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Don't know if any of your think this is where you should post this but here goes.
All you folks in Carolina, Maryland, Jersey and into New York be careful out there as that Hurricane heads in at you.
Having been though a Cat 1 (Alica), Cat 2 (Ike) and helping my parents who live just down the road clean up after a CAT 4 (Rita) wanted to pass a few hard learned lessons. Rita removed every single leaf off every tree in my home town and destroyed almost every roof. Pine Trees that were well over a 100 years old crashed down. If you have a tree by your house and plan to stay, stay away from that part of the house. Go to the center of the house with the most door frames that is away from that tree. If your roof is over five years old and the wind hits 80 for any period of time you will most likely loose shingles. Stay inside and limit the damage as best you can if you stay. If you find the water rising go up, most people who die in hurricanes drown. Go up not out if the water starts rising. Climb in the attic if you have too. IF the water is rising before you decide to leave, it's too late ride it out. Ike flooded Orange Texas and they are 40 miles from the Gulf. The surge came up the river and flooded a town that had never had one since the 1840's.
Assume your power will be out at least 5 to 10 days if you live near the cost or in an area with lots of trees. After Alica the lights were out for 8 days, after Ike 16 days, my parents were without power for 18 days after Rita. You can put dry ice in the freezer section of your fridge now and keep your contents for three of four days if you leave the door shut. You can also freeze water in milk containers and leave them in the freezer. The greater the mass of ice you have in there, the longer it will last. There were a lot of good cookouts around here after Rita and Ike before it all went bad.
If you have a generator (and this was a painful lesson) it will take 5 Gallons of gas every 12 hours to run a 5500 watt generator. You can run it ever couple of hours to keep the fridge contents safe. If you live near the coast, gas is going to be hard to get for a few days. I beat off my 86 245's bung nut and drained her tank because two days after Ike, there was not a single gas station open for at least 50 miles. I live just outside Houston in a city of 145K, this is not the boondocks. I have 50 gallons of stabilized gas out in the garage that was purchased every couple of weeks in late spring and early summer. It will go into the cars in October if it goes unused. I have a little AC unit that will cool one room, out in the garage. Being able to sleep in a cool room is truly priceless.
Water will be cleaned out down at the stores, go to a home center and buy a couple of 5 gallon water coolers. You fill it up and leave it on the kitchen counter and you will have plenty of water. Fill your bathtub full of water. If you loose water pressure, you can flush your toilet by pouring a half gallon of water into the bowl quickly. You can boil water for five minutes or use chorine bleach to sanitize water the instructions are on a bottle of Clorox (or they used to be).
Buy some large plastic tarps and some 2 x 4's. If you have roof damage, you can nail the tarp over the damaged area and prevent further damage until the insurance company can get to you. Use the 2x4s on the edges to keep wind from being able to get under the plastic. Warp the ends of the tarp completely around the 2 x 4 before you screw it to the roof deck. At the peak of the roof, but the 2x4 over on the other side of the roof peak. It may be several months before your roof gets replaced. It took over a year after Ike before the blue roofs went away.
Get your propane bottle filled up, being able to have a hot meal is priceless a couple of days into being without power. A couple of bags of charcoal and lighter fluid if that is how you roll. If you have a gas stove matches will light the burners. If you have a gas water heater you will have hot water. If you have an electric one, you will be taking cold showers until the lights come on.
A working chainsaw, a container of chain oil and a couple of gallons of mixed gas will be priceless. We formed a chainsaw gang and worked our way down the street. Getting that out of the way will open the streets and speed up the power crews jobs. We did not accept payment but did accept help with moving debris at other folks houses.
If you do have a generator make large containers of ice in the freezer. That is priceless to someone who has an ice chest and no ice. We supplied four neighbors ice until the Fema Centers were open.
And this is not political I hope, If you are waiting for FEMA, you are in for a very long wait. Your Homeowners Insurance will be there in force way before those folks get their act together. The Mayor of Houston had a couple of hissy fits over how that outfit preformed after IKE. You are own your own for at least 72 hours.
Lots of Batteries are not over rated. LED lights are priceless, they use little power and give out lots of light. A battery powered radio may be your entertainment for a couple of days. D for the lanterns, C for the radio, and AA for the LED lights. I did have cable and high speed internet after Ike, would have traded it for lights.
Plenty of Diapers, wipes, formula, and baby food for the young ones. Food and a carrier for the pets.
Take your camera and take a picture of everything. Take an manuals, receipts, insurance contact info, and all of your pictures you have with you. You will have to prove you had it to get paid for it if you loose it. The more info you have, the faster it will go. You can replace it all if you need to.
Stay safe and a good run beats a bad stand if you live within 40 to 50 miles of the coast.
We need all you folks back here on the BB as fast a possible.
Please be careful and my prayers are with you all.
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