Learning from Alabama disaster

This is EXACTLY the same c-r-a-p that happened in Florida after hurricanes, and after Katrina when a fellow from Tennessee tried to bring in food and his certified concession trailer. It is one of the reasons that I REFUSE to allow any FEMA or other FED on my property. You need to call your congresscritter and raise a storm and call your local tv station to report that this BS is still happening.

Word is that in Phil Campbell there is ONE gas station working, but ONLY the "Emergency Responders" are allowed to get gasoline. I have had ENOUGH with this FEMA insanity.

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George Washington did not run and hide.

Many others have asked the same questions of being denied access in order to help in the areas - as seen in online articles..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42837437/ns/weather

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42830197...ther?gt1=43001


IN a major disaster access to the area is controlled, and agencies co-ordinate their activities. That may be why you and many others are denied access into the disaster zone, with truckloads of goods.

There are procedures and command posts, in order to get supplies to where they are needed the most.

I understand you wanted to help along with thousands of others, but what if your actions impeded relief efforts?

The shelters are a distribution point for many items coming into the area, and they have an idea of what is needed where. It could lead to mass civil confusion, from just outside help dropping off supplies in the middle of the street or at an intersection to a random group of people.


As our moderator posted from inside the disaster area from her smart phone, even she needed a wristband to gain access to her local area.




In my disaster service work - I have an official ID card to help me gain access past those roadblocks. That is in order to do my trained work in communications on the local and state levels (not FEMA). Which is a major issue at the moment inside the damaged areas, with the loss of many of the government agencies, buildings, and outside antennas..

This has let me know that I never have packed enough gear, when I get called out in a disaster. I thought that I was packing for a 6 month Arctic Expedition in the past. Yet I will try to fit more gear, so I can hand stuff out if I am sent into a disaster zone. Most of the time I am deployed with local government officials or at strategic buildings/ departments/ agencies.. At least I go ready to be self contained for over a week and not as an additional burden, on a disrupted infrastructure.

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Smarter than the average bear, sitting here on my hilltop 80 acres in the fog above the ocean...

"Life is tough, but it is tougher when you are stupid." - John Wayne

That's my biggest problem here.

If I go much over 3-4 feet in places, I can hit water

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Knowing some of the National Guard that are working in the disaster areas, I've learned one of the reasons they are turning people away is because they have already had problems controlling people. My friend is working in the Phil Campbell area as well as Hackleburg. They have had to stand guarding the few gas stations around because people were getting violent when they realized that only emergency vehicles in the area were allowed any gas. They only have one station operating in Phil Campbell and people were trying to get gas for generators, which I understand, but, if the emergency vehicles can't refuel then alot of people will have to wait longer for things to get back to some sort of normalacy.

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Sonshine - the tanker gas trucks can get in, right? Most gas stations have at least four pumps and a couple of tanks. Wouldn't it be more sane to have one set of pumps for the emergency vehicles, with easy access for them, and then let the other pump/tank be used by the residents??? My guess is that there would be a LOT less disagreement.

Vee are the gummint! VEE are here to help you! All salute and be thankful for our complete takeover. Now just give us time to figure out what we are doing and why.

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George Washington did not run and hide.

Talked last night with my hometown friend in Hartselle, south of Huntsville, Alabama. He told me that the few grocery stores that were open were accepting cash only because the cash registers using debit and credit would not work. He also described the problems getting gasoline since the electricity was off and the pumps would not operate.
His son in Tuscaloosa slept in a lawn chair with a loaded shotgun to keep the looters at bay.

Actually we did send our daughter a DC charger for her phone and a battery unit that will act as a power source for the DC charger (back up for the car battery) and shipped those. The inverter we purchased for our truck here at home so that we can charge our laptop. We have the SMS.

And, our most important purchase today = HEADLAMPS!!

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1. We contacted the authorities on Saturday night and they said we would be allowed through with no problems.

2. We were obviously delivering supplies to a FEMA approved shelter.

3. The shelter is over a mile away from the actual destruction.

4. I am licensed by the denomination as a minister and as a Chaplain. The shelter is at a church run by our denomination.

