Prepping

Hurricane Wind Protection

This is the redneck engineering that went into the window covers from earlier in the week. This will help my Gulf Coast readers. I try to improve hurricane preps every August as I get ready for the start of the season peak.

When the National Weather Service sets the classification of a Hurricane, they always list the maximum wind speed. The thing about that is the maximum winds are only found within a very small area- about 10 miles from the center or so. I did a pretty comprehensive post on the NHC and hurricanes, you can read it here. Since I rode out Milton just last year, let’s go over some facts:

Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, which is 20 miles south of the entrance to Tampa Bay, as a category 3 storm with 120 mile per hour winds.

Here are the top wind reports from each county around the area:

  • Manatee County: Peak wind gusts 80 to 100 mph,
  • Pinellas County: Peak wind gusts 80 to 100 mph,
  • Hillsborough County: Peak wind gusts 80 to 100 mph,
  • Polk County: Peak wind gusts 80 to 90 mph,
  • Pasco County: Peak wind gusts 65 to 75 mph,
  • Hernando County: Peak wind gusts 60 to 70 mph,
  • Citrus County: Peak wind gusts 50 to 60 mph.,

Note that wind speeds drop off dramatically once you begin moving away from the area of the coast where landfall occurs. A CAT 3 storm produces CAT 2 winds once you are 20 miles or so from the landfall, 40 miles from landfall gets you CAT 1 winds, and by the time you are 60 miles out, you are likely to only see Tropical storm force winds.

If you measure Florida’s peninsula, it’s between about 120 to 150 miles across for most of its length. If you live in the center, you are already about 65 miles from the coast. Meaning that, unless the core of the storm hits the coast closest to your house and makes a beeline to pass directly overhead within 6 to 8 hours of the Hurricane making landfall, you are unlikely to see winds that are any higher than 75 miles per hour with a CAT 3 storm, or about 100 miles per hour with a CAT 5. All houses built in Florida since 1998, when the state’s uniform Hurricane building code was adopted, have to withstand winds of up to 115 mph. The building codes have done a good job. Here are the average claims for Hurricane Ian, broken down by the decade each house was built:

With these newer building codes, the most significant weaknesses of homes are 1: flooding from wind driven water (called storm surge); and 2: missiles and flying debris being tossed by the wind breaking a window.

Storm surge isn’t an issue unless you live within a mile or two of a large body of water, so it’s wind driven debris breaking a window that is the primary concern. So we need to defend our homes from wind driven debris, and from the wind pressure itself.

Why is that important?

A wind speed of 120 miles per hour exerts a force of about 37 pounds per square foot, that drops to 26 pounds at 100 miles per hour, 16 pounds at 80 miles per hour, and only 9 pounds at 60 miles per hour. It’s a square function.

My windows are 3 feet by 5 feet, making them 15 square feet. At 120 mph, there is over 550 pounds of force acting on that window, if the wind is hitting it straight on!

The fasteners I am using are 3M Dual Lock 250/250 tape that is 0.5″ x 2.0″, resulting in 1 square inch in area. It takes 2.2 pounds per square inch to separate, and I am placing 20 of these strips around the outside of the panel to hold it to the window frame. It will take 44 pounds of force to remove the panel from the frame. This is equivalent to a 40 mile per hour wind directly pushing the panel away from the window.

I know what you are thinking at this point- how in the world are we going to use a Velcro like product to secure a panel to a window against 500 pounds of wind force, when the product only requires 44 pounds of force to remove? If the panel can be removed by a person, surely it can be removed by wind of this strength? To answer this, look at the directions involved. The wind would be pushing the panel IN to the window, while the fasteners are acting to keep it from falling out.

Is my engineering as good as a professional structural engineer backed by wind tunnel testing? No, I am sure that it isn’t. But my engineering is less than half of the cost, and sometimes good enough is good enough.

My real challenge here is how I am going to attach these panels to the upstairs windows. They are more than 15 feet from ground level, and I can’t reach the top of the frame from inside of the second floor.

