emergency preparedness?

[Jan]

what do al of you have as emergency preparedness / back up systems?
(i dont mean the extra water / canned food and such which is a basic requirement)

biggest lesson i learnt from last typhoon:
- need some sort of solar powered battery charging system.

if for nothing else then to be able to check PROJECT NOAH.

(data communication enabled phone/tablet/laptop is of course a prerequisite to that. )

Pagasa hourly updates were another great help.

so now the hunt for a solar power system is on.

anyone else has some tips / links they wish to share?

[hbt]

ityphoon kuya
http://www.facebook.com/ityphoon

cdr king auto battery charger/jumper with flashlight is handy http://www.cdrking.com/?mod=products...d=648&main=146


bought this in the middle of ondoy and habagat

this is good too http://www.cdrking.com/index.php?pro...ts&type=search

[arvin555]

I have a friend waitaminute he is also a RG member, Kotzilla... he sells Solar systems in Bukidnon.

One thing that I realized/learned from him, is that it is also very important to be able to unmount and then remount your solar panels, in case you are in direct path of a strong typhoon, because the winds can tear the panels off or debris might hit it. Something to keep in mind.

Of course if you have a battery bank, then taking off the panels during the height of the typhoon will still ensure you have power while it rages.

I will point him to this topic after I post this.

Me here in Manila?
1. I have a small 12Vdc to 220VAC inverter in my car, just in case.

2. We just overhauled a very small diesel fueled genset for the kids to have at least electric fan, but gosh our genset is so loud, I think my neighbors will get angry if we keep it running for 12 hours straight.

3. My house is on a hill, but it became an island during ondoy, so food and water is also essential.

4. My house is part of an electric grid/area which gets the most frequent Brownouts, small typhoon, thunderstorm, whatever, we are the first to have power outage and we are the last to get power back on. Ondoy and the last flooding I think power was out for 3 to 4 days.

Solar power is actually also planned, but it involves cost of panel, charging system, Battery bank and Inverter to get max benefit, as of now the Genset, noisy and dirty does the job, so cost benefit is still allowing the genset to win..

TTFN
Arvin

[kotzilla]

Hi all,
yes, I have been busy since the typhoon, many people are reminded of solar energy these days, plus at p80/Watt it gets really affordable.

What bothers me with typhoons here are the Philippine TV stations. In other countries, when you have a strong storm coming (and it was known that Bopha was a) huge and b) will hit Mindanao at least 4 days ahead of time!!) they change their programs and do specials on the typhoon including some advise on preparedness. But here the same tele-novellas, game shows and news about the Pacman training, but the weatherguy still got the same amount of seconds for his message...

My hawaiian neighbor told me when they have a Cat4 strength storm coming the hardware stores are sold out regarding plywood, as everyone is barricading their windows, charging/buying batteries/flashlights, canned goods, storing water, gasoline, fueling up the car, freezing lots of ice, so meat stays cold for days without power.

Here, whomever I talked to on Monday, they were not aware that we should prepare for a storm on Tuesday. My worker was very surprised, when I started with him taking our solar panels down, did a garden round to secure potentially dangerous items that could hit us, our neighbors or destroy property.

Admittedly Bukidnon is spoiled of being typhoon free, thus I guess that's why people were so ignorant, or maybe they were just not looking at the numbers (windspeed for example). Storm coming, ok I know storm...

I also have a 20 year old 100W secondary solar system that stood on the roof without problems. This came in handy as it powers three 12 volt 9w bulbs (nowadays even available from Omni) for kitchen, bathroom, living room, our internet router, cellphone and even netbook charging - all connected by DC without inverter losses. At some point we also hooked up a small inverter to our cignal tv box and watched tv (searching for news, argh) through the netbook. Electric fan not needed in Bukidnon, in case you are wondering

Our solar water heater also transformed to our water backup system as it stores 150l and automatically refills it when it can. Brushing teeth with 70C hot water, oh well

Further we have 2500l ferrocement tank that is always full with rain water, which is also priceless in situations like that.

If you need any solar advise or materials (esp for those in Mindanao, very costly to ship panels) just let me know.

Ingat, Kotzilla

PS: Sorry for not being very active in RG, but I am rarely using a GPS - we have more or less only 1 road here - you have to try VERY HARD to be able to get lost

[hennme69c]

The best preparation is information. As mentioned by Kotzilla, I knew about the typhoon for more than a week before it entered the Philippines AOR. It was tracking steadily to come right through the Surigao Straight, centered about 5 km from my house, as a Cat 4. As we were going around buying things, every person we talked to up to December 03 knew nothing about the storm. Pablo/Bopha just wasn't in the news. I had to caution my wife about creating a panic as she tried to convince her friends and relatives about the size of the storm. Surigao, also, is relatively typhoon-free and I think there were a lot of non-believers as well.

Besides the basics (canned food, water), we got an extra tank of Gasul and lots of uling. I packed the ref as full as possible and made sure there was enough time to get the temperature of the mass pulled down. When we lost power, it was my intention to run the generator about 2 hours during lunch (to keep the ref pulled down and so we could use the rice cooker and microwave and recharge lights), 2 hours around dinner time, 2 hours before going to sleep, 2 hours at breakfast. Our power was only out for about 10 hours.

I have Smart internet, the kind that uses the line-of-site antenna to cellphone tower. All of those towers have their own generators. When the whole city loses power and I fire up my generator, I can get online.

