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Pre-Cyclone Prep
Feb. 11th, 2023 07:04 pmOK, we think we're as ready as we can be for Cyclone Gabrielle.
We've put away all loose stuff outside including furniture. We're making our freestanding garage our evacuation shelter: the garage is far more protected from wind than the house is (although it's entirely possible a tree might fall on it, but that's the case for the house too). Handily, I already store water and catfood in the garage. The house we holiday in has terrible beds and we take our own mattresses, so those were already in the car, as were sheets, towels and non-perishable food (since I didn't know what was going to be happening on the island). No need to pack a go bag either, as we'd already packed for Waiheke and put the bags in the car.
Inside, we got down the eight suitcases in the attic (yes, eight, we did a lot of travel pre-Covid and everything needed a slightly different suitcase) and spread them around the house ready to throw things in and decamp with if the roof gets damaged and water gets in. We also drew up a list of what we would want to try and save in order of priority, because it was pretty obvious that without one we were going to be running around in a panic wildly collecting stupid things. I've printed out copies of the evacuation plan and spread them round the house. And I've put new batteries in my headlamp, because you can bet that if something bad does happen, it'll be in the middle of the night. I also took masses of photos of the entire interior to make any insurance claim easier, and uploaded them to Dropbox.
Because the official advice given was to have three days' worth of food and water, Aucklanders have been hitting the supermarkets today in massive numbers just like in the lockdown days. I'd emptied my fridge to go away, but fortunately I'm a subscriber at an online-only supermarket so managed to avoid all that by booking a delivery for tomorrow.
And I also went around to my mother's and put away all her outdoor furniture and plant pots, not to mention informing her of the location of our emergency shelter (if only I'd had a high-vis vest to make it official).
Tomorrow, I'll fill the bath with water in case the water gets turned off.
And I think that's all we can do. I really hope that what will happen is I'll feel a bit silly for making all these preparations that turned out not to be needed. But the second best option is that I'll be grateful I did do all of them.
The rain and wind have started, at a pretty low level. Tomorrow (Sunday here) they're going to intensify, but the real thing isn't predicted to hit until Monday and Tuesday NZ time. We won't know if we're out of the woods until Wednesday morning.
We've put away all loose stuff outside including furniture. We're making our freestanding garage our evacuation shelter: the garage is far more protected from wind than the house is (although it's entirely possible a tree might fall on it, but that's the case for the house too). Handily, I already store water and catfood in the garage. The house we holiday in has terrible beds and we take our own mattresses, so those were already in the car, as were sheets, towels and non-perishable food (since I didn't know what was going to be happening on the island). No need to pack a go bag either, as we'd already packed for Waiheke and put the bags in the car.
Inside, we got down the eight suitcases in the attic (yes, eight, we did a lot of travel pre-Covid and everything needed a slightly different suitcase) and spread them around the house ready to throw things in and decamp with if the roof gets damaged and water gets in. We also drew up a list of what we would want to try and save in order of priority, because it was pretty obvious that without one we were going to be running around in a panic wildly collecting stupid things. I've printed out copies of the evacuation plan and spread them round the house. And I've put new batteries in my headlamp, because you can bet that if something bad does happen, it'll be in the middle of the night. I also took masses of photos of the entire interior to make any insurance claim easier, and uploaded them to Dropbox.
Because the official advice given was to have three days' worth of food and water, Aucklanders have been hitting the supermarkets today in massive numbers just like in the lockdown days. I'd emptied my fridge to go away, but fortunately I'm a subscriber at an online-only supermarket so managed to avoid all that by booking a delivery for tomorrow.
And I also went around to my mother's and put away all her outdoor furniture and plant pots, not to mention informing her of the location of our emergency shelter (if only I'd had a high-vis vest to make it official).
Tomorrow, I'll fill the bath with water in case the water gets turned off.
And I think that's all we can do. I really hope that what will happen is I'll feel a bit silly for making all these preparations that turned out not to be needed. But the second best option is that I'll be grateful I did do all of them.
The rain and wind have started, at a pretty low level. Tomorrow (Sunday here) they're going to intensify, but the real thing isn't predicted to hit until Monday and Tuesday NZ time. We won't know if we're out of the woods until Wednesday morning.
