Hurricane Dorian Heads for the East Coast

Powerful Hurricane Dorian's slow pace hampers Bahamas rescue efforts; at least 5 dead

Hurricane Dorian just ripped through Bahamas and is heading to Florida. It seems that it will stay a bit east and not touch land but still be careful.
I hope everyone there is prepared.
Hurry those last minute preps and hold tight folks.
Stay safe and good luck!
-FerFAL
Check out my new Book “Street Survival Skills” . Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Hurricane AAR: Best Phone and Diesel advantages

Our area just came through a major hurricane. It turned out, the model of phone you have is not that important. Service provider is extremely important. In the US, we still have both GSM and CDMA networks.

For whatever reason, post-storm the GSM providers are mostly working, and the CDMA providers are crap. I understand the network is different in Europe, so that probably doesn’t apply to you. Just putting it out there.

Also, I’d like to confirm your earlier observation/conjecture that in a crisis, diesel vehicles are better. 24 hours before the storm, all area gas stations were out of regular gas. But some of them still had diesel.

-Cord



Hello Cord, thanks for your reply.
Great point, thanks for bringing it up. There’s no point in having the best phone if your provider isn’t reliable. It is crucial to check and hire with the most reputable, most reliable service provider. It’s a good idea to ask around in your local area, wherever it is that you are, so as to get advice regarding this.

Good point on diesel too. Indeed, when there’s no gas, usually you can still find diesel. Depending on the diesel vehicle you can even get a bit creative as of what you feed it, especially older diesel vehicles. Diesel also stores far better, it is less dangerous and more stable for long term storage. Also, diesel gives you more torque, sometimes significantly more than their gas counterparts. I was caught going uphill during some hard rain on the side of a hill some time ago. Water was flowing down, the street turning into a downhill river. The diesel Honda CRV truck along. Water would splash over the hood and for a minute I thought I was in serious trouble but the CR-V got me home.

A few days later I found the car of a neighbour that wasn’t as lucky, pic of his car can be seen above.

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Hurricane Florence: Death Toll Rises to 5

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/hurricane-florence-category-1-path-tracking-latest-weather-forecast-north-carolina-2018-09-14-live/

Florence is now a tropical storm, but still very much lethal.
At least five have been killed already.

In Lenoir County, a man was electrocuted while plugging a generator.
A mother and an infant were killed when a tree fell onto their home in Wilmington on Friday.
A 78-year-old male was electrocuted at a residence Friday morning when he attempted to connect two extension cords outside in the rain.

The body of a 77 year old man was also found, probably blown down by the wind as he checked on his hunting dogs.
People, stay safe.

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Preparing For Hurricane Florence

Hurricane Florence continues its path toward the East Coast.
It is expected to make landfall between northern South Carolina and North Carolina’s Outer Banks as a Category 4 on Thursday.

Despite 2017 hurricane season, US lacks 'culture of preparedness,' says FEMA administrator

*Have your kit ready, both for sheltering in place or evacuating if needed.

*Have a plan. Where are you going, route and enough fuel to get there already stored.

*Listen to the news to stay informed. Keep your radio nearby.

*Use your own good judgement but if told to evacuate do so, nothing is worth risking your life and your family’s.

*Board up, make sure any potential flying objects is removed or secured. Have enough food, water and means of cooking.

*Remember to cut off both water and gas before leaving if you evacuate.

*Careful with that generator. Make sure it has proper ventilation, never indoors.

*If you are bugging in, then do so! Going for a walk to check things out is a terrible idea, flying missiles are one of the most common causes of death and most objects can be deadly with enough velocity with such fast winds.

Take care and good luck!

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

After Action Report from Australia: 17 Lessons from Cyclone Marcus

Hi Ferfal,

On Saturday March 17th the city of Darwin in Australia has been hit by a Category 2 Tropical Cyclone, on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale, named Marcus.

The whole population was aware of it's coming but we were all expecting a Category 1. Only on the Friday afternoon/evening were we aware that it might develop into a Category 2 which it did.

Their were extensive infrastructure damages that are still being evaluated but fortunately no casualties. This was the strongest cyclone in Darwin in over 30 years.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/tc-marcus-rips-up-darwin/image-gallery/45cd87f29443d73844a4d54e3f75e275

Here are, in no specific order, the facts/lessons that I have learned from this event:

 - Most neighborhoods lost power and water. My neighborhood was spared solely because all the power lines are underground.

