I thought that an apartment dwellers point of view for SHTF would be something different since living in an apartment presents it’s own challenges.


The family and I recently lived through Hurricane Gustav and approximately 128 hours without electricity, phone, cable or internet. From 12 noon on Monday until 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.



The setup:

We are located on the south side of Baton Rouge, LA. It is a fairly large complex with around 25 buildings and 8 units per building, 4 per level, and has gated access and a privacy fence all around.The complex butts up to a nice subdivision. When we moved into the apartment we specifically picked a unit in the back corner building on the lower level.




Pre-storm preps:

It was crazy as hell in the stores before the storms. Since we are pretty well prepped at all times we purchased 2 extra loaves of bread, extra sandwich meat and 2 extra gallons of milk since my 4 year old daughter drinks so much of it. We did this early and faced no lines or desperate shoppers. Everything else was “as is”.





The Storm:

The power and other utilities went out at noon on Monday. There were shingles ripped off of most of the buildings, houses in the area. Most of the complexes buildings also lost the roof vents and several lost their chimneys. Many of the upstairs units received at least a little water damage. We received none.

The fence around the complex was 75% blown down, as a result the complex was open to the subdivision that borders on 2 sides. Also the security gate defaults to open in a power failure.

There was about 10 trees that were blown down in the complex along with many limbs. Two of the trees fell across the driveways so that all of us in the back section were trapped in and would require cutting our way out. Although I could have used the 4wd to  jump some curbs and do a little creative landscaping to get out in an emergency.




The neighbors:

Our building was fairly full since two of the up stairs residents had family from down south riding out the storm with them. Everyone seemed to have a community spirit and during and after the storm checked on everyone to make sure that everyone was ok.
Even the people in the neighborhood were community oriented, something that shocked me since I had always figured they probably didn’t care for an apartment complex as neighbors. But as soon as the wind died down a little several of the home owners come over to check that everything was alright and made sure everyone had food and water. They even helped chop up the trees to clear the driveways, hell one guy brought an ax. After chopping about 20 of us, apartment dwellers and homeowners, drug the large pieces out of the driveway so people could get out as necessary. The trees were cleared by about 4pm on Monday, not bad at all.

The whole week I didn’t have a bad experience with anyone in the complex or the neighborhood. Young, old, white, black, Hispanic, whatever, everyone got along and helped each other as much as they could.




The generator:

The generator is the machine that saved the day. Several years ago I weighed options and ended up with a Yamaha EF3000iSEB and added a tri-fuel kit from www.propane-generators.com/
It performed like a champ. I chose propane since it is impractical for us to store gas in an apartment. We have six of the standard 20lb. propane cylinders. We keep two on our patio and talked the neighbors into keeping the others on their patios.

I can’t say enough positive things about this generator. It was rock steady all week long, not one single problem. It is also very quiet and most people didn’t realize we had a generator since the sound from the other generators that were running in the neighbor hood around us or elsewhere in the complex drowned it out. There were probably 5 other generators in the complex.

At the beginning I offered to let the other units in my building power their fridges in one hour blocks taking turns. They were all very grateful and none tried to “hog” the power. The generator was easily pulling 2 refrigerators, 2 small chest freezers,a 5050 btu window A/C along with a few lights, fans, tv and DVD player. It really surprised me, the RPM’s stayed below 3100 (rated to 3600)and this particular units boost feature had no problems handling startup surges.


After 2 days all of the other people in the building left to stay with relatives since the news was saving it could be weeks before the power was back on. This lightened the load on the generator and greatly lowered fuel consumption. When we were just running our own fridge, freezer and window a/c etc. the propane usage was approx. 1 20lb cylinder every 20-22 hours. We shut the genny off for a few short spells but it ran for approx. 115 hours and we went through 6 propane cylinders total. Note that we also BBQ’d and ran a lantern on some of that propane and some cylinders were refilled before they were totally empty.That’s about $110 worth of propane but the neighbors insisted kicking in $40 so we spent about $70.

It was very easy to find propane, It took me about an hour to get out and get cylinders filled. The hardware stores were filling by using generators to power their pumps. In comparison there were people spending 6+ hours to try and find gas since there were very, very few gas stations open and so many people were trying to feed their gas hungry inefficient generators. This lasted for days. I personally know of people that were spending around $75 a day and spending half their day looking for fuel to keep their generators running. The efficient Yamaha really paid off.

As people realized that the power could be off for quite a while they became desperate for a generator and started buying “no name” sets off of the back of trucks. I talked to two that had those sets fail and now can’t get anyone to warranty them. $750 for a 4000 watt no name broke POS. OUCH! I think they have learned a lesson. Also saw a few failures of Generacs, Colemans etc.



Living:

Making my daughters room the “lifeboat” really worked out well, the 5050btu a/c kept the whole apartment comfortable even in the 90F heat. Having the unit above us help insulate us. Keeping the 4 yo happy helped keep the stress level down for everyone. Since cable was out she played and watched DVDs. Everything went really well. About the only thing that was a pain was heating water or a hot bath. I think we will invest in a portable propane hot water heater. Other than that it was smooth as silk.




Security:

I slept on the couch with the blinds open so I could watch over the generator. I kept it dark so no one could see I was there. I had the generator secured with a heavy duty cable and disc lock and surrounded it with all sorts of clutter. Any one approaching it would have made lots of noise and would have had to use a light and would have given me plenty of time to react. Basically never felt unsafe at all, no threats whatsoever. I did keep a “strong presence” to stay on top of things, hell there wasn’t much else to do.




