Hurricane Irma

[21stamps]

No, the bathtub full of water is for flushing the toilet, not the water you need to drink.

Which brings up something else. Try to flush every 2-3 No. 1s. If water is out, so may be sewage systems. Don't want a backed up toilet.

I only filled one bath tub. The other I left clear so we could wash. We used buckets of the water from that tub to wash with and flush toilets. With a house full of refugees I ran out in about 24 hours.

We ended up taking buckets to the pool and flushed the toilets with that water. It sucked.

 

[John park hopper]

Only do this as a last resort. Any water can be used for flushing toilets. You can fill the bathtub for this purpose or just grab literally any water you can find (lake,retention pond, swimming pool, flooded street, etc) to flush a toilet. Save the bottled water for drinking and cooking.

Have a 5 gallon bucket handy and collect rain water or as was posted lakes, ditches, wherever you can scoop it up. have done this many times to flush the toilet. Save drinking water for cookig and drinking it goes fast

 

[prberk]

We got a letter from our apartment complex (in Orlando near Disney) telling us that we should close our blinds to avoid shattered glass and that they won't be boarding up any windows..this has me even more worried since there's a tree right outside my bedroom window. Really hoping this thing dodges Florida.

If you stay, I would stay in an interior area, away from windows. Move the mattress or a couch to an interior hallway. Survival and staying away from glass is more important than a formal bedroom for the moment, I would think.

 

[LAKid53]

One of my friends flew in from Europe Saturday and was planning on staying until the 15. She is staying at a hotel in Disney Springs and is concerned about Irma's impact. She was thinking of going to NYC for a few days and then return to catch her flight on the 15th. I was concerned about her being able to get back down to Orlando.

I was worried about her staying down there yesterday, but now I am thinking it might be a "better" option for her to stay.

What do the seasoned veterans think?

The best thing for her to do is speak with hotel staff and ask how prepared they are for guests to remain. And stay in place, if she has provisions. She doesn't want to try to leave and then get back to Orlando to fly back to Europe. Lord knows where this storm will end up in a week.

 

[Tootsie]

We're flying in Friday afternoon. We checked with the airlines and Universal...we can cancel everything *if* a Hurricane warning is issued. However, I've been reading horror stories about people on previous trips being on the last plane *before* the warning is issued and pretty much getting stuck.

Wondering if anyone has been through this before and has advice. We're planning on making a go/no-go decision Thursday morning.

We were in the same situation on August 25, flying from Houston, not knowing what Harvey was going to do, we made the decision to go, everything was fine until Sunday, our flight home on Monday was cancelled, so we booked for Tuesday, on Monday our Tuesday flight home was cancelled, one day was "like cool" and extra day at Disney, second day, we are watching the news, watching the water rise and wondering when we would be able to go home, no longer fun being at Disney, finally Wednesday, we were able to fly to Austin, rent a car and drive to Houston, the route we chose, the water finally receded enough to actually make it home, the other issue was groceries, so we stocked up in Austin. Would I do it again, probably. It's a very tough call though, Just a note the Port Orleans/French Quarter was amazing and very helpful adding extra days.

 

[LAKid53]

I'm not sure. That's a good idea though.. I'm going to check Amtrak!

Is Amtrak still operating out of Orlando? If not, she's got to get to Jax.

She really needs to stay put.

 

[LAKid53]

We were in the same situation on August 25, flying from Houston, not knowing what Harvey was going to do, we made the decision to go, everything was fine until Sunday, our flight home on Monday was cancelled, so we booked for Tuesday, on Monday our Tuesday flight home was cancelled, one day was "like cool" and extra day at Disney, second day, we are watching the news, watching the water rise and wondering when we would be able to go home, no longer fun being at Disney, finally Wednesday, we were able to fly to Austin, rent a car and drive to Houston, the route we chose, the water finally receded enough to actually make it home, the other issue was groceries, so we stocked up in Austin. Would I do it again, probably. It's a very tough call though, Just a note the Port Orleans/French Quarter was amazing and very helpful adding extra days.

