Disaster Journals - Stories of disasters before, during and after.

On Friday, Manhattan stopped fuel rationing.  The rationing had been enforced since November 9th. Two fifteen gallon barrels arrived a couple of days ago.  I plan on filling them with fuel and fuel stabilizer then storing them for a rainy day to power the generator and/or the cars. I'm looking to get an electrician in to wire the house or the household heating system into our generator.  An appointment that was scheduled for Friday didn't take place as the electrician didn't show up.

This is the first entry not counting days before or after Superstorm Sandy.  I decided to stop using this method of entries since all physical effects of the Superstorm on my families life have ended now that internet has been restored and my car repaired.  But that doesn't mean everyone is back to normal.  I saw three separate places where trucks were repairing downed lines today.  Plus the occasional utility truck is spotted.  Up until about a week ago utility trucks were driving around in convoys. Today, I worked on planning a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training class session to train four people who are interested in joining our county team. Interest in the county CERT has picked up when Superstorm Sandy came to town.  It's a sad fact that the average person does not think about disaster preparedness until the event is upon them (when it's nearly too late).  I am trying to take advantage of the spike in interest in the team by scheduling a custom set o

Over the weekend, I got under my car and fixed the damaged heat shield/exhaust system cover by using washers on both sides of the shield to support the holes which had been torn out leaving nowhere for the bolts to hold it.  The fix is holding up so far.  The part had been hit with some road debris after the hurricane and had torn loose from the bolts that had been supporting it.  Luckily, the way it is installed, it cannot fall off completely.  But it did rattle quite a bit and alarmed me until I found out what was causing the noise. Another item that I took care of was changing the oil on our generator, tightening the bolts and cleaning the air filter out.  Plus adding fuel stabilizer to the fuel in the generator to keep it in ready condition for out next outage.  I am not sure that I solved the leaky oil condition on the generator and hope that tightening up the bolts helped. Also, over the weekend, my son and I went over all the recently used batteries, with a battery tester. T

My wife reached out to an chimney sweep company which sells and installs wood stoves.  The quote that we got to get a wood stove installed in our rental house was $3,000.  We both thought that something in the $1,500 dollar range would be acceptable.  Especially considering that our landlord said that he might be able to supply us with wood for free from his landscaping business.  But for $3,000 and considering we would probably leave the stove behind due to the cost of moving it and not knowing how long we plan on staying in the rental it seems like spending this kind of money might not be economical for us. So that leaves open question, how do we stay warm in a future grid down situation when the only means of heating our house is based on it receiving electricity to heat the water used to circulate through the base boards of the house to warm the air?  Our current generator does not produce 240 volt electricity, which I believe is needed to power our water heating system.  It seem

Gas rationing ended, in New Jersey, at 6AM this morning.  I took the car in to a local repair shop this morning in the hopes that they could safely remove the other bolts that used to be attaching the heat shield to the car.  Currently the shield is just stuck on by gravity holding it down on the exhaust system.  They called to say that the bolts were sheared off.  OH JOY! They couldn't do the repair.  I may try to take it to the dealer in the future.  In the meantime I need to decide whether to leave or remove the loose heat shield and deal with the consequences. Last week, on Friday, some repairs were being done to one of the recently replaced telephone poles.  The cable service was up then down then up again.  In the end our land line (DSL) internet stopped working.  We've been without internet access at home since Friday.  Luckily I am able to get some service through my 3g smartphone but the speed at my house is close to the speed of an old 56kbps baud mode

It seems I've picked up a hitchhiker under my car.  There has been plenty of debris from trees on the streets and I've noticed a new rattling sound in the undercarriage somewhere.  I'm going to have to examine the car to see if I can find where the sound is coming from and where it is exactly. Upon closer examination, I found that a heat shield/exhaust pipe cover had been detached from all of its bolts.  I believe driving over some debris may have caused this damage.  The shield sits between the drive shaft of my car and the exhaust system.  While attempting a repair one bolt sheared off completely.  So now I've got to get it drilled and tapped out.  It's been two weeks since Superstorm Sandy tore the NorthEast a new one. Items I am looking into to prepare for the next BIG ONE include: Wood Stove Portable propane water heating system. Yesterday, we had fantastic weather and the temperature go up into the high sixties. Things I did included: Sh

