#Hurricane preparedness

[autumn-storms-and-coffee-rings]

dear californians -

though i don’t live on the NC coast (i’m more central/near the mountains NC), i still deal with hurricanes. they can still be hurricane or tropical storm level by the time they reach here.

the cone of certainty is also kind of uncertain - it can wiggle within the cone, or veer completely off course at any time.

do not underestimate this.

here’s some prep:

in case of power outage -

charge everything

have batteries

have flashlights

have non-perishable food

have a cooler and ice packs/bags of ice for vital food and medications

the food thing is really important for people with dietary restrictions because it can take days for power to be restored

open your refrigerator and freezer as little as possible to keep things cool longer

in case of water problems -

fill all the water bottles

in case of flooding and evacuation -

get a full tank of gas

don’t drive through water ffs

have cash

have a bag packed with clothes, shoes, medications, etc.

have a bag packed for your pet(s) with carriers, food, medications, favorite toys, etc.

get any important documents together and put them in ziplock bags to protect them from water

document any valuable possessions in case of flooding for insurance purposes (move them to higher ground if there’s time)

check your flood zone

check your flood, home/rent, car insurance policies

check your evacuation route

listen to officials and meteorologists. stay calm. have a plan.

thinking of you! feel free to ask me questions and share this.

[intersexfairy]

As someone (from the USA) who survived a severe hurricane, if there is one piece of advice I could give, PLEASE listen to any evacuation orders. This goes for voluntary and mandatory, but ESPECIALLY mandatory. If you can't get outside the evacuation zone, even just getting closer to the boundary is better than nothing.

If you are in a mandatory evacuation zone and you stay, no one (no emergency services) will be coming to save you. You will have to hunker down for however long the storm lasts.

The time to prepare for evacuation is as soon as you know you're under evacuation order, at LEAST. Do NOT delay. You don't want to be like my family who only left once the flood began (thanks, dad). Not only did we have to hurry to pack, we weren't able to prepare. At that, here are some good things to do in a hurricane:

Have a radio - an emergency crank radio is good, since it uses mechanical energy. We also had walkie talkies.

Have a good first aid kit, especially if you cant get out.

Unplug anything that you absolutely do not need while home, unplug everything before you leave. We didn't do this and my house almost caught fire (fridge outlet) - only the flood put it out.

Have a working fire alarm, charge flashlights and devices. Make sure you also have candles and lighters, too.

Be VERY careful if you must wade or drive in flood water. There will be debris, there will be down power lines. It is deeper than it looks.

Stock up on water and nonperishable food. Eat your perishable foods now. Use coolers for any excess. MREs are good to have, you can order them online.

Put belongings you can't take with you as high up in your house as you can - prioritize things that cannot be easily/emotionally replaced. Leave space for you to go high up too, if you're staying.

Use sand bags (or DIY alternatives) as flood barriers. Tie or tarp down everything you can, and don't keep it in a wide open area.

Close windows, and stay away from them. You really don't want to be there when something comes flying.

This is all I can think of for now, others feel free to add more or correct me. Remember, your life is more important than objects. Losing your life is worse than losing everything but your life. Stay safe, and stay alive.

[weratebeanz]

Hurricane prep = monching all the snacks.

10/10 for responsibility, 5/10 for strategy.

[physalian]

Writing Weather Part 2: Thunderstorms and Hurricanes + Hurricane Safety PSA

It’s hurricane season y’all!! Long before I knew about Pride Month, June 1st was the day I celebrated as the start of hurricane season.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may know that I’m a Floridian. I love thunderstorms. I think a lot of us in the south do, and today’s post is about writing thunderstorms and violent weather when they don’t serve as ominous rumblings and plot hurdles.

In other words, this post is about embracing violent weather, from personal experience.

—

When I was a kid, our house had a pool. Rule is that you can swim until you hear thunder, then you gotta leave the pool because even if the clouds aren’t over you, lightning can strike (advice that eludes so many in this state). I lived on the Gulf Coast, in a city that made a deal with the devil like, 90 years ago, and has never seen a direct hit from a hurricane since. They were always near-misses, but we still got plenty of tropical storms and suffered the storm surges and the endless winds and rains.

