West Coast Storms

The latest in a series rain and wind storms has left and as always there were lessons learned. Because of the wet ground and high winds many trees were blown down taking power, phone, and cable tv lines with them. December is too early for saturated ground that is why I said wet ground. Due to the hard rains there was a great deal of run off and local flooding. I think we received about a foot of rain here. The hot items at Costco were generators, of course. At the local small engine shop the hot items were carburator overhaul kits. A full tank of last years fuel turned into gum. The shop owner dealt with quite a few angry people, angry at him, at Costco, Chevron, whoever. Run your generator dry or run it at least 20 minutes each month.
Fly by nights with a pickup truck and a chainsaw were charging $200.00 per hour! No insurance, no license. Lots of beer money. Legitimate tree service companies charge about $130.00/hr for 2 men, a boom truck and chipper. Most small stores (after the storms began) sold out of batteries and bottled water. PG&E, the power company here wouldn't return phone calls to fire deparments or to the 911 center. Overwhelmed. PG&E and SBCPacificBell brought in crews for other areas but several key locations of wires down due to trees took out poles as well.
My family and I weathered the storm just fine, I live for storms and other disasters. I don't want to see other in trouble but I love the challenge and I like to help others. Being prepared and then having the storms roll in just makes me feel good. Walking around my dark neighborhood with my 6P is fun too. God bless us all this Christmas season. Bill

Bill,

I too learned a few lessons with these storms. As prepared as I try to be I found several key items missing from my preparedness kit. None of the items were critical but it would have made riding out the storms much smoother. The storms were thankfully short lived and services were restored within 18 hours or so. The storms gave me a bit of focus though for which I am thankful.

Cheers.

So you have decided to keep your hard earned wisdom to yourself? I would like to hear what you learned and what things I have probably forgotten as well!

Thanks

Hi James,

I knew my omission was gonna come back and bite me on the... anyway... I am still trying to digest my experience and I am loath to post just anything without some consideration but here goes (these are likely quite obvious to most)

0. Accessibility: Much of my kit was not properly packed and was hard to get at. This is a work in progress but I was majorly procrastinating.

1. Lighting: Of all the lights I have I do not own a single battery operated lantern. I have a candle lantern but it was packed away in my hiking kit and is quite small. Worse was the fact that I had never unpacked my emergency candles. Pretty stupid huh? Needless to say I now own an extra butane/propane lantern and am on the hunt for a quality CCFL lantern (any suggestions would help me greatly). My emergency candles are at hand and my hiking kit is in a more accessible location.

2. Food: I have plenty of last ditch and survival food but my supply of canned foods and MREs (including freeze dried) was nearly exhausted. Luckily I was out that day to replenish my supplies so that did not trouble me too much. The problem is that sometimes you get a rush on supplies and you are SOL.

3. Cooking: I have been procrastinating on buying a fuel operated stove in the hope of finding just the right one (OK I do have an esbit stove but it is not really meant for counter-top duty). I now own a small (hiking) butane/propane unit as a backup while I find a decent counter-top unit. What is worse is that I had neglected to replenish my supply of firewood because I hate the smell and pollution it generates. I have been reminded that my fireplace is a great back up stove for cooking a stew or toasting chestnuts or a cheese sandwich (a fantastic way to uplift anyone's spirit on a dark stormy night). You'll be glad to know that I did have plenty of chestnuts and cheese and bread available for toasting .

4. Heating: Lack of firewood was a major discomfort as it got pretty cold at night. And I still have not gotten around to buying some firewood (how stoopid). Luckily I have plenty of blankets but there is truly nothing like a fire to lift the spirit.

5. Hygiene: The biggest potential problem by far was the lack of a fuel-based stove and large capacity pots to heat water for personal hygiene. This is still an outstanding item on my list. Had the power outage been extended I would have been in some deep doodoo. Another thing is that (while I had plenty of water) I had not planned for extended hygiene requirements. I need to rethink my hygiene water supply. I have plenty of iodine based water purifiers but no filter yet.

6. Radio: Major (idiotic) procrastination on battery operated radio. There are plenty of radios out there but I am still looking for one that receives AM/FM/SW + weather channels. Any suggestions are helpful, welcome, and appreciated.

7. General preparedness: General attitude (prior to an emergency) is critical to maintain a modest level of comfort during an emergency. My attitude has always been to maintain basic survival supplies but I had not seriously considered the importance of maintaining some level of comfort to help ride out an emergency.

8. Entertainment: Books. I have plenty of books but having read all of them they were packed away in my garage. You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that a book will do wonders to the psyche in case of an emergency.

9. Access: Here is a funny one. When I got home I could not operate my garage door opener (no electricity - duh!). Well I was anxious to get my two month old car out of harm's way (winds were quite strong and had broken thick branches and even trees in our neighbourhood). The trouble was that the garage door was stuck! It took about ten 'teeth gnashing and fingernail chewing' minutes to get it unstuck and get the car into the garage safe and unmolested. Try to manually open your garage door to see if there are any sticking points. As insignificant as it is you do not want your car out in strong winds while you figure out your garage door. You should not be out during a storm but sometimes it can't be helped.

There is more but I am too tired to continue.

Cheers.

I'm off-grid so all systems remained 'go' throughout..(even the satellite TV ) one suggestion for storable portable heat; propane. One seven gallon tank and a catalytic '1500 watt' heater, Olympian brand for example, last a loong time; days in a small room, maybe weeks..Keep a window or some other fresh air source open.. I don't think propane goes bad, does it?

Ted,

I saw these today (actually coleman brand) and was pondering picking one up. Thanks for the advice.

Cheers.

Hmmmm... that's a good point Ted. I already knew about the perishability of gasoline from a friend who helped me store a car for long term, but propane can keep longer. Now there's a market, if it hasn't already been exploited: propane-fueled generators.

For the generator - put some fuel stabilizer in the generator's gas tank to prevent gumming up. Put some in the tank, then run it to get it into the carb. Otherwise, drain the carb and treat the tank. Pour some oil into the spark plug hole too.

Alternatively, as mentioned above, I would just run it once a week.

Canuke, I have had an Onan 3600 watt propane fired generator for several years, and have spent it's cost in repairs..not to mention having to lift it into the car and drive it to the shop 45 miles away... I finally gave up and got a Kubota diesel, with a home visit repair agreement from the local farm equipment dealer..now maybe I can try my hand at welding...

The important thing is that one learns, and prepares better, as a result. This topic ties in with the Survival Preparedness topic.