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Just moved to the area from California and want to make sure we're prepared for natural disasters. In CA we had to plan for earthquakes, but out here it seems like hurricanes and perhaps flooding are the biggest concerns. Any recommendations for supplies to keep on hand and or any other advice?
You don't need to prepare for earthquakes, but you do need to prepare to be without power in any season for up to a week. Usually it's not that long (only one or two days), but it can be longer, too. The state has a website that can get you started: https://readync.org/EN/Plan.html
I think it makes a real difference if you are in town or rural.
Municipal water and sewer vs. well and septic. The latter requires electricity, for water pumps and for septic pumps if you have a lift station.
We keep some bottled water around, but in 20 have never lacked for town water.
Flashlights and batteries.
Fill medications before a storm.
Really, we get enough notice on hurricanes and they are so seldom an issue, we don't prep much.
Flooding never occurs to us, but we are nowhere near a 1% flood risk area.
You need to be prepared for ice storms in the winter, too. Those are the only ones we really do anything to prepare about. We stock up on some firewood. We lost power for 36 hours winter before last when it was frigid out and had to use the woodstove to cook our meals. The neighbor's tree fell and blocked our driveway.
But I'm mentally prepared for power outages in any other season. Short outages are common in my neighborhood in the summer with thunderstorms and limbs and trees falling on power lines, etc. Usually it's not widespread and is fixed in a couple of hours, but if a big old hurricane comes through it can knock it out for longer. Ask anyone who's been here a long time about Hurricane Fran.
The most important thing to know is that regardless of the type of impending storm (hurricane, tropical storm, ice, snowmageddon), ALL residents are REQUIRED to report to the nearest Harris Teeter within the 2 days prior to the start of the storm to buy all the bottled water, milk, bread, toilet paper, and bananas (yes, bananas!) Expect to stand in line for five and a half hours, but it is your duty as a resident of this fine state!
so far, i have been through Hurricanes Fran, Floyd, Isabel, and Matthew;
the Multiple Ice Storms and the 2000 24" Snow, so here goes with my top 5....
1. water.
2. actual cash money. $1/5/10/20's.
3. toilet paper, paper towels and all that.
4. trash bags and even more trash bags.
5. Kingsford Charcoal for your BBQ grill.
(PLEASE no gas....charcoal only, everytime)
this was a longer post, but i deleted it since my advice
was a duplicate for just about any disaster.
For tornadoes. you are on your own unless you are one of the few with a basement. You can hope the tornado cuts a thin path and you are not hit.
In addition, Florida found in Hurricane Andrew that new construction was torn apart while better built older homes did much better. The trash built now thanks to lax building codes will do poorly.
North Hills looks substantial, for example, but almost all buildings are tinderboxes with outer coverings making them look substantial. In a storm, try Target for your best chance to survive.
We were in the 1971 Los Angeles quake. Some buildings on the fault line in the valley were shattered even though they met high standards. You have a better chance here except for the junk being built and lack of basements.
I agree with the preceding comments. No earthquakes here, although there was a nasty one in Charleston, SC in 1886 (a geological anomaly there). We get advance warning of hurricanes, but beware that the exact track and intensity is anyone's guess -- even within 24 hours. Tornadoes, that's a matter of bad luck. If your house lies in the direct path of an EF5, you will likely die but the odds of that are very low. This is not Texas, Oklahoma, or even Alabama. Loss of electricity after ice/snow storms and hurricanes is the biggest problem, unless you live in a low-lying area where flooding is a serious threat. (Not many residential areas of the Triangle are flood-prone.) The power can be out for days and in rare circumstances as many as 10-14 days in some areas. It's also common for there to be very limited transportation and very little retail after a major ice/snow storm or hurricane.
I'd add that we also keep a chainsaw on hand for hurricanes. It can be hard to get a tree removal service out so we are prepared to remove our own. Other than that we always have a 3-5 day supply of food, two cases of water, at least a week of prescription meds, a crank radio, flashlights and batteries and multiple back up batteries charged to charge phones. Also candles and a supply of wine or beer make things better.
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