Thunderstorms, to me, are a comfort. They probably wouldn’t be if I’d lost my house or a relative to violent weather so I’m not here to necessarily romanticize deadly weather, but it is just weather. It’s not caused by a bad actor and it has no intent. It just is, acting indiscriminately. So in a way I am romanticizing it, I suppose.

I mean that they’re a comfort in that, at least when I lived on the coast, they always followed a pattern. Every day around 2-3pm, the afternoon rains would come for a few hours and leave. It never rained in the morning, but you’d always be caught coming home from school during the summer months.

I loved how the wind would shift and the trees would rustle in warning of the oncoming rain, the temperature would drop in a reprieve from Florida’s oppressive heat, and you really can smell it in the air—fanfic isn’t lying to you. Petrichor (the smell of rain) comes after. Before, it doesn’t necessarily smell metallic, like rust, but something… clean. It overpowers the smell of the cars and burnt rubber.

I loved staring up at the monumental black clouds and hearing the thunder roll in. I loved staring out over the pool and watching the rain come in sheets and wonder if this was the day the pool would overflow. I loved how thunder would shake the windows and the power would flicker and could always sleep to the rain slapping against the windows.

I still do, I just don’t have that house anymore. Rain, unless I have to be out in it, has always calmed me down. If I’m at work in an office and I’m stressed, and I see it’s about to storm outside or I hear it on the roof, I instantly relax while everyone else whines about getting wet.

When writing thunderstorms that aren’t meant to be thematically evil, consider the following:

They’re a reprieve from oppressive sun and heat

The sound of the rain on your roof, trees, windows, lawns, pool cages, cars, and patios are all different

Rain does not fall in a consistent pattern, it blows with the wind and can patter off or dump in a frenzy and it’s mesmerizing to listen to

The smell is cleansing and pure

Thunder loud enough to shake the windows can be thrilling, not just terrifying, and cats generally don’t react the same to it as dogs do

Sun showers (when it rains without clouds) still amaze and befuddle even the locals and they’re rare, but seeing sunlight bounce off raindrops is such a novel thing

Some other things that are genuinely terrifying:

Tourists who panic over a little rain and drive at 30mph with their hazards flashing are more dangerous than the locals driving 50 with just their regular lights on and everyone hates them—do not drive with your hazards on in the rain, the intermittent flashing in poor visibility is more disorienting than solid red lights. If you can’t drive in the rain, don’t drive in the rain.

Hydroplaning will give you a heart attack and it goes against your instinct to slam the breaks—when you do so, you lock up the tires and the whole car skids out of control. Doesn’t just happen in the rain, it happens when the roads are wet after the rain.

Being caught outside when there’s lightning close by is a religious experience. However loud you think it is, it’s louder, and you can taste it in the air. The anticipation of the thunder might be scarier than the actual thunder.

Thunderstorms come from one direction. If you’re looking east at the clear blue sky, sometimes you can have absolutely no idea that there’s literal black stormclouds looming in from the west and the dawning realization is incredible.

As far as hurricanes go, we have evacuated and rode them out before, so here’s my observations.

They’re emotionless forces of nature that level the earth indiscriminately, and there’s something peaceful in being humbled like that.

Every single one I’ve experienced has hit overnight and it doesn’t sound all that different from a thunderstorm.

The last one I experienced dropped the temperature in the middle of summer down to 50 degrees and it was still very windy after the fact.

The wind can sound very intimidating and you never know if it’s going to be carrying sticks, palm husks, trash, or branches.

When the power went out during the last storm, I woke up in the middle of the night to my ceiling fan off and the deadness of no electricity around me was creepy. It is dark when the power goes out and all the streetlights don’t run. When there’s cloud cover and no moon or stars, your visibility is shot to hell.

Rain comes in bands with sometimes several minutes in between, to the point where you can go outside in the middle of a hurricane and not get wet because there’s no rain.

People are incredibly dumb and will try to drive through the floodwaters like lemmings. Unless you drive a Jeep with the air intake on top, not even your fancy Big Dick Truck is safe, and cars can float and lose traction (hydroplane) in very little water—do not restart your car after it stalls. You’ll destroy your engine. Just wait for it to dry out.

People are incredibly dumb and will bring pool floats into the floodwaters and paddle around on the submerged streets. Not knowing or caring about the sewage that’s backed up from the drains, the trash polluting the water, or downed power lines electrifying it.

