After The Storm

Hurricanes travel quickly once they make landfall, usually between 10 and 20 miles per hour. If a storm has gale-force winds extending out for about 200 miles from the center, the hurricane will take anywhere from 10-20 hours to blow through your area, and you'll catch the worst for 8-10 hours. Once a storm passes, however, clear skies usually take its place, and the cleanup process can begin.

Survival Tips

Don't go out of your home - or leave the shelter - until emergency officials on the radio, television tell you to do so

If the storm has damaged power lines, your home is flooded or lightning is present, using your phone can be a fatal mistake.

Don't call the police.  If there's a life-threatening situation-downed live power lines, broken gas or water mains, overturned gas tanks, etc. -call 911.  Otherwise, leave the police alone.

Don't call utilities to report failures.  They know exactly where power, water and gas are out.  Do call if several days have passed and your neighborhood is the only one still out, or if your home is the only one still out in the neighborhood.

Watch closely for insects, snakes and other animals - even alligators - driven out by high water.

Puddles also may conceal dangerous debris or contain sewage from flooded or broken septic tanks.

Be careful letting your pet outdoors. Familiar landmarks and scents may be gone and your pet may get lost

Safety First!

The first and foremost thing to remember after a hurricane passes is the importance of being careful.

The storm has kicked up an awfully large amount of debris in most cases. High winds may have downed power lines. Storm drains may be clogged and drainage pumps may be backed up, causing street flooding. This combination can be deadly for children, pets, and careless adults. After the storm passes, the first thing you should do is to step outside on your porch and take stock of the situation. Do you have power? Is the street flooded? How high is the water coming up? Are the cars flooded? What's the situation in other parts of the city? Once you've established the basics, then it's best to just stay put, particularly if you have some flooding or down power lines are visible. If there are repairs you can do from the inside out, or if there's stuff you can do in the backyard, attack that first. Let the water recede and give the power company a chance to come out and fix the lines before venturing out to the front and into the street.

Flood Waters

After basic local safety, your most serious concern is going to be flooding. If the hurricane has brought serious tidal surges with it, it's possible that you'll experience rising waters in the area after the storm has passed. Combine this with the possibility of stressed-out levees breaking and you've got potential for a serious problem. This scenario means that it's possible that you'll still have to evacuate to higher ground even though you successfully rode out the storm. Again, TV12 and local radio stations are your best defenses here. You don't want to wait until the flood waters are on your doorstep to take action. TV12 will have aircraft in the air and spotters on the ground surveying the damage as soon as the weather clears. Keep on top of the reports these aircraft provide so you know whether there are additional threats to your home.

Shelter

Hopefully your home has made it through the storm OK. If it hasn't for whatever reason, you may have to evacuate to a shelter after the storm blows over. Most areas have many public shelters, usually at local schools, playground gymnasiums, etc. Start with one of these, get the family settled, then you can see about finding a motel or making other arrangements for an extended stay. If your home has sustained water damage, start the process of pulling up the carpet and drying out sheetrock and insulation immediately. Don't let waterlogged carpet sit in the house--it'll just breed bacteria and create other problems.

Power

If your home has experienced a power outage, there could be a number of potential causes. High winds could have forced a shutdown of a generating plant, knocked down lines somewhere in-between the plants and your home, a transformer on your block could have blown, or the lines on your street could be down. The basic rule of thumb to determine how long you will be without power is: the further away the problem, the quicker you'll get power back. If there is a problem with one of the generating plants, power will be re-routed from other plants. Same with power lines that feed multiple substations. Problems that are closer to home will require more direct attention by a maintenance crew, which means your neighborhood has to get in line with every other neighborhood that's lost power. Flood waters and other obstructions that hinder work crews may compound the time it takes to get you back on-line.

Food and Water

If you lose power, keeping things cold in your refrigerator and freezer will be difficult. If possible, buy some dry ice to keep the freezer cold. If you've prepared and/or eaten most of what's in your fridge, you should be in good shape. If not, it's time to start cooking. A good refrigerator/freezer unit will maintain a decent temperature for a while, so long as you don't constantly open it.

If your house has a gas stove, you should be OK as far as cooking goes. Hurricanes don't usually affect local gas lines, since they're underground. All-electric households are obviously the ones that have the most problems here. Even so, many all-electric households still have at least a charcoal barbecue grill, possibly even a gas one. Use that barbecue for boiling water and cooking.

Water can be a problem in areas where there has been extensive flooding. Sewer lines can back up into the fresh water supply, or water from the lake will contaminate the drinking water. Tainted water is the quickest spreader of disease, so it's very important to listen to news reports in case your water supply has problems. When in doubt, boil drinking water before using. This is why you filled up all of those old milk containers and your bathtubs before the storm hit. These should give you a decent supply of drinking water until you're advised that tap water is once again safe.

