Date and Location: October 9, 2024 — West Coast of Florida, under the eye of Hurricane Milton, inland from landfall.
Hurricane winds howled outside, and the rain pelted the windows when the lights flickered for the final time and died. On the darkest of nights as Hurricane Milton unleashed its fury on our rural Florida bunker, my mom confidently stated, “I feel safe here.” After a long, and mostly sleepless night, we rose before dawn to walk the property. What follows is a breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly of our preparedness strategy for weathering a vicious storm.
The effects of Hurricane Milton reached us on Wednesday, October 9th. Preparations for the impending event began much earlier, a full 5 days prior to its landfall about. In actuality, however, readiness for a catastrophic event commenced years or even a decade ago. For much of our preparedness, I credit Survivalblog and those of you who have contributed content over the years. Now it is my turn to provide some insight.
Born in Florida, I currently live 35 miles from where I grew up. I am a middle school Civics teacher at a military prep school on the west coast of Florida. I am 62 years old and live with my wonderful wife. Our daughter and her family live 7 miles away. As a young man I had a career as a commercial fisherman in Florida where I developed the “weather-eye,” recognizing the complications weather events can bring to our area.
Our story of riding out Hurricane Milton starts about 24 years ago when I married my wife. One of our common goals was owning a home in the country. Reading SurvivalBlog over the years helped solidify the details of that plan for our homestead.
It starts with a house
We selected a 10-acre rural parcel of land. Yes, Florida actually has a “heartland,” which is starkly different from Disney and the beaches you see in the visit Florida ads. Florida’s largest industry is tourism. Its second is agriculture, mostly citrus and cattle.
Having grown up around the water, I knew the dangers of coastal living, both natural and social dangers. Hurricanes and flooding threatened my childhood home on an irregular basis. Urban development and the soaring cost of property also threaten the quality of living on the coast. Therefore, we elected to build our home in the rural part of Florida in the solid company of citrus farms and cattle ranches.
A major factor in picking our location was a suitable distance from the coast (35 miles) to mitigate the effects of hurricane storm surge. Florida is mostly flat. The highest elevation is in the panhandle and that is only 345’ above sea level. My location is about 40’ above sea level. This is not the highest in the county, but it is the highest in my surrounding area. Water does not run off very quickly in Florida because of its topography. Elevation is critical when selecting a homestead in Florida.
Recently Hurricane Debbie dumped over 18 inches of rain on our area, flooding many areas that had never flooded before. New subdivision and urban development created new drainage patterns. Stay away from areas that have been recently developed, as past experiences may no longer be an accurate indicators of future results. We picked the highest spot in our general location.
Hurricane Debbie was the start of the “season” for us. Then came Helene. Helene was not a rain event for us, however it brought the highest storm surge our area has seen in over a century. Two days before Milton arrived, a rain system passed through delivering another 3 inches of rain. Even before Milton arrived, the ground was fully saturated. Little of the rainwater sank in, and the ground was extremely soft.
Bug out or shelter in place for Milton?
NOAA was pretty much dead on for their projections of Helene’s path into Florida, and most Floridians put a lot of faith in them. My area was pretty much the target within 100 miles for at least a week before landfall, offering plenty of time for planning to evacuate or dig in.
Our decision was determined years ago. We would ride out Milton on our homestead, just like Irma and Ian in years past. By selecting our location 35 miles inland we were not in danger of storm surge. By selecting the highest elevation in our surrounding area, we hoped to avoid dangers of flooding. That said our road did washout during Hurricane Ian in 2022 as a result of the rainfall amount and the sheet flow of the surface water.
The next factor in deciding to shelter in place is the construction of our home. First of all, there is no such thing as a hurricane-proof house. However, there are many things that can be done to improve your chances of reducing damage. When we built our home, we gave the contractor 3 key directives. First, the home would be small, less than 1000 square feet interior footprint. (The house does have a loft which increases the interior square footage to 1400 square feet of living space.) Second, the home was to be as energy efficient as was feasible within our budget. Energy efficiency can be very expensive. One important energy-efficient strategy was the use spray foam insulation under the roof, which not only provides insulation but also acts as an adhesive to secure the roofing material and as structural support between the trusses. The last directive was to build in hurricane resistance, again keeping our budget in view. Our house was built in 2017. In fact, the first night we spent in the house was during Hurricane Irma of the same year. We were living in a camper as the house was being built. Since the house was “dried in” but not finished, we camped inside the house rather than the RV.
What do you do to build a hurricane-resistant home? First and primary, as discussed, is location. The roof design and materials are also paramount. Roof sheathing is usually ½” particle board in our area. We specified ¾” plywood. We stipulated that no particle board be used in the house at all. The contractor wholeheartedly agreed and supported that measure. The additional thickness of the ¾” plywood sheathing gives the roof fasteners added thickness to gain purchase and holding strength. We then chose a metal roof material as the outer cover which is screwed down. Shingles can be torn apart and tend to lift when the wind exceeds 100 mph. UV sun damage can be brutal, and it weakens asphalt shingles over time.