- Some areas will see their power restored 4-5 days after the events. The main city and closest neighborhoods had their power restored within 48 hours.

- The areas that still had running water were told to boil it for drinking purposes. Water boiled in a saucepan will have a strong metallic. I chose to keep drinking boiled tap water instead of using bottled water that I had stocked keeping it in case we were to stop having running water

- Cash is king. Plastic is a betting game. Most businesses closed down the day of the cyclone. Some convenience stores reopened if they had electricity some could take credit card some wouldn't. A bit of cash ($100-$200) will help

- Avoid driving at night. Street lights were mostly gone making for poor visibility especially of older less well-maintained vehicles (no position lights). Also, traffic lights were all out of order making intersections quite dangerous. Fortunately, local drivers were understanding of the situation stopping to let other cars cross intersections.

- Walking at night is even more dangerous than driving. If you must walk at night wear reflective clothing or stick some reflective tape on the back of your clothes or backpack to be visible to drivers

- If you drive around, a lot of streets and roads will be blocked by fallen trees heavily restricting 

traffic and leading you to go through a maze of unknown areas. the GPS on you phone will be your best friend.

- Power banks were a great commodity to have in those situations as we relied on smartphones especially Facebook Messenger to communicate and data usage (Wi-Fi and especially 3G/4G) can deplete your batteries very quickly

- No casualties fortunately as most people stayed indoors during the duration of the event. Knowing 1st aid will nevertheless be useful in case a loved one or a neighbor were to be injured. Enroll in a 1st aid course or better yet volunteer as an EMT if you can. I did it for 3 years and I believe practicing skills for this amount of time allows for you to retain them far longer than if you were to learn them in a two-day course and never use them. On top of that you would help your local community

- Fill in your car's gas tank before the event. After the event when power is down you won't be able to fill it up for a while

- A lot of people had drinking water stored up at home but absolutely no one I met have made any provision for flushing water in their toilet. You can shower at some neighbor or at a friend’s place or, worst comes to worst, go to the swimming pool (not as effective but better than nothing) but it is impractical to have to use somebody else's toilet. Most people were shocked in realizing this oversight.

- Stores were still fully stocked

- No looting events, whether houses or businesses

- As soon as possible neighborhoods have organised themselves to clean-up the streets wherever it was possible with simple equipment (lots of chainsaw usage) as long as it wasn't putting anyone in danger (think downed power lines) nor preventing insurance payments (the clean would make the proof of damages disappear)

- Going to the gym and being as fit and strong as possible helps a lot during cleaning efforts (I am lucky enough to be able to train up to 12 hours a week, 6 in Krav-Maga and 6 in CrossFit)

- Checking on your neighbor's well-being is a good idea, as long as you are not intruding

- Being patient, polite and smiling helps a lot to deal with people's frustration and bad mood

I hope this might help people finding themselves in the same predicament in the future

 Regards

 Kevin

Back to the Dark Ages: 3 Months later half of Puerto Rico still without Power

 
Hurricane Maria sent Puerto Rico back to the Dark Ages and three months later half of Puerto Rico is still without power and struggling badly. What’s it like to live without power, how people cope and what challenges they face.

Like our previous post, the linked presentation below is also worth the time.
Puerto Rico, back to the dark ages.
Nothing like hands on accounts of actual events to understand for real what SHTF is like.
Notice that in general the areas that struggle the most are the more isolated ones and the ones further away from the main power grid. It is logical that these would be the ones where it is harder to re-establish power for. This contradicts the common “preper” advice of living away from main urban areas.

In the real world there’s no easy, black and white answers. The reality of such events is far more complex, what can be a benefit in some aspects can be a big handicap in other areas.
The trick is to know how to balance and prepare accordingly for whatever compromises you decide to make.

Have a great weekend folks!

