Do we forget easily what life is like without the conveniences of electricity? Apparently so, or maybe it is a case that many of us have not experienced life without our modern appliances. I would have thought having coolers (ice chests) as common sense, but I met several people who never bought one. Nor did they have canned foods to create a meal. Others forgot that water may not be available. I found people who did not foresee how they would prepare meals too. I love to cook, and I spent quite a bit of time making sure that my family had healthy meals during that time. In part, I believe that it is a lack of knowledge, so this may give you some ideas of what to do after the hurricane hits.

Water

I fill up the bathtub, buckets, and drinking containers with water before the storm. Water enters your home through pressure, but that pressure is created by pumps run by electricity at stations. You may have water through your faucet after the storm, but that can soon end. If you have a water heater tank, the water in that tank can be used for cooking and drinking. There will be a plastic bib at the bottom of the unit used for draining (water comes out of this bib slowly if there is a build-up of minerals in your tank). Water from the faucets after the storm should be boiled for safety.

Food

I discovered that many vegetable gardeners faced the same problem as mine; the hurricane destroyed most of my vegetables, so do not count too much on your garden. There are canned meats, stews, and fruits which are not too bad in a pinch. Canned vegetables are not always too good, but with some herbs from the garden they become palatable. My herbs survived quite well. Since canned foods have already been cooked, you only need the energy to warm them, not cook them through. This year I am attempting to keep fewer frozen meats. I threw a lot away after Ike.

The amount of energy needed should be a concern. I ran into neighbors who did not have the means to cook all of their foods properly. Rice and potato preparation can take more energy than other starches. Couscous and bulghur can sit in heated water to cook. Heat the water to a simmer; take it off the heat; place the couscous or bulghur in it to sit for five minutes off heat covered. Tabouli can sit in water to soften before eating. There are other grains typically found in the Middle Eastern section that can be prepared with little heat. If you need milk, condensed milk can be mixed with water to make milk.

Cooking

I have an electric oven and cooktop, so I relied on my barbecue to fix meals. This is a propane unit with a burner for pots, so it was quite convenient. Make sure that your tanks are full before the storm, and store them in a secure spot. A propane grill is an investment, and you do need to cook outside when there may be rain. Ovens and cooktops which run on natural gas can be used after you have lost electricity. Those appliances do need electricity to light, but you can light them with a match. You should have no worries using natural gas when the power is off. Remember to keep matches handy. Solar ovens, which I have written about before, may not be helpful. Rain and clouds are common after the hurricane. Charcoal babecues will heat up water for the starches mentioned above, and you can buy a small unit quite cheap. These need to be used outside too. Another fact to recall is that you need light for food preparation. Lanterns for camping can help. Light is a safety issue. You should see what you are preparing.

Those are the basics, and I hope it has given you something to think of when preparing your own home. Camping supplies, like lantern, grills, or even prepackaged dried foods, should be part of your survival kit. Take a look at local stores which specialize in camping goods to find items that can help you. Keep safe.

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The first day of the hurricane season has arrived for this year, and many different outlets have been putting out guides for dealing with a storm and its aftermath. They are all good, when you read and implement them, but I noticed that few of them deal with issues which I consider important for having your home come through a hurricane and to make it more comfortable afterwards.

I will try not to repeat other guides, but this list is based upon my observations, and I may touch upon some tasks will be obvious. I will give a brief explanation of why an item is noteworthy, but you are welcome to post questions in the comments, where I will go into more detail. Without further ado, here is the checklist:

On the Exterior

1. Prune trees and bushes away from the home. (limbs whipping against a wall or roof can cause great damage).

   
   

2. Keep gutters clean and in good repair. (You want water to flow away from your home).

   
   

3. If you have spots where water ponds near your home, find ways to direct it away from the building through drainage systems or regrading.(Rising waters pose a greater problem for many homeowners, so it your back patio floods have drains in place to prevent it).

   
   

4. Sealing wall joints around doors, windows, and between two walls. (Rain water coming into the walls can damage sheetrock and trim inside the home).

   
   

5. Plan out where loose items will be stored. (Garages and sheds can already be full, so planning where those garden furniture, plants, or sculptures can quickly be placed can be of help).

