Prepping

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.

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.

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.

Those of you who may not live on the Gulf Coast, Georgia, or the Carolinas may not be familiar with the true power of a hurricane. Even on the east coast, if you live north of the outer banks of North Carolina, you may have lived through a hurricane, but still don’t know just how powerful they can get.

Hurricanes are categorized by their power on what is called the Saffir-Simpson scale. The lowest is a category one, with winds of 75 to 95 miles per hour, and the highest is a Category 5 with winds over 155 miles per hour. Each category roughly doubles the power of a hurricane, meaning that a Cat 5 hurricane is about 16 times as powerful as a Cat 1.

Threats

Hurricanes have four major ways of doing damage: wind, rain, tornados, and storm surge.

Although many people focus on the wind speed, the highest winds in a hurricane are usually within a few miles of the eyewall, and therefore don’t affect many people. Unless the eyewall, which is located with 10 miles or so of the center of the storm, passes over you, you won’t see the highest winds. Here in Florida, we have pretty stringent building codes and all homes have to be built to withstand 115 mile per hour winds. Because hurricanes weaken once the center comes ashore, and the highest winds are located near the center, the highest winds tend to be within 30 miles or so of the coast. We are pretty safe from high winds. What is dangerous about wind is that it blows debris around, and it blows for hours. Sometimes up to 12 hours nonstop.

When wind blows over the ocean for long distances, it pushes water in front of it. When that pushed water encounters land, it builds up into what is called storm surge. The tides and waves build on top of this, so a 5 foot storm surge combined with a 3 foot tide and 10 foot waves means that homes will flood miles inland with up to 18 feet of water. Luckily, we are dozens of miles inland and about 100 feet above sea level, so storm surge isn’t an issue.

Hurricanes also spawn tornados. Not much you can do about those, but they don’t affect a lot of people, comparatively.

The largest threat from a Hurricane is rain. Here in Florida, we are surrounded by swamp and we are used to torrential rain. Still, 18 to 20 inches of rain is no laughing matter. When we built our house, we picked a spot that was ten feet above the nearest wetlands. We are not in a flood prone area, and I doubt we will have problems.

Let’s compare categories to see what they do:

Category One Storm

So-called Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey as a Category One hurricane, with 80 mile per hour winds, a 6 foot storm surge, and 12 inches of rain. People from that region still talk about this storm as if they now know what a hurricane does. Piffle. The gulf coast residents don’t even close schools for a Cat 1.

Category Two Storm

The strongest storm to hit Virginia in the past few decades was Isabel in 2021, and even then it made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm. During Isabel, Hampton roads got winds of 70 to 80 miles per hour, about 15 inches of rain, and a storm surge of about 8 feet.

The storm surge and rising waters flooded the Midtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth with 44 million gallons of water. Workers trying to secure the floodgates on the Norfolk side barely escaped. The resulting damage closed the tunnel for nearly a month. This is more an indication that people in the area just don’t know how to prepare for a hurricane than it is the power of this storm, as the floodgates should have already been closed.

Category Three Storm

Go up just one category to a Cat3 Hurricane. This is the beginning of what they call “major hurricane.” For an example, take a look at 2023’s Hurricane Idalia, which hit Keaton Beach in the big bend area of Florida with 115 mile per hour winds, a 9 foot storm surge, and 20 inches of rain. Another great example of a Category Three was Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Category Four Storm

Up one more category to Cat 4, and you see Hurricane Ian in 2022, which hit Fort Meyers Beach with 150 mile per hour winds, a 13 foot storm surge, and pelted the Florida peninsula with up to 26 inches of rain.

Category Five Storm

Luckily, the US doesn’t see this strong of a storm very often. Only four Cat 5 hurricanes are recorded to have ever hit the US- Michael hitting Florida in 2018, Andrew hitting Florida in 1992, Camille hitting shore in 1969 almost exactly where Katrina would in 2005, and the 1935 unnamed Labor Day Hurricane that struck the Florida Keys. Note that three of the four strongest storms recorded to have hit the US all hit Florida. I actually have lived through three of them- all but the 1935 storm.

Andrew hit Florida with 165 mile per hour winds, a 17 foot storm surge, but was a relatively “dry” hurricane with only about 7 inches of rain. Contrast that with Hurricane Michael, which dropped 13 inches of rain on the Florida panhandle. Still, it seems that Cat 5 hurricanes are so intense that they don’t drop a lot of rain.

One of the things about working in emergency services is that you have to prepare for storms before everyone else, because you will be at work as the storm approaches. As of this morning, we here at Sector Ocho are under a Tropical storm watch. In this area, we likely won’t get much in the way of wind, but there is going to be large amounts of rain to deal with. It will likely rain for two or three days. With that in mind:

We began the 72 hour checklist at 5 pm this afternoon.

• All outdoor furniture inside. In fact, I need to get everything that high winds will blow around easily into the garage. “It isn’t THAT the wind is blowing, it is WHAT the wind is blowing”
• 5 gal Water cans retrieved and filled.
• My Powerwalls this morning informed me that, due to approaching bad weather and the possibility of power loss, they are charging to 100% and will remain there until the storm passes. Electric power is handled.
• I need to cut the grass this morning. Lots of rain will both make it impossible to mow a wet yard, but will also make the grass grow like there is no tomorrow.
• I have two Bar-B-Que bombs (propane tanks) that need filling. Both cars already have fuel.

That will be it until tomorrow, when I will carry out the 24 hour checklist.

• Stock up on Poptarts and chips for snacking
• Prepare to buy Publix Subs (We like to have food for the storm that doesn’t need electricity or other heat for preparation and is easy and quick to eat, even in the dark.) Even though we will have power, it’s now a tradition.

Anyhow, lots to do today.

One of the things that is so tiring about blogging and social media is the amount of chest thumping from Internet badasses. You know what I mean- those who post things about “I would shoot that cop” or about how they would kill anyone who shoots their dog.

The endless claims about wanting to start CW2, or on how you are going to start shooting people, or other forms of statements about all of the shit they are going to do just get tiring sometimes.

Let’s face it- you aren’t going to do shit. You aren’t going to tilt your lance at a windmill, only to die needlessly charging up that hill, only to find out that your efforts and sacrifices aren’t going to matter. Even if your own little personal war du jour does begin, how do you define a win? Even if you “win,” what is your plan for what you are going to do next? It’s just childish, foolish bravado.

Instead, start deciding how you are going to survive, how you are going to keep your loved ones safe, and what you are going to do AFTER everything goes to shit.