Dear Sir,
After reading A Tale of Two Hurricanes by N.D., I thought I would share some lessons that my family and I learned from Hurricane Ike. First off, I became turned onto the prepping mindset about a year and a half ago. I have been trying to get my father thinking in this mindset and he recently read “One Second After” by William R. Forstchen which seems to have truly sparked something inside him. I plan to let him read my copy of your novel “Patriots” as well.
Well we live in the “country” northwest of Houston. Most people remembered all the hoopla about hurricane Rita and how that turned out to be nothing but an inconvenience and a stress headache. All of our neighbors had no thoughts of evacuating and getting stuck in the traffic from Houston, they just stocked up on a few provisions and called it good. My family did the same thing. We got a couple of cases of water but not much else. We have always had a well stocked pantry with what I believe to be a month or two of food at full rations so there wasn’t any worry of starving.
We prepped our property for the high winds by borrowing some sheets of plywood from a neighbor to cover our windows to protect them from flying debris. Dad used the storm as an excuse to cut down some trees that he had wanted to get rid of. We took out a very large one that could have removed half of our house including my bedroom if it were to come down during the storm. Then we cleaned everything out from under the stairs so we could cram in there in case there was a significant threat of a tornado hitting us. (Stairs are usually the most framed part of a house and thus the most structurally sound place to be in case of a tornado, in less you have a basement.) We were “all set” for what was sure to be a disappointing storm.
Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island at a little past 2 a.m. on September 13th, 2008 as a strong category 2. In most cases a category 2 hurricane would not be considered too bad for someone who has gone thru some of the weaker storms like Rita. However Ike was different. Looking at the radar, it seemed to take up most of the Gulf and had a strong eye. The storm didn’t really hit us until the early morning hours but the eye came within 9 miles of our house. I woke many times to lightning and the roof creaking. That morning the sky had a greenish color and the wind was still blowing the rain almost sideways. A quick look outside revealed about a dozen trees had blown over or lost large limbs. Our entire neighborhood was without power.
After the storm calmed down, we went out for a drive to survey the damage in our community. Every one of our neighbors had trees down and almost half of them had some sort of roof damage. There were trees that had taken out the power lines and fallen unto the roads making them impassable. Luckily there were some good samaritans out with their chainsaws clearing the roads enough so cars could pass one at a time. The entire town was without power and the gas station up the road had the covers blown off of the pumps and had sustained damage.
Living without power was not too bad for us. We just pulled out the Coleman stove and lantern from my Boy Scout days and got to work clearing the damage. My Mom however was not very happy. Even though it was much cooler than it usually was at that time of year, the 80 degrees, humidity, and the lack of power and communication with the outside world was more than she wanted to stand. After the first night she took off to my older sister’s house about an hour inland to stay with her. She came back the following day to bring us a little 1,500 watt Honda generator and about 5 gallons of gas. The generator had just enough power and fuel to keep the contents of our refrigerator cool.
My dad sent me out with four 5-gallon gas cans and told me to find someplace to fill them up. I drove my truck to the next town and found that the grocery store’s gas station had gas but even more importantly they had power. Most gas stations had thousands of gallons but no way to get it out of the underground tanks. There was a line on every pump about 50 cars long when I arrived. It took three hours for me to make it up to the pump where there was police officers posted to obviously keep everything in order. Lucky there was not a ration in place so I was able to fill up all the cans and my truck. As I left the lines were around 200 cars long and things were beginning to get tense as pumps shut down [due to depleted tanks] from such rapid use. I passed several other gas stations on my way home and they were rationing gas to 5 or 10 gallons with just as many cars lined up. When I finally made it back home Dad wanted me to take his truck and get it filled up too, but I told him it was too dangerous and we would have to just make do with what we had, which was about 60 gallons combining what was in the cars and cans. The following day, Mom came back from my sisters with more fuel, a new generator, and a window A/C unit which she bought. The generator is a 5000 watt 7,500 peak brand name with a pull start. It has a 220 volt plug and two 110 volt plugs. Dad and I cut the main breaker so we wouldn’t back feed into the power grid and then took some wires from a 220 volt extension cord and crudely shoved them into the electric dryer socket. We couldn’t run the central air conditioning but we could run the window unit mom had bought (which of course went in her room), the refrigerator, and the lights as normal. We just had to be mindful of how many things we could turn on at once. The generator was locked to the house with a heavy chain and padlock and we always turned it off before night. When there is no power for miles around, a running generator at night is like a “come steal me!” sign.
Another problem that was arising about this time in the neighborhood was human waste. Our neighborhood is remote and everybody has about 5 acres. Because of this we do not have city sewer but instead an aerated sprinkler system. Without power the pump can’t spray the treated liquid waste and the tanks become full in 2-3 days. Toilets begin to back up and smell occurs. For us, everything was fine once the generator was going. We did have to go to some neighbors houses to do some emergency electrical re-wiring so they could get their septic systems working.
Our street was without power for more than 12 days. Part of the problem was a power line went down in the woods behind us and since that line only serviced five houses it was not at the top of the priority list. Luckily we never lost water although we were extra cautious and made sure to boil it before consuming.
Lessons learned from all this:
- If it is going to be a big hurricane, then evacuate early. It isn’t worth all the trouble if you can leave in time and trust your neighbors to watch your property, but take your papers and valuables with you.
- Have a working generator. We now have ours and had a proper hookup installed by an electrician after it was all over. Make sure to run your generator bi-annually and store it for long-term storage following your user’s guide. For us, that is running it dry with stabilized gas in it.
- Have plenty of fuel beforehand. We keep our cans filled with Sta-bil gas and rotate them regularly.
- Of course be prepared with all of your usual preps. Food, water, first-aid, etc.
- With a hurricane, it is very important to protect your house from damage as much as possible. Cover windows, brace large doors like the garage doors, remove trees close to the house, and remove anything in your yard that could become a flying object.
- Have a pump system designed to get gas out of underground tanks. There was just a recent post about how to make your own in the blog. You might be able to let your local gas station owner use it in exchange for some fuel. It’s a win-win. He can still sell fuel and you can get what you need.
I think the most important thing to remember during a disaster like this one is to be courteous and helpful to your neighbors. Get to know your neighbors beforehand and pull together after to clean-up and make repairs. Ike brought all of us on our street closer together. This country is threatened by many different types of natural and manmade disasters, but with a hurricane you know it is coming. Get prepared.