» Bugging IN SoFla Style
By Vince on January 27, 2019
Stock pic of homestead, Florida’s Coral Castle
A lot has been made of over the years about “bugging out”. In other words being prepared to grab pre-prepared items and/or sets of items in order to evacuate/escape/evade a particular dangerous/hostile area/situation.
The creations of a “BOB” (Bug Out Bag) has been, and still is, a popular topic on and off the web.
I still like the idea of a BOB and being prepared for various scenarios, however, sometimes and in some situations you are just not able to leave an affected area.
Here in South Florida we have been preppers for decades before the term ever existed. Not because we’re paranoid, but because we know we live in an area that can get hit by a hurricane.
Hurricanes are bad news, regardless of what the less knowledgeable say. “Why do you live in a place that has them?” is something I hear a lot from folks who live in tornado laden areas or along a fault line! Bottom line: Same as it is for those folks; this is home.
The good news is that you can see a hurricane coming from at least a week away and prepare for it. That is something you CANNOT do with either of the two previously mentioned disaster scenarios. Even worse for the earthquake/fault line people, the only good place to be when that happens is in the air or someplace else!
In South Florida everything revolves around staying safe from hurricanes. You may not see it when strolling along South Beach or wandering thru one of our malls or even driving on the Palmetto Expressway, but EVERYTHING you see was BUILT to Hurricane building codes which are some of the strictest in the country.
Hurricane Andrew actually made them STRICTER than before. My opinion they had been kinda of lax on them till He hit. It had been 28 years since a hurricane (any) had hit the Miami-Dade area. I remember when He was detected out in the Atlantic…and very few people took it seriously. I had one group of people actually tell me I was nuts for being so ON everyone to prepare…and then they took home large pieces of CARDBOARD to put up on their windows!
Needless to say, it didn’t help them.
Hurricane prep is just that, preparing for a potentially huge natural disaster. Florida is a peninsula and with Miami being hemmed in by Everglades National Park on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other and the only way out being North …evacuation can be an issue. Try to imagine if 2.75+ MILLION people suddenly decided to leave at the same time? Ok, cut that in half or even a quarter. It would still clog up already clogged roads, express ways and the turnpike. If the DAILY rush hour joke is “Well the Palmetto and I-95 are a parking lot again!” then I don’t even want to imagine what a mass exodus would be like! And the Palmetto, which opened in 1972, is STILL under construction! Sections of I-95 are also under constant construction. Just to add insult to injury.
There are shelters for evacuation areas. Those are usually for places that tend to flood. Storm surge can reach 15 above sea-level and since we are right AT sea-level for most of Miami-Dade… The Florida Keys usually take up most of the shelters anyway. Another reason for staying is pets. Very few shelters do accept pets and then only one or two. If you have more than that, you are asked to leave them at home. Something I find unacceptable.
So in Miami-Dade we Bug IN.
AS previously mentioned the building code is strict. Only CBS construction, for all floors. Yes the 2 floor and up also have to be CBS construction. All with poured concrete tie beams, through the walls, around doors and windows and all along the upper where the roof joists/trusses meet. They have to be tied down to the tie beam with steel “hurricane” straps. One of the major things is for the wind to get under the roof and lift the WHOLE thing off at once. A friend in the Philippines once asked me how we did thing here and I directed him to our building code. He had all his future building built to those standards and so far they have lasted thru several typhoons.
So the house’s here are pretty fortress-like already. Add in hurricane shutters (steel and aluminum) and or windows with hurricane glass which are built to withstand a 5 foot 2×4 shot out of an air cannon at 130 mph…and things improve even more. Doors have to open out and be Category 5 rated. This last part is newer laws, post Andrew, so you still find some of the older doors and windows on older houses. But those are pretty solid for the most part too.
Andrew also taught us the value of portable generators and now these are standard items that most South Florida homes have. Solar panels are the new thing down here, especially in more rural areas. Yes they also have to be anchored to building code.
Water and gasoline become the issues. Not all house in Miami have wells and those that do are almost entirely dependent on electric pumps to bring it up. A hand pump is not a bad idea. Most houses stock up with nonperishable or easily made foods.
Gasoline is more of the issue as without power gas stations can’t work the pumps. Many SoFla gas station now have their own generators. Lines to the ones that work tend to be VERY long. Price gouging was made illegal after Hurricane Andrew but it still happens and will happen.
Stockpiling of both water and gas are pretty common. The gas can be put in your cars/vehicles and the water can go for the garden if you don’t use it for hurricane purposes.
People in SoFla tend to be on the armed side, so looting, while not unheard of, tends to be few and far between.
Like I said, South Floridians have been preppers from a very long time ago!
Now granted, all of this is for short term disasters. Personally I’ve only been out of electricity and on a generator for 2 weeks. And let me tell you, that 2 weeks felt like a lifetime when you had to heat up water in pots for a warm bath!
So for longer term disasters, things need to be evaluated differently. If fuel and water are going to be an issue, then food will as well. Still a peninsula and most supplies are trucked down. I will say that most Miamians don’t realize just how agricultural the area southern Miami-Dade actually is. There are literally thousands of acres growing things. Once again those things depends on power and fuel. The water still has to be pumped up from the aquafer by some means. Tractors and pesticides…well you get the idea.
So stockpiling for such events is still not a bad idea. In other words, being prepared to Bug In and “hunker” down. If you are lucky enough to have awesome neighbors who think similarly, that make things even better.
So give these things I’ve mentioned a little thought, and maybe you can do things the SoFla way if you need to.