As a test, I bought 4 panels and some supplies to attach them. Let’s see how they do.

I measured and cut the first panel, primed the surfaces of the panel and the window frame, then put the tape on the frame. Then I simply pressed the panel into the place where I wanted it. It is firmly in place, but at the same time, you can get a finger between the panel and window frame and remove it with a firm tug. Total time for this first panel was about an hour, but the others should be faster.

Of course, the only real test is another Hurricane, and I am not going to wish for one of those.

These panels aren’t bulletproof. They aren’t going to stop an intruder, nor are they meant to. Prepping is about being ready for the most likely events to happen. In the past 10 years:

  • In our old house, we had two different burglaries in the summer: one in 2017, and the second in 2018. Turns out it was the same guy both times. The judge approved a plea deal where he got probation and his record was expunged. For armed burglary, but that’s another rant for another day.
  • In 2016, a man who identified himself as a “Navy Special Warfare Police Officer” tried to “arrest” me. When I asked to see his badge and ID, he refused. I drew a gun on his stupid ass and he fled. He came within 4 pounds of being a cautionary tale in a CCW class.
  • We have experienced 5 Hurricanes: Irma 2017, Michael 2018, Ian 2022, Helene 2024, and Milton and Debby hitting us in 2024. We had power failures lasting several days for two of those storms: Milton and Irma.
  • Our old house was struck by lightning no less than 5 times.

So our preps are centered around the most likely of events:

  • We are putting away money to guard against illness and job loss.
  • The new house has lightning protection built in.
  • We are now in a more rural area, so crime is mitigated somewhat.
  • Hurricane Preparedness

To see more on preps I recommend, please read this topic here. Also refer to the Preparedness pyramid.

By Divemedic, ago

Hurricane Upgrades

Hurricanes in Florida are one of the more likely situations that require prepping. In the past decade, we have gone through at least 4 Hurricanes, with 3 of them causing us to spend more than 24 hours without electrical power. Being prepared in Florida means being ready for Hurricanes.

Hurricane Milton last year revealed to me some improvements that need to be made. Let’s take a look at our preparedness map.

One hole in our preps was revealed when we had high winds of 40-70 miles per hour pounding the back of our house for hours. It resulted in me sitting in my house watching my 12 foot wide, 8 foot high sliding glass door bow inwards from the pressure of the wind. Not good. So we needed to upgrade the security and shelter bricks of the prepping pyramid.

I decided to look into window fabric. It was expensive. I looked in to polycarbonate. One company wanted more than $2000 to cover my windows, and another $3200 to protect the sliding glass door. The issue is that the door is just too large for most products to cover.

I decided to find another solution. One came to me. I bought some of these panels from Lowe’s. I am attaching them to the house with 3M commercial fastening tape that’s kind of like Velcro on steroids. Two inch pieces placed 8 inches apart. I got it in white so it blends into the window frame when it isn’t in use. To make sure that it sticks, I am using a primer.

The total bill to cover 10 windows is $850.

Now on to the sliding glass door. It’s a monster at 12′ wide by 8′ high. I decided to turn the back porch into an emergency storage area by putting an electrically operated Kevlar curtain over the opening to the porch. (I did not use the company at the link.) The idea is that I will take everything that’s outside (like pool furniture and the like) place it on the porch, then close the Kevlar curtain. The cost of the curtain was about $4500.

So total cost to hurricane proof the house’s windows was just about $5300.

By Divemedic, ago

Sweat and Drinks

Sweat, or perspiration, is the primary means that humans use to cool themselves through the use of evaporative cooling. Very few mammals actually use perspiration as a cooling mechanism: in fact, other than a few primates, horses are the only mammals that use perspiration to cool down.

