Hurricane Sandy After Action Reports
by James M.
James,
I'm located in central New Jersey not far from the Delaware River. In the days prior to the hurricane hitting, everyone packed the supermarkets, warehouse clubs and home improvement stores to stock up.
At the home improvement stores, the people who had best luck getting generators were those who purchased them online and selected in-store pickup. There were lines of people 100+ deep from the front of the store to the back waiting for new shipments of generators to arrive. The only people who were guaranteed anything were those who had already purchased and paid online.
For those lucky enough to get a generator, they'd have a hard time fueling it if they didn't already have gas cans and gas stored at home. The shelves were cleared of gas cans days before the storm hit.
The warehouse club that we are members of sold out of water the day before the storm hit. They normally have pallets of water on shelves up to the ceiling along the length of an entire aisle. That aisle was completely bare. They also sold out of most fruits/and vegetables that could store for a little without power. The displays that normally hold bananas and apples were bare.
Flashlights and D batteries were gone days before the storm too. The only ones that were left were plug-in rechargeable flashlights that would be of little use after the first discharge in a power outage.
My sister had luck finding a huge display of batteries at a big chain baby store. Most people went straight to the supermarkets and home improvement stores, not thinking that many other types of stores also kept basic supplies.
The winds really started to pick up Monday afternoon. There wasn't much rain, even at the height of the storm, but the winds were very strong. Our house, which is only 4 years old, shuddered a couple of times in the highest gusts. We didn't sustain any physical damage to the house, but a couple of small trees tilted over but didn't uproot or break. Some sections of vinyl fencing in our neighborhood blew out and shattered from the force of the wind.
Sections of our neighborhood started to lose power around 6 PM not long after the hurricane made landfall. Street lights were out and the power to houses across the street were out. From our upstairs windows, we watched the sky glow blue and pink in all directions as transformers blew. Every minute or so another one would blow.
Finally, around 8:30 PM, we watched a transformer light the sky up for about 30 seconds. When it finally darkened, we and the rest of our neighborhood were out of power.
I had filled our spare refrigerator in our garage with cases of water and the spare freezer with bags of ice. I also took every empty plastic jug and bottle out of our recycling bins and filled them 3/4 of the way with water and froze them in our main/spare freezers. Every inch of freezer space that wasn't packed with food was packed with an ice bottle.
I knew our refrigerator wouldn't keep food cold long, so we immediately transferred our most critical food (milk for the kids, etc.) into ice filled coolers. The main freezer with most of our frozen food and frozen water bottles was never opened. It stayed perfectly cold until the power came back on, and most of the ice bottles had barely started to thaw. The food in our ice-filled coolers also was fine. We did sacrifice non-critical food that we didn't have space for in the coolers to the garbage bin.
We lit the house with long-lasting led lanterns that definitely did the trick. We hunkered around an old battery power radio to keep up with storm news, and gave our two-year old son a spare lantern to play with, which kept him happy. With no power and little news expected until morning, we turned in early (for us) at around 10 PM.
Our furnace was out and we don't have a fireplace, so the temperature dropped to the low 60s in our house overnight. It was a little chilly, but we were comfortable enough. We were definitely lucky it wasn't colder outside.
By the morning the storm had passed and a family that we are very close friends with down the street had their generator running. We and several of our friends congregated there for the day. They had enough power for their refrigerator, several lights, a tv and cable box, and a power strip for charging phones.
Although the power was out, the cable stayed on until around noon so we were able to see the first images of storm damage. After the cable went out, most of us switched to our web-enabled smartphones and social media to stay informed and reach out to friends.
We grilled outside for lunch and dinner, with everyone pitching in food that would go bad if unused. Everyone with spare gas stored was prepared to pitch in whatever they had until the power came back on to keep the generator running. We brought over 10 gallons that wasn't needed.
Cell phone service was spotty. People who were subscribers of one the two major cell providers in our area had no problem making/receiving calls and surfing the web. Subscribers of the other major service had a signal, but couldn't make calls and their data service only worked intermittently.
The day after the storm, most traffic lights remained out. All gas stations and most stores were closed. One home improvement store opened under emergency power. They only let a limited number of people into the front part of the store where they had set up displays with their remaining emergency supplies (flashlights, batteries, power cords, and a new supply of gas cans). They surprisingly even accepted credit cards. Some other stores we checked out only accepted cash if they were open at all.
24 hours after the power went out, it came back on for most of our neighborhood. We're definitely lucky since of the 2/3 of our state that was without power, only about 15-20% of homes had been restored when we were reconnected.
It was an interesting experience for a day, but something that none of us would have been happy to have continue. We all realized, individually and as a group, what things we were missing that could have made us more comfortable.
Although we were lucky that our part of the state suffered little more than downed trees and power lines, New Jersey is very small so we all have friends in the hardest hit parts of the Jersey Shore and we are very familiar with the popular vacation spots that have been destroyed.
I've been in contact with friends who live just blocks from the beach who have raised homes and still have standing water lapping at their front doors. A few other friends live in beach neighborhoods that have essentially become islands with bridges, highways and other access roads out of service and surrounded by water. Others left some of the very hardest hit communities before the storm hit and don't know if their homes are still standing.
Some neighborhoods devastated by storm surge and flooding are now burning. Along some of the barrier islands, emergency services from the mainland are cut off and fires will likely be left to burn themselves out. Some entire towns are expected to burn.
There are a lot of people who have lost everything and many who are still in harm's way. Keep them in your prayers. Thanks, – Brad S.
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James,
I have family from Pennsylvania to Maine. I tried to encourage my family and cousins who I knew would be affected by Sandy to visit me in the mountains of New England, but they were all so sure that they could survive the storm.
Only one family had a generator. It wasn't wired into the house, so plenty of extension cords are in use there. The others had nothing at all setup. So I briefed them on filling the tub, freezing extra containers for ice, etc. And all were briefed on staying put during and after the storm.
Of course, some don't listen so well. While all survived in some fashion, here is the latest and worse from my cousin on Long Island:
"Pumping out water all day.
We had absolutely not a drop of [drinking] water. Storm surge at 830 p.m. and we were seeing it force its way in at the rate of a foot a minute!! I have never witnessed anything like that in my life!
Scary stuff!!!
We tried to hold it back just no way hydraulic pressure was just too much.
Total 10 feet of water. We jumped ship when it got to 6 feet. Then couldn't get to [deleted for OPSEC]'s house... Every path home and on every road trees were down, we didn't plan for that. We slept at a friend's aunt's house. She welcomed us (dog and all) with open arms and we are total strangers. The walls all cracked assuming will be a total loss.
We are going to call it quits soon will be back at it again tomorrow. No [phone] service so can't call our insurance company. Friends are coming from all over to help. No big deal – It is just a material asset. Insurance hopefully covers hurricanes. We are fortunate, as it could've been much worse."
He was right. They were fortunate. They could have drowned leaving during the night. They could have been injured trying to leave that location to their 'safe' house.
I suspect that the next time they will evacuate in a timely fashion. I doubt that they will ever disparage a prepared mindset again.
We can't save folks from themselves.
I will head into New York and New Jersey when possible to reach them with support. I expect to have to wait until after this coming Tuesday.
Thank you for your SurvivalBlog site! Regards, – Mike A.
Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl4/ready-for-sandy.html
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