Been up for awhile today watching the tracking of Hurricane Irene, and it is looking more and more likely that New York is going to get hit and hit hard. Though we are all hoping for the storm to veer off and miss us, it is imperative that we all take the necessary precautions, be prepared for the worse...depending on the tracking, winds, and amount of rain, we could be seeing both flooding, and electrical outages that could last from 3-10 days. A tub full of water will allow you to flush toilets and water your plants. Fill up old bottle and jugs with drinking/cooking water. It is possible that water purification plants might be off line, which could make faucet water unsafe to drink even if you have running water. Do you have food to last you and your family for at least three days? Have you considered a small back up generator? At least with this, you could run a TV so that if cable is working, you can get up to
the minute news of what is going on should a disaster occur. Do you have an OLD FASHION plug into the phone jack phone that does not require electricity? Are all your cell phones charged up? If so, turn them off, and only use one at a time to preserve energy...only make EMERGENCY calls...even if we are not directly affected by the disaster, it is imperative to keep traffic down so as not to overload the circuits.
Do you have a basic set of HAND TOOLS...if we have not electricity, electric tools will not work, your circular saw not a lot of use. If you have rechargeable tools, make sure all your batteries have been charged. Screws, nails, plastic, stables and a staple gun, perhaps a couple of blue tarps in case windows get broken by high winds or flying debris are all good ideas. Consider setting up CAMP in a room or space devoid of windows just in case debris does break a window.
Remember....an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so lets all get our Hurricane Readiness kits prepared, and be careful this weekend.
