Real life preppers who survived Hurricane Katrina

Have a look at some comments from real life preppers who lived through Hurricane Katrina: [read-more-link]READ MORE[/read-more-link]

We live 70miles north of New Orleans and north of Baton Rouge . All the people with the means (money - vehicle ) got out of New Orleans before the storm, most come to ride a day or two at a hotel then back home. After the levees broke people staying in hotels started calling friends and relitives in B.R. for a place to stay. In 48 hours the population swelled from 750,000 to over a million people. Over night the store shelves were bare, no gas, food was in short supply. Walmart closed at dark to restock and it was gone in a few hours the next morning. The sewer plants were flooded with excess sewerage, the city put raw sewage into the Miss river for weeks. The roads were total gridlock, it took hours to go 10 miles which was a normal 15 min trip. Cops were on a no day off shift, State Police helped patroll the streets. During the storm and two days after we ran on gen power. Cooked on a propane camp stove under the carport. We sealed off the main part of the house and lived in the den untill power was restored. Gen set would run one four ton a/c unit and the hotwater heater for the den bath. A second genset kept the freezers going and the outside floodlights. Were running low on fuel before the power was restored, another day or two would have been a problem. We had plenty of food in the freezers and a good stock of coffee. Comfort food ran out fast ( ice creme, popcorn, cookies, cold drinks and most of all, bread). Wife made gallons of sweet tea and I fired up the bread machine, the ladies made a few pies and a cake from scratch (didn't know they knew how ?). Two years later Gustff blew inn and we were totally prepared thanks to the trial run with Katrina.

And here’s another:

Being in an area that hadn't flooded in 150 years or so, we opted to stay. (This decision was probably skewed by a miserable experience evacuating for Ivan, which turned out to miss our area.) Storm-specific prep consisted of gassing up the vehicles in case we changed our minds, filling a few extra water jugs, and securing loose items around the property. We already had plenty of beans, bullets andbandaids . During the first half of the storm, we sustained some wind damage -- tree through the roof. It got sort of exciting, watching the eastern wall of the house flex a little with the wind -- I started wondering if staying home was going to be my last mistake. As I turned out, I have lived to make a few more. The water started rising about the time the eye passed over us. I have to admit that it took me by surprise. The prediction had been about an 18 foot storm surge, which would have flooded the low spots of the property, but not where the house is. As it turned out, we got a little more than a foot in the house. Not preparing for flooding was the one place I totally dropped the ball. We scrambled to move stuff about the water, but doing that at the last minute is a lost cause, and I started making last-ditch plans for a deeper flood. Threw an ax and some blankets in the attic. Prior planning here could have saved about 100 books and maybe 2500 rounds of ammunition. I still feel stupid about that one. The rest of the say is kind of blurred in my memory, but by morning, the water had gone down (except for nasty puddles everywhere). A quick scouting trip gained a little info -- nearest neighbors were okay (but wet), and the other two families on our road had bugged out. Found out later that one neighbor's son and son-in-law had stayed until the water rose , then piled into a bass boat and made it to the highway. I'd hear quite a few stories like that over the coming weeks…Okay, obvious mistakes: Should have moved cars to higher ground . (But then, they might have suffered wind damage. Who knows?)ALL AMMO SHOULD BE IN AMMO CANS OR SEALED BATTLE PACKS. You can bet your ass what I have now is. Was staying a mistake? I thought so at first, but later realized that it would have been weeks before we got back in. Damage to the house would have been much greater due to not being able to get it dried out.

Sobering information, right?

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