Today is the first day of hurricane season and I’ve just about finished up my preparations. This year I put together supplies for both options: a) pack and evac or b) stay and pray.
Ok, so I don’t pray. But I freak out pretty well.
The hurricane season forecast was just released and the verdict is “Worst season ever!” This cracks me up. They say that EVERY year. Nothing sells news like panic. You never hear them say “Sheesh! This year is gonna be weak!” My take is, prep for the worst, and hope for the best. That way, all of these predictions are irrelevant. You just go about your life and when a major storm becomes an actual threat, then you can make up your mind – because you prepared beforehand.
That said, I don’t normally prep quite this much for hurricane season, but now that I have two toddlers I thought a more specific plan was necessary. This week I bought the rest of my supplies and wrote up lists for both options. This way I can decide whether to stay or go based on the magnitude of the storm rather than if I have the supplies or not. The lists simply tell me what items to gather and what things to do so I don’t have to stress about it when a storm is approaching the Gulf of Mexico (which will likely shove a big wall of crude oil into the state too, but that’s another story).
Initially when I made the lists I laughed out loud. I thought leaving would be so much more complicated, you know, imagine the horror – two (agitated, bored, tired) babies on the highway for 20 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic, gas stations empty, food scarce, hotels booked across the entire south, your most precious few belongings stuffed in the trunk. Yes, this scenario I would like to avoid at all costs – until I looked a the ‘stay’ list.
The list for riding out the storm at home was far longer and more complex. Even for a minor hurricane in this city you can guarantee the power will be out; definitely hours, likely days, possibly weeks. This becomes a challenge with little kids. When we rode out Hurricane Gustav back in 2008 we had one six month-old baby. But babies that young don’t move around much so I just stocked up on Gerber and she sat on the floor and played in one spot all day. But now I have two toddlers. And they MOVE. A lot. I’m not sure how they’ll react to very scary weather followed by extreme heat, not being able to play outside (we’ll have a generator in the yard), and not being able to leave the house for days (we’ll be under curfew). And all this will take place in an unpredictably violent city where I can’t tell if my neighbors will knock on the door to ask how I’m doing or to kill me for my supplies. Suddenly the road trip from hell is not looking so bad.
Of course none of this matters right now. I’ve prepped, I can relax. And so the waiting game begins. From now until October we’ll wonder if our number is up again (especially in Aug/Sept when New Orleans traditionally gets hit).
In spite of the brutal heat here, summer can actually be nice if you know what you’re doing. The tourists are mostly gone so we have the place to ourselves for a change, and we can revel in things like cold watermelon and even colder beer, an overabundance of creole tomatoes in the garden, boating in the lakes and bayous, crab season, afternoon thunderstorms, mint juleps, squishing cockroaches with our flip flops (ok, I derailed a bit), and basically one long BBQ and swimming pool party until Labor Day the first “cold front” brings the frigid 70 degree temps sometime in October. These autumn fronts are usually a good sign that the Gulf Coast doesn’t have to worry about hurricanes anymore. Usually.
Anyway, I’m off to stash my Evac Pack and the rest of the supplies into the closet, and then I’ll be making some Strawberries Romanoff!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Power goes out, no A/C, no TV, no cell phones, no Internet… why would anyone want to go through that? In contrast, contra flow really isn’t that bad. See my handy Evacuation Decision Matrix I posted a while back: http://timsnamelessblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/evacuation-is-wise-choice.html
What I tell people: hope for the best, prepare for the worst, have another beer.
Peace,
Tim
Haha. See, I don’t think being without ac/tv/internet/power are *bad* things. Occasionally I like to experience my city in complete silence without traffic and energy lines buzzing. And then there’s always books to read and neighbors to talk to.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the “smug satisfaction” (as that decision chart says) of staying behind and not getting hit. It’s more like I get annoyed with excess safety rules and precautions. Godforbid we civilians might experience a bit of adversity. As for the taxpayer bill – hello six, meet half dozen. I don’t think me staying behind costs the gov’t much more/less than having resources all over the highways to get me out of here. But I’d be interested in seeing a study on that.
I’ve only evacuated for one storm in my life, and that was Katrina. I think I make pretty good decisions :-)
YOU staying in the city w/ power out, etc. is great…you staying with BABIES is a whole other experience…children and the lack of possible ammenities is what was usually the deciding factor for me…when Lily blew threw a few years ago she sent water WAY too close to my front door, and I had little ones…the prospect of dealing with kids, no power, muddy carpet, and god knows what other critters was reason enough to give the national guard a little buzz asking for a rescue…the water was deep enough that we had to trudge to the humvee, it couldn’t come to us…anyway, that was the last time that ever happened again…as irritating (and usually expensive) as evac always was to me, the alternative was just a little less desirable! :)