Major Storm Coming
I was a Boy Scout fifty years ago, and the motto hammered into my head still rings true: Be Prepared. Lessons I discovered in Boy Scouts stuck with me all these years and they’re relevant to you on Long Island as the storm season approaches.
September 21, 2016, marks the grim 77th anniversary of the Great New England Hurricane that made landfall near Bellport, NY. Only a few residents might be old enough to retain vivid memories of the true power Mother Nature can conjure up when she wants.
Here’s all you need to know. Another storm is coming. It could be bigger than the great Long Island Express. When? I can’t tell you.
But I can tell you what you can do to survive the aftermath and protect you and your loved ones and save many, if not all, of your possessions.
Fast Facts
There are many more people on Long Island than professionals who have the tools and training to help you after a major storm hits. What’s more, these professionals are charged with protecting and preserving larger community assets when a disaster strikes. Your home is at the bottom of their priority list.
The Cold Hard Truth
What does all this mean? It means you need to consider taking the Boy Scout motto to heart. You need to do all you can to be prepared to help yourself after a storm hits. Don’t think the fire department or utility company is going to race to your home to help you right away when millions are affected on Long Island from a major storm. It could take weeks or months in extreme situations before you’d ever see help.
The same is true for repair professionals. They will be overwhelmed with requests to do repairs or do a temporary patch to your roof or windows to keep weather out. Realize you’ll be on your own or on a huge waiting list.
What you Must Do
If a major storm strikes, there’s not much you can do ahead of time to make sure your home will come through with little damage. Caulking cracks that might allow wind-driven rain to enter is a good idea. Removing things from your yard that can become air-borne missiles that bang into your home is a great idea.
Take the time now to put all valuables in a place where they can be away from windows and leaking water. Digitize important documents and photos and store them on a small external hard drive that can be put in a purse. Make multiple copies and use flash or thumb drives too. Consider uploading the files to remote storage servers as your backup drives could get lost or damaged.
Know how to turn off your main gas supply in case a storm causes a gas leak inside your home. A simple wrench should be kept next to the gas meter for this purpose. Know how to turn off the main water supply to your home and drain the lines in case a storm causes your heat to be interrupted.
Now is the time to start to stock up on things that will help you survive. Food and water are vital. If a storm hits in the winter, you need to think about heat. Keep in mind that anything that depends on electricity for heat will be of little value unless you have a way to produce your own electricity for days or weeks. Make sure you know where all your warm clothes are and be sure they’re clean and dry.
Dried foods can be stored safely in clean five-gallon buckets that have gasketed screw-off lids. Beans, rice, or any other easy-to-prepare dried food can be stored in these containers. Small propane-powered camp stoves can be used to cook and heat water. These stoves are affordable and you can buy an adapter to refill small propane tanks from the larger 20-pound tanks that you use for your outdoor grill.
What are you going to do for water? You can buy cases of bottled water affordably, but not the day before the storm. It takes lots of gallons of water per day to satisfy the needs of a typical family, so barrels of water are not out of the question in case of a major storm that disrupts utilities for days.
If you live in a low-lying area, you need to be deeply concerned about the devastating storm surge that can raise the level of the ocean by as much as 10 or 15 feet. People who stay in houses battered by the waves in these surge areas often die. The houses can be wiped away or reduced to firewood kindling wood. Think now how you’d move out before the storm and what are the most important valuables you could pack in your car. Do it now, not an hour before the storm when you’re frantic and the roadways off the island are gridlocked with traffic.
Be sure you have hand tools that don’t need electricity to operate. Rope, tarps, sheets of plywood or anything else that could cover a broken window or door could be a great help to minimize wind-driven rain damage.
Try to recall anytime you may have gone camping. What did you need to survive for three days outdoors? That’s the frame of mind you need to be in now and you need to stockpile all the supplies you need because you may not get out for days or even a week. You hear this advice all the time, but this time take it. Act on it. Start to get prepared - now.
Getting ready was discussed way back in my April 18, 2013 AsktheBuilder Newsletter.
Nice article but it is just like all others in this vein. What to do but not how to do it.
Everything has an associated cost.
Where does one find the space to store supplies, rotate supplies?
Show me a vertically oriented pantry that loads from the top and dispenses from the bottom that keeps me using and replenishing my supplies (just an example).
Bob,
To get to the *how-to-do-it*, you need to devote about 50,000, or more, words to the topic. The newspaper editor limited me to about 1,000. There are lots of books at Amazon.com about How to Get Prepared.
Tim -
Attempted to take survey... but poorly designed... or intentionally twisted.
If I answer that I am prepared; it still demands a reason why I am not prepared???
Thanks Tim, but it is depressing to think our infrastructure is not better than it was 77 years ago. What about urban dwellers with little storage room or with little or no camping experience?
Most media editors don't give a dam about you. All it is about = $.
And a lot lie about things--just look at a certain person running for
president--remember the 9th commandment !
Bob, Thank you for telling us where to get information on "how to do it".
Oops... I meant to direct my comment to Tim not Bob!! Sorry about that!!
