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Lessons Learned From Irene
Schooling From the Hurricane
September 19, 2011

I
n the weeks since Hurricane Irene, it’s been often said that no one thought Irene could flood Pamlico County any higher than Hurricane Isabel had in 2003. After all, that was the 100 year flood, surpassing the previous highwater storm of 1933.

Two 100-year floods within 70 years seemed a stretch after Isabel. But 2 inside of a decade? Who knew? More than any other, that may have been the biggest takeaway from Irene for all of us.

Or as TownDock reader Doug Sligh put it:

“This line is out of my lexicon: ‘It survived Isabel, so it will be alright where it is.’”

Oops. That’s just one of many “Lessons Learned From Irene,” compiled from what readers sent in. Some are practical. Others leaned more toward the philosophical. And several of them were like haiku, a few words offering glimpses of what had to be much longer narratives.

Here then, “Lessons Learned From Irene”, which are being updated as more come in.




After Irene flooded his first floor on South Water Street, Mike Vardy has been working to kill the chance that mold and mildew could grow in the walls or under the floors. From Robbie Beal, he got a mix-it-yourself mildicide formula. Basically, it’s one gallon bleach, to three gallons of water and a cup of TSP – TriSodium Phosphate which you can buy at the hardware store. Mix and spray on. Click here to download a PDF of the formula.




I disassembled 12 solar yard lights to make them easier to use inside. After charging in the bright sun all day they provided enough light to easily walk around the house and do simple tasks. Three grouped together were bright enough to read a book. Our power was out for six days and they really helped.

- Bill Deighton




Trip the automatic garage door closer. With power off you will need to raise door by hand. Bring your deed with the important papers.

- Tony Murtha





Make sure your power is OFF before tearing the wet insulation out from under your house.

- Dianne and Joe Clay




Read your insurance policy BEFORE the storm. It may be a guide in your storm preparations.

- Jim Colavito




Smart things: Taking the fishing boat off the lift and anchoring it in the yard both fore and aft with 100 feet of rode. Putting the sailboat on a mooring ball but double tying.

Dumb things: Thinking 300 duck decoys can’t go very far with weights attached. Thinking the kayaks would just float around the garage like rubber duckies. No. When the doors came off the kayaks and decoys migrated together into the Bay River like cousins at a wedding.

NoBrainers: Putting the “spare” generator up on the porch and not in the garage. Having the submersible pump on a higher shelf than the chainsaw. Having a spare LP regulator and connector.

Bob Brinson
Florence





News from TownDock.net was an invaluable “communication” during hurricane Irene and the stressful time after the storm. Thank you!

Cell phone charging:
12 volt car jump start battery boosters often come with one or more cigar lighter sockets. This was perfect to keep my cell phone charged during our time without power. Some boosters can be recharged from your car.

Garage doors:
Water exiting a flooded garage, which happens rapidly, often bends or breaks the door outward. Leaving the door raised 6” let’s the water out without damage to the door. This is even more important if you don’t have (water) vents installed in the door.
I had 13” of water on my garages but no bending of the doors.
This hint was given to me by Deloris Townsend of Nationwide Insurance.

Chafe guards on dock lines:
Canvas guards worked well on cleats and pilings. I should have also used them to reduce abrasive action from tree bark.

Keep up the fine News from Oriental,
Marshall E. Tyler
S/v Silk





If it’s important, stow it up high or take it with you when you leave.

Firewood will not stay put during a storm.

Remove weak trees in the Spring or early Summer, do not wait until August or September.

Fill the freezer in late October, not August. The power WILL go out.

Doug Sligh and his 1991 NIssan truck in happier days, last December. The truck did not survive Irene’s flooding.

Don’t fall in love with a red truck. She will break your heart eventually.

Doug Sligh
Oriental





To light up surroundings – or a page – when power is off and to keep your hands free, I recommend a lightweight headlight band with choice of infrared or led light. Mine is an “Energizer” and saved worrying about wind blowing the candles or hurricane lamps or keeping track of the flashlights and batteries.

Grace Evans
Oriental





Our biggest lesson is that propane tanks float well and if not turned off, they float and spew dangerous gas very effectively. Everyone should turn off their tank in anticipation of a storm surge, even if you are staying in your home. Though your tank may still float away, it will be somewhat less dangerous!