   
   

6. Find a spot to place a tool kit where you can have easy access. Include the standard tools with a pruning saw and ladder. (I helped several neighbors who could not get to tools in their garage when they needed them after the storm).

   
   

7. On the roof: make sure any trim or flashing is secured/nailed down; that flashing is in good shape; and that your roof covering is attached. (I have found that many homeowners do not know what is happening up on their roof, and existing problems lead to further concerns).

   
   

8. Ensure that you have window screens in place, and that they have no holes. (Without air conditioning, you will open your windows to cool the house down. Damaged or missing screens allow pests to come into the home. Who wants mosquitoes when they sleep?)
   

   
   

Inside the Home

1. In the attic, look for metal tubes (vents) which go through the roof. Check that these tubes have a metal strap wrapped around them that fix it to the two rafters on each side of the tube. (These vents are for burner compartments of water heaters and heating systems. The strap prevents them from banging about in the wind).

   
   

2. While in the attic, look for darker patches on wood surfaces to help detect possible problems on the roof. (These darker spots could be and ongoing problems with moisture coming into the home).

   
   

3. Store water for three days use. (This is frequently mentioned, but I saw people forgetting about this one. Use your tub, but if you have a water heater tank, you have 40 to 50 gallons of water there, so consider it a storage device. There is a hose bib at the bottom of the tank. Water may come out slowly due to build-up from minerals in the water, but you do have water there).

   
   

4. Once the power fails, turn off appliances. (Modern appliances – which includes your television- can be damaged by power surges. Also, repair crews can have problems if all the homes are pulling power when they are making their fixes).

   
   

5. Do you have an electric cooktop? Consider replacing it with a gas appliance. Natural gas lines rarely fail like our electrical lines- smart grids should alleviate that though. (I prepared meals on a propane grill outside, but a gas cooktop would have made life easier. To see if you can install one, look in the cabinet below the unit. If you see a brown tube with a cap and valve coming out of the wall, you have a gas hook up).

   
   

6. Do you have battery powered lights? Being able to see at night or dusk can be useful, and candles could cause fires. There are now battery powered LED light strips which will not illuminate like your normal fixtures, but they are a great help when you have no power. (My wife told me of a woman who would not cook for her family because she had no light source, so the children were going hungry in the evenings. Lighting is something we should pay heed to).

   
   

I have not really looked for this; however, battery powered fans would be quite useful. We can take more heat than what we think, but without air movement, heat can be stifling. I hope this list provided some extra tips to supplement those other guides. I think that I will write a few more posts on preparing your home with advice on securing your home from damage. I will do a post on what to stock in your pantry and cooking. I love to cook, and I found that I could make some great meals without power, so I wanted to share some ideas on that subject.

If you any ideas or questions, share them in the comments.

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A friend of mine lives off the grid. He does quite well for himself, and he does not skip any of the modern conveniences. I do not personally believe that such a lifestyle is feasible for everyone, particularly when you live in an urban area. My thoughts of converting an existing home into a green one and being prepared for a major storm has led me to think of how a home’s systems can continue to function after a power outage.

This post is meant to show you one simple device that I want you to be familiar with, before I detail an idea in the next post which is more to the point of this blog. Recently, I was discussing the idea of a solar oven with people interested in green home design, and I found that they had never heard of them. In a recent story about an inventor in Africa, he discussed inventing a solar oven with his daughters to win a prize for inventing it. His goal was to help people fully cook meals where other forms of power/fuel did not exists. The only problem was that the solar oven had already been invented over thirty years earlier. Maybe some readers here have never heard of it, so this could be a service to you.

How to build a basic solar oven: you will need two cardboard boxes; aluminum (tin) foil; black paint; and a piece of glass or plexiglass to cover the box. The larger box will have its interior covered with the foil. You may not know, but foil has two different sides. There is a bright shiny, reflective side, and then there is a duller non-reflective side. Make sure that the shiny side is facing up. The exterior of this box could be painted black if you want, but it is the second box which goes into the first box that has to be all black. High school science class will have taught you that black absorbs the lights energy, and white repels it. The food to be cooked is placed inside the black box, which is set inside the box with the foil. The plexiglass cover fits over the opening of this box. Place the oven in a location that receives sun throughout the day. Follow your slow cooker recipes, because the internal temperatures in the oven will mimic them.