In the1998 ice storm,we were without power for 22 days. The necessities seemed to be in almost this order. Generator, gasoline, water, food that could be prepared and eaten without much preparation. None of the above were of much use IF you could not protect it. Generator thefts were a common occurrence. The railroad posted guards at all the switching stations and crossings to protect fuel and generators. Suppling minimal power to keep the basement dry, sporadic electrical heating devices for the chosen living area and well pumping. Most of my neighbors (without generators) lived in public shelters and occasionally checked on their homes to see if they had been robbed. Police / Army protection was not geared to private property protection. Evacuation was not mandatory but services were minimal and we were on our own. Cold is more survivable than flooding. We could not have sheltered in place had flooding been the issue.
Tim,
I too was a Boy Scout. And I always have buckets of water and supply's stashed in my basement. Where I live most of the storms are of the winter variety. I've been snowed in for a few days. But never went on a panic buying trip when the news predicts it coming. But I do get entertained by the people who do. A comic did a great video of that a few years ago, panicking getting in the car to go get bread and milk.
But being prepared is no joke. It isn't that hard to do. Like you said , just do it this time.
Thanks for the reminder.
John
Excellent article Tim. We lived in San Diego for 9 years and so got into the habit (primarily because of the You need an Earthquake Kit" push.) of keeping a variety of canned goods that we could live on for a while. From time to time we donate the lot to a food bank and replace it.
That way, we always have "in-date" food and our previous stock is consumed before it can go off. I also believe that even just discussing a preparedness plan with the family will help give your loved ones focus if the need arises.
Thanks for the article, Tim. Good timing, too!
Here in south Louisiana, we frequently (every three to four years or so) have storms that knock out power for several days, have lots of trees and limbs down and cause extensive flooding.
Most here have figured out how to prepare themselves for the inevitable next big one but there are always those that don't bother. They just wait for the "authorities" (or someone) to take care of them and their food, shelter or evacuation needs
My advice to "Hudson Bob" and others that DO care to prepare is very simple and is the same as yours, Tim.
You cannot rely on others, only yourself. Our neighbors all look out for each other but the bottom line person responsible for me and my family is me.
You don't need a book or an expert to tell you what you, your family and pets need to SURVIVE - water to DRINK, food to EAT and shelter. You can create your own list, too. (Hmmmm...)
Having natural gas service to your house makes it all easier. (All electric doesn't help when the power is out til who knows when.)
Gallon jugs of water store efficiently.
Canned foods store efficiently.
Blue tarps store efficiently.
Propane camping stoves store efficiently.
Cases of propane cannisters store efficiently.
Etc., etc,. etc...
Still - the main thing you have to have going for you is your brain. YOU have to have a plan that INCLUDES evacuating IF NECESSARY. Hunkering down is fine - we've done it for 60 plus years.but ask the machos that die in every one of our gulf coast hurricanes if evacuation might have been a better choice than hunkering down or throwing a hurricane party.
Common sense goes a long way to developing your plan. Being pragmatic and PRACTICAL sure helps, too. And leave your ego and "I'm tough." behind. We're talking survival for you AND your family.
P.S. - this is just a "comment" regarding your article, Tim, and I could not even get close to saying what needs to be said or covered. That "editor" wanted your article to be 1000 words?!?!?! I HOPE AND PRAY someone is developing her plan for her... 😉
You should have offered to do a series of articles. A general one as above and then a series where you tackled individual items in more depth in each subsequent article..
Great article, Tim. I spent 35 years on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and June 1 was always our reminder to be prepared. Except for plywood to board up windows (and that is a one-time expense), everything else is usable every day. Stock your pantry with canned food you eat anyway. Have a non-electric can opener. Save clean gallon milk jugs on a long string in the garage, and fill them with tap water before the storm arrives (also fill a clean bathtub). Keep a Ziploc freezer bag with your important documents in it in a drawer. Keep fresh batteries in your refrigerator. Recharge phones nightly (and only use them for emergency calls when the power is out). Hurricanes and nor'easters don't suddenly appear, and many tornado outbreaks have advance warning (sometimes days). You have time to gather your assorted emergency supplies from around the house. And don't forget to gas up the car days before and get cash. If the power goes out, no power to gas pumps or ATMs either.
Tim, Your survey answers the story. I am amazed by how many people believe the utilitiy and government agencies will come to their aid in a time of crisis. I witnessed first hand how Ellicott City, MD went from a historic Main Street town full of restaurants and small family businesses and in two hours with 6 inches of rain destroy the entire town. The government was there to help but not in the capacity people would think. There job was to protect people from getting injured first, then protect from looting second. Then try to organize all the family's that were displaced from the flood. It has been weeks and people are still trying to clean out the buildings. The highway department still does not have the roads open. Luckily this was a not the entire County as our resources would be spread out so thin that it would take months to recover. Now look at what Louisiana is dealing with, all the flooding on a massive scale again. Those Thousand year storms are coming more often these days. One should re-think about some type of preparedness more than spare batteries for their flashlight.