I count myself as fortunate to not have suffered as much as others locally in recent flooding but thereÂ’s nothing like the real thing to educate yourself about what you need to get through. Both from a survival perspective and maintaining sanity.
None of this is a rant or woe is me, itÂ’s all meant as message to all about preparedness, because once transport links are cut your preparations are all you have.
So in town day one, our first experience is just enough surface flooding to not go to work, about 30mins after calling boss power goes out followed shortly after by phone and internet. This is the start of what would become nearly a week of zero electricity and about three days of no phone.
When cell coverage does come back it was basically txts only, data was unusable.
During this time rumours run rampant as the grapevine is only news source outside of those with battery powered radios.
ItÂ’s not until Friday when one of my neighbours scores a generator that we get to see tv news and start to understand the level of devastation, even the new it still takes time to really sink in.
I managed to stay away from supermarket for a week with what I had in cupboards but apparently things were tense and feral at times in early days due to lack of info on what help was coming.
If you though covid ques were bad that was nothing, people also ques for gas to go nowhere on closed roads. ThereÂ’s only two petrol stations that still fill LPG bottles the que was over two hours for that.
First couple nights were like scenes from apocalypse now movie as dozens of helicopters carried on their rescue missions flying low level over suburbs due to low cloud.
Anyhow grateful to have a roof over my head you soon end up with a very clean house and not much left to do. Roads are closed to essential travel only and they donÂ’t want joe public out there getting in way of rescue and utility company works so frustrating sense of being unable to help others in early days. Although hats off to those in 4WD clubs who went above and beyond picking people up.
Anyhow so what do I recommend you have on hand:
A get out now grab bag. When the covid style alert message came through of stopbanks about to fail it made me realise if I had been in that area was I ready to just leave right now?
Food- stuff that stores longer term and doesnÂ’t need too much preparation. Potatoes, rice, onions, biscuits, tea bags, soups, canned stew, canned fruits, vacumn packed precooked sausages (safe for quite awhile after no refrigeration)
Water- we still had running water luckily but with threat of it being turned off at any point as too many munters over using overloading clogged sewerage network. Immediately store water in empty containers so you can still wash up.
Shelter- a tarp to keep dry under or sit on if you have evacuate and a small tent.
Gumboots- needed of helping clean up somewhere donÂ’t want to be wrecking workboots etc if resupply ainÂ’t coming.
Candles.
Powerbank device. An inverter would be handy to run microwave via car. With thieves walking hoods listening for generators a few savvy types just had Ute idling running inverter, nice and subtle.
Books to read to give your mind a rest and distraction
Waste storage in event of no sewerage or rubbish collection. Our council did provide bags for spoiled meat/food but by time did Most was in normal rubbish bags. Amazing how fast a dead chicken attracts maggot eggs to bin.
A few luxury extras hidden away eg beers/chocolate to share with neighbours keep community spirit up.
BBQ to cook on, bloody essential and erm I didnÂ’t have one at time
IÂ’ve prob forgotten few things but thereÂ’s basics anyway. Also on a side note it all suddenly reworks the maths of having solar panels and some kind of home battery bank setup especially if you rely on electricity for heating, luckily all this happened in summer time.
Oh and if you live off the grid in countryside you really are off the grid. Despite the massive effort by authorities and brave helicopter pilots thereÂ’s just such a huge rural population now they canÂ’t help everyone at once. Stories of people on rooftops for 8hrs or more not uncommon.
If you live anywhere in a valley that could flood rapidly you need an axe or cutting equipment inside your house to escape through roof. Apparently a decent roof will take serious effort to get through, will you have time or ability to effect this escape.
Also in rural environment it take serious amount of time for the big gear to clear roads if they can get it up there. SH5 lucky a lot of big gear positioned at wind farm construction and at some forestry sites.
Feel free to add your own from experiences of things to help. IÂ’m now looking at what would we need in a nationwide event eg if Ruapehu went up and severed nationwide travel links and say we had to survive on our own for a month instead of a week.
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Originally Posted by jellywrestler
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