I Made It Through the Hurricane

Here's what helped and what I wish I would've had.

A small part of the tree that came down in our neighborhood during Hurricane Helene.

22 days ago, as I was preparing for bed, I heard a sickening crash and my home plummeted into darkness. I felt my way to the door and peeked outside to see my neighbor’s flashlight pointing down the road. “That tree finally came down!” he called out. A tree with a trunk wider than I am tall had fallen across the road, into the lot next to us and through the neighborhood’s power and phone lines.

There was nothing we could do, except worry and pray that no trees would crush us in our sleep as the storm increased in speed and intensity. On Friday morning we lost water, then our phones stopped working. For the next three days we were cut off from the outside world. We relied on our neighbors. We cleaned up the road with chainsaws and my neighbor’s skidsteer. We flushed our toilets with rainwater from my garden. We read books and tried to not open the fridge.

Eventually, we heard that we could get a tiny bit of phone service at a local grocery store. We jumped in the truck with our dog and headed over there. The texts and phone calls started pouring in. I had texts from people I hadn’t spoken to in years wondering if I was ok. I knew Hurricane Helene had hit my Blue Ridge Mountain home hard, but I didn’t know how catastrophic it was until days later.

The day before the storm, we were told to prepare for power outages, but not much else. And we are mountain folk. Hurricanes are for beaches, right? Unfortunately with climate change and human-caused global warming, we all need to be prepared for the worst, at all times. And we weren’t prepared.

I don’t consider myself a “prepper,” but I did have some emergency items on hand that helped immensely. I also was lacking in some key items that would have made a rough situation slightly less rough. We were almost three weeks without water and 1.5 weeks without power.

But before I get to it, I do want to say that we were very, very lucky. We had very little damage to our home and didn’t experience the unimaginable flooding that areas of my beautiful city and western North Carolina experienced. People’s lives and entire livelihoods were lost. If you want to give to relief funds or volunteer, here are a few opportunities.

This is a local park I walk at often. It’s unrecognizable now.

Emergency Kit Recommendations

Handcrank/Solar Radio
At first the news stations weren’t reporting anything about the storm, but when they did start, this radio was essential. We were able to hear updates from our city government and when relief finally came, we were able to hear about where in town to access it. This model is solar and can operate with a handcrank if the sun isn’t available. It can also charge your phone!

Hand Sanitizer
Hand sanitizer can be beneficial in a variety of disaster scenarios. Maybe the disaster is biological like Covid or you need to clean your hands to prepare food safely without water. My favorite hand sanitizer is actually a spray version because it doesn’t feel as gloopy on my hands and I can spray the grocery cart before using it.

Coffee
Let’s be real, no emergency coffee is going to be the best, but it’s better than suffering with a killer headache while trying to live through a disaster. This instant, single serve coffee is a lifesaver. You can even make it with cold water if you’re in a pinch.

Wipes
I don’t buy wipes in my everyday life, but in an emergency, wipes for both your body and cleaning are welcomed. For my body, I like these wipes because they’re large and almost towel-like. I also like an antibacterial wipe for spills and keeping the bathroom & kitchen relatively clean.

Headlamp
Candles and flashlights are nice, but I like my headlamp the best. I don’t have to worry about carrying it from room to room or placing it in a convenient place when the power is out. It’s already stuck on my head. This one also dims, so I can read in bed at night without disturbing my partner. (I actually prefer a battery-operated headlamp because I might not be able to charge it, but there’s also chargeable headlamps too.)

Map
For whatever reason, I didn’t really think of the impact of not having easy access to a map. I truly wish I had a detailed map for my area. It would have made getting to places with emergency supplies much easier. I’d recommend a map of your city and an Interstate map. Our highway collapsed and you may need an alternative way out of town.

Camp Shower
I couldn’t have gotten through this time without a camp shower. I hate feeling dirty and wipes alone were not cutting it. I have this solar shower. I will say it doesn’t get super hot with solar power alone, but we ended up pouring hotter water from our kettle into it and it hit the spot.

Camp Stove
Most of the time, I have enough food on hand in case of an emergency, but after a few days, cold food and protein bars get really old. A small, propane, camping stove is a very nice addition to your emergency kit. Warm food keeps your spirits up! When the power goes out, you also may want to the food in your fridge before it goes bad. Remember: do not use a camp stove indoors and keep extra propane on hand.

A First Aid Kit
You should have a first aid kit in your house, even if it’s not an emergency. I keep an extra one of these kits in my emergency kit because I want to make sure it’s fully stocked and I haven’t pulled out all the band-aids or something.

Portable Power Station
This is kind of a just nice to have thing, but I love our Geneverse portable power station. (If you have medical devices that need charging, this might be a must!) I use this box for camping and any power outages. It’s a small, power supply made with electric-vehicle-grade battery cells. It can even keep the fridge running over night. That’s how powerful it is. It also can be re-charged in your car or with solar panels. And it’s quiet and can be run inside your home, unlike a generator.

Water for Drinking & Brushing Teeth

This is the most critical resource you can have and it’s unfortunately it’s the resource that we were without the longest. I never expected our water to be unaccessible for almost three weeks, but our city’s water system suffered catastrophic damages.

I had a couple of gallons of water on hand, but I hadn’t checked them in a while. One had a pinhole leak and was half-empty. I truly wish I had checked those recently. If things got really bleak, I did have a Lifestraw in my kit, but it didn’t come to that. I’m glad I had it though.

In the future, I will be keeping these stackable water storage containers on hand, then dumping and refilling them periodically to ensure the water is fresh. (Don’t worry, I’ll water my plants with it. The old water won’t go to waste.)

Non-Potable Water

This is water that you need to do other things like flush the toilet, wash dishes, clean and even take a bath or wash your hands. You need more of this water than I ever realized.

The non-potable water I had on hand was such a blessing during those first hard days. I’m so glad I had two rain barrels for the garden because we could use that water without much worry that we were “wasting” it flushing the toilet.

For dish washing, we even used rainwater with a splash of bleach because we were afraid we’d run out of drinking water. Bleach is another good thing to have on hand during an emergency!

We now have both power and water back. We were also able to visit water stations after the first few days to fill up jugs of water. Don’t let anyone tell you that FEMA wasn’t helping us! We still can’t drink the water or use it for food prep, but I don’t think I’ll ever take having easy access to clean water for granted again. Living without water is HARD.

I’d love to hear your emergency kit essentials in the comments, although I hope you never have to use it.

Please note that these are affiliate links. I receive a tiny kickback when you purchase these items. I will also be donating 10% of my income for this month to relief efforts.