Incident Debrief

Milton was a pretty smooth incident here in Sector Ocho, at least as far as disasters can go. I post this in the hope that others can learn from my trials and tribulations, as well as using this as a means of remembering what I need to do next time. Each disaster only helps us to improve for the next one.

The power went out late Wednesday night. We were without power until Saturday afternoon.

Some key things we learned from the incident:

Records, Food and Water, Medical:

Records, Food and Water, and Medical saw no issues, and they will not be addressed here.

Energy:

The solar system worked great. I overreacted a bit on shutting down the water heater because it was cloudy the day after the storm. I needn’t have bothered- our Powerwalls never went below 64% on Thursday, and it was sunny on Friday and Saturday, so the batteries fully recharged to 100% on those days.

It was suggested that we add a connection to the system for connecting a generator, but that would again make us dependent upon a fuel supply. I don’t want to do that because the scarcity of fuel is one of the reasons why I went with solar in the first place.

I am going to replace the water heater with a heat pump water heater. That will reduce our power requirements by 10 KWh per day, which is almost the same as adding another Powerwall, but at a fraction of the cost. (They hold 13.5 KWh each, with about 13 of that being useable).

Even though the Powerwalls kick in less than half a second after the lights go out, the loss of electricity is long enough to cause the modem to reboot. That meant a loss of Internet for about 30 seconds. More an annoyance than a problem, but still one I will address. I am going to put the modem on a UPS, but need to get one that is physically small enough to fit inside of the QI panel.

Shelter:

We sat in the living room during the storm and watched as the sliding glass doors bowed into the house with the wind. I was sure that they would break under the strain. For that reason, I made the declaration that we had to wear hard soled shoes and locked the cats in the safe room, just in case we suddenly had broken glass to deal with. I am going to do some research on some fabric hurricane shields like these. I figure it will cost $3,000 or so to get all of the windows done. They look easier to store and put up than things like plywood or even plastic shutters. Some research is definitely needed.

Security:

I also learned that the people in the area were kind, and all pitched in to help each other- we formed a working party and moved from house to house, cutting up fallen trees and stacking the wood. One of them, as it turns out, is even a prepper. Living in a small town is amazing.

At one point, I was in a swampy area, helping recover things that had blown out into the swamp. One of the guys with me said “Watch out, there are snakes and alligators out there.” I replied by lifting my shirt to show him my M&P45. He said, “Cool,” and that was it. Having electric power meant that the neighbors asked me to allow them to charge their cell phones, and the fact that I had a chainsaw and a pot of coffee ready for offering a cuppa made me the most popular guy on the street.

About 14 hours after the power went out, we lost Internet. I’m guessing that they had the system on a UPS whose batteries finally went dead. Trying to use our contingency of using cell phones as hotspots didn’t work- there were so many people trying to do the same thing that they were effectively non functional. To address this, I think I am going to get a Starlink and just not subscribe to it until I need to use it. We had power, and it was nice to make coffee and all, but no TV or Internet is something that needs to be taken care of.

Miscellaneous:

One funny thing happened during one of my outside patrols. I put on a rain slicker and walked the outside of the house every couple of hours as the winds would allow. When I went out at around 3 am, a squirrel that had taken refuge on my back porch but was unseen by me decided to jump down and land on my head. I almost shit myself. My wife thought that it was hilarious.

Conclusion:

Things went about as smoothly as they could have. I felt comfortable leaving my wife home alone on Friday and Saturday, so that I could go to work at the hospital. Good neighbors, secure, sturdy house, and lots of supplies made that an easy choice.

That concludes the preparedness for Hurricane Milton. Now I get to put the house back in order. The good news here is that the summer heat is usually broken by a late season hurricane, and this year is no exception. It is now in the 60s here at Sector Ocho, and it feels wonderful.

There will be another post detailing how the emergency room did, and that will come later.