Hurricanes, when they’re not actively destroying things with newsworthy weather, are very boring to experience. There’s zero visibility beyond the grey haze and it just lasts for hours, usually without power, until it moves on. You can’t “see” the storm, it’s all one big cloudy mass from the ground.

During the last storm, Dasani water was consistently the only water left on the shelves. People are dumb.

During the last storm, people were panic buying gasoline and pumping it into trash bags as if they could somehow pour a trashbag of gas into their fuel tank at home. People are dumb.

With all that said, I like hurricane season because it’s exciting. It’s something to break up the monotony, something fresh to anticipate. Yes, it’s violent dangerous weather, I know, and one bad storm can destroy your life or livelihood, it should absolutely be taken seriously. I just like storms.

—

Hurricane Safety PSA!

Check your local flood zones to see if you live within one and if you can move your car to a secondary location to spare it from flooding, that you could still reach in an emergency, you might want to do that. During one storm, the local university opened up its parking garages to students with nowhere else to put their cars except the streets.

Stock up early on your essentials, there’s plenty of supply checklists. There will be bad weather this year. No need to wait until the news panics about it, and makes everyone else panic about it. Buy your batteries and lanterns and water storage solutions now. It’s not like they’ll expire even if you don’t have to use them within a year.

Stay informed, but you don’t have to watch the news every second of every hour. Storms rarely go on their predicted path. If you’re going to evacuate, do so early. You don’t want to be trapped on the highway when it hits.

If you can’t buy a generator due to finances or not owning your place of residence, look into non-electric methods of food prep (like camping gear) and heat management, like folding fans or battery-operated theme park fans.

Going outside and trying to drive once it’s over might leave you stuck or even injured, and rescue efforts will already be spread thin enough without having to add you to the mess. Unless you must leave, just stay where you are.

Stay safe everybody!

[chaosnojutsu]

I’ve heard this tip a time or two living near the Gulf of Mexico for most of my life. Figured I’d share it as we get further into hurricane season for whoever may need it.

ID: Screenshot of a captioned Facebook post including an image of a styrofoam cup full of frozen water with a quarter laying on top.

The caption in the screenshot reads as follows:

Why you should always put a coin on a frozen cup of water before storms.

It's called the one cup tip. You put a cup of water in your freezer. Freeze it solid and then put a quarter on top of it and leave it in your freezer.

That way when you come back after you've been evacuated you can tell if your food went completely bad and just refroze or if it stayed Frozen while you were gone. If the quarter has fallen to the bottom of the cup that means all the food defrosted and you should throw it out. But if the quarter is either on the top or in the middle of the cup then your food may still be ok. It would also be a great idea to leave this in your freezer all the time and if you lose power for any reason you will have this tip to fall back on. If you don't feel good about your food, just throw it out. The main thing is for all to be safe.

[tornadoquest]

Tornado Quest Top Science Links For September 14 - 21, 2024 #science #weather #climate #climatechange #environment #hurricane #health

Greetings everybody! Thanks so much for visiting. The tropical Atlantic is quiet for the time being. While preparedness supplies are plentiful, now is the time to get prepared for a tropical storm or hurricane. I’ve plenty of hurricane preparedness information for you. Along with the latest US Drought Monitor update there are several good reads, so let’s get started. Tornado Quest micro podcast…

[swampstew]

Please stay safe in the hurricane!

Thank you Momo! I'm doing my best🙃

[theaologies]

My notifs rn are so absolutely wild but to relate them Hozier said “my life was a storm since I was born/how could I fear any hurricane” in Francesca, referencing the winds buffeting Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo Malatesta in the Second Circle of Hell (Lust) and the fact that Francesca embraces her punishment and accepts it without regret because even in Hell she has still managed to be with Paolo and her life had already been turbulent, so what were heavy winds in the face of being with her love forever?

However YOU are alive and coming from an ex-Floridian (in Butchered Tongue Hozier references Apalachicola, which is a city in the Florida panhandle) YOU should fear hurricanes (the florida panhandle has in recent years been known for experiencing extremely severe hurricanes) to at least some extent. This storm won’t be dangerous, per se, as it will only be a tropical storm when it hits SoCal however it is the first tropical cyclone to hit LA since 1939 and our infrastructure is not cut out for this. Expect a deluge and winds with potentially strong gusts.

