Warmish, damp. Maybe clear after the rain yesterday. Who knows? The shadow knows. Weather liars certainly don’t.
Yesterday’s predicted high wind and storm missed me here in Northwest Houston. Southeast Houston didn’t get so lucky. I got about 1.5″ of rain in a couple of hours, with misty drizzle the rest of the time. Some thunder and lightning. They got high winds and tornadoes.
Looking at the pictures, you can clearly see why you should have preps stored offsite. It was years ago, looking at pictures of the aftermath of several tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma, that I got serious about putting some resources elsewhere. I haven’t kept up with clothes as the kids have grown, nor feminine products, but we’ve got food, heat, cooling, light, power, etc. and some place to stay if needed. Adding the BOL has really helped my peace of mind that we now have somewhere to go, and stuff waiting for us there.
If you don’t have a BOL, and most people don’t, talk seriously with friends or relations. Put a plan in place ahead of time. In California they used to suggest NOT keeping your earthquake kit in the house. Instead they suggested bins in a light shed, or out behind the house. The idea being the kit wouldn’t be buried under collapsed house when you needed it most. Think hard about doing something similar, no matter where you are.
Another option would be a small storage unit. Ideally it would be out of town, not too far away, but on your most likely evac route. Should have 24hr access even without power. A few bins of canned food, some water, some clothes, some hygiene products, a couple of toys for the kids, an encrypted thumb drive with critical paperwork stored on it- doesn’t take up that much room, but could go a long way toward keeping you alive, comfortable, and sane if something should happen to your home. Doesn’t have to be like a prepper novel… just enough to keep body and soul together for a few days while you figure out the next step.
Prepping is fractal in nature. That is, for every task, there are dozens of prerequisite tasks, and follow up tasks, the deeper you go, the more tasks reveal themselves. Like a mandelbrot set though, they keep repeating their basic nature. Get some stuff. Learn some thing. Learn about more stuff to get, more stuff to learn. Rinse and repeat. It’s a journey, not a destination. You can put as much or as little into it as you are comfortable doing, but do SOMETHING.
Stacking is easy. And useful.
nick
–as usual, if anyone is in the affected areas and needs something we can help with, let us know.