Hurricane Bill

Well this post is a little off topic, but being a Florida resident for several years has prompted me to offer a little about hurricane preparedness considering the season we seem to be facing. People who don't usually have to worry about such things seem to be currently affected. Some of the stuff you take for granted may not be available during bad storms, such as water from a city source as flooding often pollutes, at least on a temporary basis, local aquifers, electricity is lost for weeks or months at a time even in metro areas, food supplies at local stores are often depleted at the first sign of trouble, as witnessed on a regular basis in Florida. If you want to be ready to have a few of the conveniences you have become attached to like eating you may need to plan ahead a little so what I offer are a few suggestions of stuff to get. The emergency services are sometimes slow coming and bare bones at best, besides if you have your own stuff you don't need as much help and you may be able to offer those around you a little too.

-food
Non-perishables = canned goods are real handy but don't just get meat and beans cause that can get a little old quick, a can or two of fruit cocktail can be a real treat and do a lot to keep spirits up, other dry goods help too, be sure you can prepare whatever you do get though, with or without your usual appliances

-water
You would be surprised how much water an average family goes through in a single day, and it all needs to be clean. Its a good idea to clean the tub real well with a regular cleanser then dish soap when you're in for bad weather so you can fill it and have a little on reserve if things get real bad, but you should also fill some jugs or buy a few gallons at the store when you see the storms coming. I have a water filtration hand pump I got for camping but I would press it into service in an emergency for my home if I had to. You may wish to pick one of these up; mine can do 2000 liters on a single ceramic filter, water tablets are handy too (just to be sure)

-electricity
I have already posted on this blog about crank flashlights so I don't want to get into that here other than to say they go for less than $20. My family here has been without power for several weeks at a time (and we even lived close to Disney) it only takes a couple freezers full of rotten meat before a generator looks pretty cheap (we even helped neighbors by letting them plug in for a few hours at a time to keep their goods frosty)

-cooking source
All the stuff you got may be fine to eat straight from the can but a hot coffee is something few would want to do without, not to mention hot food. You can get a cheap camp stove to cover all the bases, there are several kinds on the market from propane(your grill), to butane, to debris stoves you can fuel with a few twigs. Its something that is definitely a good investment; even if you never need it for home you can take it camping.

- car
gas is usually stored under the gas station so it may be a good idea to get some before they go under or get blown over, or hike the price

-batteries

This is by no means a complete list. Only you know what you feel you can't live without. I hope everyone is fine during this hurricane season but you can hedge your bets with a little preparation. Try thinking through your day and figure out how to complete all the little stuff you normally do with alternative methods that will still work without city support.

how to make coffee, how to keep clean, how to get around if you live in low lying areas (when I lived in Louisiana boats were the only mode at times), entertainment (cards, board games, crank radio), communication (hand held cb radio, cell towers blow over too)

Just think through your routine replacing your usual appliances with non-electric or battery, or human powered and you will be fine.

To Tent or not To Tent

While the traditional tent offers a good deal of benefits it can sometimes be a burden as well. Another option I have tried more recently is a hammock with a bug netting attached. The whole rig is pretty durable as it is made of the same stuff people jump out of airplanes with. I have only really slept in it a few times but it seems much cooler than the old tent, and I heard what I believe to be a raccoon pass under me in the middle of the night. Now you may think this a drawback but I have had the experience of some other warm fuzzy critters trying to get through my tent floor in the middle of the night which I believe were moles or some other burrowing creature, needless to say it made for a sleepless period of beating on the tent floor to keep them at bay. I figured whatever they were, if they could dig through hard ground and eat roots and such they could make short work of my nylon. So in contrast it was kind of nice to have a clear through-way for animals to pass instead of come on through the space I was currently occupying. I also kind of like the idea of being up off the ground for the sake of all the living things that seek warm and inviting places to sleep themselves, snakes, bugs, and whatever else. A hammock also has a smaller or no "footprint" as long as you pay attention to how you tie it to the tree or pad the rope.
The tent was well suited to my outdoor sessions in the P.N.W. but I have recently relocated to Florida and it is a bit warmer here at times making the coolness of the hammock much more desirable, and on occasion its hard to find a dry or clear spot to put a tent. There are drawbacks to the hammock as well though.

First thing I noticed was the lack of a place to keep my pack, I had a rain fly for it so keeping it dry wasn't a big deal but I felt a little insecure leaving it outside of my nylon quarters.

Second was the weird feeling of being suspended in mid air. I had bounced around in it to test it out a little so I was fairly confident it would hold, but that was little comfort when it came to trying to "relax" in it.

Third if you have ever spent any time in a hammock then you have noticed the tendency to slide to the lowest point, now this can be a constant struggle till you figure out that you have to lay on the diagonal to have anything resembling a flattish surface.

I still think that a hammock has a place in the camping supply list, even if it takes a little getting used to.

Crank Flashlights

I have had experience with several kinds of human powered flashlights on my excursions to the outdoors. Most of them were pure junk as far as I can tell. I started with those shake lights that were popular a few years back but even though the ads said you could run them over with a truck and drop them in water they never seemed worth a shake. I tried a couple different makes and they all produced light for a little while then progressively lasted less and less time, till they gave out all together. Then I moved on to crank flashlights that had all these cool features, like radio, high and low beam, and even a plug for charging your cell phone. I never actually tried the cell thing because while half the flashlight body was dedicated to storing the numerous adapters and stuff to plug into a cellphone, they failed to include those adapters in the bubble pack the flashlight came in. While it's cool to have a radio when you're sitting by the fire late at night, it doesn't last very long on a crank and you find yourself standing on your head trying to get that station that keeps fading in and out, while this is an interesting form of yoga it's not a lot of fun when you fall in the fire!
It would seem the less gadgets a crank device has the better as far as performance goes. The best by far that I have field tested in the Oregon woods was the Garrity crank flashlight. It has 2 settings high & low and lasts up to 45 min between cranks. I have even dropped it in the surf for a few seconds with no fail service. The only problem I have had with this light is when sand gets into the button it makes it stick in the position it was in before the sand got there. I actually overcame this little flaw by putting a piece of black electrical tape over the switch to keep the sand out. Other than that I have been crainkin this puppy for 3 years now and it still holds a charge for months at a time in storage. Check It out.
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