Building an Emergency Kit for a Storm Event:
What to Include, and What to Ditch,
Part I
Winners and Losers for Surviving the Storm and What Follows
As some of you know, Techlaurels is physically based on the Florida Gulf Coast. I live on a barrier island that is 7 miles long, and a mile and a half at its widest. Originally, Irma was supposed to go up the East Coast, and my part of Florida was supposed to be out of Irma's path. Even when a precautionary voluntary evacuation was put in place, few of us did much to prepare, other than charging up our electronics and filling a few jugs with water. The data did not support our area being hit with anything we couldn't handle. We'd need to shelter in place for a day or two, and that was all.
Then Irma changed paths, literally overnight. We awoke to the news that Irma was now projected to make landfall on the West Coast. We'd been upgraded to a mandatory evacuation, and few of us had done much to prepare. And now, there were neither available supplies nor sufficient time to do what we needed. Gas was extremely hard to come by, shelf stable food was unavailable, and there was no bottled water to be had. The Chief of Police ordered all businesses closed at 2 pm, and we needed to be off the Island before 6, when all bridges would be closed to oncoming traffic. Most of the shelters had already filled, and the interstates were already parking lots. We needed somewhere to run, and choices were few given the circumstances. However, the rule of thumb is to shelter from wind and run from water, and we were now facing a potential 15 foot storm surge, something that would obliterate our little Island. A five foot surge would be enough to take out a lot of buildings; 11 feet would be enough to destroy us. It was too late to escape Irma's path all together, so the best alternative was to find an available hotel room somewhere South of Alabama.
We found a room at the Stuart Courtyard, a hotel on Florida's East Coast that was new and built to withstand a Cat 5 storm. It was on high enough ground a surge would not threaten it. When we arrived, we had approximately 18 hours before Irma was supposed to hit that part of Florida, and the feeder bands had already arrived. We kept utilities at the hotel for approximately 14 hours. After that, there were no elevators, hotel phones, internet, hot water, lights, or power. That meant no food or beverage service, not even vending machines. And we still had at least 2-3 full days that we needed to shelter in place.
On the second day, Irma again changed her path, and I was looking at not having a home to which I could return. At the last minute, Irma changed her path once more, and thankfully, that meant the storm surge alert was called off. However, my home was not completely spared from Irma's wrath. We had 92 mph winds and inches of pounding rain. We had huge trees down all over the place, loads of damage from wind-borne objects, shingles littering the neighborhood along with other various debris, and our utilities had been completely wiped out. The Police were running on generators, and the cell phone tower's backup supplies were running low. If you could get a single bar, your communications were limited to texting. Every time you tried to use a data connection, you'd be promptly cut off. They managed to restore water before they reopened the Island, but it would not be safe for drinking until power was restored, and with only electric stoves on the Island, we had no way to boil it.
Because it was a good five days before most businesses had power restored, and the restaurants and stores had lost their refrigerated and frozen supplies too, there was a food shortage on the Island. It would be days before the delivery trucks made it out. Restaurants tried to reopen once power was restored, but menus were limited. Hoarders snapped up what little food there was quickly, and we were beginning to exhaust what was in the pantry. You had to drive hours, to more populated areas, to try to get gas, batteries, water, and food that did not require refrigeration. And officials were asking us to limit non-essential trips, as the roads were clogged with evacuees trying to return, gas was still scarce, and we needed the supply trucks and utility workers to be able to get through. Any place that had supplies had long lines. I joked that every place open looked like a 1980s era Russia, and they were giving away plush, three-ply toilet paper. We had a good two weeks of third-world like conditions. But we all managed to make it through. And during this trying time, I learned a lot about what worked and what didn't.
