Getting ready for Hurricane Sandy aka Frankenstorm aka Storm of Unusual Size…aka The Crappiest Staycation of 2012?
Don’t Let the Bitch Get You Down
East Coasters, We Are With You!
Heart-felt, from our coast to yours, we are refreshing our screens with fingers crossed and sending you tiny virtual umbrellas, sandbags and, if necessary, mechanized life-rafts of good wishes.
5 Tips for Surfing Hurricane Sandy Surfing Chaos style:
1. Download and setup the Red Cross Hurricane app
Available for both iOS and Android, this is a great app to stay up to date on Sandy-related alerts. Allow it to track your location — and punch in any other zipcodes you want to stay on top of. Can’t endorse this enough.
Also, bookmark m.fema.gov, and if your phone offers it, make sure Government Emergency Alerts are turned on. (For iPhones running iOS 6.0, go to Settings -> Notifications -> and scroll all the way to the bottom.)
2. Create a Twitter list to follow.
You’ll want up-to-the-minute info, and searching on #Sandy will return HUGE amounts of information, and that information will be unverified, so be careful acting on it. You’ll want to follow the Twitter accounts of your local law-enforcement, your FEMA region and State EMA, and other accounts like your power company. Put them all in a List so you only have to load that list to filter for this information. See my example for San Diego here.
Don’t know how or don’t have time? Seriously, ask me for help. Send me your county/zip/town and I will curate one for you. Comment below or tweet me @surfingchaos and just ask.
3. Get food, water, batteries, warmth
- Food you’re willing to eat at room-temperate, with the power off. Peanut-butter & jelly sandwiches, nuts, snacks, dried fruits.
- 21 gallons of water per person — that is one full week’s worth. Get 3-4 gallons per pet, to get them set for the week, too.
- More batteries than you think you’ll need for lighting.
- Pull your sleeping bags out of storage, and make sure you can put your hands on your coats and warm clothes.
4. Get your evac shit together
Read our irreverent guide to prep’ing for evacuations here.
- Gas up your car & keep the tank over half-full.
- Hit the ATM and keep cash on-hand
- Have your documents, meds, eyeglasses, and computers/chargers all ready, at the very least, create a detailed list of what you’d grab if you’d had to go.
5. PAY ATTENTION
This is a storm of historic proportions, and conditions can move from ok-but-sucky to holy-shit-bad within minutes. Be in text contact with friends, monitor Twitter and the Red Cross Alerts and get your ass in gear if it comes to that.
- If they tell you to go, go. And go early so you’re not sitting in traffic. Have a destination and a route already in mind.
- If you’re staying, do a full-house patrol at regular intervals (and neighborhood patrol, if safe and possible). What fell? What’s leaking? How high’s the water, mama?
You got this. Let us know how you’re doing, and how we can help. Can’t wait to see you on the other side of this bitch. Hang tight.