5. My brother is a firefighter/emt. They made HIM leave because they "didn't need him".

6. A bbq resturaunt was cooking all of the meat they had because the power was out and the meat was going to spoil. They were feeding Alabama Power crewmen and emergency workers. The Health Dept. closed them down because it is against code to operate a business without electricity.

7. The radio stations are calling for volunteers to come help. When they get there, the National Guard it telling them to stay away.

I think this is all lunacy. I understand about the looters, gawkers, and people getting in the way. I understand there has to be government in crisis situations. But I think things could be handled way better than what they are. Just my opinion.

Holinessman - from someone in the middle of things, Thank you and your brother and others for trying to help even if others were a hindrence in your accomplishment of the help.

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"Live your life, and forget your age." Norman Vincent Peale

Things that I have learned from these last few days.

A straight 6 300 F150 and power inverter makes a good genny.

When the lights are out so are the burglars and looters.

Shooting one looter dead reduces looting reports by 90%. The Madison county and Lawernce county sheriffs said so on the news with their daily numbers.

...and the last things I learned was that I have prepped better than I figured over the last decade because while I watched tv , cooked and drank hot coffee at home and shaved and had a hot shower each day using water can heated water hung from my shower door , my neighbors tended to get a bit ripe and testy and while others swarmed area stores I carried some of my larder down south to folks worse off than I and I'm still set for at least a year.

I also decided if my shack ever gets blowed away and I survive I am considering a small reinforced concrete covered quonset hut with steel doors and shutters as my replacement house.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Obviously sounds like the local authorities are screwed up in their priorities.

Did not know health dept had such strong police powers.

Get involved with the local emergency management office in advance, & see about putting policies in placeto prevent poorly thought out knee jerk reactions.

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

I don't know if the trucks can get in or not, just relaying what little info I was able to get.

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Sonshine, I appreciate your candor.

Holinessman, you are seeing what I have seen before. Ugly, ain't it?

Shrek, Good for you!

There are thousands of people working the problems, thousands giving of their time and resources. I honor every one of them. I understand authorities taking power and not understanding the greater goals. Those people stand out because of their lack of common sense, but they are trying to do good.

However... There was a representative from the Madison Sheriff's department that did an on-site report with a reporter from WHNT, and that report was on the news tonight. I'll say it flat out that the fellow is Governor material. I have never seen an LEO show such an understanding of the whole situation and a grounding that would not be baited like this fellow. I'm usually a curmudgeon with any misuse of authority, but I'd love to give this one guy more authority. He is one of the few I would trust.

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George Washington did not run and hide.

In the past, my husband and I have participated in disaster relief through our religious denomination. We eventually decided not to renew our certifications.

We became incredibly weary of being called up at the request of one "official authority" and then put on indefinite hold or sent back home by another. We grew weary of the incredible greediness we saw in some of the recipients of aid - we learned the mantra "First you have to serve the greedy so they will leave and you can actually get to the needy". We worked on a chain saw crew to remove downed trees, and got tired of all the law suits that followed the crews - you got the tree off my house but a limb fell and broke the window in my smashed up car (for which there was no insurance) so now your organization has to buy me a nice, new car.

It just reached the point where it was not much more than an exercise in frustration. I know that we did help some people, but I got tired of having to fight tooth and nail to do so.

So we finally decided that the best way we knew to help with disaster recovery was to switch over to the disaster preparedness realm. To encourage our next door neighbors to prep, to take the time we were using to travel and wait to help take down an old, mostly dead tree looming over a friend's mothers house.

And to teach the occasional class. However, we are considered to be a bit on the extreme side with that. We have gained a reputation for doing a class that really unsettles people and makes them rush out the door and start prepping. We have actually been asked to tone it down so as not to upset the faint hearted.

I know this is not the same type of help as traveling to the affected site and getting down to business, but it does feel much more effective from our standpoint.

