Hurricane evacuation....what do you take vs leave?

[z7]

Looks like Irma might swing my way so the wife and I are reviewing our plans. The firearms are going with us. we have important documents and computers/hard drives ready to pack up.
I have insurance that will cover everything in my house (minus guns. . .different policy) but are there items in your reloading/shooting kit that you would not want to have to find a replacement for? I already know I can't take all my kids toys, furniture, clothes and books. It is unrealistic to expect to save everything, besides guns and priceless things like my wife's wedding dress, hard drives with tons of family photos, is anything worth messing with trying to save?

with the reloading market as it currently sits, is there anything that is extremely hard to get? (13,000 primers, 12lbs of various powder) dies, presses, scales, trimmers, etc.

when/if I evacuate I will assume a total loss, that is extremely unlikely, but I will not be trapped like those poor folks in Texas, i have advanced warning and the means to escape.

how would you prep you reloading stuff? would you even bother to coat presses in oil? pack them up in plastic tubs?

right now it is too early to determine if I even have to worry, but if this bad boy crosses FL with some strength I am going to leave and hope for the best. I think most people should review their household and figure out what is most important vs what is nice to have anyway,

 

[wally]

Certainly too early to flee, but you also want to be in the first wave to leave instead of the peak. IMHO mass evacuations need a lot more work, planning, and hate to say it, but laws to insure orderly evac.

Early on people with no skin in the game were second guessing and criticizing County leadership (R) and City leadership (D) for not ordering evacuations. Short memories I guess. the ultimately unneeded evacuation for Rita killed more people than the storm did, and about double what seem to have perished with this one, hopefully the body count (not counting looters) is approaching its max.

We have evacuation zones A-E with A the biggest risk and those not in E stay put! You run from the water and hide from the wind! They need to close all incoming routes to the evacuation area, start traffic contraflow, and block all major access to the evac routes so only A can leave initially, then B, etc. For Rita people well out of evacuation zones paniced and left choking the roads to the south creating massive gridlock. Also one vehicle per family -- most everyone tried to "save" all their cars only to lose many of them later as they ended up abandoned along the road for lack of fuel -- mostly burned up stuck in gridlock.

If you want my opinion of post storm priorities, hardening the power grid is far more important that "Ike dikes" or more flood control (which saves some, but floods others who would have been fine). There were only minor power outages across the Houston area (which I consider a major miracle, but only because we had little wind here) -- on the order of a "normal" strong thunderstorm moving through, but few of these outages could be repaired for days simply because crews couldn't get to the islands created by the floods. Panic, death tools and peoples behavior would have been a lot different if nobody knew what was going on as it was happening!

Put the ammo, components etc. as off the the floor as practical and don't worry about the tools they will either be fine with some clean-up afterwards or the least of your worries.

I don't have the DNA to be a refugee, Warlord of the survivors is more my genotype

 

[jmr40]

Important papers, car titles, will's, insurance papers, prescription meds, etc. Just a hand full of small sentimental items that cannot be replaced. Think about this in advance. One gun, probably a G19 for me. I keep a bug out bag packed with enough food, water and supplies for 3 days. You likely won't have time to gather much, nor any place to store it until you get back. If it won't fit in a large daypack or small backpack leave it.

 

[jmr40]

double post, deleted.

 

[BobTheTomato]

Not sure what your situation is (house, apt, ect) but could you put stuff in an attic or in upper cabinets in the kitchen? If you have a vacuum sealer you could protect primers and what not that way. If powder is in jugs and the lids are on tight it should be fine (could always put the bottle in a ziplock also)

 

[z7]

Gents,
thanks for the comments, Wally, I hope everything will be alright for you, great point on 1 vehicle, the wife and I were planning on two vehicles, we can fit more stuff that way, but that is an excellent point. I do not live in an "evacuation zone" determined by the state of florida, low risk for flooding, BUT i will take my kids (5 and 3) and the wife and drive north until the weather is nice. no sense in sitting around here if the winds get bad and the power goes out.

 

[chicharrones]

I've never evacuated from any storm in southeast Texas so far. That's going back to Hurricane Alicia in 1983 when I was 18. Reason being, I don't live in sight of the coast, I've always lived in homes that are relatively high, and those homes were/are not near a flood control reservoir.

However if I had to evacuate, all the firearms and ammo I wouldn't carry would be upstairs in the safe. I could only hope the house wouldn't take on a tornado or looters. Likely, the only firearms I would be able to take in the car, due to luggage and family, would be probably my RM380, CZ75DPCR, an AR in taken down form, and some ammo for the three of them.

The good thing is, in all the storm and flood events I've seen here, I've never needed a firearm.

 

[Armored farmer]

That's a good question, one that I'm not too prepared to answer, even for my own family.

Probably edc gear,
Flashlights
Water
Energy/granola bars
Prescription medications
Maybe spare fuel.

Maybe spend some time boarding up and weatherproofing.

 

[hdwhit]

Your big problems with a hurricane are wind and the change in air pressure.

As the winds rush over a roof, the Bernoulli effect causes the air pressure over the roof to reduce while the sealed up house remains at normal air pressure and the roof will either literally start to fly or the pressure difference will casue the house to "explode". Traditional construction (i.e. pre-1980) in south Florida was to make a shell of cement block topped by asbestos tiles - somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 tons, too heavy to fly. Such houses rode out multiple storms including Hurricane Andrew.

If you have a traditional "stick built" house built after they strengthened the building codes in the wake of Andrew, you should be okay if the builder wasn't corrupt and really observed the changes. If you're not sure, plan for a total loss.

Best thing you can do would be to check on the web for instructions on how to make plywood (don't cheap out and use masonite, particle board or waferboard) covers for your windows and sliding glass doors that will allow you to leave the windows open to vent the house. This will save you from having the house explode and minimize water damage (although there will be some, the windows are open after all). When I lived in Florida, we used these on a couple of occasions when Hurricanes threatened and even though the storms all weakened to gale force from hurricane force by the time they came on land, the covers worked very well.

 

[hdwhit]

I know it's going to sound trite, but check Ready.gov They have checklists categorized by the kind of natural disaster that list things you need to have in your "Go Bag", including things you might not have thought about. It's really pretty good.

Irreplaceable items with sentimental value need to go. Guns that can be replaced need to stay in the safe where they are probably safest.

Go ahead and make hotel reservations for the time the storm is expected to make landfall that are not pre-paid (and thus can be canceled) in a city you can drive to on a single tank of gas.

 

[Robert]

While I know recent events, and possible future events, are on everyone's mind, the discussion of preping for a disaster outside of how to handle firearms and related accessories is off topic for THR.