Mary Beth Thorn
Oriental





When we walked through our neighborhood during the last hours of Irene our major focus was making sure that overturned propane tanks were turned off. Big lesson to everybody with a propane tank: Make certain that it is tied down!! REALLY SECURELY! If you are leaving your home, turn the gas off at the tank even if it is tied down. We saw a number of tanks that broke their tie down straps and their gas lines.

LuAnn Parins



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Lesson learned: If you use propane gas to cook or heat water, make sure your tank is full and WELL-secured. (A lot of them floated off in this storm!) As a backup, before the storm arrives, locate your grill to a safe/high/dry spot with a full gas bottle (or two)! If your tank floats off, you’ll hear a “hissing” sound, which means you need to get to the connection somehow to turn it off. A safer plan would be to turn it off BEFORE water reaches the tank. Ask your propane gas provider if you don’t know how to do that.

On another note: I am amazed at the number of people who don’t understand their flood insurance coverage. There are different flood policies for buildings and personal property contained within buildings. A building flood policy does not cover personal property. A separate flood policy must be purchased for personal property. If in doubt, folks should call their insurer to assure there is adequate coverage for flood, wind and rain!

Judi Heit
Broad Creek





Here’s my solution for surviving the last 6 Hurricanes that have affected
Oriental. If you have a boat like my O’Day 27, go under the bridge and anchor
well up Greens Creek. I use an over-sized 45 CQR anchor and my regular
Danforth as a back up. The worst part is getting the 45 CQR anchor up after
the storm.

David Talbot
s/v “Ceilidh”





Dear Towndockists,

Sadly I must report that another of those old adages has proven to be painfully true. The one I’m thinking of is “self-inflicted injuries are the most painful ones”, and I can attest that it’s accurate, and painful.

Having learned almost nothing from Hurricane Isabel, and after thoroughly assessing NOAA’s 2pm Friday pre-storm forecast, I of course determined that Irene wouldn’t possibly bring as much water into the creek as did Isabel.

While Boone & I meticulously picked up the garage floor while making room for her car, I again parked the pickup in the same barn where another had been flooded in Isabel. I even parked the tractor next to the pickup. After Isabel I probably should also have learned how critical tractors with a front-end loader are.

Unfortunately, while going through the garage, we overlooked the loose lid on a half-full 5-gallon jug of used motor oil. Yes, I continue to change my own motor oil, so as to have a chance to look under my vehicles to see what else might be going wrong. Brother Dave Gardner, a semi-famous Southern comedian of the 50s & 60s, called us “independents”. More modern analysts call us “anal” or “poor”.

Anyway, much to my shock Irene proceeded to blow in 7 more inches of nasty, murky saltwater than did her Aunt Isabel. In addition to totaling another pickup and damaging all the electrical apparatus on the tractor, she also upset the oil jug. Believe me, this gave new meaning to the term “mucking out the garage”.

But then on the plus side, with that nice glossy sheen of burned motor oil, nothing much rusted in the garage until we got around to cleaning it up.

Oh well, it’s still early in the hurricane season. We’ll see if I retain anything from my second hurricane lesson. Please remind all your other “independent”, “anal” or “poor” readers to keep the lid tight on that used motor oil jug.

Best regards,
Sam Myers
Pamlico





Make sure you have flood insurance. If you are a renter and did not get your flood insurance, you are out of luck. The only way your insurance will pay is if the house had structural damage or if a window broke due to “wind”. Your insurance will help if the “power surge” damaged an appliance or electronic device. They will also pay if you were displaced.

Lloyd




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Never underestimate the power of a Category 1 hurricane.

Jon Brinson





One of the things that those of us have learned from living in other more tidal areas, is the benefits of having automatically adjusted docklines. I did not have to adjust my docklines either before or after Irene due to having “pipe slides” on my pilings at Sea Harbour Yacht Club. These allowed my boat to rise and fall with the surge without any input from humans.

Joe Valinoti





Good to be on high ground.

Water causes more damage than wind.

We should have secured our dock box better so that it would not float away.

Local flooding can be much higher than official surge height

Should have prepared foods that could be eaten cold since electricity went out which made it tough to make meals.

Headlamps are a good thing.

D & Don Wogaman





Set up a command center with someone inland that’s not affected by the storm. This way you only have to give updates to one person instead of calling many people and running your cell phone battery down. That one person can email everyone else on an email list you’ve provided to them.

Have lots of heavy-duty plastic bags on hand for debris clean up.