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From the Florida Hurricanes a few years back:

1. Get your fuel containers stocked early & fill all equipment that has tanks, you can siphon later.
2. Get stocked on oil for the generators
3. Charge ALL chargable batteries, 12v, flashlight, cordless drill, etc
4. Fill all Propane tanks
5. Get extra water & stuff at the Beginning of "season"
6. Keep your fuel tank at least 1/2 full during season
6a. Fill it daily( if usage warrants and lines are short) after the announcement of a storm. This makes it nice as you won't have to compete with lines
7. top off food stores as soon as a storm is named.
8. double check on batteries & other consumables
9. Fill all containers for water right before the storm
10 put up shutters & do a sweep for projectiles
11 bug out early if necessary.

during the storm

Patrol the house looking for leaks & such, take mitigating actions as necessary & rest

After the storm
1. Live like you are camping,
2. keep travel to a minimum as your stocks of gas will get depleted quickly. and it will likely be a PITA to wait in lines & get filled up
3. Do a property check & check on Animals
4. do an assessment of the roads & neighborhood
5. Check for neighbors who need immediate help
6. Help out with distribution of food/whatever
7. Clean up

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I think the most important thing to learn from the massive tornadoes is not what you prep but where it is prepped. I've read alot of ideas on what to prep like gas, solar panels chargers, head lamps,etc. All those may work if you do not receive a direct hit or during an ice storm. But would your preps survive a direct hit from a tornado???? For those not thinking of storage being underground, then you will looking for your preps all over the neighborhood. You will be in the same situations as those who don't have preps. I was thinking about my preps in my basement...how would I reach my preps below ground level and rubble/debris, where would I sleep the following night, would my property be safe from looters? Where do these victims sleep and eat for the first 5 days/nights until the insurance man or gov't show up with aid? I think most prepped victims would have trouble reaching their preps and keeping them secure once they have been retrieved. I am going to add to my preps a couple of tents and sleeping bags. This has opened my eyes about not prepping for an ice storm, loss of electricity or heavy snowfall. But I will/should prep for the worst disasters, like direct hit tornado, emp or nuclear fallout, then the lesser would be a piece of cake. I will be moving all my camping gear from the garage to my prep room in the basement, along with portable food products, maybe a cooking device, pots and bowls with utensils, tents and bags..so I can prepare to stay on my property to keep it secure until aid arrives and they possibly after rather than staying in a tent city. So I guess this thread made an impact, what we should learn from Alabama is not what you prep but where you have it stored and will that storage area survive a direct hit....my prayers go out to families that have been affected......god bless.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that you here who are interested in the head lamps might want to try the ones that use the little coin sized batteries also. My husband says the other ones that use the 3 AAA batteries are heavy and tend to cause neck strain if you use if for a long period of time or have neck problems.

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I would do just about anything to avoid govt. "help". I have seen it first hand. NEVER, EVER, was there a situation so bad that the govt. cannot, and does, make it worse. I've had even worse experience with the Red Cross. I wouldn't put my sweat in their ears if their brains were on fire.

Many posts here confirm this is happening today in this disaster area. Direct charity is best. The first rule is to duck and cover, mostly from the malfeasance of officialdom. May God bless those who are truly helping, and there seems to be a LOT of them.

We are in north AL and had some hard hit areas around us. We spent from 6 AM until 5 PM having tornados on and off all day with our power going off around 4 PM that day. Because all the transmission towers were destroyed our power was off from Wed trough Sunday afternoon.

I grew up along the AL coast then lived in FL panhandle for 13 yrs so am used to hurricanes. I guess you can't take the storm prep out of the girl I think preparing ahead is key. I have a bunch of stuff I do continually. I never let my gas tank go below 1/2 full. I always have an extra gas grill tank. I keep propane bottles for my camp stove. I keep some wood (not enough!) and buy every candle at garage sale I can get my hands on, even melted wonky ones. I fill 2 liter bottles and smaller drink bottles with water and keep in the freezer. We use them when we go out boating, but are always on hand for such a time as this to keep things frozen in the freezer or add to an icechest. I have solar yard lights to use as light inside at night and also recharge AA batteries. We have an auto inverter (I think that is the name?) and make sure our cell phones have auto and home chargers. We just bought two rain barrels from Sams.