Sweat is 99% water. Dissolved in each liter of this water are the following minerals:

  • Sodium 900mg
  • Potassium 200 mg
  • Calcium 15 mg
  • Magnesium 1.3 mg

This means that perspiration has a much lower concentration of electrolytes than does blood. Still, as we sweat, we are not only losing water, but a lot of key electrolytes. If you are sweating heavily, you are losing more than just water, and that needs to be replaced. If you aren’t sweating heavily, then you shouldn’t have a lot of these because too many electrolytes is just as bad as not enough of them, especially if you have high blood pressure or heart failure.

There are a ton of electrolyte drinks out there: Gatorade is perhaps the most well known, but there is also Pedialyte, as well as a plethora of others. My biggest issue with many of these drinks is that they also contain an incredible amount of sugar. That’s why I only drink the zero sugar versions of these.

Gatorade has the electrolytes, but also comes with a lot of sugar. It carries 2 grams of sugar, 13.3mg of Sodium and 4.2mg of Potassium per ounce. I only drink these when I am exerting myself, and even then, I only drink the zero sugar versions. Cost is about 65 cents for a 16 ounce serving.

Liquid IV is a powder that is mixed with 16 ounces of water. When mixed, it carries 0.7 grams of sugar, 31mg of Sodium, and 23 mg of Potassium per ounce as mixed. I haven’t tried this one, but I know a lot of people who swear by it. Cost is $1.38 per 16 ounce serving.

LMNT (pronounced “element”) is another powder. It has 0.8g of sugar,16.5 mg of Sodium, and 12.5mg of Potassium per ounce as mixed. Cost is $1.30 per 16 ounce serving. I have never tried it, but I have seen advertising for it.

Pedialyte is a powder that is designed to replace electrolytes in children. It has about 0.675g of sugar, 16.25mg of Sodium, and 11.25mg of Potassium per mixed ounce. Cost is about $2 for a 16 ounce serving. I know that there are some athletes that like this stuff, but I hear that it tastes like armpit sweat.

I drink Gatoraid zero or another drink called Propel. I think they did well for me because my electrolytes were just a tiny bit low when I was in the hospital. Had I been drinking water, they would have been much lower, due to perspiration losses.

The disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I don’t think that I ever will. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

10mm Research

In my continuing research of 10mm defense loads: Let me start this post by pointing out that pistols are a compromise, in that they all suck for self defense. We carry them because it is easier and gets you fewer sideways looks than does carrying a long gun. Better the handgun on your hip than the firearm at home in the safe.

The current 10mm that I have is a full sized M&P10mm and I am unlikely to carry it. I find that I don’t even carry any of my full sized handguns on a regular basis. What I find myself carrying most often is a J frame .38 or a Shield Plus in 9mm. Still, buying and shooting guns is fun, so what the hell?

Even though I won’t carry it much, I always keep plenty of magazines and ammo on hand for every firearm. Five magazines for every pistol is the minimum I am comfortable with. For ammo, the minimum is 500 rounds for semi auto handguns, 100 rounds for revolvers, and 1000 rounds for semi-auto rifles of “war shots” that I like to keep on hand. That doesn’t count whatever range ammo that I have.

Of course I am going to research this, because it’s what I do. See the months of research I did before going with solar as a backup power system.

In looking at defensive ammo, the most important criteria is that it functions well in my firearm. It needs to go bang every time I intend it to. I will accept no more than one failure for every 500 rounds. (That’s why I no longer carry and have sold most of my 1911’s. They jam far too often. See this post here about the suckage that was my experiment with that platform.) Going along with that, the ammo must also be somewhat accurate for my handgun. That means passing a 5×5 test- I have to be able to put 5 rounds into a 5 inch circle at 5 yards in 5 seconds or less while drawing from a holster. I would rather hit with a .22 than miss with a .44.

The next criteria is that it has solid performance. There is no point in reinventing the wheel- I use the FBI criteria that states a bullet should penetrate between 12 and 18 inches of ballistic gelatin and a bullet that expands to at least 1.5 times its diameter. With handguns being poor performers, I want to maximize what performance I *do* get, so I try to only buy and stock ammo that meets this standard. I expected that my research will find more full power 10mm that goes beyond the 18 inches than falls short.

