With the approaching Hurricane Harvey what foods do you normally stock for after the storm? Growing up on the gulf coast, too many times the very first things that disappeared from the store shelves was bread, milk and frozen pizzas. Who is going to want to deal with frozen pizzas when you have NO power. Plus with the power out those babys are starting to defrost in your now not working freezer. What do you normally stock up in your pantry for post hurricane dining? Me, I go for canned goods, stuff I can heat up on my little butane stove Or grill on the bbq. I do not get frozen pizzas.
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I haven’t really been doing anything so far. It’s still too early to know how severe it’s going to be here but it looks like hurricane force winds will not reach Houston. That’s a big relief because that means the likelihood of lots of power outages is reduced and the utility companies will likely not run days behind restoring power.
One of the main concerns is how much rain we’re going to get, too. A couple of the models are showing as much as 25" of rain from Friday to next Tuesday. That’s a lot but we’ve had worse and we may get
considerably less.
I just happened to stock up on bottled water last week so I’m set; I always stay on top of the battery supply. I am low on bread and it wouldn’t hurt to gas up the car but otherwise I’m set.
My pantry is always well stocked and my freezer runneth over. I have a chest freezer plus a top freezer on the fridge. After Ike in 08 I was without power for almost 14 full days. The stuff in the fridge was gone in a couple of hours but there was still food in the bottom of the chest freezer frozen solid when the power came back on. I have at least three bags of ice in the bottom of the chest freezer; if I dig that out and use it in coolers I’ll have room to take everything out of the fridge freezer and put it in the chest.
The big concern for me is how to preserve or use up as fast as possible perishable food; I don’t get the focus on canned food - that stuff can last for years. Why start using that? I want to make use of stuff that’s only got a couple of days on ice before it has to tossed.
I have a Coleman gas stove and a couple of cannisters of fuel and the base of my electric smoker can be used as a charcoal grill. I did pretty well after Ike without the Coleman so I think I’ll do okay this time.
Knock on wood.
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Be safe y’all. It’s looking scary, even to those who’ve lived in the Gulf coast for decades.
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We have a gas stove we light with a lighter if the power goes out. Frozen pizzas can me made on a grill I guess! Peanut butter and spam also go fast.
Someone was lamenting no water left on shelves yesterday and I suggested maybe they fill pitchers from the tap now. Oh, yeah! They said. Hmm.
I didn’t buy any special food. Like Brucesw, we’ll manage with what’s here. Putting away patio furniture even though we are not expecting high winds, gas up cars. Get some cash.
We live in a heavily wooded area. Our concern based on experience is trees falling over from the heavy rains. The root ball just comes up and trees lay down, hopefully not on the roof.
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Yeah, picked up a few bottles of water a couple of days ago. My big prep yesterday was buying two big bags of charcoal in case the power does go out as I have a freezer full of meat.
Worst case,? Beer and barbecue for three or four days straight.
(Wouldn’t be the first time!)
I’m not really expecting to be without power here in Houston, but we’ll see.
Stay dry, y’all!
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And fill your bathtub so you can flush your toilet. If you have a pool, just throw the patio furniture in the pool. Looks like you have been through this before.
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Sheer genius!
The bottled water aisles at the grocery stores are depleted. So are the beer and chip aisles. First thing people will get into if the winds start getting scary or the lights go out is the beer and chips. Bottled water is really only if you have medications to take or want to fortify yourself with vitamins for the ordeal 
.
Just left Trader Joe’s, in and out. People forget about it. I was just looking for dinner. Bread is out but there’s water and veggies and fruit galore. Picked up a bag of their most popular frozen food too, orange chicken.
They close at 7 today for storm.
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Ha! I went last night and was laughing at how many people chose Trader Joe’s to do their hurricane shopping!
I was just there for dog treats. She gets 'em after every meal and I don’t even want to know what would happen if I didn’t come across with them!
BTW, they were lined up on Westheimer just to get into the HEB parking lot. Wanted no part of that circus.
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The Wifeacita cornered the market on avocados so there will be guacamole. She also made a couple of batches of her excellent Orville popcorn popped on the stove. We’ve got plenty of tuna and water, she’s been stocking up for weeks just in case.
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Glad you have your priorities straight 
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Harvey going ashore in an hour or so over Rockport as a Category 4 with sustained winds of 120 mph. Not good.
Forecasts for Houston after landfall continue to look bad; high pressure over the Florida Panhandle will keep the storm from moving East as it moves back out into the Gulf and it may linger over SE Texas for days, like Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 that dumped over 40"of rain in two weeks. Ugh.
Gasoline $2.02 at a Murphy station near me a couple of days ago. One TV report had a station somewhere in the city getting over $4/Gal this afternoon.
I saw that report. The gouging sickens me.
I feel for Corpus area right now, geez.
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I wish you all the best of luck. My family got hammered in Sandy and I hope things will be ok. We’re sending prayers from the north east. Stay strong!
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So far so good in Houston. It’s raining but that’s it. I took stock of the freezer and fridge today and made chicken, sausage and ham gumbo.
Good luck Errybody.
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Thanks much. Appreciate the sentiment.
I don’t know how any other HOs fared but it’s been almost a non-event for me. A Personal Weather Station near me has recorded less than 4" rain since midnight and a county Flood Warning System gauge nearby has about the same for the last 24 hours. That’s nothing to us - so long as we don’t get 4" day after day after day. There have been 67 tornado warnings issued but so far as I know only one confirmed tornado with damage to multiple homes on the SW edge of the metro area. Most of the day I have been right in between two major rain bands, one across the NE and the other across the SW portions of the area, and I haven’t seen much but sprinkles. Lots of people have gotten a lot more rain than I.
Forecasters are saying Harvey seems to be inching closer to Houston and we may double our rainfall totals overnight and add more tomorrow but nobody really knows where its going. The leading theories are toward Houston-Galveston which would mean it could pick up more moisture if it gets even a little out over the Gulf while the second theory has it heading due north through Central Texas.
We just have to keep watching.
I can’t tell you anything about the Coastal Bend where the storm went ashore that you can’t find out for yourselves from other media. I have no contacts down that way.
I think I’m a little northwest of you and we’ve had a pretty steady rain all day. Also I’m getting tornado warnings pretty regularly as well including one just now through 9:15 pm. Now about 7:20.
I guess I should be hiding in the bathtub under a mattress but I’m couch surfing watching the Texans/Saints game and thinking about whipping up a couple of carne guisada tacos.
It’s always good to see that while it’s been plenty bad , it’s not as bad as first feared. The tight eye and cat 4 last night on my tv as it crawled ashore put chills down my spine.
So storm passed…now to hope that the flooding is less than feared too.
Glad all are in good shape.
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