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Lessons learned from the Puerto Rico Disaster: Cash and knowing when to Bug Out

Dear FERFAL: Have you keeping up with the Puerto Rico disaster?.
Lesson learned:
1) Bug out
2) Have a lot of liquid assets available (Cash)
3) Generator, runs out of fuel, then you have hundreds of thousands of individuals with the same problem!
4) You can’t have enough food or water.
5) You may think that you’re prepared, but nearly a meter (39 inches, for my fellow Americans)of rain change all that. Look at number one.
6) In one evening your back in the early 1900.
7) Save your money for bugging out.
8) Just bug out!.
I’ll keep you posted.
-Maria
..
Hello Maria, thanks for those points.
Not surprised to see you mention and insist on the importance of cash and bugging out to safety.
These are essentially the two biggest points during these worst case scenarios. Supplies are important, food, WATER, generator, fuel, but when that water keeps raising and destroys everything in its path you just understand your life may be the next thing you lose.

So when it comes down to it, it’s a)Bug out! And save your life and the life of your loved ones.  b) Have the cash to get back on your feet. That money is all too important for rebuilding, getting things fixed and pay for those million things you just couldn’t prepare for.

For getting ready to bug out and evacuate when these disasters hit, when you have hours, minutes or just seconds to escape, check out my book “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying Put is not an Option”. Floods, fires and a variety of disasters affect people that believe they have prepared, but in fact they only prepared for what they HOPED they would be facing one day rather than true disasters.
Since we’re talking cash. How important was cash in Puerto Rico? Well, it was so important that extra cash had to be rushed to meet the surge in demand. "Demand for cash is extraordinarily high right now, and will evolve as depository institutions regain power, armored car services are able to reach branches, and ATMs are once again active," said the spokeswoman of the New York branch of the U.S. central bank.
Cash demand soars in Puerto Rico after hurricane hit ATMs, card systems
FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Reply: 7 Things I learned from Hurricane Erma

Fernando
I have been reading your blog for about 3 years now and I thank you very much for your efforts.
I live have lived in Miami and Fort Lauderdale Florida my entire life and I have a lot of family in the Tampa area that have been there for at least 20 years.
There are 2 things that are simply wrong in the post that I wanted to comment on, but my comment doesn't display, so I thought I would email them to you.
1) There hasn't been an earthquake in the Tampa/Pinellas County, FL area since 1931 and likely never. I think the 1931 number I find when I search on the internet is simply when they started writing this stuff down for Florida. We simply don't get earthquakes in Florida. So that part of the post is wrong.
2) This is the more serious point that I hope you relay on your blog. The myth of cracking windows open during a hurricane/tornado is dead wrong. This myth has been debunked and is simply dangerous. You can find the research that Texas Tech did in 1977 easily on the internet about this myth.
The second item is the only reason I am writing you. I just don't want people thinking that this is something you should do in a hurricane as the poster is dead wrong on it and it could result in others doing it in the future.
Have a great day
Regards
Chet
....
Hello Chet, thanks for your email. Mark had some great points and I really do apreciate it. That piece of advice did sound a bit odd. For what its worth, Snopes also says its a flase myth.  http://www.snopes.com/science/hurricane.asp
Still, I do appreacite everyone imput, especially those hard earned lessons and after action reports.
Take care everyone and thanks!
ferFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

7 Things I learned from Hurricane Erma

Dear Fernando,

I live in a condo on the Pinellas County peninsula, west from Tampa across the bay. I have endured three tropical storms and an earth quake since moving here 11 years ago. This was the first storm I had been preparing for since reading your blog. There is no replacement for actual storm conditions to test preparedness so here is what I learned.

1. Do NOT believe the Weather Channel

    They ALWAYS exaggerate their predictions to sow fear and terror. Knowing that once the hurricane hit dry land its force would diminish, so I rode the storm out at my condo unit with no fear and knowing I was prepared. So by the time it hit Tampa it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. Still fierce and dangerous but no 100 mph winds and no storm surge to flood us. Note; I live 50 ft. above sea level and am not in a flood zone.

Which leads me to the following…

2. Do NOT buy the Crane CC Solar Observer for your emergency radio

    They must have a great copy writer because they sound like the be all end all of portable emergency weather radios. I bought this used for the NOAA Weather broadcasts and solar power and crank power extras and found it almost totally useless! 7 separate channels to find a local broadcast of current NOAA weather info and all I could get was an indiscernible murmur! The AM/FM radio was fair, the solar cells useless in cloud cover and I used the flash light mostly to conserve my iPhone battery as its light was far brighter. I need to do further research on what would be useful in this situation when I’m toally out of power.
    As a side note, I got ALL my storm and weather info from a web site; VentuSky.com. I saw this on a friends cell phone and dialed it in immediately before the storm. It gave me a visual and number read-out by location of wind speed, storm track, temp, waves and just about anything else climate wise. This site really refutes Weather Channel in up-to-the-minute weather data and I use it almost daily. I saw and confirmed my understanding that the storm would die down as it got onto land and decided to stay put and not evacuate.