In 1983, Whit Collins, John Adams, Irving Stone, and Jeff Cooper worked with Norma AB to design the 10mm Automatic cartridge. Their goal was to create the a handgun cartridge that fired a heavier and larger caliber bullet than the 9mm Luger at a higher velocity and magazine capacity than the .45 ACP. This would create a handgun cartridge that combined the best of both platforms.

They did this by cutting a .30 Remington case down and loading it with .40 caliber bullets from the .38-40 Winchester. they not only achieved that objective but exceeded it by a healthy margin. The original 10mm Auto load shot a 200 grain projectile at 1,200 feet per second for 640 ft-lbs of muzzle energy, which was a significant step up in performance compared to the 9mm Luger and the .45 ACP. The new round nearly doubled the energy of the 9mm Parabellum and off the shelf .45 ACP ammunition.

Dornaus & Dixon Enterprises worked in parallel with Jeff Cooper and the rest of the 10mm Auto team to build a handgun designed specifically to shoot the new cartridge: the Bren Ten pistol. Similar in appearance to the CZ-75, Sonny Crockett in the television show Miami Vice helped make the Bren Ten famous. For this reason, demand for the pistol and the cartridge exploded in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, the Bren Ten was rushed into production and the pistol’s reputation suffered due to early issues with reliability, quality control, and a shortage of magazines. The company was never quite able to regain its footing after those initial missteps and declared bankruptcy in 1986 after only making 1500 of the pistols. Shortly after the passing of the Bren Ten, Colt rolled out a Model 1911 modified to use the cartridge that they named the Delta Elite. 

Then came a fateful day in US law enforcement. The 10mm Auto piqued the interest of the FBI during their search for a more powerful service round in the aftermath of the disastrous 1986 shootout with two bank robbers in Miami.

The FBI liked the 10mm and originally wanted to switch to that platform, but the fact that they had a lot of limp wristed agents who were recoil sensitive, they wanted something with less recoil. The FBI test report on the cartridge was apparently labeled:

CAUTION: Velocities, pressures and recoil are extreme, vary greatly, and damage weapons with extended use. Control for multiple shots extremely difficult.

They downloaded the 10mm to reduce power by about 30% and issued a request for handgun makers to bid on a new cartridge/handgun combination for FBI use. This loading became known as the “10mm FBI load.” This load was several hundred feet per second slower than the original 10mm Auto, but the FBI was still satisfied with its penetration and terminal performance.  The winner of this competition would get a lucrative contract to supply most of US law enforcement.

Enter Smith and Wesson. They developed a cartridge that was shorter than the 10mm and met the FBI standard, and the .40 S&W was born. Derisively, it is said that S&W in this case stands for “Short and Weak.” Many of the advantages of the powerful 10mm cartridge disappeared with this downloaded cartridge. Instead of getting all of the combined advantages of the 9mm and .45ACP, you got none of them. That’s why the .40S&W has largely fallen out of favor- there is no advantage of having it.

To be completely honest, I own several .40S&W pistols, but I can’t remember the last time I carried or even shot one of them. Less capacity and slower bullets than a 9mm, lighter bullets than a .45ACP. What’s nice is that I can swap a barrel and change my S&W40 to .357Sig or 9mm.

I don’t want to simply buy 10mm ammo that is loaded to 40 caliber specs. If I wanted to do that, I would just carry one of my 40 calibers. I was looking for an ammo manufacturer that was loading ammo that really took advantage of the 10mm cartridge. After some searching, I like Underwood ammo as well as Fenix ammunition. Both of them are loading to the full 10mm capabilities. Buffalo Bore does as well, but their bullets are overpenetrating and seem better for large animals than for self defense.

Fenix makes one self defense loading for 10mm, and that is a 180 grain JHP moving along at 1250 feet per second, giving us a muzzle energy of 624 foot pounds. They are currently out of stock, so let’s look at our next contestant.

