It’s all over the news (again) that a major hurricane is heading towards Florida. Dorian has now reached Category Level 3 and is forecast to reach Cat 4 before landfall, somewhere in South Florida. Right now its strike point is around Fort Lauderdale/Miami, and then Dorian is predicted to turn north and run right up the central part of the state and right over Orlando. When it crosses Orlando it’s still forecast to be a Cat 1. Lovely.

I worked from home yesterday and spent part of my time just getting prepared. My wife and I tried to get supplies at our local Costco. We certainly weren’t the only ones. Even though we got there around 10am, the parking lot was already filled forcing me to drop my wife off at the front while I went across to another parking lot in front of another store next to Costco. I then walked back. Fortunately for me yesterday was a good day, with no knee problems. My wife was also fortunate in that she found an electric scooter to ride in the store. To add to the craziness of the morning I had to pick up a cart out of the parking lot because there were none left in front of the Costco.

When I got in, there was a very long line for picking up bottled water as well as very long lines to check out. We were limited to two flats of bottled water. Fortunately for me a stranger in one of the isles asked if I wanted some of his water. He had four flats (don’t ask me how he had four) and gave me two. That kept me out of one long line for water and guaranteed I had my water. I picked up the rest of our basic supplies, then stood in another long line to check out. Normally, there are no long lines at Costco checkout, but there were three that stretched from one end of Costco to nearly the other. And keep in mind, my Costco is a Super Costco, so it’s quite large. What made the long lines tolerable was the efficiency of the Costco checkout staff. The lines all moved fairly fast including the one I was in.

We finally got out of Costco and went home to unpack and decide if we needed anything else. We did, so I went back later that afternoon to pick up two packs of AAA batteries and a box of gallon freezer baggies. The crowds were pretty much gone by then. While I was there I noticed all the water was gone, and nearly all the bread as well.

Basically I got a full tank of gas for my one car, and the other has a full tank as well. I also managed to pick up about 3o gallons for the external generator. I’d picked up a new starter battery Wednesday and placed an order for a 25ft 220V/40A special extension cord to go from my generator to my external connection. The cord came special from Amazon; I ordered Wednesday and it arrived yesterday 8pm. I had some electrical work done last week to run a special circuit from the front fuse panel to my wife’s medical spa in our back. In the process I paid to have the external box put in to directly connect my generator into the house via the external fuse box.

So here’s how all that will work. When the power goes out (there is no if) I go out and flip the main breakers off to disconnect my house from mains power. That allows the mechanical interlock to drop down, exposing the generator breakers, which are off. I make sure to turn off all heavy power sinks (the pool, the spa, the hot water heater, and central air) and then flip the generator breakers on. I then connect the long cord from the back connector to my generator, and then start up the generator. If all goes well then I will have an electrically isolated home from the mains with minimal power via the generator.

The generator is powerful enough to power the regular lighting (which is all LED throughout), the refrigerator (for food and my wife’s medications) and a room air conditioning unit. I’ve had this generator now since Irma (I purchased it in 2015, and it got its first big workout with Hurricane Matthew in October 2016), and I’ve used extension cords in the past to run through the back door and into the kitchen. Going through the panel eliminates all the dangerous extension cord tangle inside the house. Neither one of us walks too well these days and a bad trip and injurious fall during a hurricane would be very bad news.

Other incidentals that should stay up are the cable modem and thus the house phone (although we both have cell phones) meaning that if the cable infrastructure stays up I’ll have broadband internet. If I need to cook anything I have a gas grill out back and underneath shelter. I’ll have a call into Duke Energy to have them call me back with updates on my cell phone.

Basically, if you didn’t do your supply preparations Wednesday or Thursday of this week and waited until now, you’re going to be sorely tested to find enough, especially of the basics. There’s been quite a few warning phone calls and emails from where I work, my bank, my insurance company, and even AAA. In spite of Hurricane Irma having hit in 2017, or two years ago, nobody is taking Dorian for granted. Dorian feels like Irma all over again, so everybody is super motivated to get prepared. The special generator connection is the most I’ve ever been prepared, which is kind of sad as I’ve lived in this house since 1985, and this isn’t the first generator I’ve owned and used during the aftermath of a hurricane. The only way I can be even more prepared is to install a 10KW propane gas generator with automatic kickover, something I have been seriously contemplating.