Lessons from Hurricane Sandy and Other Disasters

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We watch many films about the doomsday, global floods and other misfortunes, but none of us ever tries on the fate of the victims. As events in the United States and in Russia have shown, it is not so difficult to be prepared for such disasters. And if you are nevertheless ready, your chances to endure shocks or at least just survive are seriously increased!

We offer you some lessons, very simple tips on how to be prepared for hurricanes in your area.

Old technologies rule

The first thing that stopped working when Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast was mobile communications. Of course, the operators did everything in their power, but it worked extremely unstable. Imagine that the number of connections for each station decreases due to breakdowns of network nodes, and people want to call more and more. If there is a landline connection in your apartment or house, then it may withstand a little longer and keep you in touch with the outside world. And you can also use SMS, they often continue to work longer.

By the way, if you have ever been to the stadium, then you know that it is often impossible to recruit someone during a match. But SMS are sent frequently.

Save all important web pages that you may need during a disaster, but will be inaccessible. It won't take long, but it can help a lot.

Prepare your home in advance

Of course, you cannot build a new solid house, but you can yours for bad weather. Install windproof windows, bolt doors, and check if your roof can withstand a tree fall.

Social media is not the best source of information

Social media was flooded with misinformation, value judgments, and just plain rubbish. Relying on this information was sometimes dangerous. If you already rely on tweets and posts, then only trust trusted sources - newspapers or people in whom you have complete personal trust.

There won't be electricity for very long

Do you remember the last time you sat without electricity for several days at home? If yes, then you understand how much we have given away at the mercy of electrical appliances - water heaters, refrigerators, gadgets, lights in dark parts of the house (pantries, bathroom and toilet). If you have an external phone charger, keep it charged. Remember that you can use a car battery and just a car that starts up to charge your phone. There are also chargers for gadgets that run on fire and wood:)

And candles will not be superfluous. Buy a box and put matches next to it - once we were unable to light the candles we had in store, since there were no lighters and matches in the house.

Get ready for the queues

I hate queues and will do whatever I can to avoid them. If you find yourself in a disaster zone, then prepare for hours of queues. They will be behind everything - for water, food, transport … Just do not create problems for the same victims, like you.

Know what to eat and what not

As soon as the electrician is gone, your refrigerator will "die". In our experience, the freezer of a good refrigerator keeps food in a condition suitable for eating and cooking for 3-4 days, then they will start to deteriorate. With the refrigerating chamber, everything is faster. If you are in a flood area and there is water in your home, do not touch food that has been touched by the water. It is always contaminated with chemicals and sewage.

There is a table here that provides a list of foods that can and cannot be eaten, provided that they have been at a temperature of more than 5˚C for more than 2 hours.

Take care of your data

Sooner or later, the problems with the flood and hurricane will pass, and new problems will fall on you - the safety of your data on the computers flooded with water that you left at home. Well, what can I add - keep important things in Dropbox and its analogues, keep an eye on the adequacy and freshness of these updates.

Have an emergency kit

Well, be honest, don't you have an emergency backpack or suitcase? Collecting it is not expensive and will take no more than half a day. Here is a list of everything you need, and here are the gadgets that will help you be the king of the situation. And don't forget about multitools!