Philippines and Prepping
Prepping is a term that has become synonymous with crazy people gathering stuff for the zombie apocalypse. For me it is being prepared for the next typhoon, natural disaster, or even worse. I have lived in the Philippines for over 6 years and have been through many typhoons and lost of electricity multiple times.
Background: I am a retired US Military Veteran of 21 years. I believe in being prepared and helping my neighbors.
Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan): Next month will mark the 4-year anniversary of hurricane Yolanda. I was living in the Northern part of Negros Island when Yolanda hit us. We were on the edge of the eye and my city sustained considerable damage, many homes, buildings, and power lines where down or destroyed. We, my wife, myself and our 1 year and 1 month old, stayed inside our rented concrete home during the storm. I did check the tides for storm surge, because we lived close to the beach. I believed that was where the most danger could come from. We normally buy a month worth of staple products at the beginning of every month, since this was the 8th of November we were fairly stocked up. However, the day before we did go to the grocery store and top off. As the storm approached we knew the power company would cut the power and probably be out a couple days. I gathered us in the safest room and hunkered down for the 6 hours of hell. I would make rounds throughout the property like I was on watch in the military. As the storm got closer I was just doing my rounds inside the house watching the water run down my inside walls like a water fall. I directed the water out the doors, moved and raised our furniture and continued my rounds.
After the storm had passed, I went outside to check for damage to the house. We had a small portion of our roof detached and our entire front fence was blown over. I spent the first day after the storm propping up the fence and repaired it best I could to help with our security. Called the home owner about the roof, they came the next day to look and get a repair guy there the next day, we were lucky the owner was connected. The first day after the storm we went to town and saw all the downed power lines and realized the power is going to be out for at least a week or more. In town I purchased a small generator for around $150, also some other items to make some repairs around the house. I noticed the price for the exact same generator was over $250 the next time I went into the hardware store a couple days later, no anti-gouging laws here.
We have been through typhoons before but none this severe. Normally the water is out a day or so then back on. This time the water was out 8 days. I have two 55-gal drums filled with rainwater, that did not last long. I made a big mistake, the day before the storm, my daughter was in our large blow-up pool playing, and to protect it I dumped the water. I wished I had that water a few days later. But luckily, we had a hand pump water station only 2 blocks away and by day 6 we were all bathing there and carrying water back to the house. By day 9 the water had been restored to my subdivision, I heard it was because some of the local politician families lived there.
We were still without power. We had the generator which we ran every night at 8pm until midnight. This was the time we choose because it was the time our baby when to sleep and we wanted to run the fan to keep her cool, and us too. We would charge our phones, computer, lights, and go on our Wi-Fi for a few hours. This was our routine for over 30 days without electricity. Again, we got our power back way before a lot of the city, some parts were three months without power. I was thankful we had a generator and some of our neighbors would give us their electronics to charge from our generator. We got real lazy one weekend and spent it at a hotel in another city.
Lessons Learned:
#1. Do not empty the kids pool, in fact fill them up, or let the rain fill them. Adding to that, fill every container you have, you will use a lot more water than you think.
#2. Have a generator. Keep it maintained and test it monthly.
#3. Educate yourself on being prepared.
#4. Remain calm, stay vigilant.
#5. Electricity is not needed to survive.
To do list:
#1. Educate myself on basic medical procedures, medical supplies needed and pharmaceuticals needed.
#2. Water filtration and water storage. Need more, more, and more.
#3. Exit plan and test.
#4. Alternative fuel/fire devices for cooking.
#5. Get a survival team of neighbors together and prepare together.
After writing this I realize I have gotten a little complacent, time to up my game.
I hope you all enjoyed this and please get prepared.