When a storm is coming I always fill every container with water and also fill one of our bathtubs. I make sure gas is full, clean the house, wash all the clothes, I live in AL so make my trip to the store for bread and milk so I will fit in, charge phones, have everyone bathe (in case we lose power/water)

Things we did this storm: We drove to Tennessee the day after to buy a generator. We heard power would be out at least 5 days so I just hated to lose all the food in our freezer. My plan was to start canning on the turkey fryer if we could not find a generator. We first found a 1500 watt generator for $200 minus 10% because my husband asked if they were giving a discount to AL residents (always ask! the guy did it!), but then ran into a friend that told us about a 5000 watt generator for $450. So we sold the smaller generator to friends. We bought two large gas containers for gas- all we had was a 2.5 gallon- and we filled them in TN. We also bought Sams sized packages of paper plates, bowls, cups, and a box that had 9 containers of wipes (we will use those on the boat and in the cars later.) We went ahead and bought extra batteries, and tons of snacks for the kids- peanut butter crackers, goldfish, peanut bars, Smores items, large package of hotdogs and hamburgers, and more spaghettios and beenie weenies. We also got some cash while in TN- making sure to get smaller bills.

All anyone wants to do without power is eat. You cannot have enough snacks. I had to get pretty stern b/c the kids were eating too much. If paper products didn't get dirty we just kept them for another use. Things like a sandwich and chips didn't really dirty the plate. I cannot have gluten, which is a new development, so I had a big adjustment to normal. I had a hard time finding things to eat. I found Lara bars and tried one of each flavor and will be buying a few boxes from Sams to keep on hard. They are gluten free and taste pretty good. I also am going to have to can some soups/stews that are gluten free for me. Most stuff you buy has gluten. Everyone on Facebook was complaining about no power, but I found it fun to "campout" with a nice bed and house. We had friends over for meals, the kids had friends spend the night, my family was able to help clean debri from homes demolished, and we hung out together. I need a way to wash clothes. Have heard of using a rubbermaid box with plunger and was going to try it, but my husband hooked up my washing machine to the generator so I did a load and hung it out on my drying racks. We did not lose water, but I had 2 large containers and every jar,bottle, pitcher, large bowl, etc filled with water before the storm. We also bought two cases at Sams of bottled water, and I have two rain barrels.

Our whole county plus the surrounding ones were without power. The town of Athens was the only one near us with power. On the way home from our trip to TN we saw the stations at the interstate there had lines all the way out of the station and down the street. Within a day stations near us started pumping using generators. Lines were long. The grocery stores were also open using generators and took credit cards. Neighbors helped neighbors and Friday our church along with many others organized to go into devestated areas of Harvest in E Limestone county to clean up. They closed the areas to non residents so you had to get an armband to be allowed in. They let in 3000 to Harvest and turned away many. I am so proud of our community to see the numbers of people willing to help one another. There have been truck loads of ice allowing people 3 bags. Kroger gave away free bananas b/c they were ready to eat. Places have scattered the area offering hot meals, water, etc to people in need. A church in Athens opened for showers.

My husband looked at plans for making a storm shelter in the garage on Family Handyman. That may be in our future!

We've found that with our diesel vehicles, we haven't had to wait in line for gas at the stations that have the diesel pumps off to the side.

Friends had charged phones but since the cell towers were knocked down had no cell service. Seems like walkie talkies or ham radios may be the only communication available.

We've spent the last few days using LED flashlights that are rechargeable, and recharging them via the vehicles and inverter. Generator works great also, but we don't run it all the time. If you have a camper, make sure your propane tanks are full and you have a way to charge the battery.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but the pictures just don't convey the amount of destruction. You have to see it to truly comprehend it. I'm supposed to head to Tuscaloosa to a Nursing home tomorrow, but don't know how close to the devastation it is.

Have already been approached by some scammers at the grocery store trying to collect money. I was able to respond that my home was damaged also, but I'm afraid many of these people are going to get money that others really need.

Reports are that some of the collection centers are getting too many things donated. Way to go Alabama!
Dawn