Being prepared in a Cyclone

[livinglandnz]

We had a Tropical Cyclone hit the centre of the North Island of New Zealand last week, I am a lot further south so didnt get any damage, sadly there was loss of life, I read that one women crawled up into her roof space thinking she would be safe from the flooding, she drowned the water came up so high. Many houses were completely covered the water level was so high, the silt and mud left behind buried hundreds of homes. Thousands of people were left homeless and had to be rescued, the flood waters came up so fast they literally had no time to try and get away.
Where I live the biggest threat is earthquakes, I am up too high to worry about flooding. It is crazy times we live in with the changing weather patterns. There isn't anything I can really do to prepare for an earthquake other than hope for the best. Food and water isn't an issue, I have adequate shelter on my land that will withstand an earthquake (strong pole barn with no weight on top).

I have always had supplies ready, probably the biggest asset would be fuel for a generator.

 

[Hinotori]

Don't forget to add fuel stabilizer to any longer term stored fuel. I just use the same containers I use for mowing so their rotated in and out. In winter I will sometimes just dump it into a pickup.

 

[baymule]

That is a terrible thing to happen. Floods are devastating. My sister lives in a flood plain, close to the San Jancinto River. In Hurricane Harvey, she got 7 feet of water in her house. She and her husband went upstairs and were rescued out the second story window. Yesterday we ate in a restaurant in Kingwood that had a red line on the wall, 7 feet up, measuring the water from Hurricane Harvey.

Hurricane Harvey destroyed communities and towns on the Gulf coast. People who tried to ride out the storm were killed.

Was there storm warnings so people could evacuate? Do Cyclone's there rise up too quickly to give people warnings?

You are wise to choose a high place away from floods.

 

[tortoise]

I saw your pole building on YouTube. I'm impressed with everything you a doing on your land!

How do you store things safely in an earthquake area? If your building stands but everything inside is shaken to the floor?

 

[murphysranch]

Wait.....Livinglandnz has a youtube?

No chance of flooding here, from the mighty Columbia River. I'm at almost 400 ft.

However, our biggest worry is wind and earthquake.

 

[tortoise]

My house is on a hill too. Pretty sure flooding isn't possible. Tornado and winter storms are most likely here. There's an ice storm on the way now...

 

[livinglandnz]

There was a warning that a Cyclone was coming but really no one had any idea how bad it would be, one of the worst hit areas is very low to sea level and one particular valley was just about entirely under water. It was a few minutes before the level rose to roof height.
As for earthquakes it's quite common here for people to screw large items to walls, shelves, cupboards etc. food storage might have brackets across the shelving to stop jars jumping out. I was living in Christchurch in 2011 when we had an earthquake destroy the city and thousands of houses, fresh water was like gold at the time because the city supply was contaminated from sewarge. I had my own water well out in the country so I was filling up containers for people, for about a month drinking water and fuel were the new currency, it was getting crazy what people would do for clean water.
I rotate fuel supplies on a regular basis, petrol for my boat gets put into someones car if its getting to 3 months old.
My most valuable assets for survival are gas bottles (propane) for cooking. firewood, fuel and a generator, and of course ammunition. I would be screwed without that haha.

 

[livinglandnz]

Wait.....Livinglandnz has a youtube?

No chance of flooding here, from the mighty Columbia River. I'm at almost 400 ft.

However, our biggest worry is wind and earthquake.

Yup. if you type in LivinglandNZ to the tube you should find me.