Questions about Hurricanes for Long Time SoWal Residents

[yippie]

I'm sorry. My comment wasn't clear. Buy food, of course, I was trying to point out that some of the circumstances were quite different in NOLA vs. our local community. We don't shoot at people trying to help, and we have a tendency to help each other and ourselves rather than sitting waiting for some government agency to show up.

After Opal, four families got back in my neighborhood. One brought a couple of HUGE fishing type coolers filled with ice and a pick up filled with water. We took our grilles down to one house, emptied the freezer, cooked what we could on the grille, wrapped it up and put it in the freezer. Then, if you were hungry, we all shared.

Of course, we DID run out of liquor WAY before we ran out of food......

 

[Sarah Moss]

Opal has been the worst storm since we've been here. We spent it on 2nd Court, right near the SRB Golf Club and I slept through it

Friends of the family were on 393N (north of Nursery road, near the bay) went to bed the night before the storm and woke up to water at the level of their bed!

They're scary and fun. Gas up, likes been said before and have plenty of water & food.

Oh, and the last food that Quick Center on 393/98 runs out of is souse, so stock up on anything else you can find!

 

[Beachmom]

ok, here's my stupid question on the subject- how do you store up on water?? I went out and stocked up on gallons of water last summer and within no time, they were leaking and shriviling up. I know this is a silly one but....

 

[jodiFL]

The last one we evacuated for was Opal. My kids were very young and I heard at 3am that it was a Cat5 and headed right at us at 55mph. Thank God it slowed down. But in Montgomery we kept hearing Destin was gone and that 331 was closed but we headed back anyway and drove right to our house with no problems.We had some trees down but no damage to the house. No power for 10 days but great neighbors, one house was set up as the shower house, one setup as the "diner" and one setup with TV, radio video games etc.I can remember washing machines and refrigerators in the middle of 30A from the houses on the beach.
Ivan was a nightmare because it hit at night (I HATE those) But as you can tell from the pictures of Dennis we were not afraid at all and were out taking pictures. But getting gas became a problem for a while after Ivan. Whenever someone would find a place that had it we would call everyone we knew to let them know and top off the vehicles.
IF YOU PLAN ON STAYING: get plenty of of food, drinks, batteries, medicine etc. (Dont forget the poptarts and beer). DO NOT expect the government or FEMA to take care of you, you will have to be self sufficient for a minimum of 5 days.(Sometimes they get here sooner, but I dont like to take chances) Get a good generator and keep it tuned up and have plenty of gas to run it. Also, it is a good idea to get a cheap 110v electric A/C that will run off a generator. You can not imagine how hot and humid and miserable it is trying to sleep. And the nights are REALLY long with no power.

 

[jodiFL]

ok, here's my stupid question on the subject- how do you store up on water?? I went out and stocked up on gallons of water last summer and within no time, they were leaking and shriviling up. I know this is a silly one but....

The trick is to store them in the house. The heat is what gets to them.

 

[Arkiehawg]

Another little trick that we learned after Ivan. Your hot water heater will give you a couple of days of warm showers, but then it's COLD showers....which isn't always bad. But, if you want warm showers, go to Bass Pro and get a solar shower bag. It is a 5 gal. bag that you leave out in the sun and it does work!

Warning! I would recommend that you take it out of the sun for 2-4 hours before using it. It can be almost scalding if used directly after being in the sun.....

 

[Poodleone]

Many, many years ago, when we lived on Okinawa, I can remember always filling up the bathtubs when on typhoon watch and having a salt water barrel on the driveway- maybe to manually flush toilets (?)- I was a kid but that's what I remember. Oh, and the adults playing cards and drinking all night!

 

[jodiFL]

Also stock up on bleach. It never hurts to be able to sanitize things. Peroxide and anti-bacterial cream for any cuts etc. The best investment other than a generator was a propane fish fryer. It came in so handy to heat water etc.

 

[TreeFrog]

ok, here's my stupid question on the subject- how do you store up on water?? I went out and stocked up on gallons of water last summer and within no time, they were leaking and shriviling up. I know this is a silly one but....

Get a large plastic jug (similar to those for storing gasoline). Mine came from Home Depot or Home Helpers, I can't remember.

 

[Hop]

Many of us who are now locals, have not been here long enough to report on the storms which actually hit Walton County. I believe the last direct hit was Opal, back in 1995, which reportedly hit in Dune Allen. If you want to read about the mother of storms, I believe it was back in 1929, or sometime around then, and it was bad. I've heard some stories about that storm which sound a bit exaggerated, but who knows?

While the storms of 2004 and 2005 did major damage to the dunes and beach, and many homes built directly on top of the dunes, they didn't really affect most properties, nor did they actually hit directly in SoWal. Had homes not been built directly on the dunes, it is safe to say that the damage would have been nominal, and people wouldn't have spent millions of dollars for seawalls and sand, nor would we be paying for beach nourishment.

i was reading about this one yesterday...in an awesome little book by the three arts alliance....apparently the 1929 hurricane pretty much decimated the area and took the turpentine industry with it. Between that and the yellow fever...only hardcore folks were able to hang on here.