Marilyn Bjork Shuping




I learned that when doing hurricane preparation, always wear shoes. Makes the cleanup go a lot faster.

Candace Young




1. The loss of people matters – not things. I miss my husband Bill more than any thing.
2. The strength and support of people matter. St. Thomas members Rolayne and Glenn Schwendy and their Neuse River Winery partner Bob, worked tirelessly for hours tearing out my wet drywall and insulation. Father Day of St. Thomas stopped to check on me and help me more than once. My son Will came down from Greenville and gave great advice and direction to a scattered brain, as well as youthful labor.
3. My dear friend Ginnie Czirka opened her house to me for four days while we waited for power to return.

Life is worthwhile because of family, friends and our shared support and caring.

Elaine Creel

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Take the motor boat off the lift.

Dave Slater





1. Cut power and water to the dock. If you have a lift for a power boat, lower it into the water.
2. Haul out boats early and put them on the hard pan. You may even get an insurance credit.
3. Don’t be a hero. Leave town if you can.
4. Call your insurance company early after the storm even if you don’t think you have much damage.
5. Stock up on bottled water before the storm. Store it up high. Same goes for dry goods.
6. If you leave town, take your chain saw and gas cans with you. Fill the cans before you return.
7. Buy a generator but store it high. Same goes for any power tools you will need for cleanup.
8. Have an analog phone on hand. Phones may get restored before electricity and digital phones are no good.
9. Store charcoal/propane up high. You may be doing a lot of outdoor cooking.
10. When you begin the outside clean-up first start with a good mosquito spray down of wet and brush areas.
11. When clearing brush, wear snake boots and gloves. Make sure you look before you reach.
12.Buy plenty of mosquito repellant before the storm. After, it is liquid gold and hard to come by.
13.Be courteous and helpful to neighbors. Stress is high among some folks after the storm.
14. Pace yourself during cleanup, drink plenty of water and take rest breaks whether you are 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or beyond.
15. Keep watching Towndock.net because it has proven to be the ONLY reliable first-hand source for information. Thanks Mel and Keith.

Jim Barton





Lesson #1 is “Preparation is everything”!
Lesson #2 is “Don’t wait for the last minute to prepare”.
Lesson #3 is “Tie EVERYTHING down.”

Some folks didn’t learn their lessons and we had loose garbage floating around in the floodwaters.

Jamie and Susan King

We were smart enough last summer to build our house up 9 feet. We were less smart in not arranging things better in garage, barn and shed; 4’ of water took care of that.

We were reminded of the truly caring spirit of the folks in and around Oriental.

Thank you for being the best supplier of information before, during and after the storm.

Donna Creech




Out of town relatives can help! I had a cousin texting me key information from Towndock as we began the cleanup, and two sisters who did the time-consuming chore of researching replacement values for our flood insurance.

Having Bob 93.3 (which you can get in Durham) broadcasting WCTI 12’s news coverage was really helpful as we were watching the approach from afar.

Meals at the fire station were so helpful, as were ice, water, and cleaning supplies. Thanks to all those volunteers!!

What I would do differently: Compile a list of friends’ cell phone numbers.

- Anne Parker





From Oriental Village Veterinary Hospital:

We sandbagged front door. Put a tarp down first. Left back door unsandbagged. Also sandbagged surgery and xray room. Water ran through. No sheetrock damage. Rooms good. Someone recommended duct tape prior to sandbag. Will try next time!

- Sherri Hicks





From your friends at the Provision Company:

Lessons learned. If you see waves breaking over or on Neuse Drive, consider leaving Oriental for the day.
Thanks for everything you are doing. Hope you get some rest soon.

- Pat





BIG LESSON: Please tell us that hurricane debris needs to be separated into different piles before the storm, not 2 weeks after. Honestly, us folks not experienced with hurricanes had no idea.

- Margaret and Johnny Reiswig




Dick and Dottie Osmun have been through a number of hurricanes and the former school teachers have put together a guide with lots of things to do in advance, as well as afterward. It’s good, matter-of-fact reading in advance of the next hurricane. (Putting your water-logged but important documents in the freezer til you could properly attend to them was one that made sense as soon as we read it.)

They’ve shared the guide with us and you can download the PDF of Dick Osmun’s Hurricane Guide, by clicking here.


Wisdom still being added. Include your lesson learned – send it in to Lessons From Irene.

Posted Monday September 19, 2011 by Melinda Penkava


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