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 sch...

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 batter...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 o...