My basic hurricane preparedness guide is currently pinned on my blog (tumblr won’t let me add my link) if you’re at all worried. Really I would just suggest prepping for potential power outages, mudslides if you’re in burn scar areas, and the possibility of flash floods. This sounds scary but I’d say it’ll be similar to all the rain we had earlier this year but with more wind.

Enjoy Unreal, Unearth and be prepared for any situation. I love you, don’t panic, it’s going to be okay 🖤

[rosegoldenatlas]

YOOOO LAST HURRICANE OF THE SEASON IS GETTING US A HALF DAY FOLLOWED BY A FOUR DAY WEEKEND LETS GO.

in all seriousness though my area is going to be hit dead on by the look of the cone atm. News stations are exaggerating because if you know what your doing you should be fine. Most kids at my school won't be attending tomorrow because even with the half day hurricane prep can be rough especially when some are moving their stuff from the first floor. Several businesses will be either clearing out or doing a classic- move all of the merchandise 2 feet off the floor and mop when the flooding recedes, maneuver. Tbh I might b going over to my grandparents cause they have underground lines. And host good hurricane parties.

Looking forward to the day after when all of the streets are flooded and everyone gets on their boats and kayaks to fuck around on the flooded highways.

[stormsmart]

Prepare for the storm!!

-Have a radio to be able to keep up with storm warnings if you lose power. -Have all electronics charged and keep them charged whilst you have power. -Have extra batteries on hand for all necessary devices. -Have flashlights and the batteries that accompany them. -Have non-perishable food stocked up and on hand. -Have an ice-filled ice-chest, or ice packs ready for any refrigerated medications you may need. -Fill all water bottles and any spare containers with clean water. -Keep a full tank of gas in your car. -Have your windows boarded up and keep away from the windows during the storm -If possible, keep some cash on you as gas stations may not have electricity to run credit cards. -Have your important documents in a water-proof container and ready to grab incase you need to evacuate. -Monitor your local weather advisories, and be up to date on your evacuation routes.

IF YOU ARE IN A MANDATORY EVACUATION ZONE AND YOU STAY BEHIND, NO EMERGENCY SERVICES (medical, police, or fire) WILL COME TO YOUR AID.

Once the storm is over... DO NOT drive through standing water DO NOT step in puddles (as there may be live wires from downed powerlines you do not see) DO stay in your home until the storm is confirmed to be over and your area is safe (eyes of hurricanes can be decieving and lure you outside thinking it is safe)

JUST BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T LOSE POWER DURING THE INITIAL STORM, DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE POWER WON'T GO OUT LATER!

Be smart, Stay safe!

Feel free to message me for any questions you may have.

[heswrongshesright]

Hurricane Prep, AI Whirlwinds, and A Trip Down 'Debbie Does Dallas' Lane - HWSR Ep 66

In this whirlwind episode, "Hurricane Prep, AI Whirlwinds, and A Trip Down 'Debbie Does Dallas' Lane" of the He's Wrong She's Right podcast, Andrew and Nona discuss everything from AI-generated episode descriptions fixated on 'whirlwinds' to the unexpected pop culture significance of Debbie Does Dallas. They delve into hurricane preparedness, including the importance of securing trampolines, stockpiling essentials, and some surprising stats about storm-induced vehicle damage. The episode is a rollercoaster of laughs, tangents, and practical advice, perfect for anyone in hurricane territory or those just looking for a good chuckle.

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[jamaicahomescom]

What is the Best Type of House for a Hurricane?

When it comes to constructing a house that can withstand the destructive forces of a hurricane, the choice of materials and design principles is crucial. According to Fontan Architecture, concrete stands out as the best material for building hurricane-proof houses. Here’s why concrete is highly recommended and what other design considerations should be taken into account: Why Concrete is Ideal…

[icecreamnstickyfingers]

Top 5 Best Power Outage Essentials

[tornadoquest]

Tornado Quest Top Science Links For October 28 - November 4, 2023 #science #weather #climate #hurricane #health

Greetings everyone. Thanks for stopping by. With a few weeks left in the Atlantic and Pacific hurricane season I will continue with hurricane preparedness information that you’ll find helpful. There are other interesting reads this week, so let’s get started. There’s a joke in here somewhere. “China’s spy-hunting campaign has a new target: ‘Illegal’ weather stations.” In our warming planet,…