How can you improve on this design? They do sell solar ovens, but it is such a simple device that you should not have to buy one. First, cardboard boxes are not the sturdiest material. A plastic box or pail could do, but I built a simple box out of scrap wood. I could hinge my plexiglass to the box to prevent it from coming off. Next, I lined the box with radiant barrier insulation. I took an old one for my car window, but this is the same material used to create a barrier in your attic. To create a little more insulation between the box and the barrier, I crumbled up paper. I attached the radiant barrier with staples, so it will stay in place. Instead of another box inside this unit, I use a cast iron Dutch oven used in camping fires. Cast iron is black; it retains heat; and I can cook the stew in it. I created a plastic cylinder from a planter that a tree came in from the nursery. In this tube, I can foil wrap items to cook inside the tube. The plexiglass is held in place with some wood blocks over the ends. By creating a insulation barrier with the paper and radiant barrier more heat is kept in the cooking chamber, instead of escaping through the walls of the box. I had the Dutch oven on hand, and this gives me a great space to cook in. This upgrade would be the most expensive item to buy ($30 to $50). The rest of the materials you may have on hand like I did. (I even keep a spare sheet of plexiglass on hand to make repairs to window panes, but this product will be around $5 for a basic smaller box. Solar oven are never too big, about 2′x2′ is typical with most being smaller.

On a really gray day, these will not work, but they can work decently on days with clouds, as long as you are getting some bright light. This is a good back-up if you do not have propane or coals for your bar-b-cue after a power failure. Braised dishes or stews work best. Any energy saving appliance is great for the home, but this one will not use any power that you have to pay for, so maybe you would use it more often. Now you have to read the next post to see where I am going with this, and how could a solar oven be of use to your home.

Adding garden edging as siding

box for solar oven

Crumpled newspaper as insulation

Sun Shade used as a radiant barrier

Dutch Oven under acrylic sheet in oven

It was mentioned that I di not include photos with this post, so I built a new unit to show the steps. For this one, I took a box and used some old garden edging as a siding. My daughter Katya screwed dry wall screws into the box to hold it in place. (I tried staples, but they did not work well). My wife has a collection of those sun shades, so I cut one up to fit in the box over the crumpled paper. I used the reflective HVAC duct tape to seal all the edges, and to fasten the shade to the box. I had to go buy a piece of clear acrylic sheet ($12), since I did not have more plexiglass. The plexiglass did not show up weel in the photos, but it is over the dutch oven in the last shot. Katya is two, so it slowed me done some, but it took us a half hour to complete the project with most of the material on hand. If you do not have the reflective tape, you could use duct tape.

Update: I came home one day to find that my wife and son had taken apart a teak/metal bench. I took the teak and turned my box into a table. The plexiglass has been replaced with a piece of glass that I had (3/8″ thick). I also added a mirror and a rack for the dutch oven. Stews have been good, and preparing grains, like bulghur, has worked well. What I have not tried, but I need too, is heating up a cast iron skillet to fry an egg. I have seen this done. The thicker glass has helped.

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When Hurricane Ike hit last year, I was fortunate to be without power for only one week. I did not feel so lucky at the time, but I know people who were without electricity for three weeks. My main concerns were finding and preparing healthy food for my pregnant wife and my children; trying to find ways of coping with the heat and humidity; and dealing with the mosquitoes. I did not miss television, but I did feel unconnected to the world without listening to NPR and my internet connection. Those were not really necessary, but having electricity would have dealt with my main concerns.

Portable generators are fine; however, they are usually noisy, and you need to find fuel. I had to drive far from my area to locate a working gas station. The alternative is to install a unit which is connected to your gas line. These generators will automatically turn on when a power failure has been detected; they do not need to be refilled with fuel; and they can be quiet. Underground electrical lines can suffer damage during flooding, but gas lines will not. I cannot recall a gas outage happening during a storm, so this may be the most secure way to ensure that you have power after severe weather has damaged your area. Solar panels can work after a storm, but you do have to think if they may be damaged during high winds from flying debris.

