How to calculate supplies needed for a Hurricane/Typhoon/Cyclone

This article will help you calculate the approximate amounts of supplies, such as potable water, water needed for food preparation, dried food, propane, and batteries needed to last a hurricane.
Essentially you will need to design your own inventory. Hopefully this article will help prepare you to do that.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Paper
• Calculator
• You'll need to know how many people you are providing for.
• You'll also need to know how many days you want to be prepared for.

1. First and foremost find out how much time you have to prepare. The sooner the better as store shelves may still be well stocked and prices on gas and other goods still have not been raised (or in some cases gouged).

2. Second, how many people will you need to provide for and for how long? I found that after Katrina we needed a week in South Florida (It was only a cat 1 or 2) and after Wilma 1 and 1/2 to 2 weeks would have been nice. FEMA really let us down and we couldn't even get ice before 7pm. This is motivation enough to be self reliant.

3. Thirdly, it is important to realize that the morale of those you are providing for matter. Morale is always an important factor in the success of any survival or mission planning type situation.
   I will try to bring up points of Morale along the way. The higher the morale the better your group will work together. This will greatly increase your chances out there!

4. So, now you know how much time you have to prepare. You know how many people you need to take care of and you know how many days to plan for. How do we do this?!
   I'll be using a text used for space mission planning. If it works for astronauts on prolonged missions it should work for us here on the ground.

5. Calculating Potable Water:
   Emergency conditions: .8 gallons or 7 pints per person per day. That's roughly 3 liters for those of you in the path of a typhoon.
   
   Example: Say you have 4 household members (including yourself). You plan to supply water for 7 days under emergency conditions. This means you need to purchase 4 (people) * 7 (days) * 1 (gallon/[people*days])= 28 gallons.
   Daily Consumption: 4 (people)*10(eight ounce cups)/[people*day] = 40 cups/day. So ration out total 40 cups/day or 20 pints/day for all 4 people.
   In metric that would be 4 (people) * 2.1 (liters/[people*day]) = 8.4 liters/day.
   
   Morale Note: We all know emergency situations are not the best conditions for morale. Still something is better than nothing!

6. If you don't want to live under emergency conditions because you simply refuse to beat out by a storm then use these figures.
   
   Daily life conditions: 3.5 liters or 1 gallon per person per day.
   
   Example: You want to provide 4 people (including yourself) with water for 7 days under daily life conditions. This means you need roughly:
   4(people) * 7 ( days) * 1( gallons/[person*day]) = 28 gallons total.
   You should ration out about 11.5 eight ounce cups a day per person per day.
   
   Daily consumption should be 11.5(cups/[people*day]) * 4(people) = 46 ounces/day or 23 pints/day for all 4 people.
   
   In metric that would be 4 (people) * 2.45 (liters)/([people*day]) = 9.8 liters/day for all 4 people.
   
   Morale Note: We don't realize that in daily life we consume a lot and I mean a lot of water! However, drinking the same amount of water one normally drinks will help keep some semblance of normality. This should keep morale up and productivity and energy up as well.

7. If you believe you will need to do heavy lifting after the storm has passed you should provide a minimum of:
   
   Heavy Work Conditions: 1+1/3 gallons per person per day doing the heavy work. That's 5 liters per person per day in metric.
   
   Example: Say you have 4 family members (including yourself). You plan to do heavy work for 7 days after the Hurricane/Typhoon. This means you will need 4 (people) * 7 (days) * 1.33(gallons/[people*days]) = 37.24. So you should buy at 38 gallons of water total.
   Daily consumption:
   This means you will ration out 8 pints (16 eight ounce cups) per person per day . So you will go through about 5.32 gallons daily in total.
   In metric (3.5 liters)/(people*day) * 4 people = 14 liters/day total.
   
   Morale Note: Heavy work can break morale if not done properly. Make sure to allow for adequate water breaks within the allowance and to work shifts if necessary. Having enough water for this kind of scenario will provide energy, allow ones body to stay cool in heat, guard against heat stroke, and keep morale and productivity high.

