Hurricane relief - preparedness lessons

[Hedgelj]

We are over a week out from Hurricane Helene and now Milton is bearing down on more Americans.

Most of us will not have to deal with a Hurricane, but N Carolina didn't anticipate it either. We can however get hit with impressive rainfall and winds (tornado or shear) that can give similar results to what they are dealing with.

What have you seen in the news that you might not be prepared for? How are you fixing it?

 

["J"]

Losing everything, literally everything you own gone in a blink of an eye…. No vehicles, no worldly possessions. Just the clothes on your back and whatever is on your person…..

Thats how a lot of folks down here were slammed….

 

[Hedgelj]

Water filtration

I have some from my backpacking/bushcrafting interests but I'm going to pick up a little more so that i have some additional redundancy.

Coarse filter to remove sediment/floaters and then boil. Works but uses fuel and a lot of it to get to a boil. Also not recommended for most of S Ohio due to chemical runoff from mining.

Grayl - very good and includes activated charcoal for chemicals. Downside is only 20oz at a time and not useful for groups. Think of a bigger more useful (imo) lifestraw.

Sawyer squeeze - great and can be cleaned by the end user leading to a VERY long useful life. Can also be used with large containers to provide water for a group. Highly recommended by backpackers. No chemical filter and it's quickly fouled (then needs cleaned) by silty or "dirty"water would be the downside. I'm picking up additional ones for my preps.

There are other options but this is what came to my mind from following the ongoing recovery efforts.

 

[Hedgelj]

Losing everything, literally everything you own gone in a blink of an eye…. No vehicles, no worldly possessions. Just the clothes on your back and whatever is on your person…..

Thats how a lot of folks down here were slammed….

What was the timeline in being warned? Did they get advance notice of how MUCH rain the area was supposed to get?

I don't really have a INCH (I'm never coming home) bag setup. I do carry a get home bag in my vehicle.

 

["J"]

Warning was put out about flooding, in advance. Now there’s debate on if it was timely and was serious enough.
Places got anywhere from 10-40” of rain in a couple days. That’s even suspect as the weather stations were wiped out as well.
Vehicles washed away or covered in mudslides. How does one plan for that. Now that’s in pretty extreme circumstances, but that did happen too communities not just individuals.