Roof design is also a consideration. Avoiding the popular but complex roof lines, we opted for a simpler modified hip roof. We wanted to avoid gables as we learned from Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Many of the homes in Homestead lost their roofs when the gables blew in and allowed uplift. We compromised on the north and south-facing sides of the house. The building code required a window for emergency egress in the loft. These sides of the roof have a “Boston Hip” which is a combination of a hip and mini gable with a window. The vertical surface area is greatly minimized.
Other design factors include cinder block walls which have poured concrete in every third cell. Inside these poured cells are 3 bars of ¾” rebar. The rebar is tied into the slab and foundation. The trusses are tied into a poured lintel (8” x 16” solid poured) supported by 12 x 12” block columns poured with rebar, which surrounds the wrap around porch. The trusses are tied into the exterior walls and to the lentil, so they are tied in at two points on each side. The small size of the house just means these reinforcement measures are very “dense” within our home. My extended family refers to my house as the “Bunker.”
Remember the spray foam insulation between the trusses? A colleague used the same type of insulation on his outbuilding. Some of the sheet metal roofing came off during Milton, however, the spray foam insulation remained in place. He did not get any storm damage beneath the spray foam. I am convinced this is the way to go regarding insulation. It provides excellent insulation properties and structural benefits at the same time.
Florida building codes require either impact-resistant windows or hurricane shutters. Having used plywood to cover windows in our previous home, we opted for the impact-resistant windows, allowing light into the house and exterior visibility during storms. In 2004 we had four back-to-back hurricanes threatened our part of the coast. A month in the dark was more than I cared for. However, I will admit there were times during the hurricanes when I would have rather have not known what was happening outside.
Another issue with shutters cropped up after a recent storm when my sister-in-law and her neighbors who lives about 30 miles south of us began to wonder about the “Jones.” Everyone knew the “Jones” had stayed through the hurricane, but none of the neighbors had seen them and two days had passed. One neighbor finally went up to the house and banged on the shutter covering the front door. Inside they could hear “Mr. Jones” yelling back that they were trapped inside. The neighbor removed the shutter from over the door to free the “Jones.” They had put up all the hurricane shutters which are fastened over the doors and windows from the outside. They then retreated into the house through the automatic garage door and lowered the door. Once the power went out (it always goes out), there was no power to raise the garage door. They were trapped. Yes, most automatic garage doors have a pull release so the door can be manually lifted. But “Mr. Jones” did not know this.
I mentioned building on a budget. Remember I am a teacher, and my wife is a technical writer. We do not struggle financially, but neither do we have money to spend wantonly. We budgeted $250,000 for construction of the house. We came in at budget. This is credited to our watching each stage of construction. Remember we lived in a camper on the property while the house was being built. (Snooper-intendant on site!) We also had a very honest general contractor, a man of integrity. We did much of the finish work on the inside of the house ourselves instead of having the work subcontracted, saving considerable cost.
Preps Before the Storm
We were well prepared for food. As a longtime student of SurvivalBlog, we have stocked up on the basics, what we regularly eat. If you don’t eat it now, you won’t want to eat it when the bad times come. It’s also beneficial to avoid dietary changes and cooking habits during a stressful time. Because that larder was stocked early in the season, we avoided the mad rush at the grocery during the last days preceding the storm.
We have a supply of 20 gallons of drinking water in the house. We have a Berkey water filter, if necessary. Five days prior to landfall, I laid in 25 gallons of water to use for flushing the toilet when the power goes out. We had three stock tanks full at the barn for the animals or other emergency use. There is a well on the property that is our primary source of water, which is usable while we have electricity or when the generator is operating.
Prior to Hurricane Helene, we had pruned back bushes and trees around the house. No need to do that this time. I had also tested the generator before Helene. Genny is a MEP-804A, 15KW, Isuzu 4-cylider diesel military generator. When Hurricane Irma left us without power for five days in 2017, we decided to make a whole house/barn generator a priority. The generator is wired into our main electrical panel so that once the generator is up and running, we can operate as we do on grid power. This includes A/C, washer/dryer, 220V well pump, everything. There is a whole another article I could write regarding the selection and installation of Genny. Suffice it to say, Genny is an integral part of our hurricane preparedness program. Check https://www.steelsoldiers.com/ for more information about military generators.
I must also give credit to our wonderful governor in the Free State of Florida. At the risk of getting political, the Republican party way-to-easily passed on one of the finest politicians and executives alive today. Governor DeSantis knows how to maintain vigilance in preparedness. He had prepositioned electrical linemen, equipment, and resources that would be needed. He has been proactive rather than reactive. Volunteers and relief workers were ready and knew where to go before Milton hit. Hurricanes Debbie, Helene, and Milton are not his first rodeo. He has ridden this bull before and knows what to do. Florida loves this man. I hope the rest of the country will have the opportunity to experience his leadership one day.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 2.)