You’ll need to prioritize after a hurricane and quickly assess what requires your immediate attention. Hurt family or neighbors, property damage, power supply, and food and water will be paramount.
- Assess the most dangerous situation first. When the hurricane winds finally subsided at 4 am we began to survey the damage and saw we had broken glass all over our home. Knowing how bad the hurricane was, a catastrophic Category 4, we knew that the last thing we needed was to get injured. Hospitals and clinics would be overloaded with people suffering serious injuries from flying debris, caved in homes and a variety of other injuries including some people dying. Slipping and getting a bad cut was not an option. We carefully cleaned up all the glass for hours to ensure that no family member, pet or guest in our home would be injured. The risk of infection, even with a simple cut after a STHF situation is very high due to the lack of running water and lack of sanitation. Everyone will be dealing with debris, lots of garbage and little to no water.
2. Your secondary concern will be securing your property in case of looters making their way into your community. Check your property for missing or damaged gates, fences or concrete walls. Our parking gate fell in and onto our vehicles bumpers exposing our main entry to theft and trespassers. We worked for a couple of hours to bend, anchor and re-erect it where it could be carefully opened by two people when we needed it opened. When we walked to the lower part of the property, half of our back gate was gone. A 10′ long and 6′ tall metal gate with a door that was about 200 pounds had been picked up and tossed. We went house to house in our entire neighborhood and could not find our back gate. We needed to block that entry to our property. We had large palms that had fallen in the area. Working with supplies we had available, we triple folded some shade cloth and secured the opening with trees stacked against the shade cloth. Had anyone tried to breach this entryway the spiky limbs of the trees would have alerted us and our guard dogs to a problem. It wasn’t until a few days later that our neighbor spotted our missing gate/door several hundred yards away in the arroyo. Using a 3 wheeler equipped with a flatbed cart and a few helpful neighbors we retrieved our back gate. Considering the substantial flight it took we were pleased it wasn’t in too bad a condition. With some finessing with a 2 lb hammer, we were able to get the gate back in place and make our back entryway relatively secure again.
3. Start your vehicles briefly to ensure they start and run after your natural disaster. You don’t want to run your vehicles for more than a minute, but you want to ensure all is well. You should begin by lifting the hood to clear out any debris that may have lodged itself under the hood. You might be surprised what may be under the hood. We had a small family of mice huddled in cotton beds that had hunkered down inside our spare vehicle. You’ll want to encourage any guests to leave before starting your engine.
4. We also had a concrete wall come down into the street. You will have to remove what has collapsed or fallen onto public access roads so that neighbors and emergency personal can get by. Fortunately, we had several neighbors assist us with this monumental task. The wall that had collapsed was 6′ tall and 60′ long and that is a lot of cinder block to move. It is easy to get overwhelmed with so many tasks to accomplish after a natural disaster but in a tight knit community you will notice that many neighbors will come together to contribute their strengths, skills, and knowledge to persevere in times of distress. Accept help when you need it and help when you can chip in.
5. Once the perimeter of your property is secured you can allow your pets outside to do their business. There will be a lot of debris like broken glass and tile in your yard and on your property. You may have to designate a sectioned off area of your yard that is deemed safe. After your pets have had a chance to sniff around get them back inside until you’ve had a thorough look about to be sure that nothing can injure them like broken glass, shards of metal and venomous snakes. Once you’ve cleared up the debris, broken tiles and glass and secured your property of anything that could injure pets then let them out again( if they are outdoor pets). Remember things are going to look different to them so keep an eye on pets for any erratic behavior. If you sense your pets may panic and run, get them back inside immediately.
6. Do a parameter check with all your neighbors. Go knocking on neighbors’ doors who live in the front, sides, and back of your home to make sure that they are ok and don’t require rescuing or medical assistance. Ask how many are present, ask if everyone is ok and take notes for a community headcount. Take notes on lot numbers, house numbers or addresses for cross checking accuracy during your community meeting.
7. Make a planned meeting time with neighbors to discuss water, supplies, medical issues/supplies, community security and anyone that may be hurt and needing assistance. We will write a comprehensive post on holding a successful and productive emergency community meeting during SHTF in another blog post.
8. Get rid of any standing water on your patios, balconies and anywhere that water may have accumulated during the storm. Mosquitoes are extremely dangerous in the aftermath of storm surge, flooding or hurricanes as they can carry Dengue fever, Zika, Rocky mountain fever and a variety of other mosquito-borne illnesses. Even a small amount of water can harbor a perfect mosquito nesting ground. Be sure to thoroughly check anything that may have even ¼” of water in it. You will need to check all areas of your home and property thoroughly and so will your neighbors. The last thing you want in a grid down situation is to get a virus that can have you bedridden for weeks.
9. Start your generator to ensure it’s in good working order. Every year before hurricane season we perform an annual maintenance check for our generator. A generator is a purchase you will never regret. Anyone in natural disaster zones should own a generator. The most important thing about having that generator is it will keep your fridges and freezers cold, preserving your food and water in the aftermath of any natural disaster or general short term power outage.This topic is too broad to discuss here so we will be posting a lengthy post about generators this month.
10. Check that all appliances are free of debris and water post-hurricane. Inspect your appliances – stove/ovens, BBQ, fridges, and freezers. Open the lids and empty out water. Check the doors to refrigerators and chest freezers to ensure that no debris is blocking the seal from closely properly. You might be shocked what gets lodged where during a powerful hurricane or tornado.
For every hurricane or tornado priorities will be different for different parties. These are just some of the elements we had to deal with immediately.
What were some challenges you face after your natural disaster?
