For those of you who just went through the storm in the North East and and going throught he aftermath right now.

Before I go into what I am hearing from my friends. For those who were there. What was your experience? What went right? What went wrong? What would you do differently? Lastly what do you wish you had that you didn't?

I'm looking to do an after action review. I have more than a few friends that live and work there. So I am getting a perspect from families and first responders across the area.

It looks like my friends adequately prepared and with some luck made it through everything ok. Some of their families were not so lucky and lost homes and possessions.

With a basic supply of food, water, camping supplies and some wood everyone is doing pretty well, all things considered. The one thing I am seeing popping up is the lack of fuel. A few of my friends who are first responders have used up their personal supply going to and from work and the fuel stations that have fuel are swamped with wait times over 2 hours and they are being limited to 10 gallons at a time.

So what are your observations and thought?

The storm passed us by without a problem. I'm incredibly thankful for that and hope the people who did not fare as well will be back on their feet soon.

Living in a big city I don't have a car. However I can see a couple of problems with stocking fuel.

First it can go really wrong in a natural disaster if your containers leak and there is a spark or fire.

Second, gasoline at least has a pretty short shelf life all things considered, so you would need to make sure to use and replenish your stock over time.

Its not an easy problem to solve unless you have so much land that you can place your emergency fuel supply at a good distance from your home and possibly underground with a manual pump for retrieval. It definitely has to be part of your routine to cycle through it over time.

If you have a garage, get a small 50-125cc moped/scooter, those things will get 100mpg+ and get you to work more easily than your car if roads are full of debris, etc. so that 10 gallon allowance from the pump should last you a long time unless you have so far to commute that 30mph won't cut it. In which case you should probably consider camping out by work until everything is ok again.

From my personal experience, I wish we had stocked up on non-perishables a little better just in case. Another thing I thought of too late was a roll of heavy duty plastic sheet to cover blown out windows and items near them to protect from water/wind damage as well as more ducktape (can you ever have enough?)

Overall, I was in pretty good shape. Food, water, lights, entertainment for kids were all good. Did need a few more batteries and one of my lamps was on the way out. Also found out I was 6 feet shorter on extension cord than I thought! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" /> Did need oil for the generator too, although I wasn't at a critical point.

I thought it was funny I had ordered a bunch of freeze dreid food that had a UPS shipping point via...New Jersey! As I tracked it I saw it got stuck on the Jersey shore! yeeesh! Our survival food got stuck in a disaster! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/loopy.gif" alt="" />

My big weak link was communication. I don't like cell phones and wife got me one like 6 months ago..I leave it uncharged, w/out money and lost the recharger for like two months. With the storm coming and my better half going to Cali, I recharged it and she put some money on it. Come to find out, I used it so little the company gave the number to someone else!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/paperbag.gif" alt="" /> Wifey was blowing up someone's phone who yelled at her "stop calling this number!" and leaving us out of touch. ooopppss...

I have good people next door and we helped each other out as well.

While I live in a city its spread out. We don't have neighborhood anything. Each neighborhood is basically a small city or town itself. If you didn't have a car here you would be out of luck. Mass transit sucks here.

Keeping 15-25 gallons of fuels isn't too difficult. 15 gallons in a garage is not an issue. Fuel stabilizers have come a long way.

Simply keeping no less than 1/2 tank goes a long way and 3/4 tank if you have a high capacity tank like mine.

Being in Missouri we didn't have any backlash from the storm at all. BUT one thing that Patty has finally gotten me doing is filling up the truck when it approaches 1/2 tank! Yeah, you have to fill up more often, but at least you always have enough gas to get you through SOME emergencies. Just my 2 cents and something that is an easy habit to get into.

Not being in Sandy, or any other hurricane, I can not give an AAR. Being that I have lived my whole life in OK has given me plenty of opportunities to make sure preps are made ahead of time. Between tornadoes, straight line winds, dust storms, torrential rain storms, long periods of drought, ice storms, snow storms, and the loss of electricity for any of the above reasons we deal with a lot.
1. Food--keep canned goods, beans, rice, MRE's, crackers, granola bars, etc handy.
2. Water--have bottled water on hand, keeps good, can use it even if the main water supply is contaminated, fill tub and sinks with water, have reserve brls if possible. And of course a way to boil/purify water.
3. Heat--no gas or electricity can be hard if you don't have a stove or fire place. We are remodeling and plan on putting in a cast iron stove for several reasons. Then again I have a 55 gal brl that can be made into a burn brl, cut an opening at the bottom and vent the fumes out and it is better than freezing to death. Blankets galore too.
4. First aid stuff--never too much. Meds for people who are dependent are good to have on hand too.
5. A way for communication, like walkie talkies, charged cell phones, etc.

That is just some of the things that we do around here.

It is nice to see a preparedness thread on here that doesn't focus solely on weapons. Don't get me wrong, I am ready for the zombies, Chinese, Russians and jihadist. However, scenarios like Katrina, Sandy or some other natural disaster is much more likely. Plus, I need y'all to disarm yourselves for when I impose martial law. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Sure just swing by and get em <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Remember, I won't come alone. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Are you ready for Juggalos? They are scarier than any Zombie...


One thing I have learned from DT's advice is to have an extra ice cooler for SPARE ice. If you get a chance to score a lot of ice great, but you need somewhere to put it.


MM
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I have three ice chest. But, I could use another.

Extra ice won't do us much good. I'm 40 minutes from Mexico. It was 86 degrees today. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Even the best cooler I've ever had will only keep ice for about 3 days.

Although if I could freeze it in big blocks.........