3. ALWAYS leave some windows open, even a crack, during a Hurricane or Tropical Storm

    This I learned from being an Insurance Adjuster in the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii in 1992. Many homes had roofs totally blown off into the neighboring yards due to keeping all the doors and windows shut. The storm is a low pressure weather phenomena and locking up a building tight creates a high pressure in the dwelling. The roof can’t hold the pressure and it pops off. I am on the bottom floor so I told my upstairs neighbors to kept their kitchen door window open a bit and one of the back bedrooms open a bit. Our building had no problems, but one of the other buildings had the roof blown off and onto the cars parked in front.

4. Just because you had power during the worst of the storm, don’t expect it to be on after

    I had power all through the storm and up until late the next morning Monday the 11th. I am assuming the power company had all the power turned off then to check all the lines before resuming power. Then we got power back in 24 hours but all the other units and surrounding homes and business didn’t get power back until Friday the 15th. I was told that since our building was on a main road that power came on to all the street lights, homes and business first before other areas.
    And it follows that …

5. … with power down, don’t drive at night unless you have to.

    With power down there were no street lights nor traffic signals. In other countries that is standard every-day life but here in the US when you can’t see anything due to pitch black accidents can occur. I had to slow down at intersections as many people ‘assumed’ it was natural to just go through, like they had a green light. The next morning I saw broken glass and plastic at almost every intersection, by then the police had put up temporary stop signs and had traffic officers directing traffic at main intersections.

6. Be smart where you park your car

    Tropical Storms can have 40-50 mph winds with gusts up to 80 mph. That can blow down trees, fences, telephone poles, street lights and communication antenna. I had my car in the condo parking and I somehow lost a head lamp cover! The lamp works fine but is now exposed to the elements. Other condo dwellers are snow birds that come for the Fall-Winter-Spring and leave for summer. They usually have cars wrapped in some canvas and wheels on boards (the summer heat can melt the asphalt and melt the tires and ruin the wheel). Most had the covers were blown off and one under a tree had branches knocking dents in them. The city parking structures were open during the storm and next time that happens is where I’ll keep my vehicle.

7. ALWAYS check your supplies and equipment well before the storm hits

    This goes to most of the above but here is what I did wrong and right.
    As my cell phone battery ran down I tried to charge it with a cigarette lighter charger. IT DIDN’T WORK! It had worked in other cars but Apple can be finicky when it comes to non-standard adaptors.
    My food and water were adequate for a storm like this but I will check if there is anything past its expiration date. I had quart containers of frozen distilled water in my fridge freezer and that kept my perishables quite fresh when the power went off. I would like the 3 months standard you have but with the small space I have getting 90 gallons of water stored will be a challenge.
    I found that the stores and gas stations closed up within 3-6 hours once the state authorities said to evacuate. So once the storm is headed your way you should have already stocked up if you are going to. And we had plenty of warning but I noticed the shelves of water and canned goods went fast a day before the store closed. I shrugged and got what dry food others missed as far as that goes.
    I found I also needed more flash lights. I used to have two small Cree flashes and because they were so small I tended to loose them unless I kept them in my EDC. My near useless radio had at least had some utility.
    Medical supplies, I had enough to get me through but I have a prescription to self catheter 3-4 times a day and if I don’t I can’t control my bladder. I have been slowly increasing my supply every month so that I have 4 weeks in back stock but my target now is   now 3 months. As for anti-bacterial I have one gallon of distilled vinegar and one quart of raw apple cider vinegar. That will kill most pathogens and for the rest I have lots of soap and that with hard scrubbing will handle anything else. I also found small tubes of antibiotic ointment that I carry around in my EDC that has been quite useful.
    The Tampa Bay area is in the sub-topics and one must be aware of that at all times. On top of my regular supplements and cell salts for heat exhaustion I always have some sort of Vitamin C with me for urinary infections . What with cathetering I find that no matter how careful I am cleaning myself before hand, I can sometimes get those urinary infection symptoms and I have found ANY vitamin C taken will clear up symptoms within 30 minutes.