Conclusion:

Total costs were $70 plus a few quarts of oil, not bad at all.

Efficiency and reliability are King when it comes to generators. I know the Yamahas and Hondas are expensive but in a situation like this they are worth double their weight in gold.

Your neighbors might surprise you. I managed to use this experience to get several of my neighbors going down the road to preparedness. One of them is a  black guy with gold teeth that moved here from New Orleans after Katrina. Most of Arfcom would probably avoid him or make jokes but he is trying to get his life on track and I think he’ll make it.


Sometimes I hate spending money on preps but knowing that things are under control and you’re prepared when SHTF is priceless.

Thanks charlesb, nice read.

I have been considering converting my EU2000i to propane, and i think this story will get me to do it. I was ready and had plenty of fuel, but the availability of propane is very comforting. I have 2 generators and having options for fuel would be nice.

Glad everything worked out for you guys.

Stay safe.

Slim

Quoted: Thanks charlesb, nice read. I have been considering converting my EU2000i to propane, and i think this story will get me to do it. I was ready and had plenty of fuel, but the availability of propane is very comforting. I have 2 generators and having options for fuel would be nice. Glad everything worked out for you guys. Stay safe. Slim

Propane is great. The company that made my tri-fuel conversion makes a conversion for the Honda but it is propane only, they say that there is not enough room for the tri-fuel kit. I don't know if you want to give up the ability to run on gas if needed. But to be honest since I installed the kit I haven't run it on anything other than propane. Other benefits are super quick safe refuels and the spark plug stays clean. www.propane-generators.com/eu2000i_kits.htm

I have seen a tri-fuel kit where the regulator is mounted to the outside of the unit but can't remember who makes it.

Awesome AAR. Thank you.

Nice job.  What about a solar shower set up for hot water?

News feeds from the area are saying still three million customers without power.  I like my cold beer and  tv !  

St Louis had two major outages in two years - big thunderstorms with 100 mph winds two years ago, and a wide spread ice storm last year. Both events knocked out power for a half million customers, some folks up to two weeks.

Got to agree on the good performance of the Yamaha.  (the inverter Hondas are very good too)  Quiet, reliable, and just sips gas.  I've got the slightly smaller YG2800, because I can pick it up by myself.

Quoted: Nice job.  What about a solar shower set up for hot water?

I think I'm going to get a solar shower for days when it is sunny and a propane heater for when it's cloudy or cold. The hot water issue is all my wife asked to improve.

The best outcome about all of this is how positive it has influenced my wife. She was never against prepping but after living in relative comfort for a week while surrounded by miserable people(the heat index was above 100) she is 100% on board and I basically have free reign for procurement from here on out.

Quoted: News feeds from the area are saying still three million customers without power.  I like my cold beer and  tv !   St Louis had two major outages in two years - big thunderstorms with 100 mph winds two years ago, and a wide spread ice storm last year. Both events knocked out power for a half million customers, some folks up to two weeks. Got to agree on the good performance of the Yamaha.  (the inverter Hondas are very good too)  Quiet, reliable, and just sips gas.  I've got the slightly smaller YG2800, because I can pick it up by myself.

Not that many without power but I work with some people who are looking at 4-5 weeks total before their power comes back.

That model and mine share the same engine, it really is a solid design.

Good report Charles, glad you made it through so well!

Excellent preparation!

Charles, nice read and glad you and your family are OK.

They news feed is estimating now two million customers without power. I've been switching around at www.maroonspoon.com/wx/ike.html so I'm not sure which station it was.

....and the carbon monoxide reports are staring to roll in. A live feed from one of the TV stations is saying 32 people have already been treated for CO poisoning.  No deaths yet, but some victims severely affected.

People setting them up in garages, under overhangs, upwind from open windows.

So, Public Service Announcement...pay attention to wind direction, away from the buildings, never - never run in an enclosed space.  50 parts per million is enough to sicken you - a tiny amount.  Just to put in in perspective -- a 1200 square foot building with 8 foot ceilings would be in danger with the introduction of one/half of a cubic foot of CO -- a volume equivalent to a couple of party balloons.

All this stuff seems like common sense, but if you don't realize the potential toxicity...it's NOT a matter of "what you don't know won't hurt you"

You guys know this stuff,  but spread the word to your novice neighbors.

Darwin gives Pop Quizzes on a regular basis

Stay Safe!

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Quoted: The hot water issue is all my wife asked to improve.

Same here!

Slim

Outstanding real world report charlesb_la.

I nominate you SF member of the week.  All in favor say YEAH!

For a make shift solar water heater I've used a black five gallon pail with the lid.  I surrounded the north side of it with aluminum flashing as a reflector with the south facing side exposed to the sun.  It'll heat water to +100° in the sunshine.  

If you'd like to get just a bit more elaborate, box in the bucket and place a glass panel on the south facing side.

Nice AAR.

Thanks for the props guys and thanks for all of the knowledge I have picked up here. It is because of this forum that we we so ready.

Sounds like things went well... good work and thanks for the link for the propane conversion, I think I may hav e to get one of those - or a generator that runs on propane.

If you want hot water, I recommend the Coleman Hot water on Demand system. We have one and it works great. My wife and I have taken many a shower with it.

It uses the 1lb propane cans and an included collapsable 5gal water tank.
You can adapt it to work on larger propane tanks and from a faucet or water hose.

Very well written, concise, and clear.

I thank you!