Elemental Preparedness

[hiker chick]

flsammyfn -- you certainly could write the book. Camping is great prep. In addition to the gear I acquired in the course of camping, it taught me how little is really necessary to be comfortable -- providing the temperatures aren't extreme.

I'm surprised that in 42 years in Tampa you've never been evacuated. I gather the hurricanes tend to slam into the panhandle-Alabama, etc or lose some of their steam coming over from the Atlantic?

Good point about the big gas tank in a Suburban. An advantage over a Jeep Wrangler as well as an Element.

I miss my '69 Mustang's 20-gallon tank, which gave me nearly a 400 mile range.

:)

[Scotia4607]

Originally Posted by hiker chick

Maybe I'll never need more than Geico Road Service.

And most people don't carry extra dog leashes when they walk their dog. But I do, and last weekend a friend and I were walking our dogs and found one that had run away from home. I carry an extra leash because several years ago I crossed paths with a series of stray dogs, here and on vacation in Hawaii, and a slip-lead would have been handy.

So I'll continue to carry the extra leash, just in case. And after finding (and placing in permanent homes) two kittens in the past two weeks, I'm now keeping a few cans of kitten food at home. And I'm not a cat person.

That's my nature. Prepared. Starting with financial preparedness. That's been interesting this past year.

:)

And you believe your able to have an unbias opinion whether Jojo over prepares:rolleyes:

[Jojo]

flsammyfm, Great write up!

Also keep in mind being able to evacuate quickly.
Evreyone always says at least in a hurricane you have 4 days to to get ready to leave--not so, hurricanes change directions, Ike did.

We were not expecting Ike, Ike was to make landfall near Corpus, where my dad lives, my dad evacuated to San Antonio. All was good.
I was at work one evening where I work outside away from phones and media, I got off around 9:00pm and began my hour long trip back home, I couldn't believe all the cars lined up down the roads for gasoline that late at night, I called Mr. Jojo. He told me, Ike had changed directions that afternoon and we were under mandatory evacuations beginning the next day.

ALREADY on my drive home gas stations were out of gas or closed. It was very scary trying to find one open with a reasonable line to wait in, we did not have gas cans and if we did, filling them would be most difficult.
We have them now and they are filled.

When we evacuated we did it pulling the teardrop and the E loaded down, also had 2 dogs, 1 of them a large dog and a cat:)

We left late since Mr. Jojo had to stay to the last minute to prepare his water dept, by then the roadblocks were un-manned and we were able to head south to my dads. EVERY town south of us had been evacuated, it was truly an eerie feeling not seeing a single car or person on the road for miles and miles. Your not going to get gas or food or get help fixing a tire or mechanical problem if something goes wrong.

Strangely at one point we ran into traffic and witnessed people being at their worse, driving off into the grass to pass everyone. After we got through the mess of people heading west we went on south and finally found a gas station that was un-manned but had gas, it was only premium but we had to use it.

I'd say we were about 85% prepared, I'm working on at least 98% for the next one.:cool:

[ramblerdan]

Jojo, what do you add to your fuel in storage to keep it from going bad?


Relevant thread here.

[Twilightzero]

Originally Posted by ramblerdan

Jojo, what do you add to your fuel in storage to keep it from going bad?


Relevant thread here.

Was just gonna ask that, great minds...

If you're storing gas, you need to add Sta-bil or something similar.

[Jojo]

Originally Posted by ramblerdan

Jojo, what do you add to your fuel in storage to keep it from going bad?


Relevant thread here.

Another point to make, I've recently looked into that since our gas is now a yr old.
You need to put a fuel stabilizer in it, which we didn't because we were expecting to use it right away, we used our fuel sparingly since we didn't know how long we would need it, we gave some away, but some of my family would bring more when they came to help with cleaning, we have a lot left.

Were using it for the lawn mower, and when we re-fill cans we'll be better prepared.

We also need to build a small shed for it to get it out of the garage.

[hiker chick]

Originally Posted by Scotia4607

And you believe your able to have an unbias opinion whether Jojo over prepares:rolleyes:

Scotia -- for someone uninterested in preparing you seem awfully interested in preparedness.

I'm unabashedly biased.

I'll bet you're going to have more canned food in your kitchen in the next month.

It's infectious.

Speaking of, we've not even begun to discuss: Pandemics.

[Twilightzero]

We also need to discuss: ammo :D

[hiker chick]

Originally Posted by Jojo

ALREADY on my drive home gas stations were out of gas or closed.

A chilling account, Jojo. No wonder you're stepping up prep.

That's why 9/11 still inspires me to keep my tank topped off or nearly so. I only know of one gas station within a mile, it has only two pumps and is on a major artery that would quickly clog after an evacuation order, if it wasn't already. My zip code would descend upon it.

The 9/11 voluntary evacuation of commuters was striking in its order and civility. But a mandatory including the city's residents would, I suspect, be a different ballgame. I don't think this area has ever been under a mandatory evacuation order.

Creepy prospect.

[Jojo]

Originally Posted by Twilightzero

We also need to discuss: ammo :D

Aww geez, just when I finally got most of the guns out of the house the kiddo brings them back since he's leaving again.
Thats why when Mr. Jojo opened the closet door the other day the pistol case fell out and landed on his face and cut and bruised his eye, yeah he pistol whipped himself.

We had to evacuate with his/our guns, had a mini arsenal and DID not want to get pulled over, but you can't leave them in your house if there is a possibility of looting.