Today we drove to Long Island and drove through part of Queens on the way to my mother-in-laws.  The first gas station that we saw had a sign saying "NO GAS".  The next few also had no gas.  Next were a few open ones with long lines of cars waiting for their turn to fill up.  Most stations had no gas.  The few that were open had long gas lines.  Utility company trucks were seen driving around.  Especially in one area where the power was still out and the traffic lights were not working. Upon arriving at my mother-in-laws we surveyed the damage downstairs.  Her house is on a pond at sea level just off the Long Island Sound.  A surge of water about five feet or so high came out of the pond all at once and went about one-hundred feet uphill from the pond and flooded her downstairs basement/living area.  The insurance company has already had the remediation folks out and the floor has been gutted and the ruined material is out on the front and rear lawns.  Dehum

Sandy + 11 (2012-11-09) One of my daughters has a bad cold which has worked its way into her chest.  It has me half considering give her antibiotics.  Currently we are having her take a lot of vitamin C many times a day.  I have a variety of antibiotics for fish.  Based on my research these antibiotics are often the same as ones for humans.  If we were still in a grid down, services down situation, as was the case last week, I might be giving these to her.  At this point we will wait to decide whether to have a doctor check her condition. I placed a variety of online orders for pens, notebooks and a radio today.  Good pens are important to me in that when I need to write a note down in a stressful situation the damn thing better work.  The pens were: Fisher Space Pen Pilot G-2 07 - black ink Bic - 60 throwaway cheap functional pens to issue in emergencies at shelters or wherever. Other stuff ordered included: Rite-In-Rain Tactical Pocket Notebook Rite-In-Rain Tac

Give me a hot cup of hell YEAH! Had a cup of Joe (coffee) today.  Made at home with E-LEC-TRI-CI-TY! Hot damn! Last night I headed home, during the Nor'Easter, from the county EOC around Midnight as they were closing down.  The Nor'Easter turned out to be a non-event in our county.  Mostly snow and not much wind. Got home around 1AM to find three to four inches of snow on my unplowed local street and driveway.  I pressed the garage door opener button and that magic man known as E-LEC-TRI-CI-TY started opening the garage door for me.  Then it stopped working while it was only one-third of the way open!  Huh?  After pressing the magic button a few more times I determined that the garage door did not want to open completely.  So I left it partially open.  Troubleshooting the door can wait until morning. Next problem, the AWD vehicle could not completely make it up our steep driveway so I made sure she was off the road and left her where she had been merrily spinni

If life were a TV episode this episode might be called one of the following: "Athena" or "Sick House" or "Jo Jo's Circus" or "Night of the Mistral" Each title has it's own story to tell... The family and I spent the night at a nearby friends house who returned from her parent's home in Maryland because her power had been restored.  She has a wood stove so heating is guaranteed at her house. ATHENA - The first named Nor'Easter of the season comes one week after super storm Sandy.  WTF!?  The Weather Channel started naming winter storms although the National Weather Service does not recognize the naming convention that TWC is using.  So far the storm has likely caused many traffic accidents.  I have heard of no other major headaches yet cause by the storm.  Snow is accumulating on the ground now. SICK HOUSE All girls in the house that I am staying in have some sort of cold/flu/strep thing going on.  So far my wife, my son

MY WORKPLACE Is still closed, due to no power. OUR HOUSE Has no power and is 45 degrees inside it.  We can run propane or electric heaters.  I just haven't gone full bore on heating as it would burn through all our fuel quicker.  Plus the wife had taken the kids to another house and has now returned to town with the kids but is now staying at another friends house who just had her utilities restored.  I had driven to her house to see if power was on this morning.  The damage, downed trees and lines, on the roads to her house was incredible.  Side note:  This friend's house has a small tree down on the lines to the house.  But the lines have held and the tree is supported by another tree.  So if the incoming Nor'Easter doesn't finish the job the friend's house has a chance of retaining the utility services. RUMORS A couple of days ago I read a comment on a blog post about their being bodies pulled out of the wreckage everywhere along the coast i

