I wanted to share our experience for the last few days. This will be long. We are outside Columbia, South Carolina. Helene was not supposed to come here. We were supposed to get outer bands. Rain, wind, chance of tornadoes. Marginal risks. Now we live in South Carolina. Most of us know the dangers. Know the things we will see. Most of the people here were blind sided. We have many transplant who have not had a “direct” hit from a hurricane. I say that because we are inland. So by the time the storm gets to us it’s a tropical storm or depression. Rain and wind. For the most part you can go about your days. They complain about school being closed. This storm was no different. Meteorologist warning it can turn. We are in the upper right quandrant. The worse area to be. This storm will be and for us. What is on Facebook? Wednesday the governor declares a state of emergency. People complain. I suppose school will be close. For nothing. Children went to school Thursday. By lunch time the same people complaining. It’s getting bad. Maybe we should have canceled school. Around 3 am the wind and rain got bad for us. Woke my husband up. The man who sleep through everything. Our power went out at 4:20. No power means now water as we are on a well. Ok. No problem. We have some water on hand. Not enough but some. My husband didn’t think it would be bad and would get more water Friday. I have to drink 3 liters a day because I am post kidney transplant. He fussed when I say we need this before the storm. Every storm. Grand daughter woke up at 6:30. It was dark still. Raining and wind still. Things hitting the house and roof. We had a couple of candles going but not much. Went to get the lanterns we used for camping just two months ago. Both worked when we went camping. We took the batteries out to store them. Neither worked when we needed them Friday. Ok. No problem. Not the best solution with a five year old in the house but we have oil lamps. They would not stay lit. The wick kept burning down. Our camp stove needs to be rebuilt. It went crazy stupid the last time we went camping. We haven’t replaced it or rebuilt it yet. Grand daughter had a pop tart for breakfast. We played. Did her school work when there was enough light in the house. Had peanut butter and jelly for lunch. She got a bag of chips and cookies for snacks. We went out to play when it stopped raining. It was stuffy in the house. Then we came in to play with her toys inside for awhile. My mom’s power came back on that afternoon. We went to her house for dinner and showers. My brother was going to lend us his generator so we could keep the fridge and freezer cold. He ran the generator and checked it Thursday. It would not start when we went to get it. He has to rebuild the motor. The lifter broke that fast. Cell service is spotty and in and out. One store will have power and the next store will be closed. Friday all the stores could accept was cash. Today some stores could use bank cards. All the lanterns and any kind of light was gone. We bought water at the dollar tree because we got it the first place we saw. We were originally told we wouldn’t have power until Tuesday. Thankfully we got it tonight. Many are without power still. We have four electric companies that service our area. Our electric company has six substations that received damage and have to be repaired. One of the other companies has eight and is waiting for parts as well.
What we learned is to have back ups for your plans and then back ups for those plans and if possible back ups as well. When you have a prompting you need something or need to do something do it. We are fortunate that electric is spotty and we can get supplies. Trees are down everywhere. Power lines are down. We had healthy trees split and break and fall on houses. I knew I had water for at least one day. I knew his dad has solar panels so figured we could get water once the sky was clear again. I have felt for a week I need led a rocket stove. Even talked to my brother. They kept popping up in my reels before I talked to my brother. He is going to work on making us all one. He is learning blacksmith and does really great work. My husband finally agreed the water tank I’ve been asking for to put outside is a great idea for animal water and flushing toilets and such. He has agreed we need to keep more bottled water in the house so there isn’t a chance I run out and my kidney is damaged. Like I said I had enough until I could get more. My mom had several gallons put aside specifically for me. But I have to boil well water. So I need the rocket stove. If you have kids make sure you have lots of stuff to keep them entertained and keep them comfortable. The baby got scared. We talked to her. When it was safe and we had been outside to make sure it was safe we took her to show her we were ok. Expect a mess from kids. And whining. And constant snacking. And prepare more snacks and drinks for them than they normally use. Pack up craft kits or cards or books. New things for when they need a break. And I know most people overlook this but I feel this is important as well. Get the snacks. The cookies. The chips. The fun food. Also practice this. Either at home cooking in the yard or in our case camping. Because every time she got scared we said remember when we went camping? We didn’t have electric. We cooked food. Give them a normal experience they can relate to in times of crisis. Remind them we did this when it was fun. Make it normal or at least relatable. Be prepared for the worse even if they say there is a marginal chance. This storm is being related to Hurricane Hugo which came through in 1988 or 1989. I remember I was in middle school. I remember it was bad. This one was bad. We knew what we were going through. We knew recovery was going to be long and hard. We don’t know if and when the kids go back to school. And if that isn’t enough, we find out today there are three more tropical systems they are watching. One that has the potential to be back through some of these same hard hit areas before they can completely recover. Have cash. Have back ups to your planning and back ups to those back ups. Remember the children because they will need more than you think they will both for physical and mental well being. Get in shape. It is exhausting recovering from these storms. Keep extra medicine on hand if possible and don’t run out. Even just four extra days of medicine each month that you save by filling as soon as a prescription can be filled could save your life. Make sure your shelf stable foods also have instant foods for the kids. Don’t forget you will need salty foods when cleaning debris and sweating. Also pickle juice makes a great electrolyte replacement when you don’t have other options. It was used at My dialysis clinic as well as mustard packets. Learn how to cook and do things with no electric and water so you can appear to have everything under control for the kids and yourself. All the “stupid” things I keep in the house and car came in so handy when we needed it the most.
Those going through this please add things you learned so we all can learn. This was totally unexpected for our area and think that’s why this is important to share. Our linemen were mobilized and sent to other part of the state that we knew were going to get hit hard. And they were. Much harder than we were. And those men are needed there. But that left us short until help from neighboring states arrived. And that delayed things. While they prepared they didn’t prepare for this damage so things aren’t quite as quickly fixed because resources were not where they were needed. People in our area are being told it’s going to be a long time before some get electric. However neighbors went and cleared trees from the road before county and city government could. Neighbors who have electric have opened their houses for phone chargers and showers and meals and washing clothes. They have brought people’s freezers to their house to save the food. People with no electric are grilling food that is thawing and offering to those in need. The schools are collecting and distributing supplies. The churches are making meals and charging stations and handing out food and water. It is hard. But we have come together as one community. Without judgement. My grand daughter told me she feels Jesus sent the storm so people would stay home and be nice to each other. She’s five. And this makes perfect sense to a five year old. And maybe the greatest lesson we need to learn from these situations is what a five year old tells us. We need to be nice to our neighbors. We need to help without judging. We see a need and we can fill it then we do. I pray that I and everyone else remembers the lessons we are taught this week and continue these practices. That we learn to come together as one again. That we learn to love our neighbors.