I’m sure some other things will pop up as I get on with my life but I made out Ok and will be better prepared for whatever comes next.

 

Best,

Mark

Got gas? Shortages in Florida

With Hurricane Irma just around the corner( to hit Florida as early as Sunday morning), Gas is becoming harder to come by as prices go up. Meanwhile Florida’s Governor is warning. “We can’t save you”.

Plywood and bottled water are also in short supply and highly sought after.

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Hurricane Irma: Now a Category 5 and headed for Florida

While Texas is still dealing with the consequences of Hurricane Harvey, Irma is already on its way.

Hurricane Harvey: 12 Lessons from the Disaster in Texas

1) This is why we prepare. We prepare because it allows us to better overcome these challenges in life, some more unexpected than others. Sometimes being prepared means we deal better with less serious inconveniences and we end up looking like the “handy” guy in the group. Sometimes it’s a serious as it could possibly be. The difference between life and death.

2)Location, Location, Location. These last few days I kept hearing terrible stories of loss, of people that had lost everything, people that have lost their lives even. Some of them said this was the second time in 10 years that they had to start over. That right there is maybe the most valuable lesson. Areas that have flooded in the last 10 years, 50 years or 100 years are likely to flood again. Areas that have never flooded before but are in proximity of such areas are likely to get flooded next for the first time, simply because the growing urban footprint doesn’t leave enough absorbing surface to avoid flooding. True, these CAN indeed be prevented with responsible development and proper
infrastructure as the urban setting expands, instead of just thinking of building and flipping houses without caring what happens to them a couple years later. But that’s a topic for another discussion.


Know where you live. Know where you’re moving next. When I moved to Ireland, floods were one of the first things I looked into. It took some digging but I ended up finding maps of past floods going back over a hundred years. Guess who didn’t get flooded when it eventually happened a couple years later?

3) It’s not just the city and urban areas. The countryside gets flooded too. It gets flooded a LOT. You build your house in the middle of nowhere thinking it’s an ideal location an later on if you didn’t do your homework you realize your house is at the bottom of a lake. Be careful yet again with developers. A nice new subdivision can be built in an area that is likely to flood. Maybe that’s why it was cheap in the first place.

4) What killed people during Harvey? In 3^rd world countries the main causes of death would be the spread of diseases after the disaster itself, but in a developed country it’s often people making bad decisions. Getting caught inside the houses when the water raises. Above all, its people “bugging out” and getting their car carried by the current, rather than staying put and waiting to be rescued. This isn’t anything new. That’s why before Harvey hit I advised readers precisely about this.

5) People are good. We often focus on the worst mankind has to offer. I do that more than most, and I’ve seen this myself more than enough. But at the end of the day for every scumbag looter there’s two folks willing to give their neighbour a helping hand. There’s random strangers forming a human chain to pull someone out of the water, even risking their own well-being for that stranger.
Be smart about it and remember the saying about loose lips sinking ships, but be kind to your neighbours and the people around you. They will be the first responders when you need help the most, even if you’re not the kind of guy that likes being helped.

6) How many of these people never thought of leaving “because we already live in our bug out location”. How many people focused on “stuff” and “gear” rather than skills, flexibility and mobility? Putting all your eggs in one basked is just a bad idea. A flood, a fire, even a home invasion can leave your with nothing. Ask yourself this: What would I do, where would I go and how would I get back on my feet if my house burned down with everything in it? What would I do if a flood destroyed all my property, destroyed my homestead and my crops along with my gear? 80% of the people in the flooded areas in Texas did not have flood insurance. ( and before you say it, if a company isn’t even willing to insure you that should be the huge red flag that tells you to get the hell out of there!)

7) What if you can’t move at the moment and you know you’re in an area that is likely to be affected? Well, plan for that as well. How high is water likely to get? What if it’s double that next time? What kind of house are we talking about? Do you have a plan, a route, a place to go to when you have to evacuate? Do you have a camping trailer you can use? Do you have the gear you want to salvage ready to go? Do you have a boat in case you don’t make it out on time? Do you have personal flotation devices and helmets for the family? Is your EDC cellophane waterproof? It’s little details like these that make the difference between life and death when you’re hanging for dear life from a tree and all you have to call for help is your dead non-waterproof phone (yes, sometimes you do have a signal, or you can at least send text messages).