How much will this cost, and what do I need to do to have one installed?Cost depends upon your installation situation and the unit that you choose. You will likely need a permit for the install, and hooking the unit up to the gas line and service panel (breaker box) has to be done correctly. (Think about this: if you sell your home, a home inspector like me could give you problems if the unit is not installed properly, which means you may have the expense of the install eventually). Most units that I have seen are designed for exterior locations, but like CHP systems, you could have this installed in your home. Interior installations will be more involved, so they will cost more. I cannot give you an estimate for a completed job, but a generator for most home applications will cost between $4000 to $8000. What do I mean by “most home applications”. Common outputs for residential generators are 8kw, 10kw, 14kw, 17kw, 20kw, and 25kw. A lower number of kilowatts may run your lights and refrigerator, but not your air conditioning system. How to choose which one is right for you? One consideration is of course cost; another will be comfort. I know that my family could get by without air conditioning if the ceiling fans were working. Our bodies sense comfort more with air movement than they do with temperature. I do need my refrigerator to work, and I will need lights, so a 10kw unit may be just the thing for my application. You may decide that television, computers, and a few other goodies are necessities, but you could do without your cooling equipment, so maybe 14 or 17kw. Before you speak to the salesmen at an installation company, think about what power you need to get by, rather than what power you need to have everything as normal. The offer seems to be connected with Generac generator, since those are pictured on the website.

To take advantage of the program, you have to be a CenterPoint customer. Here are their instructions:

Immediate savings
For a limited time, CenterPoint Energy is offering its natural gas customers up to $2,500 off the installed price of a qualified natural gas standby generator contracted for or installed between April 27 – June 30 through a participating dealer.

How to apply

Visit CenterPointEnergy.com/naturalgasgenerators or call 888-273-7080 to sign up for this offer. Don’t wait. Take advantage of this offer and regain control over the uncertainty of severe weather. With a natural gas standby generator at your home, there’s no need to be left in the dark.

If you do not take up this offer, now is the time to make your plans for the next hurricane season anyway. I saw some good rechargeable GE lanterns at Costco for a reasonable price. We used quite a few candles at my house, but there is always the fear of a fire being caused by recklessness. You may also consider buying dry goods and can goods. My vegetable garden took a big hit, but I managed to harvest some food from it. Herbs did better than other plants. I know that many people have started vegetable gardens recently, so you may think that you can rely on obtaining food from it when all of the power is out at the grocery stores. Taller plants like my peppers and eggplants were blown down. Have a plan, and you will survive.

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Driving through town makes it obvious that the damage from Ike still has not been dealt with, and it probably will not all be dealt with till after the new year. I keep wondering why homeowners have not removed limbs from trees that could cause injury if they fall, but this might be due to a lack of funds, or it could be due to a belief that I heard expressed by some that the city will remove them.

This week the city has been removing trees and limbs which pose a hazard to our safety in areas where it becomes a public issue. If by this Sunday (October 26), that tree or limb has not been removed by the city, then you should realize that it has been deemed your responsibility.

You may have already heard that much of the waste is being composted by the firm LETCO, which is sharing the profits with the city to help fund city programs, such as the mayor’s plan to have one million trees replanted. However, there is a contest open to Houstonians who have the best suggestion of what to do with this waste that can benefit our community. You can find the contest rules at
http://www.recycleike.com . I guess that letting the Aggies have one big bonfire is out, but we could use the potash for our gardens. Obviously, I am not going to win.

Along the lines of going back to normal and finding a way to recycle, the mayor’s office also announced that curbside recycling is restarting next week. I have been taking mine to one recycling center, but I am glad that I can do it at home again. “B” week schedules start next week (October 27), and “A” week schedules begin on the week of November 3. If you are not sure about your neighborhoods schedule, you can go to http://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/schedule.html to find out when your area will be serviced.

That is it for now. Last word: take pictures for your insurance agent, then remove the damage (like a fallen tree in the bedroom). Insurance companies will be able to asses the damage, even if the tree has been removed.

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Last night, my son read to me a paper he is working on about his experience with Hurricane Ike, and I realized that although I have been dealing with the aftermath of the storm, that I had not written about some of my observations of events around it. I was surprised by the lack of preparation by some people, and I was impressed at how neighbors pulled together, so I wish to share some random thoughts with you.

Home inspectors love their tools and gadgets, and I was glad that I stored my hand tools in an easily accessible spot. With no electricity or gasoline available, power tools quickly became useless.

