I've always had a bit of a prepper mindset, but never took much action towards really preparing for disasters.

The past few years have finally prodded me into some action.

First the pandemic convinced me to keep at least a small supply of essentials like food. I'm not preparing for the apocalypse, but I like to keep at least a week's worth of food on hand.

The past couple of weeks delivered a real one-two punch. Hurricanes Helene and Milton came through in a two week period.

Helene was a glancing blow to our area in central Florida, but it went on to utterly devastate my home region of Western North Carolina.

Milton was a direct hit on us here. When it passed our area, it was still a category 2 storm.

All of these events have prompted me to take action.

Living in Florida, you get to see annual hurricane season preparedness spots in the news. For us it isn't an if a hurricane will hit, it is when a hurricane will hit.

Communications

The real gap in my thinking has been communications.

Like most people today, I have a tiny computer in my pocket that is always connected to the internet and can call people anywhere in the world.

We truly take for granted that it will always be there and always work.

A big lesson from North Carolina is how fragile that system is.

Your cell phone has a very weak transmitter/receiver that can only communicate with the tower in the “cell” you are currently in. Your phone does not connect to any other phone. Your phone and the phone of the person you are talking to are both connecting to a giant infrastructure that is there 99% of the time.

My relatives in NC found themselves without any way to communicate with the outside world for days. People farther to the east around Asheville have in some cases been two weeks without a connection to the outside world.

There are still people who are unaccounted for. Are they safely waiting for the grid to be reestablished, or were they, like so many, washed away in landslides and floods?

Without any way to communicate, no one knows.

Ham Radio

About 15 years ago while living in the Atlanta area, a series of storms and outages made me think it would be a good idea to get a ham radio license.

Unlike cell phones which only work if connected to a giant, functioning infrastructure, ham radios can connect directly to each other. They can do so over great distances.

Getting a license means studying for and passing an exam. Ham radio equipment can be quite expensive as well.

Other things took priority, and I didn't pursue the license.

Helene has changed my mind.

I have started studying and have ordered a couple of radios.

To be clear, you can own and listen to ham radio without a license. You need a license to transmit on ham frequencies.

The licensing process has become much more streamlined than in the past. Now you need to pass a 35 question, multiple-choice test to get your first level license (known as a Technician's license).

In the past you had to pass a morse code test, but that is no longer required.

I'm hoping that I can pass the test before the end of the year.

As for the radios, I've opted to start with inexpensive handheld radios. On Amazon I was able to get a two pack of radios for about $70.

I have no illusions that these are going to be great radios, but they are a good place to start. Once I have learned enough to choose better equipment, I'll do so. Based on the reviews I've read and watched on YouTube, these look like nice secondary radios even after I move up to fancier ones.

Once I get the radios and my license, I'll post a review.

I'll also post updates on the license process.

GMRS Radio

An alternative to ham radio is GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service).

It is much more restrictive than a ham license, but you can get a GMRS license without taking a test. You just pay the FCC about $35 and that's it.

I plan to get my GMRS license as well as my ham Technician's license for added flexibility.

My Experience with Milton

My family was incredibly lucky. We rode out the storm with its howling winds and torrential rains with no serious damage.

Our big oak tree in the back yard was the only real casualty.

As you can see in the picture above, several very large branches were broken off by the wind which gusted possibly as high as 90 mph.

Fortunately, the branches fell away from the house into the backyard.

We are trying to find an arborist who can save the tree. It is probably at least a couple hundred years old, and I hate to remove it, but I can't risk a damaged tree so close to the house. If it were to fall into the house, it would smash right in.

Conclusions

I will likely post more on the topic of preparing for disasters. It isn't my typical tech topic, but I think there are technology related angles to examine like ham radio, solar power, etc. I also really enjoy outdoor cooking with cast iron dutch ovens (holdover from when I was a Cub Scout leader).

Let me know if you have any topics you might like to see.