-- Forget the three days' worth of supplies. Have enough on hand for a couple of weeks. From here on out, I won't be buying anything for the freezer. Plenty of baby wipes and cleaning wipes. Plenty of paper goods, including paper plates and plastic cutlery.

-- Fill available freezer space with containers of water, such as tupperware or glad ware. Solid ice keeps longer than cubes, and melts into drinkable water.

-- It's not necessary to buy a lot of water. I filled up pitchers and pans and had plenty, but I keep a week's worth of bottled water on hand. I refill the water containers and write "TAP" on them and keep them in the fridge.

-- Tap lights.

-- Fill bathtubs and washing machine for water to flush and wash. A couple of jugs of water set out in the sun will warm up nicely for "spit baths" -- thank you, Joe Parker. ;) The city has installed generators which are supposed to keep the water and sewerage systems operating. I'd like to see it in action first, in the meantime I'll fill the tubs.

-- Don't forget pet food and supplies, prescription Rx, first aid supplies, and things like heavy work gloves, tarps and duct tape. We had to cover one eave of my house with a shower curtain because of lack of tarp. It held for about a week.

-- One of those battery gadgets that charges a cell phone would be good. I hated running the car to charge my cell phone.

-- Insect repellent, sunscreen.

-- Speaking of the car, keep the gas tank topped off.

-- I don't have a generator, but I do have a supply of sterno. If you can boil water, you can have coffee. If you have coffee, you can tackle the world. I have a stash of Folger's coffee bags. Not as good as real, not as bad as instant, easier to deal with.

-- I personally cannot buy snack items until the last minute. This principle was established last summer when an attempt to stockpile chips and cookies went horribly awry.

-- An old-time poor-folks trick -- aluminum foil in the windows deflects a lot of heat.

-- a gun and ammunition. I hate to list that, I really, really hate it.

There are lots of nifty gadgets out there, but these are the basics for me. I feel like I've typed these a hundred times, here and in different places. You never know what will help somebody -- I overlooked really simple stuff last time  (like washing my hair in cold water, and then walking around the corner to find Joe Parker sitting on his curb, warming up water in the sun.  Duh!)

-- Edited by LVN at 22:58, 2007-08-16

keep attuned to a good hurricane prediction service--weatherunderground.com gives you computer models. (i'm a weather nerd)  dean looks like it won't come this way, and the models did a pretty good job on katrina in 2005. 

lvn's list is pretty good.  i'd get some additional gas containers since topping off a vehicle may not last long enough.  old fashion batteries as well.

i worry most about evacuation from the coast.  check on how the media are playing this out on the coast.  if you delay preparations here, you may find yourself fighting with coast folk over gas, groceries, and the like here if evacuation orders are made down on the coast.  a year ago there was some sense a hurricane might hit the coast and folks were up here lickity split. 

Touch on/off..  can stick them where you need them.  Another couple of items available at Rite Aid (probably other drug stores, As seen on TV) are  flashlights (led) and radios that you can crank to charge a battery. Ends the frustration of batteries going dead.

Have all the laundry and dishes caught up.

Hardboil any eggs in the fridge for easy storage & consumption.

The fire at the Chevron refinery in Pascagoula won't help, either.

a car with a full tank of gas
credit cards
laptop with wireless card
external hard drive with backup of your stuff
photographs, comic books, and baseball cards
anything else that is important to you and cannot be replaced

if nash roberts (only old school new orleans folks will get this) is drawing on his easel with his permanent markers and he tells you that it's time to go then it's time to get the hell out of town.  seriously, if there is a strong hurricane headed our way then leave.

Any updates on the grocery store situation?

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you, whether you are on the Coast or in Hattiesburg. Please be safe and be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.

The memories of Katrina and how worried I was about my cyber friends haven't been forgotten. Yall be careful.

Have cash on hand.

Withdraw your daily limit from your bank's ATM, take cash back from merchants who offer that option with debit card purchases, etc.

I remember post-Katrina, many of the businesses that were able to open could only conduct cash transactions.

I do given the right set of circumstances...what some folks overlook is that even if you are not in a flood plain, there is still danger in that hurricanes bring tornados with them.  That's dangerous business.

I just looked at the projected path and it would appear that Dean is taking the southern route toward Mexico. That doesn't mean yall might not see some rain, I'm really hoping we get some moisture from this storm.

I am really glad its headed south, and yet I am concerned for the people there hoping they will ride it out without to much loss of life. Mother nature suffers from terminal PMS if ya know what I mean.

Atheist wrote:

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Patti wrote:

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Mother nature suffers from terminal PMS if ya know what I mean.

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For a minute there I thought you would say, "The Lord works in mysterious ways".       

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That too Atheist, that too.