Post-Hurricane Ian Report

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

So it's been a week-plus since Ian hit and things are pretty much back to normal here. This was the first hurricane I've bunkered down for and I found it an excellent learning experience. Before I share with you what I've learned, though, I first need to say something: 

I don't care what the news says, that was a Category 1 hurricane and NOT a tropical storm that hit us. I base this assertion on two factors:

1. I have lived in Florida since the late 1980s and I've experienced plenty of tropical storms. I have never seen a tropical storm knock out power across entire counties that took days to restore, nor have I seen it knock down trees. Tree limbs, yes; entire trees, no. But I have seen the after-effects of Cat 1 hurricanes which have done exactly that. 
2. When Ian hit Florida it missed being a Cat 5 by only two miles per hour of windspeed, and it was a Cat 3 (likely a high Cat 3, too) when it made its way to central Florida. I don't know if I have the vocabulary to tell you just how impressively strong that is; most hurricanes rapidly lose strength when they come ashore, but this beast was a Cat 3 at the halfway point. Further, when it finished crossing the peninsula and hit the Atlantic, it didn't take Ian long to be classified as a Cat 1 hurricane, which is also very rare and impressive. 

So I don't care what the media says, Ian was a Cat 1 when it came through my part of Florida. Fortunately, we only had some knocked-down trees and a power loss of about 30 hours; no one in our neighborhood suffered any damage except for losing some roof tiles (which, again, hurricanes do, but not tropical storms).

With that said, I'm going to review what I learned from this experience. 

I get bored very easily without power, especially if I'm also hot. When I don't have air conditioning I basically turn into a sloth, keeping my activity to a minimum in order to stay as cool as possible. Without power, that means either reading or using battery powered electronics to entertain me. Fortunately for me I have all sorts of battery banks for electronics and spare AA and AAA batteries, both rechargeable and alkaline, so this was never a concern for me. 

My back yard gets a lot of good light, suitable for solar panels, from at least 9 am to 5 pm. I was worried that I might have to recharge in the side yard, or worse in the driveway, but no, my secured back yard can handle that. I did have to move the panels a bit over the course of those 8 hours, but it was only a few feet rather than hauling them across the yard. On a related note, I also learned that if you have a lot of devices with panels (such as the ones mentioned in this blog post), set up a card table and put the panels on it. That way, when you need to re-position, you can just move the entire table at once rather than moving each piece individually. 

https://amzn.to/3VkPwMt

The 'candle' function of my Maglite Minis, which I first thought was laughable, proved to be surprisingly useful. We had plenty of light in the form of lanterns and headlamps, and we used those, but these flashlights were the surprise MVPs in terms of sheer convenience. Headlamps are great for reading and working, but it's annoyingly easy to flash someone else's eyes while using them. Lanterns waste a lot of light by throwing it everywhere; rather than  illuminating an entire room, they instead only lit up a five-foot radius around the lantern sufficiently to read or do tasks. Everything past that was at the level of "We can see where things are, but really need more light for tasks requiring perception and/or fine motor skills, like preparing meals." The Maglite Minis occupied a sweet spot for us: small enough to be easily portable or stowed in pockets, throwing a bright enough spot far enough for most tasks, and easily converted into a mini lantern (i.e. 'candle mode') to light up what we need to see without blinding us. As a bonus, the fact that they use two AA batteries meant that we didn't have to worry about running out any time soon. 

The BioLite CampStove proved its worth. As I mentioned in a previous post, the BioLite isn't a great survival stove but it works like a champ with wood pellets. Instead of firing up the barbecue grill to heat our meals -- which would have taken time to build the fire, making us hotter while we tended to it and leaving us smelling of smoke -- I just lit some wood pellets inside the BioLite and we were ready to eat within five minutes. As a bonus, I was able to recharge my phone as I heated our meal. This was useful as my phone was the only way to stay in touch with loved ones, keep tabs on the storm, and check to see where we were in the repair queue.

https://amzn.to/3rMIUcm

I had a secret weapon: a 10,000 mAh battery-powered fan. Just having air blowing over my face makes me more comfortable, even if the rest of me is hot, and this really helped me relax enough to fall asleep. Its Amazon page claims it has enough internal power to run for 6 hours on high, 12 hours on medium, and 24 hours on low. I didn't test those claims because I hooked it up to one those aforementioned battery banks, and it ran for 9 hours on medium without any problems. 

I need a battery solution for my CPAP. Now that I've become used to sleeping with something strapped to my face shooting pressurized air into my lungs, going to bed without it feels awkward and difficult, like I'm trying to perform a complex task without the right tools. Most CPAP batteries are only good for one night, maybe more if I don't use the humidifier which heats a plate to evaporate water inside a reservoir. I think the best solution for me is to get an electricity usage monitor plug to determine how many watts I'm drawing, then find a "solar generator" -- essentially a large power bank with the ability to deliver 12V output and a corresponding solar panel for it -- in the biggest size I can afford. That will give me at least one night of CPAP, possibly more, and the ability to recharge the bank during the day. This will be expensive ("new gun" expensive, if that means anything to you), so I will be doing a lot of research on this before buying anything. 

I am extremely fortunate that the extent of Hurricane Ian's effect on me and my family was inconvenience and minor discomfort. Others weren't so lucky, so if you'd like to make a charitable donation I recommend the Florida Disaster Fund.