I don’t recall exactly what show we were watching the other morning when the subject turned to the oil well fires set in Kuwait as the Coalition advanced during Desert Storm. After Saddam Hussein had control of Kuwait – which he did quite rapidly – he didn’t know for certain how firmly that proverbial “Line in the Sand” would be drawn. Without getting into a lot of details, the King of Saudi Arabia opened his country to allow the initial forces to enter in a defensive posture. That was the Desert Shield portion. As plans were being drawn up for the offensive action to re-take Kuwait – that was the Desert Storm part. In the midst of many terrible atrocities Iraqis were committing, orders were given to dig trenches in the oil fields and fill them. Among the other threats, Hussein said he would torch the trenches and the oil wells. According to a source I trust, the Emir of Kuwait said something like, “I can rebuild my country once I have it back.”

And so, early one morning as the lightning fast attacks of Desert Storm were pushing the Iraqi military back, the threat was carried out. I think the number of wells set on fire was around 700 and I don’t know how many trenches were. The headquarters I was in was at least 150 miles away (probably more) and the sky was as dark as if twilight was setting in. It was incredible to see and an environmental disaster of staggering proportions. The sky was affected throughout the day and may have been longer. I also don’t recall the number of special crews they brought in (many American of course), but if you watch the old movie, “Hellfighters”, it’s a good depiction of what it was like for months on end. The fires were set the latter part of January and early February and the first ones weren’t extinguished until early April. The effort took until November to complete. Like so much of what happens in war, it accomplished nothing other than to inflict deliberate damage. It didn’t stop the advance of troops or provide a negotiating point. In situations like these, this is why you demand unconditional surrender.

Those of us  who had far less damage than could have happened with Hurricane Irma are nonetheless experiencing some disorientation combined with gratitude for what we didn’t have to go through. It applies for those who evacuated and those whose chose not to. Fear of the unknown is a reality and in the days leading up to the storm there was (and always will be) a large element of unknown. As I mentioned in previous posts, that’s a significant element in trying to make the decision about evacuating. Now that we are in post-storm recovery, a number of people have remarked about how tired they seem to be. Part of that is because between warning of the storm, prep, going through it personally or from a distance, and trying to recover, everyone’s life has been disrupted to at least some degree for about three weeks now and that is wearing on an often subconscious level.

Those who were without power for up to a week were dealing with temperatures in the 90s and obviously high humidity which is also draining when we have become so accustomed to air conditioning. Once power was restored, there were thousands who didn’t have telephone and internet and television (or some combination) and quite a few won’t be fully back for possibly another week. Again, connectivity has become a way of life for most of us and to be without that is disconcerting. Events that were planned for Sept and early Oct are having to be rescheduled or decisions made to cancel. If rescheduled, the usual time to prep for something tends to be limited which means extra effort is required to try to make the event go smoothly. The simple fact is when you put things into perspective, none of these issues are terrible, yet when your routines are disrupted it has an effect. Being able to recognize that can give an “Aha” moment that helps.

As mentioned a few days ago, the issue of getting home is a factor in making the decision about evacuating or not. In this case, since Hurricane Irma was highly destructive in some areas and not as much in most, those who did not suffer severe damage can’t help but wonder if they should have hunkered down instead. The sheer process of evacuating, unless done so at the earliest sign of trouble, and trying to return as quickly as possible means coping with drives that can be 30-80% longer than usual and the potential to not be able to get gas or a place to stay during the trip. This is added to the stress of not knowing what the outcome of the pending disaster will be.

For people who go into a shelter, there is often the inability to leave as soon as they would like because roads and streets may not be passable. For thousands here, even if their home did not suffer great damage, with 80% of the county without power, that meant unpleasant conditions at home at a minimum, although most were ready to try and manage. The drawback to waiting for the initial shortages and restrictions to pass before returning is if you do have damage, you are that much more behind everyone else who is making claims and getting clean-up and repairs starting.

Situations like this are something too few people consider when they make the decision to relocate to an area where natural disasters are known to occur. Tornadoes and earthquakes are two of the exceptions because there is still little ability to have much warning about those. Hurricanes, floods, and blizzards all bring the thorny question about what choice to make. This is why knowing what to do to be genuinely prepared no matter which option is chosen is important.

Back to the point of us believing we would evacuate for a really bad storm of Cat 3 or higher.As it turns out, this is a more difficult choice than we expected. Not for us as we have no children at home, pets to take into account, or lack of places to go. As the mayor of Houston discovered, there are very real issues with trying to evacuate tens of thousands of people in a short time frame. And there are special issues in trying to evacuate people who are older. We had not clearly understood this part until this past week and discussions swirled around choices people were making. I won’t go into all of them because I need to see what the ultimate outcome is of Irma and her impact. I can speculate, but would rather have the definitive answers before I say more.

Aside from the importance of proper construction and things like hurricane shutters is the ability to have adequate supplies to remain off the streets for at least 3 days – 4 is better. You may risk going stir crazy with no power, TV, etc., but the first responders and repair crews need to be able to move about as well as people who have to check on others such as older relatives/friends. The aftermath of people who don’t really need to trying to get gas and groceries can cause serious problems. Once traffic can flow, supplies can also flow, but it can take up to a week for that to happen.

Okay, I need to do a few more things in prep, but wanted to post this because I don’t know when we will lose power and connectivity.

With Irma heading this direction, whether to stay or go is a difficult choice in many cases. There are those who have neither the resources nor the physical ability to evacuate and having pets complicates the situation. In looking at people who do have a choice, several things come into play, but let me focus on hurricane clips, also known as straps.

One of the good things to come from the terrible destruction of Hurricane Andrew was an in-depth study of what went wrong from a building code perspective (enforcement is a different issue). The Army Corps of Engineers was very much involved in the study and since I’m not an engineer, I’ll put this in simple terms. If a house is built so the walls and roof can remain intact as a “unit”, the odds of severe damage are greatly lessened. Some seemingly innocuous pieces of metal were developed called hurricane clips or straps and these are installed every so many inches on roofs in order to provide this “remain as a unit” effect. When we moved into our current house, the covered terrace was across two-thirds of the back and we wanted to extend that across the entire back. The company we used at the time had an architect who drew the plan to where you really couldn’t tell it was an addition. However, since it included a section of roof and especially because it tied into the existing roof, it had to pass code inspection. The inspector who came invited Hubby to come up on the roof with him and he showed him how the hurricane clips were installed (properly). Our house, like so many in South Florida, is of concrete construction with steel beams specifically chosen to meet the revised building codes for this environment.

Another important issue is storm shutters and I’ll save that for a future post.