Caught this in the news. A family owned Supermarket in Miami Beach that got looted out of the usual items: Booze, smokes & Lottery tickets.

Using wood materials for hurricane boards is a wasteful investment in South Florida. By the time the next event comes around, your wood will more likely be eaten away by humidity and other factors. Metal panels can be expensive, but you pretty much can toss them in a corner of your property and forget about them till you need to use them.

But in this case, the covering in the video is not even worth the time used to install it as it is some thin (probably 1/8 inch) hardboard that it does not even look like it would protect a box of shoes much less debris sent flying around by a hurricane.

Looters are a fact of life in a post hurricane location. Metal hurricane shutters not only give better protection from Unwanted Flying Objects but will put up a bigger resistance against breaking in than flimsy paneling.

Some savings simply are not worth it and at least in Florida, your investment approved hurricane panels/shutters will somewhat be offset by the savings on the insurance as my lovely wife just reminded me. Depending on your coverage and type of protection, you will pay off your investment in ass little as a year.

And don’t forget that hurricane panels are the best way to make your home Zombie-Proof. Same for an out-opening metal door.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced his resignation Tuesday, hours after new sexual abuse allegations surfaced against the embattled politician. Murray, a Democrat and the city’s first openly gay mayor, said he was resigning effective 5 p.m. Wednesday so the scandal would no longer overshadow his office. The mayor’s announcement comes after his cousin gave an interview with the Seattle Times alleging abuse, the latest in a series of similar accusations. The cousin is the fifth person to publicly accuse Murray of child sexual abuse since a lawsuit was filed against him in April.

Source: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray resigns after latest child sex-abuse allegation – CNN

And the answer to your question is: YES! He is a member of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but allegedly sexually abusing your underage cousin apparently is OK.

But we are the ones that need to go to concentration camps.

Major intersection without working traffic lights. Officers of the Miami Dade Police Department doing traffic control.

It is one thirty in the PM and the official temperature is 95 degrees. In that intersection? Easy past 100 degrees and what you do not see in there is the canal that runs parallel to the tree line and the road. Now you can imagine the humidity.

And I figure they have several more days if not weeks of extra duty till we get back to normal.

Never confuse the White Shirts on top with the Rank and File that actually walks the streets as they are two different set on creatures.

I am going to start easy. Just simply some stuff that stood up to the use and was not expensive as hell.

Starting with: Two burner propane stove.

I have one like this, You use the little green propane bottles found at any Mega Store camping section, although I just found out there is a hose with a connector to plug to the BBQ propane bottles.  This stove has been with us for years now and it has done its job admirably.  They can be found for under $50 and they occupy little space in your closet.

Next is the Coast HP1 Focusing 190 Lumen LED Flashlight.

Got a bunch of them as “add-on” item in amazon for about $8 a pop. You could carry it in a gym’s short and not be a bother. It gives a decent light output in both flood and spot. Even my 85-year-old mother wouldn’t move without it.

Another light:  LED headlamp.

You have no idea how convenient is to be able to have hands-free illumination. We have two of these and the wife is a firm believer in it. There are a bunch of brands, models and lumens. Another item that can be found for cheap, around $15 if you don’t wanna go high-end spelunking stuff.

And the last illumination thing: Streamlight 44931 The Siege Lantern.

Sweet camp light. Comes in two models. I have the  one in 340 lumens. This thing is versatile and even spells SOS in red. I have one and was told to get another one as apparently they are great lamps to use for make-up duties when the general electricity is out. I just do what the wife says.

And don’t forget to buy batteries in bulk.

What else? Water containers! Five gallon water bottle from Walmart.

Under 7 bucks and once filled, you have 5 days of potable water for a member of your family. (The rule is one gallon per person per day). You can buy spouts and whatnots for serving if you like, but this is it.

It should go without a saying, but I know there are people like me out there: Working gloves.

I have three nasty scrapes obtained just trying to get the generator prepared and I did not use the gloves. There is a bunch of them under $20 and more with both protection and dexterity.

The humble bandana was used and abused these past days:

I have to say it over and over: buy cotton bandanas!   They sell some cutesy polyester thing for decoration and stuff. Stay away. There are way too many uses for them (some say 180), including wiping away the sweat that was used a lot in the last 72 hours. Thye are about a buck/pennies a pop…buy a lot.

The other obvious one id a good knife, folder or fixed that is always with you and sharp. Buy good quality it and keep it in good shape. I had both my Boker Wharcom and the Victorinox Swiss Army Trekker. I am Old School and I find Swiss Army more user-friendly that a Multitool.

That should do it for now. I need to get back to blogging according to some well-intentioned people and I plan on following their advice.

More at a later day.

I am gonna need some time to put all the hurricane crap away and that is not counting the hurricane panels. Gonna do a write-up for the blog and a segment for the Gunblog VarietyCast about Irma, what we went through, didn’t go through and lessons learned.

I heard, that Irma dumped about 10 inches of water in Miami Dade. That is a brutal amount if you consider that he highest natural elevation is just 6 feet high. That we are not floating away into the ocean is due to the very complex and efficient net of canals the Corp of Engineers, state and local governments spent decades working on.

The water level usually is at least a foot and a half lower during regular rainy season.

For once, I get to see and enjoy something that government did right.

PS: Good fishing there.