Hurricane

jlbattin · Post by **jlbattin** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 7:25 am

Wishing all my MC family that live on the eastern coast a safe ride through the hurricane. Brandy comes to mind.........I believe she lives in Florida, and I know there are many others. Stay safe!

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:56 am

Hi Jari,

Thank you! I've been kind of clueless about this as I just returned home on the amtrak car train on Tuesday.

I live in Gainesville about 2 hours from the atlantic coast but our area of north florida has beautiful rolling hills with TONS OF LIVE OAK TREES AND SPANISH MOSS. Typically hurricanes bring a lot of power outages due to falling live oak trees.

Boyfriend texted me this morning that there are gas shortages and lines. Since we only have one car and it has three bars of gas I thought I better fill the tank. I went to the closest gas station. There were lines but also a tanker truck on hand filling up the gas stores. I managed to fill the gas tank.

Next trip was to Publix. I went to my neighborhood Publix as I figured it would be less busy. Normally the parking lot is 15% full. Parking lot was 100% full with people driving around looking for spaces.

I bought the following for hurricane prep;

2 jars almond butter (last jars on shelf)*****
3 rudis GF bread (out of udis)*****
2 cans soy free tuna (I have some extra tuna and salmon in sleeves in house)
1 manual can opener (last on shelf)
8 packs chicken breast (score--buy one get 1 free, yea)
1 pack ground beef patties (dinner tonight)
1 bag potatos
1 bag rice
4 small onions
1 bunch greenish bananas
5 apples
1 pack grapes (for the boyfriend)
San Pellegrino bottled water in glass jars (I got the last of it)
Regular bottled water
4 box GF SF chicken broth
1 bottle calif olive oil

*****these are items I don't normally eat/buy but figured I can eat almond butter sandwiches worst case

I got home and put 4 packs of chicken breasts in crock pot with box of broth. My plan is to cut the cooked chicken into cubes and freeze. If we loose power I figure they will stay frozen/cold for three days and I can keep thawing them out and eating.

We have a gas grill and 1 full tank for grill. Boyfriend is going to test it tonight. I figure we can do foil potatoes etc on gas grill.

We should have power until mid day on Friday I'm guessing.

Even though I'm not on the coast my area was hard hit in 2004 by 4 hurricanes, Ivan, Francis, Charley and Jean. Some of my coworkers who lived in more rural areas were without power for 3 weeks after each hit. Our motels/hotels typically fill up with folks who live on the coasts of Florida. I lived half a block from the beach in North Myrtle Beach during hurricane Hugo. The worst things was the heat.

Next I need to think about my ice strategy. The boyfriend manages a battery store so I will talk to him about our auxillary power plan.

I've turned down the AC to keep the house cooler.

Hopefully my notes will help someone further up GA/SC coasts.

I'm off to work on rearranging my frig and my ice strategy.

Thanks for the kind words.

Post by **tex** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 2:08 pm

It sounds as though you're well prepared.

I hear you about the oak trees. They tend to have relatively shallow roots — at least that's true here in Texas.

Best of luck riding out the storm.

Tex

Marcia K · Post by **Marcia K** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:04 pm

Brandy, so glad you are well-prepared. I hope you don't have any major issues. A co-worker is stranded in Disney. She was to leave tomorrow but called today to let us know she probably won't be able to return to PA until next week. Thoughts are with all with all of you. Be safe!

jlbattin · Post by **jlbattin** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:48 pm

So good to hear from you.........sounds like you are ready for any weather............

I've been by Gainesville several times when I take my friend's mom to Naples and we all get together....beautiful country but you couldn't pay me to live there.......

Hope the storm doesn't do too much damage (my sis-in-law lives in Tampa)...........keep us posted as you can!

Janie · Post by **Janie** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 7:28 pm

Stay safe

dhouts · Post by **dhouts** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:35 pm

Hey Brandy,

Sounds like you're well prepared. I think I would have bought more tp...and baby wipes. You just never know

I have family in Florida and Savannah...I haven't heard from them so I'm hoping that no news is good news. Be safe, I can't even imagine experiencing what I've seen on tv...scary.

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:46 pm

Also stockpile some buckets of water for bathing/toilets etc

we had poweroutage here at home this morning which equates to no pump for water.... I happen to have a bit of a poop accident. Really difficult to clean up when you dont have water!!

(I was away for the past few days so did not get to stockpile before the power outage)

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 5:48 am

We have property on the gulf and on Gabes' note on water, we filled the bathtubs for water and froze milk jugs of water. Be safe my friends. Deb

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 6:56 am

Thanks for the bathtub water tips. I forgot about that. I filled my two tubs this morning.

My girlfriend stopped by last night. She and 60 food service workers are working all day today at Shands hospital and overnighting at the hospital tonight. I loaned her an inflatable mattress for the food service workers. She was driving around last night picking up inflatable mattresses.

She advised that things should start up today around 10:00 am and Shands does not want any employees on the road from noon until 10:00 pm. Flagler hospital in St Augustine evacuated all of their patients to Shands yesterday afternoon. Our VA hospital w is right across the street from Shands and has offered to help with overflow patients.

The biggest problem Shands had yesterday is that they had patients that were dischargeable yesterday but no hotel rooms were available in town. Our hotel rooms have been booked for months for the Gator/LSU game slated for Saturday. The Gator/LSU game was not cancelled until 3:00 pm yesterday. It really should have been cancelled hours earlier to free up hotel rooms for evacuating folks.

The forecast for my county is a tropical storm so it should not be too bad.

I took the boyfriend to work around 6:30 am. We had rain but it was not too bad.

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 7:56 am

Be safe Deb.

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 8:30 pm

Glad you're okay, Brandy. I read another good tip today, especially if you have to evacuate. Freeze a glass of water. After frozen, place a coin on top. If you come back home and the coin is still on top, your frozen food is good. If the coin has settled a bit you should still be okay. If the coin is on the bottom your freezer probably thawed and you should probably get rid of the food. Sounds simple but effective. I may do it when I go south for the winter. Deb