Hurricane Survival

So, the time has come....Hurricane season. It runs from June 1st to November 1st, with most of the tropical storm & hurricane activity occurring at the end of August to beginning of September. It's been all over the news here, but I'm not sure if y'all in the rest of the country know the current stats from NOAA.  This is there prediction so far not just for the Gulf of Mexico, but the entire Atlantic Basin.

• 14 to 23 Named Storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including:
• 8 to 14 Hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which:
• 3 to 7 could be Major Hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph)

The first thing I think when looking at these numbers is CRAP.  We arrived here last year and we experienced nothing, nada, zilch, when it came to "crazy" weather.  Sure we got the rain storms every afternoon with the loud thunder (which we have nicknamed "angels bowling" for the kids) and lightning, but other than that it was pretty boring.  And that was a good thing! 


We're actually in Phase III for evacuations which also includes all of metro New Orleans.  I believe that although I love my home, if they authorities placed an evacuation in order, we would stuff the car and head up to Oklahoma to be with family on the safe side.  My parents moved here just months before Katrina and although they didn't get much of anything from it (other than lots and lots of people), Gustav did hit and HARD!  It let it's fury out and they were without power for nearly a month waiting in line for gasoline everyday so they could keep the generator going so they wouldn't melt. 


  Below is a couple of pictures my mom took of some of the aftermath of Gustav on their street.

I'm going to be ready this year! 

Well, I'm going to be as prepared as best as I can!

I've gone through all the preparation guides and put together a list of things that would be good for our family.  I've not only started gathering supplies here and there, but made some cards detailing what to do and how to prepare when a hurricane is in the gulf, 12-24 hours before landfall, supplies, and food needed. I Put them into an excel spreadsheet, laminated them so I can use a dry erase marker to check off, and hung them on the tool peg board.

So when a hurricane or tropical storm travels into our "hood" at least we'll be prepared the best we can.  Sure being from the Northwest we're used to rain, ice storms, snow storms, and volcanoes.  But really that's just peanuts compared to the fury of a hurricane.  All that flight attendant training is kicking in and all I can think is "BRACE BRACE BRACE"!