Posted: 7/8/2008 3:31:10 PM EDT
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I think it is safe to say that most members on this forum have some level of preps. There has even been a thread about taking people in during a SHTF. I thought it would be interesting to hear any stories about the panicked masses. Back in'04 when i lived in Florida we had something like three storms in almost as many weeks. I was living north of Tampa at the time. And within a mile or two of the coast. My preps at that time were mainly focused on surviving a hurricane. Your basic stockpile of food, water, flashlights, med's, gas for the generator, etc. For the most part about less than one third of my neighborhood had done anything to prepare. We boarded up the homes, prepped the yards to remove anything that could become a projectile. I even added reinforcements to my fence to prevent wind damage. The rest of the neighbors just watched and made jokes. As the storms kept hitting Florida more and more people panicked, you could walk into any store and see empty shelves, gas stations ran dry because rumors stated that rationing of gas was to begin. I remember walking into Home Depot to watch people buy anything they could to board up their homes. I actually saw one guy leave with sheets of 1/8" paneling thinking that would hold in a storm. Generators were being bought as far away as Tenn. Game stores were trucking in genny's to make a quick buck. My old boss made the mistake of listing his old genny for sale in the paper. He had to shut off his phone it rang so much, he later told me he had over 200 messages in a single day. The worst thing i saw was the rampant theft, price gouging was everywhere. I even know a guy who submitted his receipt to FEMA for his genny even though he never used it. But he was bragging about how FEMA gave him money and how he fooled them. So does anybody have any stories that they would like to share? |
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During that 2004 hurricane season a co-worker and I were sent down to Florida to help out another company (not storm-related). We were near Boynton Beach. On the way down we say some damage from the previous storm. There was another storm (i forget which one) approaching and we kept a close eye on the weather channel. Our waitress one night was bragging that the storms always miss them. Nobody seemed real concerned with prepping, or maybe they had already prepped for the previous storm? Anyway, it became apparent that the next one was gonna hit us so we told the company we were helping out that we were gonna leave well prior to the storm so as not to get trapped in FL and not be able to get home. The morning after I got home I turned on the tv and I95 North was like a packed parking lot. Were people panicking? Dunno, wasn't there to see it. They sure went from  to  overnight. |
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I live in Orlando and some areas of the city took it pretty hard during Hurricane Charlie in 2004. Some people were out of power for 2 - 3 weeks. Overrall about 80% of the Metro Area was without power immediately following the storm. Charlie was the first major storm to hit Central Florida in many years so alot of people including myslef did not know what to expect as we were not here for the last major Hurricane. Because of this alot of people did not prepare at all for it. Some people got panicky after the storm and they saw the damage and they were without power for 2 - 3 weeks but overall things were pretty calm considering the number of people affected. A month later when we got hit by Frances and Jeanne people were alot more nervous and all of the stores were cleaned out and gas stations were emptied out at least 48 hours before the storm. But I would not say people really panicked though. There always some people who do stupid crap though and freak out. Those people are usually the types that can barely handle the everyday stresses of life, much less a serious event like a Major Hurricane. |
| I remember Charlie, i ended up going from the Tampa area to my friends house in Orlando( close to the Beeline) to help them repair their home. They lost their fence, and most of the shingles on the roof. They couldn't find a tarp to cover the roof to save their life. Without the shingles they suffered alot of water damage inside of their home. |
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At the time of that insane hurricane season, I was working for Florida's largest electric utility and was deployed to assist with logistics and crew movements in some hard hit areas. They were not devastated and leveled like Hurricane Andrew did to SoFla, most people still had their homes but most were in bad shape. The high school gym where many town residents were sheltered lost a large piece of roof and a side wall during the storm! Two things really shook me at the time and opened my eyes to preparing beyond the usual stuff the news tells you to stock up on. First, sheeple can't handle being without electricity. Granted, we have hot, humid summers here in FL but as I drove around and spoke to other folks assisting with the restoration it became apparent that many rescue calls were for heat stroke. I saw an infant being helped by the EMTs that was about the same age as my then newborn son.  With no way to keep cool, people will keel over down here. The homes weren't mansions but they weren't the projects either. You'd feel perfectly safe walking through most of the areas I was in. When I got back home I bought a generator and an 8500btu window A/C unit. The wife didn't like the idea of all that money "down the drain" with a new baby until our area was hit the next year and we stayed cool with a running fridge and lights. We also saved my two neighbor's fridges and gave them the ability to run lights and fans. I never hear a complaint from my wife regarding preps after that and both my neighbors copied my generator and window A/C setup once things settled down.  The second thing that made an impression were the lines/throngs of people lining up to get the basics that they should have had in the first place. It reminded me of the Red Cross food distribution videos you see in a third-world famine or refugee area. This is freakin' Florida, not Somalia! Again, these were middle class/working class areas like my own neighborhood. A part of me felt terrible for these people and I was glad to be helping the area. Another part of me kept thinking "you reap what you sow" and I became determined to do whatever I could to not put my family through that. That is why I'm here in S/F learning, sharing, preparing. |
