The time to think about the next hurricane is **NOW**

[jpak]

If you live on the Gulf Coast or East Coast start gathering up your supplies and make your plans NOW.



Food - you don't have to cook
Paper and plastic utensils and bowls/plates
Water
Flashlight
Battery operated radio.
Batteries
Toilet paper
Plastic garbage bags
Meds - and get them refilled if you can.

Gather up important papers - store in a waterproof container.
Proper pet carriers and pet food.
Cat litter and a box.

If you are in the Deep South - get a battery operated fan and a cooling spray mister.

Do your laundry well before the storm.

Keep you gas tank full - and maybe some extra in safe containers

Plan an evacuation route and alternatives.

Get some cash - small bills and coins - or Travelers Checks
5 gallon buckets
Chlorine bleach

Have a phone charger in your car.

If you have the inclination - order a solar/crank phone charger and a solar shower on-line and have it delivered overnight.

Don't wait until the last minute to evacuate.

DO NOT TRUST THE HURRICANE UNTIL IT HAS MADE LANDFALL AND GOES EXTRATROPICAL.

Do I hate hurricanes?

You bet your sweet bippy I do...

edit - the only safe way to heat water indoors is with a Sterno Stove - and they need matches.
And text messages have a better chance to get through than phone calls...

[Skittles]

1. PLEASE add to your list, oh what are those window breaker things called

a DUer posted something about that recently

OK I Googled: "Emergency Auto Hammer"

[jpak]

5. And *Turn around - don't drown"

I think we saw ample evidence for this in Houston.

[malaise]

2. Good post

Rec

[HipChick]

3. Plane ticket..

[malaise]

6. Ha

My Miami sis and her hubby might needs tickets to me

[HipChick]

8. That's kinda what I'm planning..

I stayed in Andrew...never again

[barbtries]

11. or you might need tickets to them?

or someone further inland?

just, be well.

[malaise]

13. We live some distance from the coast - we're fine

Miami in peak season is never an option.

Truthfully I think Irma will miss both of us

[barbtries]

16. what do you base that on?

i get the impression that nobody really knows what it's going to do. tried to get clarity but no luck.

do you think it's coming to the US?

[malaise]

19. Storms that intenify so early tend to go WNW and then NE

causing problems for Bermuda and Nova Scotia or just become fish storms,

Still we can't let our guards down. It's early days and how far south Irma dips before the WNW trek will decide our collective fates.

[barbtries]

23. yep.

it's all we can do, stay informed, prepare for the worst, hope for the best. sigh.

[B2G]

24. Models have consistently been trending west today

A sharp NE turn out ot sea is becoming less likely.

[malaise]

39. That wobble is also included in the models but it's way too early to know where it's going

I'm watching the Leewards for now - if it misses them, that's great news.

We're ready for whatever is coming.

[dbackjon]

41. How much are models going to breakdown

With climate change, warming oceans and a weakened jet stream?


Steering currents are being disrupted.

Past performance is out the window.

[B2G]

42. No

Models are run based on the data at the time of the run. Climate change has nothing to do with the models.

[jpak]

21. The farther west and south it goes - the higher the probability of a US landfall

It will eventually make the turn northward.

[Motley13]

28. Aren't you in Jamaica?

I'm in Fort Lauderdale 3 miles from ocean. Wilma was our last one, 12 days w/o power. It was in Oct, so not blistering hot.
Andrew was in Aug, 5 days w/o power. I really feel for Houston. I didn't lose my house or car.

[malaise]

33. Yep

Irma's not coming for me - maybe we have to worry about the one behind -he'll be Jose and there will be a wall of irony if that one reaches the US mainland.

We had weeks and weeks without water and power after Gilbert in 1988.

You know the combination of inconvenience, no power, heat and humidity and disgusting smells are hard to take. I feel so sorry for all the folks who were battered by Harvey and its rain.

[jambo101]

4. Good advice jpak

[jpak]

7. I've been in 3 hurricanes - the first 2 were not supposed to hit where I was located

I was on the bad side of Katrina - but far enough away from the eye to be safe.

70 mph winds with higher gusts - but we only lost power for 9 hours.

By Katrina - I was well prepared.

But after Katrina, their was no gasoline or diesel for nearly a month.

I had enough gas on hand to get to Atlanta though.

[malaise]

12. That's why I post NOAA's Tropical Weather Outlook once there's something out there

It's peak season - everyone should be ready for the worst.

[barbtries]

9. thank you.

in NC. Costco tomorrow.

[FLPanhandle]

10. Those of us who have lived in hurricane country for many years are always prepared

and we always keep an eye on the tropical weather.

All the newcomers however,....

[jpak]

14. I lived on the western panhandle and gasoline supplies evaporated days before a watch was declared

After Katrina - there was no gas for a month and the shelves of the local Albertson's were empty - for weeks.

Seeing those empty shelves was shocking to me.

This was real.

[malaise]

15. Jeff Masters says it best

Irma is more than a week away from any possible U.S. impacts. Bear in mind that, on average, long-range hurricane forecasts beyond 7 days have very little skill when it comes to specific locations and intensities, and much could change in the coming days. The idea is not to take a particular track or strength forecast as gospel at this point, but to be aware that a major hurricane could be approaching North America in the 1- to 2-week time frame.

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/irma-intensifying-eastern-atlantic-big-long-range-questions

[bluecollar2]

17. drinking water and mosquito repellent....n/t

[jpak]

18. And a weather radio

I forgot that.