8) Got pets? Prepare for them as well. I heard over the news that people were abandoning them. Rescue teams specifically looking for pets were breaking into houses to rescue them. They were being left at shelters. Plan for your animal friends too. Recently we had our own little storm warning around here. It barely rained at all eventually but I did notice I was running low on dog food and would have had to improvise something in the middle of the storm if it had hit. A large extra bag “for emergencies only” is cheap insurance and handy for when caught without at inconvenient moments too.

9) You can’t drink flood water folks. Can’t use your well, your tap water or even your lake. Get a quality filter, but also get enough bottled water to make it through. I keep two weeks of bottled water. Not just a few gallons, but two weeks’ worth of what my family honestly consumes. Talk about cheap insurance, bottled water is maybe your cheapest, yet most vital prep when forced to do without.


10) Like in boxing, protect yourself at all times. We saw scenes of looting. Looters went around looking for places to pick. People defended their property. We saw that looters don’t like getting shot at (an universal fact of live, for all countries it seems) If you stand guard armed chances are they will go looking for easier targets, but expect them to be armed and ready to shoot as well. In this case a long arm provides extra firepower. This would be also the time to done your body armour and night vision. We saw people in boats helping the victims. Many of them would jump from the boat to the houses or vehicles dragged by the current rescuing folks. In that case you can’t go around with your rifle across your back bumping into everything so once again your handgun becomes your main gun. You rifle stays in the vehicle or boat, maybe the person driving the vehicle keeps an eye out with the long arm ready in case there’s trouble.

11) Remember the part about cash being king? After the storm many stores had “cash only” signs. As stores start opening again, you don’t want to be that guy without cash.

12) Besides having a plan and even if you’re not evacuating, supplies are essential in times like these. Again, the stuff we talk about here all the time. As mentioned before, water is a key supply people amazingly still overlook. But there’s also food supplies, means of cooking such food, disposable plates, cups and cutlery. Properly stored gas for your vehicles and generator. Batteries, lots of batteries and flashlights. Medical supplies, both prescription and first aid. All sorts of supplies disappeared in a matter of hours after the storm was announcement. Bleach, soap and cleaning supplies in general. This is important to avoid diseases after the water goes down.

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Getting ready for Hurricane Harvey

Hope everyone is sheltered-in-place already and prepared for Hurricane Harvey. You should already have plenty of stored water, food and other essential supplies.
Try to stay put, stay off the roads, make sure everything it locked and tied down to reduce the amount of flying debris out there.
Any updates you want to share with the rest of us leave your comments below.
Good luck everyone and stay safe!
FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Hurricane Matthew: Ready to Bug Out?

 Hurricane Matthew: Evacuations begin as deadly storm nears

If it’s necessary to do so, don’t wait until the last minute. Mandatory evacuations are already being ordered for residents of Merritt Island and other barrier islands. Residents were ordered to leave starting 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Lines at gas stations are already long, but they will be worse tomorrow. Hopefully you already have gas stored.

If you need to get any last minute preps, better do it now. Ready.govhas some good tips to follow.

Stay safe folks!

FerFAL

 

 Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Reply: Oklahoma Tornado

         

 

           Anonymous said...

I respectfully disagree with your recommendation of a biometric safe. I had one, I also had a laptop with fingerprint identification. As a technician, any injury to my fingertips (frequent) would leave me 'locked out'.
Imagine now, the fury of a tornado bearing down on you, and you possibly have just moved glass, wood, whatever, and you have a couple of minor scrapes on your fingertips. You are well and truly screwed at that point!
A battery operated safe with four number coding is far superior, in my book.
Thanks for your blog, it truly is a welcome read everyday. fantastic source of information. Well done! 
                                                 .......................
Anonymous said...
I was in the path of both tornadoes on Sunday and Monday. Fortunately all I sustained was some hail damage.

One thing that is particularly useful is to listen to the police channels on radioreference.com. I keep those bookmarked on my smartphone and home machine, so I
can keep tabs on what is going on.
At while you can get internet connectivity.

