How to survive a Cat5- what Irma taught me.

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This is an AMAZING guide to surviving a hurricane, especially if you live somewhere that’s hot.

Image: Hurricane Irma, NOAA, Public Domain,

I’m from the US Virgin Islands. Irma hit us with gusts of 230 and destroyed everything. 13 days later, Maria came through as a cat 5. I was without power or water for 121 days.

Here are some tips to make you more comfortable for these storms:

-Make block ice now. Take Tupperware, fill with water. Freeze it, remove when frozen and repeat. This ice can last for over a week and will turn your fridge and freezer into a cooler so you don’t lose a ton of food.

-Battery powered fan. This is arguably the most important item you’ll need because trying to sleep in the heat / humidity / still air is impossible. I could have sold a $8 fan from amazon for $100 easy. Cheap AA battery ones work fine, but I got a high capacity ryobi battery and a ryobi fan and it made a world of difference.

-Cash is king. Withdraw beforehand.

-Chips and salsa are the best food. No refrigeration, won’t spoil, and you can nibble on it anytime- even if you don’t have an appetite. Out of all the food we had this was always gone immediately.

-Fix a flat! Grab a few cans. Tons of nails and debris afterwards, flat tires are almost a certainty. Even better- tire plugs and a tire inflator.

-Headlamps are infinitely better than flashlights. You can cook / function and have both hands free.

Read much, much more here on Reddit: How to survive a Cat5- what Irma taught me.

He goes on:
-A knife, twine, duct tape, gloves and paracord will come in handy literally every day.

-Get pepper spray / tear gas ASAP. A ranged- non-lethal weapon is of absolute importance. If you only have non-ranged, you put yourself at a significant disadvantage.

For example, crackhead aggressively approaching you may or may not have a weapon (dealt with several of them). If you only have lethal, you may end up killing someone when it could have been easily avoided. If you draw with people around, you’ll cause panic and make yourself a HUGE target.

Get a military grade tear gas / pepper spray combo- it will instantly, involuntarily incapacitate anyone. Then run. Ideally, this is accompanied with a pistol.

He talks about a Bug-A-Salt gun. I somehow had never head of one. Apparently, it’s miniaturized shotgun effect is generated through an ingenious design. It says, prdinary table salt is utilized as a lethal projectile with accuracy range of within 3 feet. Bugs will remain whole for easy clean up. Watch this video (would you want salty doughnuts?) Has anyone used it? Here’s their promo video.