Underwood has quite a few loadings for 10mm. I selected the Tools & Targets YouTube channel because the guy clearly loves his 10mm and does a decent job in testing the bullets he looks at. The loadings that I am most interested in:

200 grain XTP moving along at 1250 feet per second with 694 ft/lb of energy. This round got 1100 fps out of that 4.6 inch barrel, delivering 537 ft/lb. The bullet penetrated 24 inches. That velocity isn’t great, but it’s the overpenetration that concerns me. Any energy that the bullet has when it leaves the backside of your target is wasted energy.

180 grain XTP at 1300 feet per second and 676 ft/lb. This channel saw the ammo come in right at 1242 fps for 616 ft/lb from a 4.6 inch barrel. He got a full 16 inches of penetration with the bullets retaining 150-179 grains of their mass, even though they expanded to more than .640 inches in diameter. Impressive performance.

155 grain XTP at 1500 feet per second and 775 ft/lb. The guy in this video found that it hit 1500 fps from a 4.6 inch barrel, just like the box claimed. That means it was right about 800 foot pounds of energy. The bullet gave 12.5″ to 13″ of penetration, with or without the clothing barrier.

135 grain JHP at 1600 feet per second and 768 ft/lb. The guy here got an average of about 1450 feet per second out of a 4.6 inch barrel. The wound cavity looks great, but it is only penetrating to 12.25″ and I just don’t see me wanting to use this one. I think the combination of slower than advertised speed along with the Nosler hollow point means suboptimal performance.

Overall, it looks like I will be selecting the Underwood 180 grain XTP for our initial reliability testing. I will order some, and once the reflex sight comes in, we will take a couple of hundred rounds to the range and see how it works. At $1.25 a round, it is actually cheaper than Gold Dots ($1.75) or Hornady Critical Duty ammo ($1.50). I just ordered 500 rounds for testing. If that round doesn’t work out, I will try the 155gr loading.

The disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

Solar Report

It’s been a bit since I updated the news on our Solar system. December went well. We generated 1121 kWh, and consumed 912 kWh, meaning that we sent an excess of 204 kWh back to the grid for credit. Our lowest power generated was December 6, with 12.6 kWh. Our best day was 54.1 kWh on December 2. That makes December the month where we generated the least amount of power of any month so far. Not surprising, since December has less daylight than any other month.

Temperatures for December were mild, so we spent most days with the windows open and the HVAC turned off, so we didn’t use a lot of power, which contributed to an excess. At the end of December, we had a total credit of 1121 kWh in case we ever use more than we generate, and it turns out that we needed it for January.

January was rough. There was a lot more cloudy days than there have been, and this month had the lowest average temperatures for any month in more than a decade. All of this contributed to our shortfall. There was a stretch of days from the 13th to the 23rd where 6 of those 10 days saw us generate less than 10kWh each day. We generated 1190 kWh for the month, still more than December, but we used 1238 kWh. Our highest use day was January 22 at 63 kWh. That was the day that the big snowstorm hit the state, and our temperatures dropped below freezing here, although it didn’t snow.

According to my weather station, the average temperature was only 54 degrees for the month. Since we maintain an average inside temperature of 70 degrees during the winter (68 at night, 72 during the day), the HVAC was warming the house against a 16 degree gradient.

Our bill didn’t change, thanks to our banked power that we have sold to the grid.

One small problem with our system has required a call to our installer, who put in a work ticket to Tesla. Our control system has been exercising the batteries by running them down to zero. It’s supposed to do that every 90 days, but it’s been doing it every 20 days. We are waiting for more word on why it is doing that.

By Divemedic, ago

Solar Update

I haven’t done a solar update since September. Our system for November generated 1378 kWh. We used 817 kWh and sent a total of 516 kWh back to the grid. Total for the system since August: we have sent 849 kWh more power back to the grid than we have used, with most of that being in November because of a combination of two things:

  • We are making an average of 46 kWh per day because it’s been pretty sunny. There were only a couple of days where it was cloudy for the month, and we don’t get thunderstorms every afternoon like we do in the summer
  • we just aren’t using much power now that the weather is cool enough for the air conditioning to not be running.