Glad you made it back safely

 

[21stamps]

Only do this as a last resort. Any water can be used for flushing toilets. You can fill the bathtub for this purpose or just grab literally any water you can find (lake,retention pond, swimming pool, flooded street, etc) to flush a toilet. Save the bottled water for drinking and cooking.

Just read this. See my above post.

I lived on the very top floor of a high rise. People were lined down the hallways with extension cord after extension cord charging laptops, phones, using hot plates, etc. only the mailroom and billiards room each had power from the generator, the rest of the community rooms did not. So a few hundred people using only a few outlets to run all of this from.
Only the service elevators were running from the generator, main ones were not.

All of this ended when the generator blew out after a day and a half of all of that.

When that happened we had to take the stairs all the way down to the pool, using flashlights to see, then carry the buckets of water back up.

 

[LAKid53]

I only filled one bath tub. The other I left clear so we could wash. We used buckets of the water from that tub to wash with and flush toilets. With a house full of refugees I ran out in about 24 hours.

We ended up taking buckets to the pool and flushed the toilets with that water. It sucked.

I remember that story. How many flights of stairs did you have to walk down and up?

 

[21stamps]

I remember that story. How many flights of stairs did you have to walk down and up?

14. I think. They were staggered down. The only week in 7 years that I used those stairs.lol

Never ever wanted to see them again.

 

[LAKid53]

14.

With 5 gallon buckets of water.....

 

[psherman42]

If you stay, I would stay in an interior area, away from windows. Move the mattress or a couch to an interior hallway. Survival and staying away from glass is more important than a formal bedroom for the moment, I would think.

If the storm is bad, I definitely plan on staying in the hallway or somewhere away from glass. My concern is high winds and the tree right outside my window breaking the glass and rain water coming in through the broken window. The good thing though about having just moved back here is I don't have too much stuff yet and nothing irreplaceable.

 

[Sans Souci]

The best thing for her to do is speak with hotel staff and ask how prepared they are for guests to remain. And stay in place, if she has provisions. She doesn't want to try to leave and then get back to Orlando to fly back to Europe. Lord knows where this storm will end up in a week.

Thanks. I told her to talk to the hotel staff. I was concerned about her trying to travel back myself. This beast is so massive, I am concerned that the mid-atlantic might see some of this.

 

[wdwmagic]

The NHC site is slow to load currently. here is the 11am update for anyone who can't see it on the NHC site.

 

[LAKid53]

If the storm is bad, I definitely plan on staying in the hallway or somewhere away from glass. My concern is high winds and the tree right outside my window breaking the glass and rain water coming in through the broken window. The good thing though about having just moved back here is I don't have too much stuff yet and nothing irreplaceable.

If you have an extra blanket, hang it over the CLOSED drapes. Most apartments nowadays have those plastic blinds, which are worthless.

 

[21stamps]

With 5 gallon buckets of water.....

It's ingrained in my brain.

Honestly, I know I'm lucky. My car was fine, my belongings were fine, and I was safe. I'd take the 5 gallon buckets of water over having my house destroyed any day.

But at that time it was the absolute worst thing I could imagine. All I wanted to do was get out of the area.

 

[psherman42]

If you have an extra blanket, hang it over the CLOSED drapes. Most apartments nowadays have those plastic blinds, which are worthless.

I don't even have drapes, just the plastic blinds which my complex told us to close to avoid shattered glass. I have a comforter I'm not using that I could maybe use. I'd have to get creative though with what to hang it with lol.

 

[LAKid53]

Thanks. I told her to talk to the hotel staff. I was concerned about her trying to travel back myself. This beast is so massive, I am concerned that the mid-atlantic might see some of this.

Might? Probably will.

The last thing i would want your friend to do is to wander around in a foreign country trying to find shelter from this storm.

 

[LAKid53]

I don't even have drapes, just the plastic blinds which my complex told us to close to avoid shattered glass. I have a comforter I'm not using that I could maybe use. I'd have to get creative though with what to hang it with lol.

Nails, thumb tacks, masking tape, whatever you can find. Any small holes in the wall can be repaired with plain toothpaste - the old fashioned white paste, not the sparkly gel.

 

[matt9112]

gas is getting ridiculously sparse. I drive a work van around for work and I'm trying to top it off whenever I see gas around.