting effort until authorities arrive. See a previous thread here:
http://tinyurl.com/4pu9j

Great rundown, thanks for all the information!

I'm curious as to why hot water would be out? My hot water heater comes on as needed and is independent of electrical power, using a thermocouple (I think). Was your gas shut off?

Sodak:

If your water heater main flame comes on and goes off without outside electricity, it has a thermopile, not a thermocouple. It will keep working as long as the pilot flame is working. Most water heaters use thermocouples and need outside electrical power to open and close the main flame gas valve.

The following is from a web search of "THERMOPILES".

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A thermopile is serially-interconnected array of thermocouples, each of which consists of two dissimilar materials with a large thermoelectric power and opposite polarities. The thermocouples are placed across the hot and cold regions of a structure and the hot junctions are thermally isolated from the cold junctions. The cold junctions are typically placed on the silicon substrate to provide effective heat sink. In the hot regions, there is a black body for absorbing an infrared, which raises the temperature according to the intensity of the incident infrared. These thermopile employ two different thermoelectric materials which are placed on a thin diaphragm having a low thermal conductanceand capacitance. Since this creates a large temperature difference between the hot and cold regions, this structure enables improved detector performance. sp; The thermopile has some unique properties which cannot be duplicated by other detectors. It shows an inherently stable response to DC radiation and is not sensitive to ambient temperature variations.
It responds to a broad infrared spectrum, does not require a source of bias voltage or current.
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Bountyhunter

Actually, I'm going to disagree - conventional gas water heaters don't use any electricity at all, not even internally generated by a junction device. Strictly thermal-mechanical (fluid in the tube). Just replaced mine - yep; still make 'em just like they used to. Except I got one with dual magnesium anodes and a swirl fill tube.

I chose this - conventional type - over a condensing unit specifically because it's immune to electrical outages (plus it will last longer and needs no repairs or maintenance).

If it has a pilot light and it doesn't have a blower, there's no electricity involved.

There are gas water heaters that need some electrical power, of course - condensing units (forced exhaust, high efficiency - whatever name they go by).

Regards,

Tom