Checklists - so that you know how bad off you really are...

Every time a storm is headed our way I get the same phone calls. What should we have on hand? By then the shelves are picked over and the line at the gas station is out to the road. So I'm putting the list out here again, updated, for anybody who wants to get ahead of it this year.

I've been at this a long time. I was in New Orleans after Katrina and back again for Gustav three years later, in Haiti after the earthquake, and these days I'm the Emergency Management Director here in Bartlett, NH. What I've learned from all of it is pretty simple. Most people don't know what they have until they need it, and by then it's too late to go get it. That's what this list is for. Sit down with it and a pencil, walk through the house and the garage, and be honest with yourself. When you get to the bottom you'll know how bad off you really are.

How long should you plan for? I tell people two weeks, and longer if you live where we do. The government flyers still say 72 hours, and three days will get you through most ice storms. It won't get you through the big one. Katrina proved that, and Maria left Puerto Rico in the dark for months.

Helene in 2024 ought to have gotten everybody's attention up here, because western North Carolina is mountain country a lot like ours. Roads washed out, whole towns were cut off, and Asheville went 53 days before the water coming out of the tap was safe to drink. If you're at the end of a dirt road or on the far side of a bridge that floods, you'll be at the back of the line for help. Plan for that.

Every area has its own particular trouble, too. If you're in a flood plain, put a backflow valve on your sewer line so the sewer doesn't come up through your basement drain. If you've got a well, you've got no water when the power's out. Think about what's likely where you live. This list covers the general stuff.

Before anything happens

Sit down with the family and pick two places to meet if you get split up, one close to home and one out of town. Pick a relative or friend out of the area that everybody checks in with. A text to somebody three states away will often go through when you can't get a local call out. And write the phone numbers down on paper. Nobody knows anybody's number anymore.

• Meeting place near home

• Meeting place out of town

• Out-of-area contact

• Phone numbers on paper, in a zip bag

• Insurance agent, company and policy numbers

• Copies of birth certificates, passports, deeds, titles, mortgage papers, prescriptions

• Originals in a fireproof, waterproof safe

• Scanned copies on an encrypted thumb drive and in the cloud

• Computer backups you've actually tested

• Cash in small bills

On the cash. When the power is out the card readers don't work and neither do the ATMs. It doesn't matter what's in your bank account if the store can't run your card.

Light, heat and power

• Flashlight or headlamp for everybody, kids too

• Batteries for everything on this list

• Crank or solar radio and light

• Lighters, waterproof matches, a ferro rod

• Two ABC fire extinguishers, 10 lb or bigger

• Portable power station and a solar panel

• Generator, gas, oil, heavy outdoor extension cords

• Battery CO detectors

Give the kids their own flashlight, even the little ones. They'll be a lot less scared when they can turn on their own light.

I left candles and oil lamps off the list on purpose. I know everybody has them. But plenty of houses burn down after a storm, not during it, and candles are a big reason why. If you use them, don't walk away from them.

The battery units people call solar generators have gotten good, and the price has come down. I'd buy one of those before I'd buy another lantern. You can run one inside the house, and it'll keep the phones charged and a CPAP running through the night.

If you've got a gas generator, please run it outside, well away from the house and the windows. Carbon monoxide kills people after every big storm. And don't ever backfeed it into the house through a dryer outlet. That can kill the lineman who's out there trying to get your power back on.

Have an electrician put in a transfer switch and do it right.

Communications

This is the one I harp on the most. Four days after Katrina, the reporters holed up at the Hyatt next to the Superdome were sitting on the biggest story in the country and had no way to file it. No phones, no internet. I brought a team of techs and a satellite dish in, and for a while that was the only way they had to tell the world what was going on. If the national press couldn't get a message out, don't count on your cell phone.

• Power banks and car chargers

• NOAA weather radio

• AM/FM radio, battery or crank

• FRS or GMRS radios for the family

• Ham radio, or know who on your road has one

• Starlink. Get it.

• A phone that can text by satellite, and know how to use it

• Paper map with your routes out marked

  
  

Water

Water is where most people come up short. Figure a gallon per person per day, and that's drinking and a little cooking. You'll want more for washing up and flushing. In Asheville people were dipping buckets out of swimming pools to flush their toilets. When a storm is coming, fill the bathtub.