WATER

You can go weeks without food but only days without water. You may be on your own for several days or even weeks.

Other water sources: 

In a jam, you can use the water in your water heater. Turn off the power - otherwise the empty tank could explode when power resumes - and open the spigot at the bottom. Don't reconnect until utility officials say the water supply is safe. If you're squeamish about drinking the water in your tub, pipes, water heater or toilet, make that your water for washing. If it's especially muddy outside or keeps raining or your house is a real mess, you don't want to waste good drinking water cleaning up. Boil-water orders are virtually automatic after hurricanes. Don't wait to hear it; go ahead and boil or purify all drinking water (except bottled) until told otherwise.

Boil water for a 3 - 5minute rolling boil. You can improve flavor by adding a pinch of salt.

To purify water: 

• Household bleach, which contains hypochlorite as its only active ingredient. Never use bleach containing soap, lemon or other additives. Use eight drops per gallon of clear water or 16 drops per gallon of cloudy water. Mix thoroughly and let stand 30 minutes. The water should have a slight chlorine smell; if it doesn't, repeat the dose and let it stand another 15 minutes.
• Household (2 percent) tincture of iodine: use 12 drops per gallon. Be very careful that you don't use the wrong strength.
• Water purification tablets. Follow instructions.

Food

• If in doubt, throw it out. Being a little hungry is a lot better than being sick. Food that smells fine may still contain bacteria, and it takes only a tiny amount to make you very sick. Diarrhea depletes fluids you can't easily replace when drinking water is at a premium.
• Keep hands clean at all times. Sanitation will be a real problem.
• Eat and drink perishables first.
• Pace your eating. There's no need to stuff yourself just to get rid of perishable food.
• Every time you open the refrigerator, you waste valuable cold air and sharply reduce the life span of perishable food inside.
• Don't grill indoors! Don't even use a canned heat stove indoors. You can spill the fuel or be overcome by fumes, carbon dioxide or smoke or start a fire.
  • It's OK to grill or barbecue outside but be very careful because the ground is probably littered with wood and other debris that could catch fire. And firefighters will be hard to find.
• If possible, grill perishable meats. They will stay edible longer than raw meats.
• When power returns, you can safely refreeze foods that still are half frozen.

Safe at room temperature for a few days (remember: it will be hot and muggy):

• Fresh fruits, vegetables
• Dried fruits, coconut
• Opened jars of salad dressing, peanut butter, jelly, pickled products, barbecue or taco sauces, ketchup, mustard, olives
• Fruit juices
• Hard or processed cheeses
• Butter or margarine

Unsafe if above 40 degrees for more than two hours:

• Fruit pies
• Raw or uncooked meats, poultry or seafoods
• Milk, cream, yogurt, soft cheeses
• Cooked pasta without sauce, pasta salads
• Custard, chiffon or cheese pies
• Fresh eggs, egg substitutes
• Meat-topped pizza, lunch meats
• Casseroles, stews or soups
• Mayonnaise and tartar sauce
• Refrigerator cookie dough
• Cream-filled pastries

Unsafe:

• Frozen fish or shellfish that have no ice crystals
• Partially melted ice cream
• Food that has come in contact with flood water
• Bulging, leaking or severely dented cans

Initial Cleanup

Once the basics are dealt with, it's time to think about cleaning up around the house and yard. Broken glass, branches, leaves, and dirt are the main after-storm evils. Be very careful picking up debris after a storm; check for nails sticking out of wood, sharp metal and glass edges, etc. Double-check the power lines in the neighborhood before clearing away large amounts of leaves and branches. You don't want any electrical surprises once you get started.Cleanup after a hurricane takes more than a day or two. If you're the type of person who doesn't work well in clutter and mess, brace yourself for this fact. Many contractors and carpet installers recommend that you wait three to four weeks before replacing carpet in flooded rooms. Old carpet and damaged furniture may sit in front of your house for days, even weeks, waiting for an insurance adjuster to process your claim. Even if the damage to the house is minor, the cleanup process can be annoying and can drag on more than you'd like. Try to keep a positive attitude.

First Aid for Your Home

Open all doors and windows so noxious smells and gases can escape.

Don't smoke indoors until everything has dried.

Check for gas leaks.

If your home is open to the elements or you fear it will collapse, don't stay in it.While you may be tempted to protect your belongings, it's just not safe. Secure it as best you can, get as many of your valuables out as possible and find another place to stay.

Depending on the storm's severity, additional refugee shelters probably will open.

