Chris, I don't think they know yet how many homes were destroyed. In my county, over 200 homes are listed as uninhabitable, at least until the they are check for structural soundness and that the electric services are checked by a licensed electrician, not to mention gas services.
Different kinds of disasters call for slightly different strategies for preparedness. Having just been through Hurricane Sandy, I remembered some things to do and forgot some others. I hope people to tell each other of their lessons, because no one knows everything for sure.
Hurricanes are the disaster I know most about. One of my earlier sets of memories centers about
Hurricane Carol in 1954. My father took the time to do a certain amount of teaching about hurricanes. He took me outside to see the hurricane's eye pass over, and showed me that the wind was so strong you could lean it and it would hold you up. He also told me that just because there are no clouds when the eye passes over, it doesn't mean the storm has passed. You're only half done. But more important he took me to the line of daffodil plants at the foot of the garden, told me that that was the height that the water in the Hurricane of 1815 rose to, and that that was why the house was built on a little rise that was about 5 feet higher.
Preparedness starts when you build or buy your house. If you're going to live near the ocean on the east coast, you need to consider what happens in a hurricane and in a bad winter storm. Yes, you can lose power for two weeks, even a month. You should pick a house that isn't going to be underwater (build above known storm surge lines) If the property is not above storm surge lines, the house should be built on the highest elevation on the property (even if you have to pile up gravel to put it there) and if you're building it new, it should not have a basement, and water should be able to pass under the house without knocking it over.
If you suspect water might get in the cellar, don't store anything in it that water can damage, obviously. Unfortunately, although up 18 inches on bricks, our furnace is still in our cellar, which flooded to a depth of 30 inches in Sandy. However, if you have an oil furnace, fortunately salt water often does not kill it; it just requires 3 pieces to be replaced. To ensure this happy condition, when you leave your house, be sure to turn off the circuit breaker to the furnace so that it does not try to start when the power is restored. If it does, you will surely lose the fan motor, which you may be able to save.
And definitely, if you are in a flood zone, do not put your main electical power panel in your basement. Ours is in a closet upstairs.
In any case, oil & gas furnaces do not run when there is no electricity. You need a house with a second type of heat that does not depend on external power. I have a propane gas log; in my younger days, I had either a wood stove or fireplace. You really should have a gas stove too. Cooking with gas is just wonderful when the lights are out. Remember to have a drip coffee pot on hand though.
And your food will spoil if you can't run the refrigerator. We have a $120 small generator that runs, by turns, the refrigerator and the sump pump. You only have to run it every several hours. And remember to get a tank (or tanks) of gasoline ready to run it with prior to the storm. Make sure it runs prior to the storm. After the storm, winterize it, so it will run next year. The little generator can run a lamp as well as the refrigerator, too. And if you have a surge suppressor bar, you can charge your cell phone with it. If you're going to be stuck cooking on a gas grill, make sure your propane ball is full before the storm. And when you buy a grill, make sure it has one of those little burners on the side to make coffee on.
If you are a camping type, have all your camping equipment out. Those sleeping bags will be nice. And the camp stove is a plus too.
Lights-those LED battery lights work well, as do kerosene lamps & candles and those hand crank flashlights with radios in them. We used the handcrank radio to find out what was going on. Very useful.
Generators...gas stations should be required by law to have a big one. The gas problem in NJ and NY right now is pretty grim. There's gas, but with the lights out, the pumps at the gas stations don't work. This is creating a horrible mess. A guy in Mystic learned his lesson in Hurricane Irene last year, his gas station was without power for 2 weeks, and of course he could sell no gas. He installed a big generator at his gas station, and this year he has paid off the whole cost because he's the guy that can be open.
And charging: before the storm, charge all your cell phones and laptops and tablets and Kindles & Nooks. However, remember that any device that uses wifi will be down, including your internet phone. If you want to download a new book, you will have to find a place with power and a wifi hotspot during the 2 weeks your power is out.
If you have a generator, make sure that you run it outside with a big extension cord. It gives off lethal fumes. Two girls died in this storm because of generator fumes. And if you're using a propane or gasoline space heater, you also have to be very careful about fumes.
One thing I forgot, when I had to evacuate the house, was to close the valve on the propane tank. As it happens, the police went around the neighborhood and closed the valves. Consequently, when I came back the next morning, I found that my gas stove & gas log wouldn't start. We had to relight all the pilot lights. We had never had to light the pilot on the oven, so we had to find where it was first before we could turn the gas on again, or we would have had gas leaking from the oven pilot into the house...not a good idea. We should have known that before we evacuated, just saying, but we didn't.
As to how serious a problem propane tanks and natural gas lines can be, many of the fires you have seen going on in the disaster footage were caused by the rupture of natural gas lines. If a house is swept away, of course the gas piping may well be destroyed, and Boom, there you go. Even if the house is not swept away, the propane tank can be ripped loose. In Sandy, while we were at my son's house, we were cooking outside on the barbecue and kept smelling propane. It was due to two huge propane tanks that had been torn off houses that were severely damaged, and the valves broken as they floated around the bay. (Yes, the tanks float) The town's disaster squad had corralled them and chained them to a street post, but they were still giving off fumes that could be smelt at my son's house a quarter of a mile away. In fact, if I had not had that little experience, and had thought, man, I forgot to close the valve on my propane tank, I would have struggled to find out what was wrong at my own house when I couldn't get the stove to turn on.
Water--even during the 1938 hurricane, my family has never lost its connection to the town water supply. I presume the system is run mostly by gravity. Consequently, a couple crates of drinking water are all we stock. It may be different at your hosue.
Baths--if you don't have heat, and you don't have a propane hot water heater, you don't have hot water. Even if you are warm and fed (as we were), you are feeling really grungy, and cold showers do not appeal. Oh how weak we are, compared to our ancestors. Fortunately, I had a very large, thin pot that I use for boiling lobsters. I boiled up a pot of water on the propane stove, ran some cold water into the bathtub, and then added the water to it. Bliss! It was a lovely bath. A friend of mine went to a spa that was not affected by the storm to get a shower. Another friend went to their gym, which had showers.
Escape..if you think you might have to evacuate, plan for it. We do. We keep all our most important stuff in a safe deposit box, and our working records in one of those big plastic tubs. Our laptop and cell phone chargers live in a bag with other stuff we might need if we have to evacuate. As it happens in Sandy, we came home from Skate America with our clothes in suitcases already (and we had done the laundary at our friend's house in Oregon; what a blessing that was!) We just threw the stuff in the car, locked the door and left. We had previously moved stuff that might be water damaged to the second floor.
But before next time, I'm going to put a lock that I can lock from outside on the back door. As it happens, Sandy flooded the front steps but not the back steps. It's better to make your escape from cover.
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well other than youth & stupidity.
If I was forced at gunpoint to live in a city highrise apt, I think I would have a big plastic tub filled with basic needs in a closet. Freeze dried food keeps for years.....