I bugged out on Monday when it looked like I was going to be right in the path of the tornado. I did grab my portable TV, but it turned out to be almost useless because the local TV stations I could receive were all focused on the damage in Moore. I needed to know what was going on with the storm. It also turned out I could not get internet access where I went to so I could not get listen to radioreference.com. That problem is now fixed, as I bought a scanner today and also a bug out bag that will have everything I need for a quick evacuation.

For me, the past to days have been a good lesson in being better prepared.
                                           ..............................

  Anonymous said...
I was in the area of the tornado and I'm a regular reader of your blog, so I had to comment. A friendly neighbor came to offer space in her shelter for me and my children (4 and 2). I had not been watching TV because my kids were napping. I got my kids up, threw together the diaper bag, edc bag, and bug out bag and went across the street to go underground. The tornado didn't quite reach my area, but I'm glad I sheltered. It was good practice.

My edc bag was valuable. It had phone numbers of all of my family, a comb to fix my kids' soaking hair, mints to bribe the kids, keys, knife, etc. I didn't have to spend minutes looking for all my pocket stuff. My bug out bag, on the other hand, needs work. It was so heavy, and soaking wet, I thought my elderly neighbor was going to hurt himself as I handed it down the ladder. In the future, I will break it into two bags, with the heavier stuff like food spread out. Also, I'll work to make it more waterproof. I suspect that many disasters come with rain. Hopefully, the small lessons I learned are valuable.
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Thanks folks for sharing your experiences!
FerFAL

Oklahoma Tornado

This is why we do what we do people. This is why we prepare.

Unfortunately there’s only so much you can do, and while preparing does save lives nothing is 100% guaranteed. While some students took shelter in a nearby church, at least seven children died at Plaza Towers Elementary School. Given the short warning, sheltering in place was the only option they had left.

Check the photos to see the level of destruction in the before and after images.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328000/Oklahoma-tornado-2013-7-children-drowned-Plaza-Towers-Elementary-school-Moore.html
 

 

The tornado hit fast and 15 minutes is barely enough to find shelter or evacuate to a safe distance. Some people had underground storm shelters and that saved their lives. Others moved a few miles away from the path of the tornado.  The general recommendation is to find an underground shelter or cellar, or move to the interior rooms at the lowest level of the building away from doors and windows. Having said that, the tornado completely leveled entire blocks of houses and no person staying inside would have survive using the wood frame structures alone for shelter. With an EF-5 tornado ripping everything around you apart, if you have a shelter you survive, if you don’t you die. It’s that simple.

In tornado prone areas it is crucial to prepare accordingly. Its only because the people in the area are experienced when it comes to tornadoes that there weren’t even more deaths.

Some thoughts that come to mind:

*Have a shelter or identify the nearest one to you. 

*Have a NOAA weather emergency radio so as to receive warning and receive updates on the situation, path of the tornado, etc. 

*Have a Bug Out Bag ready to go, and keep your passports, birth certificates, titles, emergency cash and other important documents all together in a small travel bag, satchel or fanny pact, something compact that you’ll probably want to leave in a safe. If there’s only one thing you can grab before leaving this will probably be it. Why not keep it together with your BOB? Maybe you don’t have time, maybe you are injured or are carrying a kid and cant deal with a bigger bag. Again folks, 15 minutes to escape is hardly enough time.

*You want a safe which you can access fast under stress. A biometric (fingerprint) safe would be a good idea. Mounting them on the floor means there’s more of a chance for it to remain there even if the house is completely destroyed. Floor safes are more secure and easier to conceal anyway.

*Its not a bad idea to add the GPS waypoint of your house. Rescue personnel both in Oklahoma and the tsunami in Chile and Japan have the exact same thing to say: There’s no streets, no landmarks or buildings anymore, so its very hard to tell where a house used to stand. This isn’t just about finding your floor safe in case you didn’t have enough time to grab it before evacuating, but also about finding people that may be buried in a shelter under the debris. 

*If possible, work and live as close as possible from your kid’s school so as to get to them fast during an emergency. I can get to my kids school in ten minutes, probably five if I speed a little. While you can’t plan for everything, being able to get to them fast during an emergency sure helps.

FerFAL