The wife couldn't handle the cold anymore.  To maintain her sanity, which is good for all of the family, she took the kids and drove to a friends house twenty-six miles away.  The friend has power so they were able to get warm showers and keep warm.  Before she left, I stuck a five-gallon container of water and Go bag in the back of the van.  When I started to mention the water she started freaking out saying "Why would I need that!".  <SIGH>  What do you do with a non-prepper mind like that?  I need to bring her up into the right frame of mind. After the wife and kids left I got everything ship shape at home.  After a bit of cleaning, I got tired of my dirty hair, which I was trying to grow out for the winter,  and sat outside on the deck in the thirty-seven degrees air, and gave myself a crew cut.  It was nippy before the haircut and extra nippy afterwards.  It's wool knit cap time.  After the crew cut, I hopped into the freezing shower, but before

This morning we could all see our breathe in the house.  It was a cool 53 degrees while outside it was 36.  We are expecting low temperatures down to about 23 in the coming days.  So off to the mall we went.  The cost was one gallon of gas. As gas rationing started today, gas lines have grown.  The police presence has grown at the gas stations and they are now doing traffic control in the lines. I unintentionally ended up in a gas line without knowing it today.  I was going to make a right turn and eventually discovered that the unmoving mass of cars in front of me was a line for gas going around the corner to an unseen gas station.  One picture of one of the three gas lines I saw today is attached.  As far as how the rationing works, it is based on your license plate.  I am allowed to get in line to fill up my cars on odd numbered days.  It's lucky for me that I was able to fill up the car and gas cans yesterday. Read the news about growing gas lines here: NJ gas l

Waiting in a gas line at an unseen gas station. The day started earlier than I planned with an early morning call to me about staffing the POD (Point of Distribution) that is handing out water and ice in a nearby town.  After a frantic set of calls and a bit of luck I was able to get additional support for the POD.  I've switched to fuel conservation mode where I am trying to call up people closest to the area of need and only if they can afford the fuel cost to get to the place of need.  Some of the team's cars are running on fumes now and we will soon be absolutely ineffective unless we get more fuel.  The county might, repeat, might be able to drive volunteers to areas they are needed or provided special fuel allotments to them.  But that action has not been taken yet. This led to the wife being a very unhappy camper as she was done freezing (I have the ability to heat one room in the house but that wasn't what she wanted) at home and needed to get OUT NOW.

Spent most of the day calling out CERT members to work at the Point of Distribution (PODs) handing ice and water today and tomorrow.  The way a POD works is people drive up in their vehicles and volunteers load the allotted goods into the vehicles.  If the team was a combat unit I would deem us combat ineffective at this point.  Despite lack of power, internet, no landline and sporadic cell phone service, we did field four people for the POD today and five for tomorrow.  The fire departments are assisting with labor at the PODs and the more of us that show up the longer breaks they can get between call outs.  I ended up working the POD for a few hours today. Power is on at our local library and tons of people were taking advantage of the internet access and warm surroundings.  Mail service is not happening and yet today I got home to find that UPS had delivered a package. Lines at the few open gas stations are unbelievably long.  Police officers were posted at the two open s

It's Halloween tonight but there is no way anyone is going Trick or Treating.  It's too dangerous outside at night with the downed power lines and trees that are around the neighborhoods.   Our street has a set of poles and lines down on either end of the street.  We we nearly trapped by these lines but one of them went down at an intersection leaving one way out of the neighborhood.  I have heard another report that the wireless phone company is running out of fuel for the generators powering the cell towers.  While at the county EOC I received a request for fuel for the cell tower generators so I know that this is a real possibility. If they go down I will have no way of communicating with you. To verify communications, as we discussed before, I will contact you at 8pm (EST) and 9:30am (EST) every day.  If you don't hear from me it will be because I cannot contact you. Neighbors with land lines have no phone service.  All lined service is out. No fuel in town.  Lines