My son with the yellow shirt and his friends

I was glad that my son found several other boys. Our lives are so focused on what is happening inside the home, that boys do not seem to experience the outdoors as much, unless it is through some group’s activity. For the evenings, I discovered that reading fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm proved to be a family favorite. My wife laughed as I trying to keep up with all of the different voices for the various characters. I have always read to my children, but the time became special when there was little else to do in the evenings. My son liked my reading of the play Cyrano De Bergerac which came after the fairy tales, which my daughter enjoyed. I often have not thought about the fact that many people do not keep books. One visitor called my home a library, since I have tomes stuffed into spaces in every room.

I am the cook in the family, and I worked hard to prepare healthy meals after we had lost power. I wished that my cooktop worked on gas, but I did have my grill. I had canned vegetables, but I was concerned that my pregnant wife and small daughter were not obtaining the nutrition that they needed.

Katya seeing how far into the flood water she can go

Each evening after the storm we had a neighborhood party. We gathered at one house or the other to share what news we had managed to hear. During the day, we sought ways to help each other with the clean up. At one of these gatherings, we had families from two other subdivisions in our mist. They were amazed at the atmosphere on our block. They mentioned that nothing like this was happening around their own homes. Although I know that such events were taking place all around Houston, it is easy to forget that in some places this feeling of community was not as lively as I was experiencing, so I am glad for my neighbors. We really did look out for one another.

The pile of limbs in front of my house.

What can you expect in the aftermath of a storm? Well, that question is hard to answer. Many neighbors did not have coolers to store ice and other items in. Many did not have a means to cook, or stay entertained when there was no power. Clean water also became an issue. Keeping a cool head and thinking through problems becomes very important. Having good relationships with the neighbors was important too.

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We all have concerns about when our city will return to normal. There are a few people without power still, and intersections can be hit or miss to see if the traffic light is working. You have to give credit to all of the city and Centerpoint employees who have been working tirelessly to resolve the current situation. In a recent message from the Mayor’s office, he offers the following information:

For the latest details on the city’s collection plan, please visit http://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/press-20080929.html and for an interactive map of debris collection, please visit http://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/debrismaps.html.

Also, to assist you on many other fronts, we have prepared an extensive City of Houston
Hurricane Ike Recovery Guide which is posted on the city’s homepage www.houstontx.gov and updated regularly.

And finally, I ask you to continue helping your neighbors recover from the storm and to please share the information contained in this email with others, especially those who do not have internet access.

Thank you again for your efforts, cooperation and patience as we all work as hard as possible to get our city back to normal.

I was happy to see my street cleared of branches today. My son brought cold water out to the workers. I was not sure what to expect with Ike, but the city’s efforts are going faster then I expected.

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Have you noticed that since the hurricane we do not greet each other with “Hello, how are you?”, but with “Is your power on yet?”. When walking through some neighborhoods on Saturday, I engaged more people with the latter question, but Sunday morning at Hermann Park, the first greeting dominated. During my strolls and drives through town, I found one issue that concerns me; trees that can still cause harm.

As the autumn approaches, we do find ourselves in a traditional time to prune trees. My real concern is that I see large limbs dangling over homes, sidewalks, and streets, which are barely hanging onto their old branches. We may not see another massive storm soon, but a good thunderstorm could possibly knock these limbs down. Some people believe that the city will take care of these branches, or of trees that have fallen down in our yards. Unless it is posing a danger to a powerline, this pruning will be your responsibility. Why risk further damage or injury by leaving the trees in this state? The city is clearing branches which are in the right of way only. This means the debris between the sidewalk and the street.

When you do begin to prune, keep two basic ideas in mind: keep tree limbs away from the home; and create a path for air to flow through the tree. I have seen large limbs scrape off the sheathing and covering from a roof in storms which were not very strong, branches spear through roofs, and leaf debris clog vent or damage roof coverings. I have seen tree limbs also damage the walls of a home. There is no steadfast rule for the distance between the tree branch and the home, but I would say that ten feet should be the minimum. Also, just an odd fact, I noticed the most trees damaged where ash and pine in the areas where I travelled.

