Tuesday 4: "Bug Out!"

 Tuesday 4

Bug Out!

(The following was written by our friend Annie, who lives along the New Jersey shore, where they are currently enduring the effects of the remainder of Hurricane Ian, which hit the coasts of my state of Florida with a fury last week.  Thankfully, we here in north central Florida are now enjoying beautiful fall like weather, with low humidity, sunny skies, and this morning's wake up temperature is 56 degrees, with a high expected today of only 75! Near perfect weather I'd say.  But sadly so many to the south of us are still suffering from the devastating effects of Ian and it will be many months or even years before some places will be restored, if ever. It was truly a horrific storm in our southwest and coastal regions of the state, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them as they try to recover.)

Per Annie:

"High winds, tree splitting winds and buckets of rain since yesterday and more on the way. The wind has been howling here for 2 days straight. Ian is on the coastline and not playing nice.
We can play nicely though with Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 questions. Are you ready? Since the east coast is experiencing hurricanes and tropical storms let us explore the topic. Okay? Let's Go..."


1. Expert survivalists and weather experts say it is wise to have a bug out bag handy in case of evacuation, hurricane, earthquake or any emergency. You can see online how to create one. Do you have an emergency kit or bug out bag?  To be honest, no we don't have an actual "bug out bag". Fortunately where we live in this north-central section of the state, we have never had to evacuate because of a storm. However we do talk about what we would need to take with us if that were to happen and we know where our valuable papers are and it wouldn't take long to gather the essentials should we need to do so.

2. Do you have plans with your family on where to meet and what to do in case of emergency?

Again, I guess we really haven't discussed this that much with our family. It would have to be a decision made once we see which way a storm is headed because oftentimes the evacuation routes end up changing with the direction of the storm. As we saw with Hurricane Ian, it changed its course several times before it actually made landfall, and then it ended up crossing the state to the other side, so both coastal regions were seriously affected. Thankfully for us, it still stayed far enough south of us so that we were not seriously affected either way. 

3. Do you keep your phone well charged and your gas tank topped off ? Is your flashlight kept fresh with batteries? Do you have a list of what to go where to go?  

Yes, we do keep our gas tank topped off. As far as our phones well charged, that became an issue as our power did go off for six hours and we couldn't charge our phones. So once it was safe to take a ride, we rode around in our car so our phones could be charged.  We also ended up going to a restaurant here in our town that still had power and plugged in our phones to recharge while we enjoyed a good hot meal.  Regarding flashlights, yes, we made sure we had flashlights in every room with batteries, as well as candles and an oil lamp with oil.  We do have a generator, but we had some issues with it and it wasn't really ready for use. However, if the power had stayed off longer we would have figured it out to help with long term power for our refrigerator especially.  We now have a better plan for putting it into use should the need arise again.  Oh, and thankfully our temperatures during the storm stayed in the low 70's and even down into the 60's, so it wasn't so hot that we needed the air conditioner. That was a blessing! 
Although this picture of the tents is a nice thought, that wouldn't work here with the high winds and rain and trees crashing about.  Perhaps it would work after the storm has already passed by, but definitely not during the storm.  The only damage we sustained here at our house was to the plastic canvas carport that covered our son's car.  So you can see what would happen to a tent if you tried to stay in one: 

4. How about a little stash of emergency goods and foods to last a week or two? They say it pays to do this.. do you?  Yes, we have plenty of canned goods and other foods that don't need to be kept refrigerated so that we would not have starved. We also have a camp stove, a propane grill and our stove in the house is a gas stove, so I would have been able to cook if necessary. Thankfully this time we didn't need to do that, as the power was only off for six hours.  We bought extra bags of ice to put in the refrigerator and freezer to keep the food nice and cold as well.  

We are very thankful that this storm did not do serious damage to our area, but we know it could happen, so we do have a good idea for what to do next time.

I wanted to share these pictures of this little wren that was on our back porch yesterday morning:

If you know anything about Wrens, you will know that they are a very small bird with a very loud voice. You can usually hear them singing above all the other birds, and normally their song sounds a lot like they are saying "judy judy judy".    Well, yesterday morning I kept hearing what sounded more to me like, 

"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"  

And as I looked outside and saw this Wren sitting there on the porch railing, I noticed that every time he sang, he was looking up to heaven and saying

"Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!"

Do you see that above?  He was singing his praises to God and thanking Him for sparing us in that storm. 

At least that's what I think and believe...

Job 12:7-10  

7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;

And the fish of the sea will explain to you.

9 Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing,

And the breath of all mankind?

Thank you Annie for these questions this week! If you want to join in, click HERE