...I hope it all goes a long way to keep damage to a minimum. I just spent the last couple of hours moving things out of our yard and off of our patios into the shed and garage. Anything that I figured was light enough to fly away and then some was stowed away securely. I was thinking of boarding up the windows but plywood was short at Home Depot yesterday. So while the windows are not covered over, at least I have gotten rid of any potential missiles that were on my property. I cannot say the same for my neighbors. One has a patio table and chair set out (all wood but probably light enough to take off if the winds hit 100mph) and other have left small flower pots and yard ornaments outside. I have a few things still out but I will take them in before too long, raining ow heavily and I am hoping for a break in the rain before doing that.
As far as supplies go, we have at least enough food to last a couple of weeks - all not requiring refrigeration if the power goes out. I think we have enough dog food too, but if not then they can eat spam! I have flashlights with what I hope are fresh batteries. I say I hope because I am short of D cell batteries and there were none on the shelves yesterday. I also have smaller lights that require triple A and double A and have plenty of batteries for them. Truth be told, if the electrical power fails, I made need all my D cells to run my two battery operated air pumps to aerate my fish tanks. I also have a fair supply of candles if we need them. One thing we do not have right now is a lot of spare water. I kind of doubt that water service will be cut but I am going out anyway, later this afternoon, to see if I can get a couple cases of water. I had a couple of cases set aside, but as to who drank them, only the Shadow knows. It is always a good idea to go over a checklist of survival items before a storm or other SHTF situation just to make sure you are prepared for just about anything.
We have most of what we need to have a pretty good weekend in Las Vegas or just sheltered in our home though the weekend in Vegas with the supplies mentioned in the video sounds like more fun!
I guess my biggest storm damage concern, besides maybe the roof blowing of of our house or glass flying in from windows after being slammed into by a neighbors patio table or flower pot, has to be that I am worried the basement will flood. We do not have flood insurance, nor a pump to get out the water. Lots of stuff in the basement. They have said we can expect anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of rain. Six inches we may be able to weather okay but more than that and I am pretty sure we will get flooded what with the ground already being somewhat saturated from recent rains. If it starts to get wet downstairs, I will be very busy moving things to higher and drier parts of the house.
Luckily someone, probably my wife, found the only one of our four of our larger tortoises that was still outside in the yard yesterday (the two babies are always in a tank). I had found the other three and got them inside on Thursday night. I figure they probably would have survived the winds, had they been left outside, by burrowing into the ground. The thing is I was none to sure they would survive the storm if my yard flooded. So for now, they are all safe and sound in their tank in the basement.
Thankfully I have heard the hurricane has weakened from a category 2 to a category 1. Still though, sustained winds of 85mph, that it has been packing are just about enough to assure I will be hunkered down with my family, the dogs, the tortoises and all the other critters inside our house tomorrow. Hunkering down is one way to get through the worst of situations so as to see the sun come up another day, that is so long as you have a plan. We, or at least I, do have a plan so, I am pretty sure we will come out of it okay for the most part and that we'll meet again some sunny day!
All the best,
Glenn B