0331 (3:31AM) With our internet and cable systems down and many police and fire departments standing down due to the wind speed I decided it was a good time to catch a nap.  I had left my sleeping bag in my car and there was no way that I was going out in the storm to get it.  So I found an empty cell, the county EOC is a former detention center and I grabbed three hours of restless sleep. 0849 (8:49AM) EMAIL TO MY BOSS: "I'm sure you've seen the news.  Our EOC is without TV or Internet service.  We are mostly in the dark regarding the media outlets.  A few of us have tethered internet devices.  New jersey has 1 million plus without power.  Pretty much the entire county I live in has no power.  There's no way I can get home and if I was home there is no way I could leave. How is the office doing?" The response was that the office was without power and only essential personnel, which I was not classified as, should be at the office. 0931 (9:31AM) I j

At 6AM I reported for work at the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC).  Even though things were just gearing up and the storm's major impact was hours away, the adrenaline was pumping through my veins for hours after my arrival.  I was assigned the duty of coordinated any post disaster response with our CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) of volunteers and taking situation reports, via email, from our municipalities in the county.  Once my work assignment was established, I unloaded some gear from my car including my 72 hour MRE kit (Meals Ready to Eat) but not including my sleeping bag (the lack of unloading my sleeping bag will come back to bite me later.) As you might expect things started out slowly as the superstorm churned its way closer and closer to New Jersey.  Eventually it made landfall around 6PM-7PM.  At some point in the early afternoon the EOC was switched off the grid power and went to its emergency generator.  This was before any major power disruptions

Hurricane Sandy is one day away from impact with our state.  Most of my personal preparations have been completed.  The one thing that I wish I had more time to do was to familiarize the wife with things like the shaker siphons and larger water pump that we have to get water out of our 55 gallon drum. My son and I along with a small group of volunteers and a larger group of prisoners from the county jail spent the morning filling sandbags.  After we left the sand bagging detail to the prisoners we headed home and I prepared my overnight go bag and gear.  I had been asked earlier in the day to report to the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC) by 6AM Monday morning.  Based on my experience with Hurricane Irene from last year, I did not plan on being able to go home for a few days. Some of the things that I packed included: 2.5 gallons of water in a military style water can. 72 hour MRE food kit. Sleeping bag. 3 Flashlights and one camping lantern plus batteries. Portable A

Saturday, October 27, 2012 Superstorm Sandy -2 I started out the day attending a meeting of local OEM (Office of Emergency Management) officials at our county Emergency Operations Center.  The general consensus was that the hurricane was going to seriously impact our area. The rest of the day was spent in preparation for hurricane Sandy to strike the area sometime Monday. I spent some time filling up a 55 gallon water drum and many 5 gallon water cans with a mixture of water and chlorine.  When you mix the proper amount of water and chlorine (from unscented chlorine bleach) your water will store longer without growing any unwanted critters in it. I also went out and filled the three five gallon fuel cans that I have with premium gasoline for my gas powered 4000 watt generator.  After I picked up the fuel, my son and I moved the generator out of the garage and rolled it around the back of the house and placed it on our back deck along with the full fuel cans.  I covered the gene

This is my first entry in this blog. So to start this off, who am I? I am a computer I.T. professional and a volunteer disaster worker in a Community Emergency Response Team.  I currently live in Northwest New Jersey in the the New Jersey Highlands.  I grew up in Northern California with the ever present threat of earthquakes.  Disaster preparedness has always been something that I've been aware of or actively engaging in. When Superstorm Sandy rolled in to our neck of the woods temporarily turning our lives upside down is when I started sending out emails/notes to like minded friends on what I was learning through the experience of a major grid down situation. Those emails/notes are what I will start this blog off with.  As time goes on and Superstorm Sandy fades into a distant memory, I hope to continue this blog with updates on disaster preparedness. Only time will tell how long I keep this up.