Storm Surge

I aspire to be competent and self sufficient, to be the one who is in a position to help others who need it. This manifests itself in a number of ways, but after disasters and catastrophic events, I get motivated to further equip myself and prepare for the next event.  I start by ensuring I am prepared, and then think about how to support others.

I lived 25 years in the upper midwest, where it snowed and got very cold (-27F!) and we had thunderstorms and drought. I think the power was off for maybe 25 minutes total during all that time, and never ever was there an excused absence from work. I have always been a camper and sailor so I had some basics like a warm sleeping bag and tent, and thought that's all we needed. But it changed when I moved to DC in the mid-1990s.

I started taking preparation seriously in all the hype about Y2K back at the turn of the millenium. I actually learned about the basic computer programming problem way back in the 1980's (as did everyone else who had anything to do with mainframe operational computers), but no-one did anything about it until time was running out. Then, there was a lot of hype in the media for the general public, but I had a bit of a peek behind the scenes. Working at a government agency that provides safety oversight for complex industries, it was a major focus at work. Contrary to some press reports, it was unlikely the laws of physics would be repealed and airplanes would suddenly plunge out of the sky as the clock ticked over, but there were potentially serious issues of communications and data processing. Supposedly everything was done but how well can you debug the complex interactions of real-life massive systems? So that year, my Christmas presents to the family were a Coleman camping stove (with 3 weeks worth of propane), sleeping bags and other camping equipment. The rest of the family didn't take it seriously, and so I filled my basement with big water jugs and some shelf stable foods, and was comforted to know there was a plan. As it turns out, of course, unless you were playing the slots in Delaware, there was no issue.

In my first three years in this leafy older suburb, the water main broke three times and the power was off for hours every time the wind blew. So definitely, there was a need for some level of preparedness. I started collecting candle lanterns, using them as decorations, but stockpiling lots of candles in the basement. I got a windup radio as my premium for the public radio fund drive.

And then September 11th came.

The hysteria in DC lasted for more than a year. We were a target, and the pressure and reminders were constant. There were the anthrax incidents and we all got trained on how to open our irradiated mail. At a Christmas party that year I met someone who had been rushed out of the Capitol when Senator Daschle's contaminated mail was found, without her purse or keys, not allowed back in for eight months.  Some tiny little 2-seater planes violated the no-fly zone over downtown DC, and congressional staff ran screaming into the streets. I was aware of the plans for relocating to an undisclosed location in the event of more attacks and participated in drills and exercises for various scenarios.

In this atmosphere I made sure I had my canned goods and water ready. I made evacuation plans - a close friend of mine lives over the first mountain west, and I made sure the whole family knew the address and phone number. I bought a motorcycle at least partly to make sure I would be mobile in the face of gridlock.

Isabel struck in September 2003, on a Thursday. We were more than a week without power then. But we had twelve hours of daylight, very comfortable temperatures, and the office was open every day from the following Monday, so there was power for charging. Gasoline was not an issue. The supermarket opened and food was available, though ice was mostly not available, and we through away a lot of food. Except for that, truly, it was no more than inconvenient.

Never-the-less it did spur me to enhance our readiness. Compact florescent lighting had come along, and I added some battery operated lanterns.  I added another radio with rechargeable power. The lanterns and radio were also useful on the boat. Batteries were stockpiled to make them available. I rotated and kept current the water jugs in the basement, and kept a couple of cases of water bottles current, taking older ones up to the boat where they would be drunk quickly. Portable 12-volt batteries became widely available. These are batteries you plug into the wall to charge, and they can be used for starting your car. But they also have plugs right on them - 12 volt round cigarette lighter type, and some have built in inverters to take house plugs (for low power things only). I got one for my house, and one for my brother-in-law (who is often involved in jumping cars.)

The winter of 2009-2010 was very very snowy. We didn't lose power in either big snowstorm (December and February) now remembered as Snowmegeddon, but life was extremely disrupted and we couldn't drive. We were forced to rely on the supplies in the house for a few days, and we did just fine. We have a good collection of hats and mittens, I had just bought new long johns, and I dug up snow pants for the kids. They had adequate jackets, but snow boots were lacking for them. I wrote about how the storm made me want to eat blubber here.  Going to the store before the storm showed empty shelves, emphasizing again how important it was to keep some stuff in the house. The big improvement I vowed to add to the preparedness category after struggling through four foot drifts to get from my house to the rest of the family a half mile away was snow shoes.  Again, not just an emergency item - something to use for fun - but makes me feel good to have another option for mobility.

