[njbchbum]

Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

Folks, for Florida, the center of the state is the safe place.

Here is how you prepare for a hurricane.

1. Have an adequate supply of drinking water. Depending upon how many people are in your household, go out and buy a few cases of bottled water. Enough for several days. Just in case.

2. Have an adequate supply of canned food for the entire family for several days.

3. Plan on losing household electricity. Have some candles, and perhaps a Coleman camp lantern for illumination. Have a couple of flashlights and fresh batteries.

Have a battery operated radio for the likelihood that you will lose cable or satellite TV due to losing electricity.

You can go for days without electricity. Pretend you are out camping in the woods, except you have a nice house to stay in instead of a tent.

The odds are you will still be able to cook on your gas stoves.

(I have camp stoves and a propane gas grill. Cooking is no problem. Mainly I heat up soups and other canned goods.)

4. Fill up the gas tanks on your car and your golf cart. After a few days you may need to go get water or groceries.

You can handle this.

Great recommendations - all of which were used during Superstorm Sandy!

Also used our outdoor solar path lights for nightime lighting - they charge during the day and are effective after dark.

We also made sure the propane tank for the gas grill was filled - often used as food defrosted in the freezer - made for some "fun" neighborhood smorgasbords!

Also had a small supply of kitchenware that could be used on the grill - learned to make what I call Cowboy Coffee:

Fill coffee filter with maximum/desired amount of grounds;
Secure with twist tie;
Toss into pot, bring appropriate amount of water to boil;
Boil to desired strength!

It's hard enough to cope with inconvenience - but doing it without morning coffee - no way!

Re cellphones and laptops - we have car chargers for each so that they can be used thru power failures.