The Emergency Preparedness Topic

[Buster's Uncle]

I just checked the CNN website, and it looks like the hurricane isn't even going to skim the coast.  Bad news for Bermuda, though.

[Rusty Edge]

I just looked at The Weather Channel. In short, the dire forecasts haven't materialized. On the other hand, in my travels today, there were sudden losses of visibility in the rain and clouds crossing the Appalachian tops. But mostly, it's been merely a pain in the joints so far.

http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-joaquin-bahamas-atlantic-east-coast-bermuda-2015
"Regardless of the ultimate outcome of Joaquin's path, portions of the East Coast states will still see multiple impacts from the evolving large-scale weather pattern, including flooding rainfall, coastal flooding, high surf, beach erosion, and gusty winds. These threats will extend well inland from the Atlantic coast."

[Buster's Uncle]

We could definitely use a dry week in this region.  Over 5" here in the last week of September and north of 2.3 already since Wednesday.  They're getting a lot of falling trees down in Charlotte the last several days.

Sunshine is good for the soul, too...

[Valka]

The only natural disasters I ever worry about are blizzards and tornadoes. I'm well above the river, so no worries here about flooding.

I try to keep 3 months' worth of necessities on hand during the winter months for the cats and myself, because even though most winters are wimpy things compared to what I'm used to from back in the '60s and '70s, we do still get extended cold snaps.

[vonbach]

If you're preparing in a city you're wasting your time.

[Buster's Uncle]

Living in a city is the disaster.

[Valka]

If you're preparing in a city you're wasting your time.

So only people who don't live in cities should be prepared? That doesn't make sense at all. I'm not talking about the hypothetical apocalypse of your choice. I'm talking about getting through an extended period of temperatures of -25C and colder. I'm barely willing to go outside from -25C to -29C, but once it hits -30C it better be one hell of an emergency. to get me out the door. The building would have to be on fire, to do that.

Luckily I don't need to worry about things like hurricanes or tsunamis (landlocked province, many hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean), and so far the fracking hasn't caused any earthquakes around here.

[vonbach]

Someone doesn't remember Katrina. If you're in a city and things fall apart where are you?

[Rusty Edge]

Someone doesn't remember Katrina. If you're in a city and things fall apart where are you?

Shoulder to shoulder with Brian Williams.

If I recall correctly, the original poster cited evacuation plans as well as stockpiled supplies.
I think the Katrina scenario called for an evacuation plan. The way I remember it, I was tracking Katrina ( an uncommonly strong storm system ) from the Eastern Atlantic, and they did in fact call for an evacuation. Perhaps if more people had that all worked out in advance ( arranging rides when they didn't own transportation, etc. ) it wouldn't have become an issue. 

I know that there was more to it than that, in the same way that there is more to a famine than a drought. You start with a natural disaster, and compound it with corruption, incompetence, and cruelty.

[Green1]

Well, the thing about "preparedness" is you can go overboard, too. But, Katrina did teach me not to walk around with my head in a computer and work and not keep track of hurricanes.

But, I do follow this:

Baton Rouge is not coastal, but a hurricane if it hits New Orleans can mess stuff up here. I do have candles and a battery powered radio. I also know my neighbors and we can cope with short term power loss.

If my townhouse gets nuked, on fire, an eviction, or any number of tragedies dealing with loss of place, we have good standing with a lot of folks.

If we MUST leave Baton Rouge because Bobby Jindal unleashes a Zombie Apocalypse or other deal that makes staying here more issue than worth it, we can go to Jackson, MS or New Orleans or Oklahoma City.     

So, keep good network and stuff to survive a bit with no power is my solution. But, I rent and do not own so I am not particularly tied anywhere.

[Valka]

The worst thing I remember here was the Blizzard of '86. We got several blizzards' worth of snow dumped on us over a 3-day period, and the city basically shut down except for emergency services and essentials. My dad made it to a hardware store to buy propane for the gas stove (we had no electricity), and came back telling us that the clerks were wearing helmets with battery-operated lights on them to see by, and writing down all the purchases with pens and paper.

We had lots of candles and batteries, enough propane for the stove, lots of canned food, plenty of warm blankets, and just burrowed in for the duration. I put extra blankets on my bed, my cat crawled in with me, tucking all four feet under my chin to help keep warm (cats are good for sharing body heat; they're like little blankets all by themselves), and we slept away the next couple of days.

After it stopped snowing, it took time to dig ourselves out and the snow wasn't completely cleared away for a couple of weeks.

BTW, the day when all this started was May 29. That was the freakiest weather-related thing I've ever experienced, and it taught me to always be prepared. I was fine, but a lot of other people weren't, because they had no way to cope without electricity and no way to go anywhere due to all the snow.

[ColdWizard]

I can't imagine what sort of hellish gridlock nightmare evacuation of the DC area would create. Unless it were properly planned and executed well in advance, but I may as well as theorize about being whisked away on a flying unicorn that defecates Reese's.

I probably should pack a bag of cold weather gear for my car in case of getting stranded on a rare, unanticipated one-off trip to some place that's out in the sticks. Like Chantilly.

[Dio]

It started to rain right before heavy rush hour traffic. I know this means that the number of accidents involving vehicles will increase  .

[Rusty Edge]

I saw a TV news report that said they had 26 inches of rain in several locations in South Carolina.
That can't be good.

[Buster's Uncle]

If I understood right, it's really floody in Columbia, which is in the middle of the state, way inland.