On This First Day of Hurricane Season

Got new flashlight batteries?  Rotated your gas?  Canned food that you won't mind eating for a few day?  Backup drinking water options covered?  Got FRS walkie-talkies (local option, cheap serviceable option)?  Got an AM/FM radio (good & local, really amazing good, total nerd-out options)?  No?  Then get the hell on the stick.

When the chips (and the internet) are down, you can get the news from WOYS 106.5 FM.  When the chips are really down, try WHBO 1040 AM (Tampa) daytime, WWL 870 AM (New Orleans) day or night, or WSB 750 AM (Atlanta) nighttime.  If the storm is so big it shuts all four of those down, sorry man, not much I can do to help.

If phone service is down, FRS is your easy, license-free option for talking around the neighborhood.  (You did set aside an extra one for the widow lady next door, right?  Good.)  Don't believe the range numbers on the box, marketing departments lie.  Around here, figure on a half-mile on channels 1–7 and 15–22, or a quarter-mile on channels 8–14.  Why?  Because those blocks channels are limited to 2 and 1/2 watts respectively.  If that's not enough info, go over to wikipedia and read up..

Also, if the power goes out, use battery camping lanterns rather than candles or oil lamps.  Last thing you want is to start a house fire when everything else is going wrong.