Rage Against The Dying Of The Light

• Evacuate. Please. For the love of god. If you have the means and transportation, there is no reason for you to stay. Whatever is going to happen to your house is going to happen whether you’re there or not. It might take a while to get back into your home or neighborhood if there is damage, but it’s for your own safety. Don’t push it.
• Check on your neighbors too. Make sure they have a place to go, especially elderly neighbors.
• If you take any non-essential personal possessions with you when you evacuate, let it be pictures. Actual photographs. I’m sure everyone has tons of digital images, but don’t forget the paper photographs that came from a roll of film and cannot be duplicated. Some things can be salvaged from water damage. Pictures are not one of them.
• Phones will probably be down for a while and it’ll be hard to get in touch with other people. The one thing I was able to do after Katrina was access the Internet. Granted, it was on a desktop in the hotel lobby with limited hours and we didn’t own a laptop yet. But I was still able to get emails out and check message boards. Make sure you have email addresses for people you might want to be in contact with in the likely event cell phones are not working.
• This is obviously considering a worst case scenario, but I lived through this so, here it goes. If you’re still in high school, bring your school uniform with you. You’re likely going to think you’ll be home in a few days and will go back to school and you won’t need it in the meantime. Uniforms are expensive and that is not something you’ll want to think about replacing if something bad happens. I had to attend a new school for 6 months while mine was being repaired. We got lucky that the school was kind enough to give us uniforms to wear instead of buying new ones. But my school shoes got left behind and ruined.

• Medication: if there’s medicine that you absolutely have to take, go get it refilled and evacuate with it. If you’re staying (which I wouldn’t suggest; see point 1 above), and you have medical issues, please know that emergency services will likely not be able to get to you after the storm. Do not rely on them for help. Do not expect them to be able to help you.
• Pets: please take your pets with you when you evacuate. They will get lost, or worse. Most hotels should be lienent with their pet policies especially during a crisis like this.
• Take pictures of your home before you leave. Each room. What’s in cabinets. Anything you’ve left behind. This will help in the unfortunate event that you need to make an insurance claim. It’s amazing how your mind will stop working once you’re upset and stressed and grieving. You’ll be thankful for the pictures when your memory lapses.
• I’m not familiar with them, but I believe there are types of apps that allow your phone to act like a walkie talkie. This may Work if the phones lines are down (see above).
• I’ll probably deal with the aftermath in another post, because that is honestly a completely different beast, but this will not be easy. Don’t listen to national news outlets’ opinions - they will not be kind. Don’t listen to anyone who isn’t from your area who wants to blame you for where you chose to live. This is not your fault, and it never will be.

• Evacuate. Please. For the love of god. If you have the means and transportation, there is no reason for you to say. Whatever is going to happen to your house is going to happen whether you’re there or not. It might take a while to get back into your home or neighborhood if there is damage, but it’s for your own safety. Don’t push it.
• Check on your neighbors too. Make sure they have a place to go, especially elderly neighbors.
• If you take any non-essential personal possessions with you when you evacuate, let it be pictures. Actual photographs. I’m sure everyone has tons of digital images, but don’t forget the paper photographs that came from a roll of film and cannot be duplicated. Some things can be salvaged from water damage. Pictures are not one of them.
• Phones will probably be down for a while and it’ll be hard to get in touch with other people. The one thing I was able to do after Katrina was access the Internet. Granted, it was on a desktop in the hotel lobby with limited hours and we didn’t own a laptop yet. But I was still able to get emails out and check message boards. Make sure you have email addresses for people you might want to be in contact with in the likely event cell phones are not working.
• This is obviously considering a worst case scenario, but I lived through this so, here it goes. If you’re still in high school, bring your school uniform with you. You’re likely going to think you’ll be home in a few days and will go back to school and you won’t need it in the meantime. Uniforms are expensive and that is not something you’ll want to think about replacing if something bad happens. I had to attend a new school for 6 months while mine was being repaired. We got lucky that the school was kind enough to give us uniforms to wear instead of buying new ones. But my school shoes got left behind and ruined.

• Evacuate. Please. For the love of god. If you have the means and transportation, there is no reason for you to say. Whatever is going to happen to your house is going to happen whether you’re there or not. It might take a while to get back into your home or neighborhood if there is damage, but it’s for your own safety. Don’t push it.
• Check on your neighbors too. Make sure they have a place to go, especially elderly neighbors.
• If you take any non-essential personal possessions with you when you evacuate, let it be pictures. Actual photographs. I’m sure everyone has tons of digital images, but don’t forget the paper photographs that came from a roll of film and cannot be duplicated. Some things can be salvaged from water damage. Pictures are not one of them.
• Phones will probably be down for a while and it’ll be hard to get in touch with other people. The one thing I was able to do after Katrina was access the Internet. Granted, it was on a desktop in the hotel lobby with limited hours and we didn’t own a laptop yet. But I was still able to get emails out and check message boards. Make sure you have email addresses for people you might want to be in contact with in the likely event cell phones are not working.
• This is obviously considering a worst case scenario, but I lived through this so, here it goes. If you’re still in high school, bring your school uniform with you. You’re likely going to think you’ll be home in a few days and will go back to school and you won’t need it in the meantime. Uniforms are expensive and that is not something you’ll want to think about replacing if something bad happens. I had to attend a new school for 6 months while mine was being repaired. We got lucky that the school was kind enough to give us uniforms to wear instead of buying new ones. But my school shoes got left behind and ruined.

Ben Solo and his Namesake