Jim Stone, Freelance Journalist
http://82.221.129.208/baaaasepaageg2.html

A lot of people are posting advice for the hurricane

Many people are trapped where they are, and can't evacuate even if they want to. Here's my advice with that, which is basically tornado advice.

Obviously with a hurricane there is more warning. Tape your windows off at a minimum. It won't stop them from breaking, but it will help control flying glass (for whatever that's worth, which will amount to what a piece of tape can do against a hurricane.) If you can't get wood to board up your windows, thick cardboard over them will be a lot better than nothing, and it will have to be nailed like wood. Find small pieces of wood at least, and nail through the small pieces into the cardboard so the wood will hold the cardboard.

Some people won't be able to do even that. If you can't get to a shelter and are stuck in your home, stay away from ALL WINDOWS. When a storm breaks a window, it is not like Hollywood. Your window won't start cracking to give you a warning, it will instead suddenly explode into thousands of tiny shards (unless it is broken by flying debris, which is actually better than having it explode.) The shards will fly faster than wind speed and stick in everything. The bottom line is that you can't be near windows at all.

If you are alone and can't get below ground, one of the safest places is to lay down in a first floor bathtub (if the house is coming apart). Obviously it can't have glass shower doors if you do this. It would be best to find a way to cover it in case there is falling debris, but it is still fairly well protected. The bathroom is a small room that is stronger than the larger rooms. If you have a bathroom with a door to the hallway and no windows because there is a bedroom between it and the outside, the bathtub in that bathroom is the safest place in the house. Being in it won't do any good if you have to share it and can't lay flat, on the bottom of it. If two people can lay sideways together and stay below the top, that's OK too. But you can't just sit in it with your head exposed.

The next safest place would be a hall closet. Then the hall. Then the bathtub in a bathroom that is not in the center of the house if the house has no hall. This might be somewhat equal to a bedroom closet which is not a very good choice because it is not much stronger than the rest of the house.

Zero trailers will survive Irma anywhere near landfall. All houses will be destroyed or damaged also. So your survival plan will be one which takes into consideration that the house will come apart. The last thing to go is always the bathtub.

Cut your own power

Don't wait for the power to go out by itself. When the storm is obviously getting nasty, go to the breaker panel and cut the power yourself. That will prevent a catastrophic death of the grid from sending surges to everything in the house and destroying everything that way.

Make plans in case you get lucky and have a few walls or more standing. If that happens, the fridge might still be there. So right now, turn your fridge and freezer to the coldest setting to give it a head start and help it through an extended power outage. Freeze as much water as possible. Load the shelves in the fridge as much as possible also, to weight it down (for whatever good that does, but it might help)

If it is there after the storm, when you get something plan ahead and be ready to grab whatever you want quickly so the door is not open any longer than it has to be.

Fill all empty containers right now. If you don't usually drink city water, it will still be better than puddles.

Turn all propane tanks off, at the tank. It would be good to put anything that can cook with propane, (plus the tank) in an area you think will stay safe.

There are little butane stoves that fit in a small back pack. They are the best for survival. They look like a small single burner stove. If you come across one, get it and a couple extra cans of butane. The butane cans don't look like Coleman canisters, they look like big cans of hair spray. The stoves are the ultimate in portable, and work great.