Lessons Learned or not.

This entry is a running summary of "lessons learned;" a trait I learned in the Air Force.  Please go to the bottom of the blog entries for the first entry and work your way up - it will make more sense that way ;-)

As I make blog entries, I will come back here when I think of things I did right, or wrong.  I will be the first to admit that in so many ways, I had a lot of "luck" on my side.  Having great friends who offered me Guest rooms, already living a lifestyle that was used to living out of a suitcase, etc.  But as Thomas Jefferson said (paraphrased), "I believe in Luck. In fact, I find that the more I prepare, the luckier I seem to become." 

Done right/got lucky:

Always prepped for a minimum of 7 days drinking water and food.  Additionally, when I knew I was going to ride it out filled the tub in the guest bathroom, which was pre-identified as the "panic room."

Computers backed up and replicated on transportable laptops.  I had been effectively living the "hotel" lifestyle for over 3 years.

Jeff knew the manager of a Niceville Storage facility through Kiwanis and I did not hesitate to reserve a unit.  They were completely booked by 2 days later. I also wound up lucky in that the two units I had from before the storm in Panama City were still intact, one of which I had been using to organize my magic stuff and did not have much in it.  Although I did not know that for a week, that was lucky too as I may have been tempted to just get by, at least for long enough that the availability in Niceville would have been non-existent.  As it is, I filled that unit and 2 additional 10 x 10s eventually (along with my original 10 x 5 in Panama City, which was already pretty much full.

Scheduled "admin days" to get stuff done (November is my birthday and this year not only did I need new registrations, but my license needed to be renewed).

Recognized that traffic at dawn was horrendous, but got better by @ 1000 (0900 as the days got longer).  Although that cut into work time, there was only so much I could do by myself anyway before the Pilot was fully loaded and ready for another trip to storage.  I did maximize my time, especially before the curfew ended, by spending a night at the house, which both allowed me to fight traffic later going and earlier coming back to avoid the crush as people tried to get out of the county before sunset/dark.

Immediate use of compression braces for my knees as I crawled around the roof and worked around the house. Unable to do much for my shoulder except stretch as I could. Tetnus Booster just in case at CVS (although I probably could have found a place that would take Tricare).

Recognized that I was not fully functional in rational analysis after a bit of a panic and wrote a checklist of things that needed to be accomplished every time I left the house.  My years since retirement on the road really prepped me well for identifying exactly what I would need to continue being reasonably productive (or at least not counter-productive) and I had all of that consolidated in the Kitchen by the end of the storm.

Contacted USAA the day of the storm, thanks to T-Mobile.  As a result, got a real USAA adjuster, many of the others in the neighborhood got assigned "contract help" and USAA wound up redoing most of their efforts because they were incompetent, or at least did not live up to USAA standards.

Eventually decided to file a wind damage claim on my Rogue.  I mostly did it because I wanted to make sure I did within the 30 day window.  Although I felt it was just "insurance" in case something popped up, an adjuster came out to the house, gave me a list of things that needed to be worked that was enough for me to schedule repairs and it wound up being totaled after the STARS body shop took a look at it.  I wound up with a significant enough settlement to buy another Hertz Rent2Buy at two years younger and with the upgraded package for only about $1k out of pocket.  And because I was living in Niceville, the connection with the FWB Hertz Local Edition was a lot more convenient than when I bought the first one.

Found a Nutragena Sunscreen (at Walmart) that was water/sweat proof and 100SPF.  My skin hasn't been this soft in a long time!

I do not let the gas in any of my vehicles get below 1/2 tank during hurricane season.   I got one last tank fill in the Rogue on base the night before and was able to use the car as a generator until I could get one on my way back from my first trip to Niceville.  I also knew I had plenty of gas to make the trip, but still factored in a bunch of stop and go traffic based on radio reports.  My cars were actually outside the garage (it being full) which actually worked in my favor.  Although the Rogue was eventually totaled, it held up surprisingly well to 140 mph wind driven debris.  If it had been in the garage, at a minimum, it would have taken quite a bit of effort to get it out with the door collapsed and I probably would not have been able to close the door again until I got it replaced in January.

Along the same lines, I had gradually built a mad money fund of stored cash.  Although places like gas stations and other critical support functions opened pretty quickly in spotty locations, the ability to use credit cards did not come until significantly later.  Several of the first "gas stations" opened were gas trucks that were brought in and literally pumped from the truck.  Definitely a cash only, limited quantity operation which fortunately I did not need to take advantage of.

I got extremely lucky in that the Adjuster knew a water damage mitigation crew that was in town (a Puroclean outfit that had driven in from California, working under a local franchise's license) and hooked me up with them.  I had tried a couple of companies already, but the wait list was going to be long.  It still took almost a month after the storm, but Insurance dealt with them direct and that was a huge burden lifted.

Attitude:  An early realization that "it is just stuff" helped out immeasurably.  Even the career mementos were easier to part with once I acknowledged that I will probably never have a wing in the Air Force Museum and I was the only one most would have any significance for.  I did take a lot of pictures and threw a lot of stuff away...

Speaking of pictures:  having a cell phone with a good camera and a 128Gb SD card made the process pretty darn easy!

Eventually realized that I was not seeing all available MLS listings and had my agent open them up to include Townhouses, which I eventually settled on.  When the pickings are slim, you need to make sure you are giving yourself the best possible chance to find a solution. Even if it might not be the "best" to meet your desires, at least finding a possible keeps hope alive.

I was able to retrieve all of the loan/mortgage/title warranty deed information from public record, except the copy of the survey which I lost in the files in the guest room that had been soaked and thrown away.  However, I had scanned the paperwork prior to refinancing and was able to recover them when I rebuilt my network here in the guestroom, so I was able to build a full binder to easily show that the house was fully free of liens, mortgages, taxes, etc. when the bidders came to the Open House and provide the binder to the winning bidder.

And the Number one way I got lucky?  I have some amazing friends who expressed their concerns and support throughout.  Two incredible ones blessed me with accommodations.and let me share their lives.  I would be a lot worse off if it were not for the kindness of Jeff Sobel and Jim Boyington.  Quite frankly, their generosity is the biggest factor in being able to accept the "sticker shock" of buying a house today vs buying in 1992 when I last shopped for houses.


Not so right:

Documents waiting to be scanned not covered or in water proof containers or at least not drug out of the rooms which would eventually get flooded when the roof collapsed.

Although I always used gloves, hearing protection (while running the generator) and vision protection, I still was not careful enough at one point with the spring loaded garage door and nearly broke ribs or worse.  I definitely needed my full reaction speed to minimize that damage, but mostly I got lucky.

Did not buy wrist supports early enough and wound up with carpal-tunnel like symptoms for quite awhile due to both toting and tossing trash as well as a lot of hammering.

Gave myself a panic attack by leaving my keys in the door after locking up the house the first night, but learned a lesson from it, see checklist comment above.

Too much cardboard used for storage.  In the future, no storage containers in cloth or cardboard, only covered plastic.  Actually use the covers and overbuy the strength of the container if you are going to stack at all.

Even if you don't evacuate for the hurricane, you may still need to leave after.  Returning all of my suitcases to storage after my latest trips was an OK idea, however, leaving them there while I was prepping to ride out the storm was not.  Fortunately, I had some old suitcases in the rafters in the garage.


Advice for future events:

Have a bug out checklist at a very minimum, but understand that leaving may not be an option, so be provisioned.  Previous incidents were at most 3 days before normalcy returned, but I was prepared for 7.  That would still not have been enough if I had not been able to get out and back.