Hurricanes define devastation. Your community looks like
Sodom The Day After.
You may have lost everything or very little of your material
possessions. You may have lost loved ones, pets. Most of
all, you have lost your sense of equilibrium.
You are going to be stressed to the maximum, even if you
don't know it. Don't go on as if "it"s okay', it isn't. Even
if you personally didn't lose a thumbtack, just looking at
the mess outside is enough to send you into a soul deep
depression.
If you've been through it before, you know how to get to
a level of balance, if you have never experienced The Day
After, you are in for a double dose of what is called post
traumatic shock.
Recognise it.
Confront your stress as if it is a big monster in your
path. Let yourself feel the sense of devastation and the
strength of your survival.
If you ignore it, a few months down the road the stress is
going to send you into the hospital with all sorts of
symptoms and after you go through many unpleasant tests which
find nothing and deplete your bank account, you will be
diagnosed with stress.
So diagnose yourself now, recognise you have seen death and
survived.
This may sound ridiculous, but if you have survived a
hurricane, you will know what I'm talking about.
Now that we've dealt with the internal, let us move to the
external.
Electricity will be off for sometime. Depending on where
you live and what you have, how you get from today to
tomorrow is set.
There are those who cook on gas stoves and buy their gas
in metal cylinders. Hence, cooking will be unaffected.
Others may find themselves with a barbecue, and others
with wood fires.
Cooking over a fire is how our ancestors did it, and how
people do it in other parts of the world today. Many people
have no electricity or any other means of cooking.
Without electricity you have to resort to candles. These
can be very dangerous especially when you aren't accustomed
to them.
The best thing are those little candles in glass cups. Use
those instead of tapers, however, Never leave a candle
burning when you go to sleep. Ever.
Those who are accustomed to camping know how to make a
camp fire. This is where you make a circle of stones, build
the fire inside of it, some distance from anything that
burns.
You can not have a candle, even in a glass burning over
night. Anything can happen, and will. Better to have a
flashlight beside you while you sleep with every fire
extinguished.
Mosquitoes love hurricanes. They come out of wherever they
were and lay eggs like crazy. Clear your property of
anything that can contain water, even a piece of linoleum
can have a nice little sink which hold enough water for
mosquitoes to open a maternity clinic.
Police your property, make sure there is nothing, not a tin
can, not a bottle cap, holding water.
When you catch water to bathe or flush a toilet or for any
purpose, put a little oil on top of it. You can use anything
from kerosene to cooking oil. Just a little makes a film and
prevents mosquitoes from being able to lay their eggs.
Drinking water must be treated. Two drops of bleach into a
half gallon of water, let stand for thirty minutes. This
works.
You don't know what has fallen into your water supply, and
it is wise until you are certain, to treat your water.
Now that we've dealt with your personal matters, let us
look at the environment.
In many areas you are restricted from burning garbage. If you
weren't you'd build a hell of a fire and get rid of the
garbage; because that garbage is going to be a major health
risk. Rats will move in along with every thing else that
creeps or crawls.
You have got to clear the area one way or another, get
everything that can be labeled trash as far from you
as possible.
There might not be garbage collection for a while, so
you have got to figure out the smartest move for you
and your community.
The faster you can clear the area around your premises
from the debris the safer you will be.
If your house has been damaged to the sense it is unlivable,
there is no sense hanging around. Find somewhere to go. It
will rain again, and you will be wet.
If there are rooms which are livable, organise them to your
comfort. You might wind up living in the pantry, or the
basement, or the sewing room. Change it to be what you need
it to be; no sense being uncomfortable.
Sure this is common sense, but after a hurricane, that
commodity is in very short supply.
Don't waste water washing clothing.
If you can get to somewhere unaffected, then by all means
but it is better to wear your cleanest dirty clothes than
to try to wash with a limited water supply.
Don't wait on government to help you.
