Rambling thoughts
Our own Doc1 provided the best example I know of for how to handle something like Katrina. I feel fortunate to have been able to follow the development and execution of his bugout bus plan. He's my hero!
Doc, every other survivor and commentator is doing their year after followups to Katrina- how about one from you?
Thanks again,
dd
Dozdoats,
Thank you for your kind words, I think everyone on this thread so far has offered good advice. Here are some of my rambling thoughts.
One shouldn't rely on .gov or NGO help as an immediate emergency fallback. That's where most people made mistakes. If you can remain self-sufficient at least in the shortrun, you will be in a much better position to selectively choose what assistance, if any, you want.
We have relatives who were completely unprepped and lost their home and employment. As a result, they accepted one of the SBA loans that the authorities were pushing so hard after the storm. Needless to say, they had to sign over their land as collateral and are now in debt for a ridiculous amount for what is really a cheap mobile home.
We on the other hand are rebuilding slowly. It was our firm intent that we would not go into debt as a result of the storm. Losses we could accept. That's life. Debt slavery is a whole 'nother ball game! Our approach was - and still is - that we would gratefully accept free assistance, but under no circumstance take on debt. I believe that the worst possible thing to do to a community in the aftermath of a disaster is to saddle its inhabitants with debt. Unfortunately, this has happened across the Gulf Coast.
I spent a lot of time - and still do - after the storm collecting good, salvageable lumber, doors, windows and other building material. This is saving us a small fortune in building our cottage. Margie and I have done most of our own work so far, but have been blessed by three visits from volunteer workers who helped with a lot of heavy labor.
Even here, you have to be prepared. Most of the volunteers are college kids who are energetic and intelligent, but don't have a clue as to what they're doing. You need to be ready to assume an immediate supervisory role in cases like this. Otherwise, some of what they might do can cause more harm than good. One crew was actually very good and their leaders were trade school construction teachers, so I immediately deferred to them as supervisors. Again, be flexible and react constructively to changing circumstances.
There's an old oil patch saying that sums things up nicely: "We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we are now capable of doing absolutely anything...with nothing."
We are in a small, mostly white homogenous county, so did not have the crime, strife or racial problems witnessed in New Orleans. There was very little of the LEO heavy-handedness alluded to in other posts. As you know, we evacuated early, so I didn't have to deal with the very first days personally. Still, I did return in the first week and many times afterwards to bring in relief convoys. From my own experience and through anecdotal reports, I think it's fair to say that of the major Katrina-affected coastal areas, as far as crime and chaos went, New Orleans was by far the worst, Harrison County (next to us and including Gulfport and Biloxi) were a (very) distant second, Jackson County (including Pascagoula) was third and our very own little Hancock County was by far the safest. Deciding where to live is a MAJOR prep decision...
Other post-event observations: Be ready to take advantage of changing situations and opportunities. Yes, you have to be a bit mercenary about these things. A lot of aid initially came in feast or famine spurts. For the first few days and weeks, food and water were short. as supplies eventually began to roll in, what started as a trickle became a flood. A lot of people either didn't want or didn't understand what some of these supplies were. Nitrogen-packed dehydrated survival food came in by scores of pallets. Hardly anyone wanted to take it. Margie and I loaded the boat (or in our case, bus)! MREs were a very popular food source initially and then became so common, that people either wouldn't take them - favoring more conventional groceries - or discarded them. Needless to say, we scooped up all extras we could find.
We still have a lot of these things and they added to our preps substantially. As you can imagine, even after the lessons of Katrina, a lot of people are back to having no stored water or food... Oh, well.
As you know, we were exceedingly well-prepped with our two little diesel trucks, converted school bus and stored supplies. The bus allowed us to evacuate virtually all of our expensive portable items and at least as importantly, allowed us to live comfortably in a safe area during and after the storm. A converted bus is hardly palatial, but compared to the thousands living in squalor on their lawn or in public shelters after the flooding, it was a slice of heaven. It was brutally hot after the storm and our bus has a chest freezer and AC, both of which can operate off of the bus' on board electrical system.
From a legal perspective, as a registered motor home, it also provided legal safeguards here in Mississippi. We never had any problems, but here, a motorhome, unlike a car, is considered a residence and the occupants are accorded more legal protections on public roads. This could be important in certain circumstances.
The scarcest commodities here, for a prolonged period, were electricity and fuel. As I have stated endlessly, serious preppers need to get away from gasoline and move into a personal diesel economy. Gasoline was very difficult to get for a protracted period. Diesel was far easier to get and more importantly, easier and safer to store. A lot of folks here thought they were well-prepped with their gas generators, only to discover after two or three days that their nice gas gennies were expensive paperweights without fuel. Diesels don't work well without fuel either, but with our hundreds of gallons of stored fuel, we had no problems in that regard.
Sure, you can live without electricity, but it's so much nicer to have it available! I think a lot of the post-storm mortality spike can be directly attributed to the elderly and infirm being stressed out and suddenly subjected to the awful, hot and humid conditions. Things are bad enough after a disaster...you don't need to make things harder on yourself. Please see my previous posts on inverter systems. I very strongly advise you to consider doing something similar.
Our electricity was based on high output vehicle alternators and inverters. They performed adequately for 90% of our needs. Over the past year, I have built a diesel "listeroid" generator, too. That should cover the other 10% and it's more economical than running our vehicle engines to generate power.
Well, there's lots more, but I already feel like I'm writing a book...lol. A neighbor just called and needs me (she really needs my big truck) to help her with something, so I need to go. As always, I'm happy to answer anyone's questions here or in PM.
Best regards
Doc