[malaise]

20. We always buy coal and put it in large garbage bags

the BBQ works well if you're not flooded out and you may as well have cook outs if there's no power.

[jpak]

25. Especially if the freezer is thawing

After my first hurricane - I had no food, no car, no water, no money - for two weeks.

I drank distilled water from the lab (I was smart enough to make 20 liters before the storm).

The Aquarium freezers were thawing (no power) - and every night, we had a fish fry using the thawed fish specimens.

That's all I had to eat and drink - and it was so hot and humid, I couldn't sleep - it sucked.

[malaise]

34. Yep

That must have been miserable except for the fish fry

[jpak]

36. It was "mystery fish of the day"

but I ate it anyway.

[malaise]

37. ROFL

[Grammy23]

22. We live inland on the Gulf Coast...Pensacola, FL.

We stayed through Ivan bevause my husband's job required he secure his work area and by the time that was finished, it was too late to evacuate. So we hunkered down. We are old hands at this hurricane business, having been through several over our lives. We are not near tidal surge areas and flooding is unlikely given the location of our house. However, my husband announced a short while ago that if it appears we will get a direct hit, we will be leaving. Sitting out a storm is stressful and difficult. But...it is the time after the storm that gets to you. Lack of power, low water pressure, water not drinkable, fuel and food supplies running out, etc. And that is if the damage is minimal. It is much harder than you imagine. The September heat and humidity is brutal. We've been there---done that. So we will watch this one...Irma....closely and make a decision once the reliable forecasts indicate a high probability it will be in our area. That will probably be a week or more from now. But we are updating several times a day so if the time frame speeds up, we are ready for that, too.

[jpak]

27. I got out of Pensacola 2 days before Ivan hit

It had 162 mph sustained winds and it was making a beeline toward P-cola.

Gas was running out and people were panicking.

I had 2 cars almost hit me as I was leaving - they crossed a median strip and didn't stop to get at a gas station that still had gas.

I went to Tuscaloosa - and Ivan followed me there - 70 mph tropical storm.

I left after that and stayed in Maine for 3 weeks.

[Motley13]

38. Andrew was supposed to direct hit Fort Lauderdale, so a friend of mine went to Kendall

a Miami suburb, luckily for us the storm dropped south & totally wiped out that area. She made it though.

Any evacuation has to start days in advance, otherwise you are stuck on the freeway, and no guarantee you are not driving into it.
Especially South Florida, you can only go north.

[mnhtnbb]

26. I sure don't like those western tracks right through central North Carolina, where we are.

[Nay]

43. Yeah. We're in VA and remember Isabel only too well. We aren't located on

an area that floods, but the extensive treefall wiped out houses, knocked out electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes for a couple of weeks, and blocked so many roads that moving around was impossible. We were overseas at the time and came home to neighborhood wreckage. Our house was OK, but many weren't. We packed business clothes to go to work because we had to shower there for a while.

Now that we are retired, I think we'll evacuate, even though we now own a generator that would keep the lights on at least.

[Motley13]

29. Fill bathtub with water in case you lose it so you can flush toilets

and get in lots of booze

[jpak]

32. This

[malaise]

35. I ran into a former neighbor in the supermarket last week

We were talking about the season to date and she said she and her husband never forgot the two cold beers I gave them weeks into the post-Gilbert no electricity days. I had a friend with a generator and was able to pickup ice, cold beer and cold water daily.

We'd share with neighbors and they'd share what they had. We'd buy fresh fish on a regular beach - Hellshire and light up the BBQ again.

Everyone needs just one hurricane to appreciate the simple things in life.

I remember crying about all the trees that were destroyed and an old man told me they'd all be back in seven years - he was right. He had experienced Charlie in the 50s.

[Not Ruth]

30. My friend had just winterized his boat before non hurricane Sandy

Including removing almost 200 gallons of pump gas that he was kept in his garage, for the next season. That got him through the next month after Sandy. The boat, on dry land, washed away, down the street. Recovered with a few holes in it. Insurance paid more than he thought it was worth and then sold it back to him for pennies. For some reason, he fixed all the holes except for one that was pretty high up. We rode around for years in that boat. Hole was always a conversation starter. The biggest surprise was how easy insurance adjusters were to work with. He had a freezer that was destroyed. The adjuster paid for a new freezer and then added on another thousand for the contents without even being asked.

[Kingofalldems]

31. Video:

Link to tweet

[Motley13]

40. Another old storm memory from the 60s

I lived close to the beach & we decided to go watch the storm come in.. The waves were throwing fish onto the shore & people had buckets picking up fish from the sand.
A few minutes later a huge wave came in & we thought it a good idea to leave.

[misanthrope]

44. My hurricane prep is easy

I leave if possible. I have emphysema and the only thing that makes life in the Gulf Coast's oppressive weather bearable is air conditioning. I'm beyond miserable without it and after one post-hurricane experience, I won't go through it again.

By the way, the cooling spray mister you suggest is useless on the Gulf Coast and a lot of the Deep South. The high dew point and relative humidity indices eliminate evaporation.

I would also suggest mosquito repellant of some sort. Post-hurricane life is a return to pre-20th century life in a lot of regards and you understand very quickly why mosquito-borne epidemics of yellow fever and malaria were so common. Nowadays we have West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis to add to the mix.

[jpak]

45. The mister and the fan worked for me after Katrina when the power went out

and yes bug dope is a thing to have.