Then in January 2011 we lost power for several days, after an ice storm. It was cold.  I wrote about it here.  I was extremely unhappy about being so cold, though again I went to work every day and charged things and got warm. Stores and restaurants opened quickly. But before fall came again I added a wood heater to the house. In essence, its an airtight wood-stove that sits inside the existing fireplace box, and sends the heat from the wood into the house instead of up the chimney.  With glass doors to watch the dancing flames, it is at least as charming as ever was the actual open fireplace. It supposedly would heat the whole house. Wouldn't you know it - last winter was the one that never came, and I only used it a few times, and never really tested it out.

We were hot and miserable after this summer's derecho, out of power from Friday through Wednesday in 100 degree weather. But again, while this was massive, the outages were local, and near-by stores and work and restaurants were open as refuges from the heat and for charging. I fired up the propane stove in the back yard for making my morning coffee, but didn't really try to do any other cooking. But cell-phone power management was an issue. But, cell phone communications were always available, which gives me the internet. My brother-in-law had a hole in his roof from a branch, but we didn't discover it until a rain storm later on when water dripped through into a bedroom. Off to the hardware store for a tarp to make our own quick temporary repair. Now he has a brand-new roof and gutters, thanks to his insurance.

I began to think about what it would mean to have some kind of a wider spread disruption, one caused  by something other than downed wires.  I invested in a rechargeable power brick, one that could not only recharge an iphone several times, but also had enough current to recharge the more-demanding ipad. I also bought a camper's solar panel, which can charge some very low power electronics directly, or it can recharge AA batteries which then can re-charge an iphone. My immediate reason for investing in both these items was to use them on a voyage on my boat planned for October, which had to be aborted for non-weather reasons.

Storm supplies - heavy on the sugar!

For Sandy last week I brought in wood to keep it dry, and stocked up several days in advance with water and shelf stable food and started eating up what was in the freezer. I made sure everything that could be charged was charged, including the battery on the Vespa to increase my mobility. I did an ATM for extra cash. Because I just ran out of gumption, I didn't top off the car's gas tank. I kept the phone and ipad on the chargers so they would start out full when the power went off. I talked to my neighbor late Sunday - he acquired a not-quite-whole-house generator (involves flipping many circuit breakers) and was ready to offer assistance if it was necessary. I assured him I was set for the time being - in fact, I had a basement full of candles in case we had a breakdown in the market economy and we needed to move to barter. But of course, the lights hardly even flickered. Which is good, because the water did come through the walls of the basement, and I have an electric pump and a shopvac that helped me keep damage at bay.

As I read about the wide spread devastation, I am spurred to be even more prepared. Total devastation - from fire or other source - that means moving out - is so scary to me I'm not going to focus on that now. Instead I'll think about a longer term disruption where we hunker down.

Shelter first. I need a lot more firewood - what I have would only last a few days. I should have a couple of week's worth to feel secure. I'm also going to buy a couple of blue tarps in different sizes to keep in the basement - I've got a hammer and roofing nails - they just seem like they could be handy for roofs and for other things.

Food. What kinds of food supplies are best? I try to buy stuff I would actually use, so I can keep rotating stock. I like milk boxes, but their shelf life is less than a year, so I got powdered milk. I have broth (good for a couple of years) and plain pasta a-plenty, as well as white rice (the brown stuff goes rancid in weeks). I'm thinking dried tortellini could be useful. Tuna cans for sure. Spam? Surely not. That cold cereal is good for at least a couple of years. Water I've got covered, though maybe not enough for very long.  (On the other hand, I have a ceramic water filter in my camping kit, and there is a (very urban and nasty) stream just a few yards away.)

Transport.  Top off the tank in the car and Vespa, for sure, and make sure the temperamental Italian machine is charged and working.  But I'm thinking bicycle. I have one, don't ride it, I ought to make sure it has air in the tires and works.

Communication. Cellphones, check. But what happens if they don't work? Cellphone coverage in the devastated areas is definitely an issue. Remember family radios?  They were all the rage a decade or so ago. I'm thinking acquiring at least a pair of radios with a range of a couple of miles would be useful. I've got a hand-held marine radio, (and an aviation one, for that matter) but I could see use for the family radios on the boat or other trips, so they are now on my list. They seem cheaper and more practical than a satellite phone.

BTW, I got the idea for the radios from this article which came my way via Boing-Boing.

Obviously, my focus is on my family in all this. But I was inspired recently by a Ted Talk, for a way to get organized, to use social media like twitter and facebook, to provide actual specific and useful information after disaster strikes. The website is here. This would be right up my alley - this is what I did after September 11 at work (organize things) this is what I did after my sister died (organize things) and I could see myself doing this on a wider scale if it were necessary.