What's in your Hurricane Kit?

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Today is the first day of Hurricane Season down south here, and after Hurricane Ike hitting and having no power for 14 days, no water for 3 days and no natural gas for 4 days, I think we ought to be a little bit more prepared this year than last.

While I am super-broke right now (baby on the way any second now, new racecar project, less working hours), at least we can start stocking up now. I am refilling our empty gallon water jugs with tap water and marking them with a "T" for Tap Water on the lids, and putting them in the laundry room. I usually pick up an extra can or two of non-perishable food at the store when we're there. We have lamp fuel and two lamps (which we used a lot after Ike!!), and lots of candles and matches. We have switched to plastic bins (from cardboard boxes) for much of our storage to ensure that what gets wet/flooded is usable.

What do you have in your Hurricane Kit?

Alternately, we are also building Bug Out Bags for each of us as well. What's in your BOB?
 
Whats a Hurricane? Ice Storm and then we will talk.
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(J/K)
 
Solo's got it right - after last time I'm not playing around. This year I've got quite a lot of gas, 2 generators, water, water purification equipment, charcoal, more non-perishable goods than last year, a fully stocked liquor cabinet, a fully stocked gun safe, all the appropriate phone chargers and a new 'chirp' phone from work. Last time there was no normal phone reception, but chirp and text still worked. I've been cruising garage sales looking for bicycles. They're a better way to get around the neighborhood and to go to the local stores when/if gas needs to be rationed.
 
Aside from extra water and batteries for the flashlights, plus some dry food (both for me and my kitten), my Bugout Bag is a backpack that also sees use in hiking. It has a small road atlas, a wallet with $200 cash and an A T & T phone card, and a memo book with phone numbers for hotels.

It also has a shaving kit with spares of toothbrush, toothpaste, and Rolaids, ibuprofen, other medicines I take, sunscreen, a bottle of water, a few chewy granola bars, and insect spray. I have a flashlight and gas company credit cards in the car. The idea is, if I have to bug out, I won't have to rush around putting everything together. Collect my kitten and her stuff plus Linda and her cats, load those and the bag, gas up the car (which I try to keep always at least half full), and roll.

Come December, that extra cash will go back into my wallet for Christmas spending. I'll replace it next May.
 
Benzadmiral's list was looking great then I realized where he lives.
thumbsup2.gif
Now doubly great!

Maps are a good idea worth repeating in case one route gets disabled or you have to hunt for gas/food/hotels off the interstates.

Baby wipes, that alcohol hand sanitizer goo, paper plates and cups are good for maintaining sanitary conditions. So are trash bags; walmart has these super cheezy bags on a roll that you can waterproof stuff with or keep the mosquitoes out of anything that got trashed when you're in recovery mode.

Old ripped up jeans etc are worth keeping around in a box in the attic or something; when I run my generator I always get gasoline and exhaust smells on me... and the shower is not an option! "disposable" clothes I can change out of are handy.

If you have no other tools a spark plug socket is worth having, if you think your car got flooded, pull your plugs and crank it over. Drive on ramps will let you leave the car you leave behind a foot higher off the ground.

Also common sense stuff like keeping a clean yard will reduce flying debris from trashing your windows.
 
I hadn't thought of a bicycle, great idea. We could not get gas here, and many of the grocery stores were closed/out of food anyway...we ended up going up to Austin (after everyone else made the 2-hour trip into a 12-hour trip, of course) for a while after Ike.

I'm down to 450rnds of ammo, grrr. Too hard to find right now.

CheaperThanDirt.com has some FANTASTIC military bags that are really tough and really inexpensive, but some old duffel bags work just as well.

We really need to carry more cash around the house, we normally don't because it's easier to keep track of things electronically for us...I even deposit my loose change just to know what I have. The only thing we keep around are dollar and half-dollar coins for the kids, but I guess it all spends the same way in the end.
 
Just bought a Coleman heater and a couple lanterns at a garage sale a few minutes ago so that can be added to the list. I forgot to mention the spare cash - me and the wife do keep a few hundred around, but that's nothing compared to the parents... They keep six grand in small bills stashed for unforeseen circumstances and some spare jewelry around for emergency 'bartering.' It's not really for the hurricane so much as the 'coming decline of the western world' which they believe may be around the bend. You'd never think it to meet them, they're really not the tinfoil-hat type.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Benzadmiral's list was looking great then I realized where he lives.
thumbsup2.gif
Now doubly great! . . .

. . . Baby wipes, that alcohol hand sanitizer goo . . .

Than kew kind sir, he said. I think I have a bottle of hand cleaner goo in the trunk of the car. As for plastic bags, yes, the litter boxes in the trunk get shrouded in the big green lawn bags while we're traveling, and removed when the cats need a litter box break.

I just hope we don't have to use any of this prep this year.
 
One thing I bought before the last hurricane was a power inverter, to use the car to recharge cell phones, lantern, and laptop. Fried that cheapie pretty quickly, so after the storm I got a much more capable one which wires directly to the battery.

If you are planning on evacuating, create a TO GO list which mentions documents you don't want ruined (or found) in your house - credit card and social security statements, bank records, car titles, etc. My list has those items, our laptops, an external drive.

Before the storm I prepaid all the bills at hand, in case power was out for an extended period (it was).
 
^^^ hmmmm pre-pay bills, good idea Robert. I hadn't thought of that. I seem to recall last year that most companies were quite lenient, but we'll see what happens this year.
 
We have the standard kit assembled but what will most likely get used after riding out Dolly is the car keys! If a Cat lll comes our way we are going to the Alamo City......pronto.
 
Water, soda, cash, gas for the genset,propane for the stove . Hand sanitizer and paper plates/picnic ware are real handy also
Bleach for sanitizing iffy water . DUCT TAPE! Saved my bacon during Wilma. If things are looking dicey, get your laundry done,as it might be a looong time before you get a chance to.
If the storm and its path are correct, the best thing to do is scram!
 
I rode out many hurricanes on the NC coast, mostly equipped with tuna, water, dog food for my pals, lots of batteries and candles.
My house was on pilings way up off the ground, and it never fell down, so things were okay. Lucky.
 
Originally Posted By: flacoman

If the storm and its path are correct, the best thing to do is scram!


The path given by the bulk of the weather people down here in the jungle are generally incorrect 99% of the time.
 
Y'all are making me realize I need to go out and crank up the generator! Got one of the only ones you could find in North Louisiana the day before Ike hit.

One thing I would add, that I also picked up for emergencies last year, was a small cheap handheld police scanner. In smaller municipalities, you can get by with a basic analog scnner in many instances. In bigger areas, you might have an anaolog or digital trunked system. You can still listen to an analog trunked system on a basic scanner if you program all the channels in. It will just be a tad more confusing to follow a conversation every now and then. But digitally trunked systems require a digital trunking scanner, which can get pricey. I know, in Louisiana, they have constructed a new satewide digitally trunked system. But in practice, I believe most (if not all) of the traffic is still analog...

Just a thought...
 
Just wondering, why fill up water jugs now? I mean there's usually a fair amount of warning that a hurricane is coming. Do they shut off the water a few days before it hits?
 
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