by Soyez Ferme, Survival Blog:
Awake before dawn to survey the damage, we found that two thirds of the barn roof lay in various pastures within a quarter-mile radius. The radio antenna that was attached to the barn was bent in a C-shape. A sheet of roofing must have hit it. A massive live oak tree had toppled over on its side, roots exposed. Many branches had snapped off other oak trees, some as big around as my waist. Leaves were gone from the tops of all the trees. Lower branches seemed to fare much better.
Thursday was a bit of a daze. We walked around picking up stuff everywhere. Neighbors all checked in with each other to see if anyone suffered physical injury. Everyone suffered property damage, and some worse than others. Our house came through fine.
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Time to fire up Genny. Opening the electrical panel and disconnecting the grid power breaker, I then slid the “lock out” protector and connected the generator breaker. I quickly checked the oil and fuel levels, connected the batteries and hit the starter. It always brings a smile to my face when Genny comes alive. After letting her get up to operating temperature, all there was to do was close the circuit and “Let there be light!” We were up on full backup power. Everything that would work on grid power was working on backup power. Even with the AC, dryer, and everything else running, we were using only about 35% of the generator capacity.
After past hurricanes I generally run the generator for about 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. This gives the freezers and refrigerator time to cool down. We can get the meals served easily. We have time to wash up and cool off after a day’s work cleaning up after the storm. The generator burns a little less than a gallon per hour. The power grid was down from Wednesday night till Saturday evening. The outage was much shorter than I expected.
Friday, I drove Mom back into town. One of the larger ranchers had a ranch hand using a frontend loader pushing trees off our road to clear a way for us to get out to the hard road. You know you have a great location when neighbors look out for one another.
Damage to infrastructure was not as bad as I anticipated. Knowing that power would likely not be out for very long (more than 5 days), I decided to let the generator run much longer simply for the convenience of having power. My wife is a photographer, and she spent the morning documenting the damage for insurance and any other resources we may need. Photograph all the damage you incur. This includes the house, barn, fences, and downed trees. Our accountant suggested that we may be able to deduct clean-up expenses from the storm. We will need photos for the insurance claim.
Lessons Learned
1. Hurricanes are no fun! I have been through a few in my lifetime. None have been fun, and this one was frightening.
2. God is good. Throughout the storm I found myself quoting Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him.” That’s a good word during a hurricane.
3. Preparation done in past years may not be good enough for the present. Before Hurricane Ian in 2022, my son-in-law and I put additional fasteners in the roof of the barn. We put in a new screw next to the existing screw along the seams that overlap and along the edge at the top and bottom. I had become confident in the condition of the barn roof. I failed to consider that the roof had encountered at least 3 hurricanes over the last few years. Each event surely loosened and stressed the roof. I did go up on the roof prior to Helene to lower the radio antenna, but did not notice any problems. A closer inspection may have been needed. On the other hand, there may not have been anything to be done. Nothing is hurricane-proof.
4. I need to write a SOP for Genny. Starting up the generator and switching over from the grid to the backup is a bit complicated. I walked the son-in-law through it and realized that it is not a simple process. Since my wife writes operation manuals for a living, that should be within our ability. While we are at it, maybe writing an overall Hurricane SOP is in order.
5. I am constantly amazed how livestock survive a storm. I am pretty much out of the cattle business now. I did have a hobby herd but now just raise a few head of beef for the freezer. The cattle survived without issue. The rancher next to me pushed his herd of 100 mommas and their calves into a small 7-acre pasture next to mine the day after Milton in order to get them to higher ground. One of my heifers decided to go visit. How do I cut my heifer out of that herd? Actually, it was surprisingly easy. I feed my cows a bit of sweet feed a couple times a week to keep them gentle. A little scratch behind the ear, some smooth talk, and a consistent “cattle call” to bring them in. When I went over to the neighbor’s pasture with a bucket of sweet feed the herd ran away, and my heifer came running up. I opened the gate, and she walked right through. The cow knows the master’s voice and comes to him. There is a Sunday school lesson there somewhere. The moral of the story is that you must check fences after a storm. Trees brought fences down in at least three places on my small pastures.