• 1 gallon per person per day for 14 days (56 gallons for a family of four)

• Water for the pets

• Food-grade jugs or a water barrel

• Gravity filter and spare cartridges

• Plain unscented bleach

• A way to run the well pump

If you have to treat water, bring it to a rolling boil for a minute. If you can't boil it, use plain unscented bleach, about 8 drops to the gallon. Stir it and let it sit half an hour. Check the label on the bottle, because the strength varies.

Food

Buy what you eat and eat what you buy, and keep rotating it. A closet full of freeze-dried stuff nobody likes isn't doing you any good.

• Two weeks of canned and dry food

• Peanut butter, crackers, nuts, cereal, shelf-stable milk

• Freeze-dried meals (they need water, remember that)

• Electrolyte mix

• Baby food and formula if you need it

• Manual can opener, two of them

• Camp stove or grill, and fuel

• Paper plates, cups, plastic forks, heavy foil

When the power goes, turn the fridge and freezer down as cold as they'll go and stay out of them. A full freezer will hold about two days. Eat out of the fridge first.

Check your propane tanks while you're at it. Those small refillable tanks have a date stamped on the collar, and they have to be requalified 12 years after that. Your dealer won't fill an expired one, and the day before a storm is a bad time to find out.

Tools and cleanup

After the storm passes, the real work starts.

• Heavy plastic sheeting and duct tape

• Plywood and 2x4s

• Cordless drill, extra batteries, screws, nails

• Hammer, pry bar, pliers, wrenches

• Chainsaw, spare chain, bar oil, mixed gas (or a bow saw)

• Rope and tow straps

• Step ladder and extension ladder

• Shovels, heavy rake, wheelbarrow

• Work gloves, rubber gloves, safety glasses, N95 masks

• Boots and work clothes

• Contractor bags and zip bags

• Buckets, sponges, wet/dry vac, bleach

Stay away from downed wires, all of them. And take pictures of the damage before you start cleaning up. The insurance company is going to want to see it.

Sanitation

Nobody wants to talk about this one. When the water's off, the toilets don't flush.

• 5-gallon bucket, toilet seat lid, heavy bags, kitty litter

• Consider a Laveo toilet - : https://dry-flush.com/product/df1045-laveo-dry-flush-portable-toilet-with-dc-power-cord/

• Toilet paper, a lot of it

• Soap, hand sanitizer, baby wipes

• Toothbrushes, toiletries, feminine products

• Paper towels and rags

People and pets

• Two weeks of every prescription, and a written list of meds and doses

• First aid kit

• Glasses, hearing aid batteries, backup power for medical devices

• Pet food, meds, carriers, leashes, vet records and a photo

• Books, cards, crayons, something for the kids to do

First Aid

Somebody in the house needs to know first aid and CPR. Find a local resource and get trained.

Get to know your neighbors before you need them. Find out who's elderly and living alone, who's on oxygen, who has a generator or a chainsaw. Set up some kind of check-in with the folks on your road. The neighborhoods that look out for each other come through a lot better than the ones that don't.

And scan your family photos. After the people are safe, the thing folks grieve over the most is the pictures.

If you have more time and money

• Standby generator, or a transfer switch for the portable

• Solar with batteries, especially if you're on a well

• Wood stove, with dry wood stacked away from the house

• Shutters or pre-cut plywood for the windows

• Know how to shut off the water, gas and power, and tag the valves

• Spare breakers

• Plastic bins to keep it all together and dry

Getting out

• A go-bag for everybody

• Keep the tank over half full when weather's coming

• Gas cans and fuel stabilizer

• Two routes out

• Bike, canoe, ATV, snowmobile, whatever fits where you live

When we went back to New Orleans for Gustav in 2008, a big part of our job was helping the city run its assisted evacuation plan so people without a car could get out. The plan only works if people use it. If they tell you to go, go.

That's the list. If you're missing stuff, don't run out and try to buy it all this weekend. Pick a few things each month and keep at it. Water, flashlights and a family plan are a good place to start. If you want help putting together a plan for your family or your business, get in touch.

Ed