What A Disaster Volunteer Finds In Every House On Day Four Of A Hurricane. Look Around Yours While You Read This.
Seven things, in the same order, in almost every house. She says if you can picture three of them in your own home, you're not ready.
Dana Reyes has spent fourteen years with Tri-County Storm Response Volunteers, and eleven hurricanes on the ground.
After the last storm, she knocked on forty-two doors in one week.
"In thirty-three of them I found the same seven things," she told me. "Same order. Like the houses were copying each other."
I asked her to walk me through them.
- A wall of bags in the garage
- A five-gallon bucket with a kitchen bag in it
- Brown water in the bathtub
- Every towel in the house, soaked
- Five bottles of sanitizer
- A mixing bowl next to the couch
- A child on the bathroom floor
1A Wall Of Bags In The Garage.
"I smell it from the truck," she said. "Then I see it."
Trash pickup stops after a storm. So the bags go in the garage. Stacked to the shoulder. Ninety-four degrees for four days.
"They swell like balloons. Then they split."
Brown seeps across the concrete toward the kids' bikes, and the flies lift off the pile like smoke.
2A Five-Gallon Bucket With A Kitchen Bag In It.
"Always a kitchen bag," she said. "Because that's what the list says."
The official kit list: "garbage bags and plastic ties (for personal sanitation)."
Handle-tie bags "are not liquid tight."
City of Seattle emergency sanitation sheet.
"The seam's always split. Always. And it's been leaking every time somebody used it."
3Brown Water In The Bathtub.
"They flushed with buckets of pool water," she said. "Like their parents did."
But when the pumps under the street are down, the pipe out of the house is already full.
So it comes back up through the lowest drain in the house.
"The tub. The one the kids take their baths in. There's usually a rubber duck."
4Every Towel In The House, Soaked.
"Piled by the bathroom door," she said. "Bath towels. Beach towels. Then the kids' towels with cartoons on them."
They're mopping up spills with no running water to rinse anything.
"One dad told me he'd poured two gallons of his drinking water on the floor trying to clean one spill," she said. "Two gallons. That was supposed to be for the kids."
5Five Bottles Of Sanitizer. Nearly Empty.
"Sink. Toilet tank. Hallway table. Kitchen. Somebody's back pocket," she said.
It feels like the right move.
But the bug that tears through houses after storms is usually norovirus, the cruise ship virus. The CDC says soap and running water, because hand sanitizer doesn't work well against it.
"They're spreading it with their own hands," she said. "Room to room. Kid to kid."
6A Mixing Bowl Next To The Couch.
"That's how I know it's spread," she said.
"The bucket's for the bathroom. The bowl's for the one who can't make it to the bathroom anymore."
First one child. Then the next. Then a parent.
7A Child On The Bathroom Floor.
"Cheek flat on the tile," she said. "Because it's the only cool thing left in the house."
"A cup of juice beside them. Full. Untouched."
"When I say their name and they cry, and no tears come out, that's when I pick them up and go."
Kids dry out first. The CDC lists crying with few or no tears as a warning sign.
"Most of them I get there in time," she said. "They're sitting up the next morning with a juice box, asking for their brother."
"Most of them."
The Eighth Thing, In The Houses That Were Fine
"Some houses I walk into on day four, and they're tired, and they're hot, and they're fine," Dana said.
"Same storm. Same street. No toilet either."
"The difference is a box on the shelf."
"A liner made for it. An absorbent that turns the liquid to gel. An outer bag. Nothing goes down the drain, and nothing goes on the floor."
"I carry them in my truck now. The first box I ever bought, I drove to my mother's house."
How The System Actually Works
She didn't name a brand. The kit I found with all three in one pack is the Emergency Sanitation Kit from Standby Supply.
Here's what's in each kit:
- A black waste liner, made to hold human waste (not kitchen trash)
- An absorbent that turns liquid to gel, so nothing sloshes
- An outer disposal bag (two layers between you and it)
- Toilet paper and a wipe
Using it is simple:
- Line itPut the liner in a bucket or portable toilet.
- Use itLike a normal toilet. The absorbent turns the liquid to gel.
- Seal itTie the liner, seal it inside the outer bag, and set it aside until it's safe to get rid of.
Right now they have a few options, depending on the size of your family:
- Emergency Bathroom Plan ($29 value)
- 72-Hour Family Sanitation Checklist ($19 value)
- Emergency Hygiene & Disposal Guide ($19 value)
They have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If it's not for you, send it back.
One Kit Is One Use. Do The Math Before The Storm Does.
Four people. About five times a day each. That's the measured U.S. average.
That's twenty kits a day.
A week without power is a hundred and forty.
Two weeks is two hundred and eighty.
And that's before anyone gets sick. When somebody does, it's every hour.
Count how many you have on your shelf right now.
For most families, the answer is zero.
The Gap In Every Emergency Checklist
Seven things, in the same order, in almost every house.
You can probably picture three of them in yours already.
When I ordered, the page said there were only 18 kits left from this shipment.
Hurricane season runs until November 30.
Put the eighth thing on your shelf first.
You've done the list.
- You've got the water.
- The food.
- The light.
This is the one line missing.
I'm putting the link below.
Pick the package that fits your family.
And get it before the next storm is in the forecast.
P.S. Walk out to your garage tonight.
Look at your list. Water. Food. Light.
Then look for the line that isn't there.