Survival Forum SHTF Survivalist Blog » urban survival

Remembering Hurricane Ike Three Years Later

Kevin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:03:01 +0000

Its simple amazing how much time has passed under the bridge in the last 3 years. On September 13, 2008 Hurricane Ike made landfall, and changed the lives of tens of thousands of people forever. Mom and Dads house was totaled, sold to the insurance company and demolished. One of my best friends has rebuilt and now has a nice place. My brother has rebuilt and seems to be no worse for the wear. It was somewhere around 10:00pm or 10:30 that I lost phone contact with my kids who were riding out Hurricane Ike in Houston. I figured they were ok, but I worried about them until I knew for sure they were safe. The winds with Ike were not near as bad as Rita, but the storm surge with Ike was probably 10X worse the Rita. With Rita southeast Texas got a little storm surge, but nothing like what came in with Ike. The next morning after Ike passed through, my family and I left the shelter we were staying at and went home. I hooked to pit up to my truck and pulled the pit around to the front of my house. I wanted to pit fired up and cooking something, so that the people driving down the street would be assured that life would return to normal.

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Ideas for a get home bag

Kevin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:38:57 +0000

Get Home Bag Ideas If I had to walk home, here are some items that I would like to have in my get home bag. 32 ounce water bottle Rain poncho - even a light duty one LED light, something like a Surefire G2X Pro Mainstay rations Road map Phone number / contact list Rope - 550 cord Multi-tool Small first aid kit Paper, pen and sharpie / felt tip magic marker Money - at least $20 One of the first packs that comes to mind is the Maxpedition Noatak

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Thunderstorms last night

Kevin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:49:56 +0000

Last night around midnight we had some pretty bad thunderstorms roll through the area. These were the types of storms that when the rolling thunder hits, your house shakes. Just as luck would have it, when the internet went off, I was 11 minutes from being finished uploading a youtube video. But oh well, I will upload the video again tonight. Around midnight my step-daughter calls my wife worried about the weather. I don't know which one kept me up more, the thunder and lightening, or my wife and step-daughter talking on the phone. At least the cell phone towers were working during the bad weather. After the storms rolled through the Beaumont, Port Arthur and Houston areas, reports started coming in of chemical refineries losing power. Emergency calls started being made to people who live close by telling them to stay in their homes. Maybe a dozen or more people showed up at the local emergency rooms with breathing problems. The problems with the refineries makes me wonder if the units can be shutdown quickly in an emergency. Take a look at what happened with the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Could the same thing happen here in the USA, and not just with a nuclear power plant? With all of the chemical and oil refineries along the gulf coast, are they a disaster waiting to happen? How about a random video just for the fun of it. This video is about a personal survival kit. I had an empty fist aid kit, so why not make a PSK (personal survival kit) out of it. A few months after the video was made, the box was returned to a first aid kit for my backpack.

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Texas February 2011 Ice Storm

Kevin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:25:50 +0000

To the northern states this might not be a big deal, but here in Southeast Texas, we are not used to dealing with this kind of stuff. The overpasses around the Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange areas are frozen over. Some of our bridges are closed - like the Veterans memorial bridge and the Rainbow Bridge. The tarp that covers my boat has a thin lay of ice on it, and were rain water has collected, its frozen The majority of the local court houses and schools are closed. But for some reason Jasper ISD did not close their schools and are putting kids on the icy roads. Maybe its time to elect a new school board. Ice cycles off the roof of the storage building are maybe 1 - 1.5 inches long and growing. Its not expected to get above freezing until tomorrow.

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Making bug out plans

Kevin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:00:58 +0000

Some type of disaster has either arrived or is heading your way - whether its an earthquake, hurricane, food shortages due to a new disease outbreak,,,,, you and your family need to get out of the city. You have made plans to stay at a rural farm with some friends, but the problem is getting out of the city. Fuel - the very first problem your going to run into is having enough fuel to get out. Once the panic buying starts, fuel is going to be one of the first things people buy up. Everyone will be filling up their gas cans, cars, trucks, generators, 55 gallon drums,,,, and as a result, the gas stations will be cleaned out. The first people to leave the cities will help finish off the fuel supplies in rural areas. So don't think that your going to find a gas station in a small town to get fuel, its not going to happen, everyone else will beat you to it. Maps - as the major roadways become clogged with cars and trucks, your going to need to find an alternate route. When parts of southeast Texas evacuated for Hurricane Ike, people from Houston, Port Arthur, Bridge City, Lumberton, Orange,,,, sat in line for hours. On high 69/96/287 leaving Port Arthur, Texas - people were running out of gas sitting on the highway. The highway department had to send tanker trucks out to fill peoples cars and trucks up with fuel to keep the lines moving. What normally took a 1 hour drive, took 10 hours.

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Collecting rain water urban survival tip

Kevin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:23:04 +0000

In an urban survival situation, safe drinking water might be a little difficult to come by.

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Fruit trees and the urban survivalist

Kevin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:00:13 +0000

Fruit trees are the friend of the urban survivalist. Unlike a garden, you do not have to replant the fruit tree every year, during the spring your neighbors will be jealous of the beautiful blooms, dwarf fruit trees can be planted just about anywhere, and some types of fruit trees are high producers. Meaning, that…

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Floods from nautral disasters

Kevin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:44:38 +0000

This is the intersection of HWY 87 and chemical road, which is between Orange and Bridge City, Texas. 2 major intersections which were blocked by debris and water from Hurricane Ike. Keep in mind, this intersection is about 20 inland from the Gulf of Mexico. As far as anyone could remember, this part of Orange…

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Fuel storage

Kevin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:12:02 +0000

Here is what I store most of my fuel in. These drums hold 16 gallons each, but I only fill them with 15 gallons of fuel. The first thing people usually say – your not supposed to store fuel in plastic. Ok, then what about the plastic 5 gallon gas cans from the local hardware…

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Move on you have enough gas

Kevin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:00:21 +0000

This is a real story, as it was told to me. As far as I know it based on actual events. Location – Lufkin, Texas Date – a couple of days after Hurricane Rita passed through. The story – this guy was at a gas station filling up several 55 gallon drums. Gasoline was already…

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