Status and checklists

As I said before, I have a pretty comprehensive disaster plan, honed and adjusted after riding out or responding to more than a dozen disasters (10 hurricanes, 1 tornado outbreak, and the widespread brush fires of 1999)

It is organized into several sections, or phases:

Preparation (this is the normal, ongoing preps I am always taking)
Evacuation or pre-event
Shelter
Subsistence
Recovery

Pre-event was through Sunday.
Shelter was carried out from Sunday morning through Monday at first light.
Subsistence began yesterday at first light, and will continue until electrical power returns. This is the most tedious part of the storm process. The last time I had to do this was Hurricane Charley in 2004, and I was without power for 12 days.

I shut off the generator just after dark. We did a patrol of the area, and there are quite a few neighbors sitting in chairs on their driveways, enjoying the cool, post-hurricane weather. Eight other homes are continuing to operate generators at night, and two are living in RVs parked in their driveways. I have the only operating generator on my street of 14 houses.

This morning, I got up at 6 am (the eastern sky begins to lighten at about 6:45), refueled the generator, started it up and checked the freezer temp, which was up to 24 degrees. I fired up the propane stove and made breakfast burritos.

I took a quick ride to the closest three gas stations, but no luck on fuel. I have enough for two more days of running the generator at my current rate of consumption. After that, I will have to steal fuel from our second vehicle.

I am hoping to convince the wife to add a whole house gennie that runs on propane so I can install a 250 gallon tank, and maybe this storm will do the trick.