| Blackhelo, you hit the nail on the head. I used to get angry watching the news and seeing long lines of people waiting for bottled water, i use to think WTF. These people live in a area that gets hits with storms all the time and they dont have the sense to buy water before a storm comes through. |
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panic? once when hiking out in the dark after elk hunting, I bumped my head into a low hanging branch which apparently had a ruffed grouse perched in it. it flew out, making a hellacious noise, hit me in the head, clawed my neck all up and beat me about the head and shoulders with it's wings. I ran in a little circle screaming like a little girl beating myself to death with my bow, convinced a cougar had got me and I was about to die. Panic doesn't quite cover it. After it was all over, I was face down on the ground, in a full sweat with my pack and it's contents strewn over a 30 foot circle that took me an hour to gather up in the dark. I also think I crapped my pants a little. That's a panic. I have never been in a hurricane but I was in a car that almost got picked up by a tornado once. it pushed us off the road and almost flipped us. It was scary but nowhere near as bad a panic as that damn grouse caused. |
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October 13th 2006... We had a early snow storm that dropped a couple of feet of snow while the leaves where still on the trees. Our area was without power for about a week. We were ok, had the genny and plenty of food, but it looked like a war zone with every street impassible. Now we are used to snow (had 7 feet on the ground a couple of years before) but this was like nothing we had ever seen. what struck me as I cleared our street by myself was the attitude of people. I asked one family if they wanted a hand cutting up the tree on there lawn after I had already cleared the area in front of their house and they said no, the city would take care of it. I did not seam to occur to people that if we made the job easier by getting things in order everything would have gone faster. If just the able body men had gotten out we could have had the entire village passable in a day or two. It also occurred to me that if there had been another emergency somewhere else and the feds and electric company could not have dedicated resources to us one week without power could have become several. since then i had made non-electric supplies (most kerosene) one of my more important provisions. I also learned that most of my neighbors were basically useless. Since then I regularly see generators on craigs lists listed as "Used only for a couple of hours during October storm". Most never expect to need them again... so short sighted. I do not want to be like them when the next emergency comes hence what I have done and will continue to do. |
Holy crap crashburnrepeat!
Glad you are able to laugh at yourself... Wish someone had a camera |
| The panic of people immediately following the September 11th attack was interesting. I go to watch that one from the passenger side of an ambulance. People calling in every white powder including spilled salt in a McDonalds was interesting following the anthrax attacks. |
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Here it was the blizzard of 93'. The storm came in the night dropping a wet heavy blanket of snow that popped trees like an atrillary barrage. The mixture of thunder, lightening, and trees cracking was very unique experience. It sounded and looked like in the distance a war zone. Temperatures dropped after the storm to below zero. No electricity for many folks for over a week and many trapped by the trees for days, it was panic city those first few days. I fired up my auxiliary the night of the storm. I didn't hear from any of my neighbors until the next day. They had, at least the ones I talked to, not done a thing that night expecting the power to come back on. Due tot the timing and now power, it had taken most of them 12 hours to figure out the power wasn't coming back on and they couldn't get out. I think that was the only time in my life this surplus of almost a half dozen of everything came in handy as every auxillary heater, lantern, and stove I had and not using, I loaned out. In retrospect, I now know that loaning that stuff out saved me from them asking to move in until the temps went up. I was very lucky. My house being on the very edge of a subdivision (in fact my drive isn't even the subdivision)) my power comes from the main line directly. It was back on in 48 hours while my neighbors went without for a full week. The old folks on either side of me, I ran extension cords. One had an electric heater and one didn't. I was quite impressed with the number of wood stoves put in and kerosene towers bought after that storm. People here are gun owners and a little closer to the dirt than most places I have lived. They tend to prepare for hard times more than most folks, however this storm was totally nothing typical for here. In fact, I've been in many blizzards but had never seen anything like this. Snow is snow but when tens of thousands of trees fall, its a whole different problem. You know its been all that many years ago and still today if they hear I have a cold or not feeling well, they bake me a cake. Tj |
Holy crap! I thought I was the only one that has seen that film. I remember about a week after I saw it, I was driving home one dark night. All of a sudden, I see this big growing light bloom off in the distance. I thought, 'Oh shit, here we go.' Well the light subsided and I never found out what it was. Not panic, but I did experience a MASSIVE ADRENALINE DUMP!
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