To maintain healthy plant, you have to give them the space that they need, but they also need the air to flow through them to create a healthy environment. Think of it this way: seal of your house from receiving fresh air and the environment begins to stagnate. Mold could grow, moisture which can destroy your framing builds up, and you create an unhealthy place to live. Now a bush or a tree does not fully cut off fresh air, but by preventing breezes to rustle through it limbs, you do allow fungus, algae, and moisture to build up. These will weaken the plant. If you have green stains on your walls, that area does not have enough air flow and sun light. Look at the shape while thinking of how the sun will shine through with the breeze flowing by. Whatever prevents this, needs to be pruned down to where it branches off from the trunk or another branch. Leaving a little collar will help the tree heal.

Hermann Park definitely has a different feel. The crews have worked hard to remove the debris and repair the damage. Mainly family where there, but the park had fewer visitors than usual. The train was running, and it was fairly full. The program for clearing tree debris from neighborhoods seems to be going rapidly. I have still heard two months as the total time needed for this project. Life returns to normal.

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Fortunately, many areas did see the same flooding which occurred during TS Allison, but water damage did effect many of our homes. You may be wondering if your insurance will cover this, and what you may need to do to repair your home once you had some water damage after the storm.

First, you need to understand that a normal homeowner’s insurance policy covers water damage caused by rain, like rain seeping in through the roof. There is a special policy that deals with wind storm damage, which covers the damage caused during a hurricane, but for most water penetration types a normal policy may suffice.

If the water is determined to be “rising water” or in other words flooding, you need flood insurance. For example, the drain in the street becomes clogged during the hurricane, which causes the street to flood into your house. You could also have the water pond in your backyard. As the hurricane drops more water into the yard, the water level rises to come into your home. You may think of this damage due to the hurricane, but insurance firms define the type of damage specifically, and “rising water” needs flood insurance.

If you only had some water seep in under your door, but not covering your entire floor, you are not a likely candidate for mold. Mold needs the right conditions to survive. The water in the wall may not be too much, so it should dry out quickly enough. Be sure to clean this area of floor and wall with a bleach solution (10% bleach to 90% water). Try to mop up standing water as soon as possible. For more serious flooding, you will need to check the extent of the damage. Professionals like me carry a moisture meter, so we could tell you exactly how far up the wall the water seeped. However, if you are doing it alone, you could use a small knife. Wherever it is easy to move the blade into the wall or trim, you have moisture damage. Remember, that water in the wall will seep up higher than the actual water level of the flooding. Think of a paper towel where the bottom edge is left in a puddle of water. As time goes by, the water penetrates further up the towel, yet the puddle level has not reached those areas. All material on your home will soak up water to some degree, but drywall will soak up the most.

If the water damage was slight, you could just let it dry out, but this can take some time. Each home environment is different, so I cannot say for sure how long your home will take. If the damage was extensive, then you will have to remove the material to replace it with new goods. Drywall can be cut so that the damaged portions are removed, so then the entire wall covering does not need to be removed. My best advice is my fall back when it comes to home repairs, have a good manual from a home improvement store to describe the steps to you. I just want to give you the basic idea here.

I hope that your home did not experience anything to severe.Good luck.

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Well, of course, I would love to answer that you need a home inspector, but you do not need one in most cases. This question was posed to me when I was at a hospital this week by several of the staff worried about their homes after Hurricane Ike had hit. There are some simple steps to evaluating your home to see what needs to be done.

If you see visible signs of damage, call your insurance agent. They will send out the qualified professional to check on the damage to make a determination on repairs. You do not need a home inspector to charge you for this, and it is covered in the cost of your insurance.

If you do not see obvious damage, but you feel that there might be, I would suggest going to the section on this site that talks about what a home inspector looks for when examining a home. The best information for you on this topic will be in the “For the Real Estate Investor” Category to the right. There are descriptions of stripped down inspection process which should be easy to handle for most homeowners.

If you are not sure if there is damage, or you need help, then a home inspector may be the option for you. If you have a specific concern, tell the inspector you are just looking to have it checked out, so you do not pay for a full inspection. Why would you need your kitchen appliances checked out, when you are worried about the attic framing? An inspector is also an option if you are debating with your builder or insurer on the extent of the damage. An inspector’s report may be what you need to push your case forward.

If you are worried, then it is always best to check out your home, but I believe that you may not always need an inspector for this task.

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