Stay Safe, Be Prepared! (Tips for the Not-Panicked)

[Cross-posted. Edited for less-Lowell-centricness.]

I am getting a lot of Irene in my Facebook feed, and some of it is complaints that the media is overdoing it, or that “you’d think it was the end of the world” for all the warnings and coastal evacuations and such.

Sure, showing the probable storm track every 5 minutes (when nothing has changed) and sticking some poor schlub out on the Outer Banks of N.C. right in the middle of the thing is annoying…and while I agree, the media really loves this stuff, and reports on it incessantly days out from the storm itself, thinking it sells newspapers/TV ads/radio spots, I think we should take a moment to actually take some of this seriously.

You can do some simple things today and tomorrow (withOUT running out to the packed supermarket in a panic) to make sure everyone stays safe. (MEMA also has a web page full of tips.)

The two things that are the most damaging for us inland folks in such storms is flooding from steady torrential rain, and wind damage.

The Rain Not In Spain

If you live in a flood prone area of the city (and not necessarily along the river) or have wet basement problems in strong prolonged rainstorms, just make sure that if you have sump pumps, you have backup electricity or some way to keep pumping in case the power goes out. Hopefully you’ve already taken care of this. I plan to even keep checking our not-prone-to-wetness basement every hour or so just in case (with a wet vac in hand I hope).

Obviously, do not drive through ANY street that even looks shallowly flooded. If you had passed by the sinkhole I did on Andover St [in Lowell] a month back, you would not be stupid enough to assume there’s road under that water.

Yes, a Mighty Wind is Blowing

On wind damage…you might want to take a look at any trees on yours or your neighbor’s property. Dead or dying branches will not even take a hurricane wind to fall off, but in a hurricane/tropical storm (especially if Lowell is on the eastern side of the storm where the wind is greatest) it can not only drop off the tree but be sent sideways quite a distance and take out a window or your car windshield (one “normal” wind storm sent a hefty branch through my back car window at our last apartment). I guess I’d say, don’t park under any old trees, either! Just askin’ for it then. 😉

Empty your yard of anything that itself can become a projectile. Lawn chairs, smaller flower pots, etc. I even plan on taking apart the yard swing we have so it doesn’t become a metal heap of garbage in the storm. This protects us all – something in your neighbor’s yard could become a hazard to your house too.

Water, Water, Everywhere…

The obvious things you don’t need me to tell you about…flashlights and batteries, etc. But here’s some that are not obvious: make sure you have those gallons of water everyone mentions. I spoke at length today with a guy whose job it is to clean up after disasters. He says that even if your water is on after the storm (which it likely will be, even if you have no power, say, in Lowell) to be careful drinking water during and a little while after it’s done. [This is particularly true if you get your water from a river like we do – we get ours from the Merrimack.]

So especially for cities that have river-water…what happens when we get inches of water at a time in a short period? Treatment plants might well not have a chance to treat ALL the outgoing water from the storm drains. (Even in the cases where there’s full sewer-storm separation, which not all cities/towns have.) Keep in mind if it gets dumped upstream, it ends up in YOUR pipes (in the case of city-delivered river water). So keeping a few gallons of drinking water around is important.

And even more important is sticking with the use of that stored drinking water instead of the tap even if you don’t lose power and everything looks hunky-dory on Sunday and Monday. Chances are the City of Lowell will keep our water safe during the storm, but I prefer not to risk it, personally. I am against, however, buying bottle water. Talk about an expense no one needs! Just fill existing pitchers and jugs you already have with water (filtered if you have a filter on your fridge or faucet, if you can be patient enough to do it). Keep some in the bathroom for brushing your teeth. Freeze some extra ice so if the power goes out you can use it with a cooler or just leave it in the freezer to keep it cold. (If you freeze big blocks of ice they take even longer to melt!)

The Comforts of Home

Speaking of fridges, here’s a good one I heard. Turn your fridge up [Note: and by up I mean turn the temp DOWN] 12 hours ahead. Yeah it’s wasting electricity…which I hate…but if the power goes out, your fridge will start out that much colder and so take a lot longer to warm up enough to spoil your food. If the power does go out, don’t open the fridge/freezer if you can help it.

Make sure you have food you can prepare if the microwave doesn’t work for a while. 😉 Stupid, I know, but you don’t realize how much you use the damn thing til you don’t have it!

If you have an electric stove, see about having an alternative or eat cold foods. I’m not sure if it’s recommended to use a propane grill/mini hibachi indoors, to be honest. Just don’t do it.

I think I will plan on putting together a cooler of the things I’m likely to want to eat in the event of an outage (cold cuts, etc) so that if we lose power, I can avoid opening the fridge at all. Using some big blocks of ice in the cooler that I plan to make today in the freezer can help with that.

Finally, a Facebook friend came up with an amazing tip – do as much laundry ahead of the storm as you can! If you lose power and/or are worried about your water supply (especially if you have infants), at least you’ll have enough clean clothes to last through it.

Charge ALL your devices – phones, laptops, tablets, whatever – ahead of time, so they are full. That way if the power goes out you can still have some amusement and/or a way to contact emergency services or family to check in.

I recommend keeping all computers and flat screen TVs on surge protectors – especially flatscreen TVs. Turns out they are more sensitive than even your PC or laptop to electrical surges. This is a general recommendation, not just for this major storm. We nearly lost our TV due to a power surge (luckily it was still under warranty).

Move Over, Rover

For pets – make sure you have all their items for a few days (food, water, etc). You might not be able to just run out and get more. Keep even “outdoor cats” indoors starting pretty early ahead of the storm – you don’t want your wandering monster to not arrive back on your doorstep before the winds start howling. Obviously have enough kitty litter.

For dogs, I admit I was worried about that one and requested advice on FB. One response I got: that a neighbor of a friend used a separate litter box, lined it with newspaper and cheap ‘grass’ mat cut down to fit the litter box. I certainly do not want to encourage my dog to “go” indoors but I have seen those special grass mats at PetSmart and I think it’d be a good idea to have one of these. I plan (if I do this) to put it in a separate room in the back of the house near the door so the dog does NOT get the idea that it’s OK to pee in the house. Apparently these fake pet grass mats do attract them to “go” just there.

What tips will you be implementing and what have I missed?