The toilet will not work and may back up as the water level rises. If necessary, use water from the bathtub to flush the toilet. Pour some bleach in the bowl after each use.

Do not use electrical appliances until they are dry.

If water remains in your house, try to rent or borrow a pump or bail by hand. Then shovel out mud, sand or silt.

Take soaked rugs and carpets outside to dry - you'll still probably have to throw them away - and disinfect floors.

Hose off wet upholstered furniture to remove dirt.

Remove drawers and let them dry, but do not put wet wood furniture in the sun; it might warp.

If plaster or plasterboard walls are wet, do not rub them. Let them dry, brush off dirt and wash walls with a mild soap solution.

Wipe iron and steel furniture or ornaments with a kerosene-soaked cloth to ward off rust.

Don't throw out damaged papers or art; professionals might be able to restore them. Soaked books also can be saved. Dry in an upright position with the pages spread open. Then dust with cornstarch and stack to prevent wrinkled pages.

The most deaths not directly linked to hurricanes are accidents after the storm. If you are using power tools, chain saws, generators or other power equipment, use common sense and follow basic safety rules.

Clean your pool and lower it to its proper level.

When you put up television or other antennas again, watch for power lines.

Don't go to the coast to check on boats. If your boat is in your yard, inspect it and document damage for insurance. Repair what you can. Pump water out of it; the inside of boats can't withstand water for very long. Check the fuel and electrical systems for damage.

If the storm has deposited salt on cars, boats and other exterior items and uncontaminated water is available, rinse the salt off.

Dealing with FEMA and Insurance Adjusters

When Hurricane Andrew hit and wiped out a large portion of Southern Florida in '92, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) caught a lot of flak over their response time. People were living in army-built tent cities because they had no place to go. While then-candidate for president Bill Clinton didn't make too much of an issue of the Bush Administration's handling of the disasters in Florida and Louisiana (where Andrew made his final landfall), it was obvious that there was a need for a shake-up at FEMA.  If you are so unfortunate as to be so badly wiped out by the hurricane that you qualify for immediate FEMA aid, the best thing you can hope for is that the really hard-hit areas are not so widespread as to over-tax FEMA's resources. For example, if FEMA only had to deal with the Louisiana sites in '92, thing would probably have been much smoother. The level of destruction Andrew inflicted on Florida that year was so extensive that no agency could have handled all of those people in a timely manner. FEMA has been beefed up since then, what with earthquakes in California, flooding in the Mississippi Valley, and other disasters in other parts of the country.  There's no point in getting upset at the government,  just do your best to work with them.

For those with private insurance, you'll be working with adjusters from the various companies with which you hold policies. Wind damage will most likely be covered under your regular homeowner's policy, and water damage under your flood insurance policy. You don't have flood insurance, you say? You've got a big problem. Most people who have mortgages on their homes are required by the lender to carry flood insurance if they live in a flood zone. Many folks who live outside of that primary zone, as well as folks who have paid off their mortgages drop their flood policies, only to have that decision come back to haunt them. Obtaining flood insurance is one of those things you can't do after the fact; you need to check the status of your flood insurance before a storm hits. Unless your home is hit by a tornado, the majority of the damage a hurricane is likely to cause is from flooding. Keep that in mind.

Insurance

Immediately report to your insurance company. It may take a while to reach your agent or your company's toll-free number. Be patient. When you get through, be ready to provide your policy number, address and a phone number where you can be reached, especially if you will be staying elsewhere. Take "after'' videotape and still pictures of your home and damage to help with your claim. Keep receipts for all expenses after the storm; repairs, food, lodging, emergency equipment. Much of it is covered under your insurance and some is tax-deductible. If you have to leave your home, secure it as much as possible. Leave a telephone number where you can be reached. Paint your address and telephone number on a piece of wood or the side of your home. Don't paint your insurance policy number. Make sure to take pictures after repairs are done. If you have another loss, you don't want your agent to think the first repairs were never done. When the adjuster shows up, ask for identification. Beware of fly-by-night repair operations. It's often impractical to check them out, so a good rule of thumb is to pay one-third up front, one-third halfway through the job and one-third when work is complete to your satisfaction

Getting Back to Normal

It usually takes a day or two for the area to return to normal after a hurricane strikes. Since most storms hit during the summer, the problems of dealing with missed school days and such are not a major concern. Day-care centers being closed can cause problems for parents as more families rely on these services. Most employers are fairly understanding about the situation and are willing to accommodate their employees when disaster strikes. We clean up, fix up, then get back to work at our jobs. Some of us will stop by our churches and offer thanks that we made it through, along with a prayer or two that we won't get hit again in the near future.

Eastern North Carolina Broadcasting