With Hurricane Irma gaining strength, here’s what the Lowcountry learned from Matthew
We asked on Facebook what lessons recent hurricane warriors learned as Hurricane Irma roars across the Atlantic Ocean.
Following are some things people mostly from Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County said they learned during Hurricane Matthew last October.
What did you do right — or wrong?
▪ Would have left one day earlier!
▪ Leave later!
▪ Make a hotel reservation earlier and closer. (We have one for next weekend in Aiken!)
▪ Just trying to figure out WHEN (i.e., dates) to make reservation????
▪ Clean out the freezer.
▪ Would have taken good frozen food with me. Would have left later. Would have made reservations in a nicer place, maybe further away (VRBO or condo), for longer, that accepted dogs — maybe a week — rather than stay in an awful hotel. Would have packed for a week — not 2-3 days. But this is a rhetorical question right, because we have HAD our 100-year storm??
▪ Would take clothing for a longer stay next time and more books. Did most everything else OK ... prescriptions, pet food and cat litter, trash bags and paper towels and toilet tissue. Full tank of gas. Peanut butter and jelly and bread. Canned food. Case of water. Insurance and other legal papers and cash in small denominations.
▪ Gas up generators.
▪ Freeze a paper cup of water. Put coin on top as you leave. Gives indication if freezer food needs to be discarded when you return. If coin is way down in the cup everything has defrosted and refrozen.
▪ I evacuated early to avoid traffic and to get to a safe hotel ... I would do it again ... have ALL important papers in a suit case ... just throw them in there to take with you.
▪ Tell neighbor where you’re going. Have snacks, water and chargers with you. Some neighborhoods set up check in FB so everyone could say they were safe. PS: yes, you do need good insurance.
▪ Take pictures of everything in each room. Buy a small safe to keep important documents in all of the time. It’s easy to grab and will protect those papers in the event of fire at your home.
▪ Pre-pack the car.
▪ Buy a larger generator that will be able to power refrigerator/freezer and 1 air conditioning unit.
▪ We burned up a TV connecting it to the generator.
▪ Stay connected to neighbors via Facebook.
▪ Many of my friends in North Carolina got trapped with all the flooding and had no water or power for some at least a week ... they told me later that they wished they had left.
▪ We were told (in North Carolina) it was just gonna be a little storm, so we stayed. And it was just a little storm ... some wind and rain ... some trees fell. Then the water started rising and the flooding began. Wiped out the water supply and the power and cell signal. Weeks cut off from the world it seemed. Stock pile water and non perishables for life after the storm. Tubs of water for toilet flushing
▪ Make a hotel reservation sooner. More water. Know that you will not be returning soon.
▪ Wash all dirty laundry before the power goes out! If your have a top-loading washer, make the last load whites and add some bleach to the wash. This not only cleans the laundry, it also disinfects the tub of the machine. Then fill the machine with water. It will be safe for drinking. If you don’t have to drink it or use it otherwise during the storm, throw your dirty clothes in it after the electricity comes back on, and do a load of laundry.
▪ Being on vacation at Folly Beach I didn’t have property damage to worry about. It was more some of our choices led to inconveniences. First I should have had a full gas tank. We were almost on empty as we didn’t hardly move the car while we were there. Next was not staying up on the latest news reports. We woke up after taking a nap and found out Gov. Nikki Haley had announced evacuations (for the next day). We ate (mistake) and then tried to get gas. Everybody had same idea to leave early. We sat on a loop in Charleston for 2 hours without moving. Took us around 9 hours to get to Greenville.
▪ Fill your freezer and refrigerator with containers of water. I like gallon sized milk jugs. It helps to keep things cold. The more ice there is in the freezer, the slower it all melts. You can drink it, too.
▪ Do as many clothes washes as possible before the electricity goes out. Seriously. And run the dishwasher. Do not waste time planning your “The Hurricane Missed Us Again” party the way you did back in the 90s.
David Lauderdale: 843-706-8115, @ThatsLauderdale
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This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 8:35 AM with the headline "With Hurricane Irma gaining strength, here’s what the Lowcountry learned from Matthew."