For 15 days in November, we generated more than 50 kWh, despite the fact that hours of daylight are getting shorter.

We only used power than we consumed for 5 days in November. The worst of these was a 48 hour period (November 6-7) where we used 18 kWh more than we generated. During those two days, we generated 20 and 25 kWh, but used 32 and 31 kWh.

So far, it appears as though the solar power system that we installed is working as well as I had hoped. Things do get a bit tight in the heat of the summer, as air conditioning uses so much power that, if the grid were to go down for an extended time, we might not have enough power to run everything without making some conservation moves when it’s a bit cloudy or if it’s unusually hot. Perhaps by turning off the water heater or by not doing laundry on days when it is cloudy or unusually hot.

The problem isn’t generation capacity- it appears to be storage. If I add even one more Powerwall to the system, this will correct the issue.

So for us, twenty four PV panels of 420 watts each gives us more than enough generation capacity. We currently have 27 kWh of Powerwall storage capacity, and could really use about 8 or 10 more, which would mean true independence and the capability of being off grin indefinitely.

By Divemedic, ago

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.

By Divemedic, ago

Preparations for Hurricane

I am under a hurricane warning, with winds of up to 110 miles per hour and nearly a foot of rain being expected in my area. We are now less than 24 hours to the expected arrival of tropical storm force winds. As soon as winds are above 45 miles per hour, emergency services stops responding and we are on our own until the storm has passed. So let’s review my hurricane checklist:

Records

Downloaded all vital records to my NAS. If for some reason your possessions are destroyed, the one thing that is most difficult to replace is data. Make sure that there are scans and backup copies of personal data: your driver’s license, professional licenses, birth certificates, bank information, etc. Then create a HYST file and download the contents of that HYST file to several thumb drives. One goes in the safe, one in the BOV.

Energy

Solar and Powerwalls take care of most of that. Powerwalls are charged to 100% automatically when bad weather approaches. I also charged up all of my rechargeable flashlights, lanterns, and other battery operated stuff. I also have 5 full Bar B Cue bombs that are full and ready for cooking on a portable propane stove. I also have propane lanterns and a grill.

Security

Let’s just say that we are OK there on weapons and leave it at that. I also picked up all of the outside stuff that can blow around, and secured them in the garage. Tested all communications, and updated the comms plan for the radio in the BOV. It’s a Yaesu 400XDR and is programmed with your frequencies by inserting a micro SD card. Done.

Shelter

The house, of course. For backup, we have a tent, and our closest BOL is the in-laws’ house an hour away.

Food and Water

We have an ample supply of both. We even have a good supply of Hurricane snacks, as is traditional in Florida.

Medical

We have our medical supplies laid in. That includes emergency medications, prescription medications, and plenty of first aid supplies.

Recon

Lastly, I did a drone flight around the area and got plenty of pictures for use later to survey damage.

So now I relax for a bit and get some rest for what promises to be a long day tomorrow.

By Divemedic, ago

Hurricane Preps

I really never have much to do for hurricanes, as most of my preps are done already. All I do is:

  • make sure that my truck is full of gas,
  • I fill a couple of gas cans because sometimes fuel is hard to find, and we need to get to work
  • put the outdoor furniture in the garage
  • Pack a bag in case I get called in to work.

That’s pretty much it, and I did that yesterday. I you wait until warnings and watches get issued, you wind up getting stuck with the crowds. I am spending the morning helping people in the area get ready. I went out with a few people and filled dozens of sandbags so people in the area who live in low lying homes can keep water out of their garages. I also helped clear out some vegetation from people’s drainage swales. In some cases, the homeowner helped, but in a couple of cases the people who lived there were old and infirm.

If we are going to make it, we need to unite with our neighbors. Doing it now ensures that you have goodwill in the area. It also lets you learn who is a “good” person and who isn’t.

It’s been raining for several days, so the ground is saturated. That is going to mean the rain/flood threat is high.

By Divemedic, ago