I have a 12 VDC cigar lighter hooked up to the battery on my motorcycle and an automotive USB adapter. I use this set-up to run the GPS units without using their batteries but I can also use this to charge cell phones.

I've been through several Cat 1 and 2 hurricanes. Everything on our property came inside - washing machine, motorcycle, potted plants - everything. I've seen how much damage flying objects can cause. Unfortunately, the neighbors either did not or could not secure their property in a similar fashion.

[arvin555]

Unfortunately, most people probably would not know what to do to prepare for a typhoon. Specially if an area is hit not hit by typhoons very often.

In my province in Samar, we always joke that all typhoons the go into the Philippines will say hello to the people in Samar (well not all but most). So people are used to typhoons, and whatever can happen they have experienced already.

The problem with the flash flooding and the likes in Mindanao is that because we seldom get hit there so people have no clue what to expect.

So, I agree that early warning and information is key, better cry wolf than have the whole flock get eaten! So that is a great insight by Kotzilla that at the least the local radio stations should at least make hourly report about the incoming typhoon.

Also however, it would be best if the government come up with specific plans for people to do to prepare for typhoons, specially those that do not get hit often. A checklist and also specific SAFE evacuation areas for those who choose to be safe than sorry.

As I said it is hard to prepare for typhoons, even in our office, we suffered flooding during Ondoy and the last Habagat rains flood, we had sand bags for that last flood, but now I don't know where they are, which means that next rainy season we will have to prepare sandbags again. These entails costs and foresight, which sometimes people have to be convinced to prepare or to spend on, even if it means you might not actually need it.

Again, best if the government and media would give specific suggestions on how to prepare for storms, just warning them might not mean anything.

Kuya, Jan, there you go, either Solar Panels or Genset. There are very light weight Gentsets for sale out there, maybe you can get one that uses same fuel as your bike, so you can siphon off one or the other depending on if you need power or you want to get away for a while

In my province, even the head of the engineering of the local electric cooperative has a portable genset for his house

TTFN
Arvin

[Jan]

Kuya, Jan, there you go, either Solar Panels or Genset. There are very light weight Gentsets for sale out there, maybe you can get one that uses same fuel as your bike, so you can siphon off one or the other depending on if you need power or you want to get away for a while

If you buy a genset, buy a diesel one. The gasoline one will have a clogged carb next time you want to use it....


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[Jan]

Hi all,
yes, I have been busy since the typhoon, many people are reminded of solar energy these days, plus at p80/Watt it gets really affordable.

80 p/W???

More info needed here. Batteries / charge controller inverters included? Or only d solar panels?

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[VFORCE3]

If you buy a genset, buy a diesel one. The gasoline one will have a clogged carb next time you want to use it....


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and speaking of gensets... i have personally confirmed that used cooking oil works perfectly fine with my diesel genset...

what i did was i just quickly filtered the impurities using one layer of cloth on top of a funnel and put it straight in the genset tank... it ran perfectly... and the exhaust gas smells like fried fish hehe...


in all i got almost six hours of FREE ELECTRICITY (one liter = 2 hours running time) and helped charged my neighbors' phone and rechargeable emergency lights...

[jayteecie]

Yes I totally agree with the Genset. I was able to procure my 5KVA before the power crisis here in Mindanao. No regrets at all for investing in one. Then 5 days before landfall of Bopha, I noticed from different forecasts that Butuan will be in its line of path. I finally decided to have a deep water system, both manual hand pump and pressure tank, installed in my house. Basing from different typhoons in the past, water source has been a major problem whenever disaster strikes, lasting even for several weeks. Now I'm more confident that we can withstand disasters (God forbids) better.

[Jan]

emergency preparedness?

If you buy a genset, buy a diesel one. The gasoline one will have a clogged carb next time you want to use it....


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Forgot: halfway decent diesel will store (almost) indefinetly. Gasoline will either require stabil or the like or periodical renewal.


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[arvin555]

Kuya Jan,

The thing is the diesel engines are noisier, the Gas gensets are way more quiet. One idea is to drain the carb if you are not going to use for sometime.
Yes kuya about the gasoline not storing well, that is why I said you can siphon off one or the other, hehehe, but I am sure you would not want to risk putting "Stale" gas in your bike!

P80/Watts is only for the solar panel, basically an 80w panel costs P6,400. Will wait on Kotzilla if that includes the charge controller or not. But surely not the battery, which locally would be Motolite solar master. Inverters will surely be extra as well.

JTC, what fuel does your genset use?

TTFN
Arvin

[jayteecie]

@Arvin
It's Diesel powered, can be started either manually or using a battery. It can supply a 1.5HP air conditioner, water motor pump, lights and most important of all, my refrigerator so we can stuff foods that we will need for a week or so.

[arvin555]

Thanks for the info, good thing you mentioned, I would strongly recommend pull start option! No need to maintain a battery for starting and stuff Best for emergency equipment when they tend to be stored for a long time and taken out when you need them already!

Nice that your genset can power AC and Ref, our's couldn't coz we only have a small one.

Oh, in my province, we have a yanmar genset that is probably only 10 years younger than me, and still works perfectly, that one had a starter like those old vintage cars were you turn a handle

Solar would be the quietest and greenest though.

TTFN
Arvin