Yesterday morning (Monday), all the local news stations in South Florida began a non-stop report of tropical storm Ernesto. All regular programming stopped and is still only storm coverage. The issue here is that if they don't maintain an update the public will feel uninformed.
In their quest for "full coverage", they had helicopters flying over gas stations with live reports that the lines are starting to build. Actually the first reports from the aerial views only showed one maybe two cars in lines. Then the same tactics were used at the grocery stores and Home Depot, where it didn't look that busy, or out of the ordinary.
At the stage the storm was in at the time it was just a tropical storm with winds at 40 mph. So, I thought, "Why not?" I pulled out all the gas cans, five 5 gal containers, and headed out to get them filled. This was still early morning. I made a few stops at some auto parts stores to pick up a couple of more since 5 gal only lasts about 12 hours at 50% load. No containers anywhere. In my travels, all gas stations had lines that were from here to eternity. Found one that only had about an hour of wait. I got all containers full and filled up the vehicle tank and the pump ran out of gas at half full. Well, half is better than nothing, after waiting for an hour.
After Wilma we lost water for 4 days and power for 15 days. My wife is a real worry wort. She asked me to stop at the grocery store and pick up extra bread and peanut butter. I got one of the last loaves and the last jar of creamy peanut butter on the shelf, for real.
I've gotta thank the news stations for the pandemonium. If I had my way real survival wouldn't be that difficult. Nothing better than fresh kill. One of my Army buddies, who is a stock broker now, always asks me to join him in his summer getaway-mind-clearing vacations, which is a week or so in the West Virginia mountains with nothing but a knife.
Ernesto is heading towards us and today I'll be servicing the generator, bringing in the potted stuff, and outdoor furniture.
"Ernie" may or may not turn into a hurricane, I just don't like all the hoopla.
"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"
In their quest for "full coverage", they had helicopters flying over gas stations with live reports that the lines are starting to build. Actually the first reports from the aerial views only showed one maybe two cars in lines. Then the same tactics were used at the grocery stores and Home Depot, where it didn't look that busy, or out of the ordinary.
At the stage the storm was in at the time it was just a tropical storm with winds at 40 mph. So, I thought, "Why not?" I pulled out all the gas cans, five 5 gal containers, and headed out to get them filled. This was still early morning. I made a few stops at some auto parts stores to pick up a couple of more since 5 gal only lasts about 12 hours at 50% load. No containers anywhere. In my travels, all gas stations had lines that were from here to eternity. Found one that only had about an hour of wait. I got all containers full and filled up the vehicle tank and the pump ran out of gas at half full. Well, half is better than nothing, after waiting for an hour.
After Wilma we lost water for 4 days and power for 15 days. My wife is a real worry wort. She asked me to stop at the grocery store and pick up extra bread and peanut butter. I got one of the last loaves and the last jar of creamy peanut butter on the shelf, for real.
I've gotta thank the news stations for the pandemonium. If I had my way real survival wouldn't be that difficult. Nothing better than fresh kill. One of my Army buddies, who is a stock broker now, always asks me to join him in his summer getaway-mind-clearing vacations, which is a week or so in the West Virginia mountains with nothing but a knife.
Ernesto is heading towards us and today I'll be servicing the generator, bringing in the potted stuff, and outdoor furniture.
"Ernie" may or may not turn into a hurricane, I just don't like all the hoopla.
"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"
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