Below are my draft notes to myself after living through the eye of Hurricane IRMA and not having power for a week afterward. Even though this is not gardening, this blog is my diary and I refer to it all the time.
Amazon was a champ through this event. We ordered last minute stuff with 2-day shipping before IRMA and got everything in time.
TV
If you have a generator you can get local TV by using an antenna. Only local channels are available, but this was helpful to know what happened after IRMA passed through. I ordered an extra long coaxial cable from Amazon on Thursday NIGHT and got it on Saturday. We put our antenna in a window in another room that had impact glass while we and the TV were elsewhere.
PHONE
Let family know in advance that texting works best and keeps lines free for those who need it. Outgoing texts, one word at a time, allowed our messages to go out when there was little service.
Have at least one fully charged portable phone charger prior to event.
FOOD
Get easy foods such as small juice drinks, canned meat, canned soup, canned pasta, canned vegetables, canned beans, snack-sized nuts and dried fruit, pretzels, granola bars, snack-sized crackers, beef jerky, slim jims, tortillas (last longer than bread), apples, cold brew tea bags. Make SMALL single servings of dry snacks and put in zip bags.
Propane. Have full propane on hand if you are thinking of cooking outdoors. Cooking was a real pain with no power and being 94ยบ, but it is what it is. Wrap foods and veggies in foil for easy cooking, eating, and cleanup.
Refrigerator (do not open): maximum of 8 hours without power then throw everything away (we did).
Freezer. Prior to event, freeze water in zip bags so freezer is packed full. Full freezers stay colder longer. Place one bag of ICE CUBES in the freezer before event. When you finally open freezer, if the ice is no longer cubed, throw everything out. Our generator prevented us from having to throw everything out.
WATER
To DRINK. At least two cases of water per person. If doing outdoor cleanup work, add another two cases per person. In addition, fill any container in the house with clean, reverse osmosis or city water. Drinkable water. We used 1/2 gallon canning jars with lids (ACE Hardware) and a 10+ gallon camping water cooler. Our cooler's spigot was leaking so this was another last minute thing I ordered in the middle of the night, and received, from Amazon prior to IRMA.
To FLUSH toilets. Fill buckets with water prior to event and keep next to toilet. Toilets do not need electricity. Pour bucket water into toilet bowl until it flushes. Rain barrel water works great for this.
To WASH and rinse dishes. Fill bathtub with water prior to event. When using, add eight drops of bleach per gallon of water.
To CLEAN yourself. Fill bathtub with water prior to event. Add eight drops of bleach per gallon of water and wait 30 minutes before using. Body wipes, hair ties, and deodorant a must. We used our 8' inflatable pool to bathe.
SUPPLIES
Cleaning. Bleach and an eye-dropper. Eight drops to a gallon in dishwater, washing clothes, or cleaning yourself. Spray hydrogen peroxide on countertops and sinks. Use bleach toilet cleaner. Keep floors clean especially if you are in and out with cleanup.
Recipe for my condensed cleaner is 2 ounces ammonia and 20 ounces rubbing alcohol. Mix 5 parts water to one part cleaner. I clean floors and countertops with this.
Sanitizer. Germ killing wipes to use after using the toilet or handling questionable food since washing your hands uses valuable water.
Crank radio. A crank, battery radio that can be charged by solar, crank, or plug in (when you have power) is a necessity. Our crank radio also charged our cell phones. Local SWFL radio stations broadcasted non-stop while the event was happening and updated regularly after the event. This radio allowed us to hear the words "get to your safe place NOW" after electric had gone down.
Musts: can opener, scissors, knife, hammer, nails, screwdriver, flashlight(s)
Gas chain saw. I would seriously consider buying this, gas, and oil then if I didn't need it, return it afterward. These were impossible to find after the event. Luckily we did not need one.
Battery fans plus the batteries to run them. My family shipped two of these to us and they were most excellent.
Battery tea lights. So much safer than candles.
Motion sensor lights. Fumbling around the house in the middle of the night wasn't fun. These were WONDERFUL. I liked them so much, I ordered more for the bathrooms and garage entryway into house to use all the time.
Tarps for roof leaks. Locally, these were gone DAYS before the event.
PRESCRIPTIONS
Keep up-to-date during summer months.
SECURITY
Manual garage door locks for when power door lock does not work.
Make house looked lived in. Move things around in the yard.
Turn generator off and bring into garage at night.
Chain generator to something.
Watch your neighbor's house and they watch yours.
Have enough batteries for lights so house appears lived in.
Protect yourself with some sort of weapon even if it is wasp spray or a baseball bat. The amount of drive-by "lookers" on our dead end road was frightening.
GENERATOR
Have machine serviced yearly... before hurricane season.
SAFE PLACE
This is an interior room with no windows, usually a closet or bathroom. We used patio furniture cushions and pillow on the floor of our bathroom and went there when they told us to via battery radio.
Store in "safe place" prior to event: prescriptions, small amount of food and water for people and pets, copy of deed and insurance, CASH, batteries, flashlight, safe, cell charger, battery radio, pet's microchip numbers.