8. At this point you may have been asking yourself if 8 pints is a gallon then aren't the above calculations a bit off? Well They would be if it weren't for this next part. You have to save some of that potable water for food preparation. I've left 70% of the stock for drinking water and 30% for food preparation.
   I would suggest buying freeze dried foods. These require a certain amount of water in order to re-hydrate them (Just add water!).
   As a general rule the more water content food has the better it will taste. This is why farm fresh food will always taste better and last less than freeze dried food.
   Note that depending on the freeze dried foods you buy, you may need more or less water for food preparation. If that's the case calculate the total amount of water needed for re-hydration. That should be 30 or 25% of your total water allowance.
   Morale Note: "The [US ARMY, 1987] showed that in test's of US soldiers fed only on MRE's, physical and mental performance severely declined in as early as 2 weeks" - Human Spaceflight.
   Meals Ready to Eat(MRE's) have a shelf life of 5 years but can bring down the moral of your family. They also don't taste that great. Spring for the quality freeze-dried foods. They might even be cheaper than what your local military reseller charges for MRE's and you'll know that it hasn't gone past it's expiry date.

9. Water allotted to food preparation during emergency conditions: .24 gallons or .9 liters per person per day.
   Let's assume again you have 4 family members ( counting yourself) and you are preparing for 7 days under emergency conditions. This means allot 4(people) * 7(days) * .24( gallons/[people*days]) = 6.72 gallons for food preparation for the week. This means have at least 7 gallons handy to rehydrate dried foods or to clean food not yet spoiled in the freezer. In terms of cups and pints this means have 2 pints or 4 cups of water per person per day to ration for this purpose.

10. Daily life conditions:
    Water allowance allotted to food preparation: .28 gallons per person per day. 1.05 liters per person per day.
    
    Example: Family of 4 with a 7 day food supply.

11. Freeze Dried Food:
    According to the text the recommended food quantity for any mission is between 4 lbs (1.8kg) per person per day and 5 lb (2.3 kg) per person per day.
    I've called a few places and they wouldn't tell me what the weight was citing that they didn't know. I doubt that if anyone can get some data on that it would help this article along.
    In the mean time I would recommend enough for 3 squares a day per person.
    Example: To feed a family of 4 for 7 days with 3 meals a day means:
    3 (meals/[person*day]) * 4 (people) * 7 (days) = 84 single serving freeze dried meals.
    
    Please note that some of these meals are not instant and require heat to be cooked through. Which leads me to the next point - cooking without power.

12. Propane:
    For these calculations I will be using a Coleman Burner having 2 burners. I don't represent the company, it's just what I happened to get new and cheap.
    On the side of the box it should tell you how long and how many burners will last.
    In my case it says 1 burner on low with a 16.4 oz propane tank will last 4.5 hours.
    2 burners on high will last 1.1 hours.
    This tells you that one 16.4 oz tank on high should last 1 hour and 6 minutes (1.1 hours) and on the low setting it will last 4 hours and 30 minutes.
    Factor in how many freeze dried foods need to be cooked and for how long. Calculate the cooking time on them and what setting you'll need.
    Then according to the total cooking time ( the time to cook for a week or 2) buy the propane tanks to match.
    
    Example: Say you have a family of 4 with a 7 day food supply yielding 3 meals a day. So you got 84 meals. let's say 24 are stews and 60 meals.
    The stews each take 30 minutes on low to cook. The meals take 20 minutes on high.
    Cooking time on low: 24 (stews)* 30 (minutes/stew)*1 (hour)/60 (minutes)*1(tank)/4.5(hours) = 2.67 propane tanks.
    So that's roughly three 16.4 oz propane tanks to cook the stews alone.
    Now for the other 60 meals.
    60 meals * 20 (minutes/meal) * 1 (hr)/ 60(minutes) * 1 (tank)/ 4.5 (hours) = 4.44 tanks or 5 tanks.
    So totaling them both up we have 3 + 5 = 8 propane tanks to cook a weeks worth of food.

13. Charcoal:
    If you have the skill or patience or both to light and cook over a fire - great! You can cut down on paying for expensive propane bottles. However, I am unsure as to how to guide readers in the volume and mass of charcoal to purchase for a week or two weeks supply of cooking fuel. I will defer this to the comment section.

14. Batteries:
    You'll want battery powered lamps and flash lights to help you navigate around the house and yard at night.Also portable radios to keep track of any evacuations or aid coming into the area. Take an inventory of how many battery powered items you have and note the size and number of batteries needed for each.

15. Faraday lights:
    The best way to cut down on battery reliance is by using dynamo powered emergency radios, tv's and flashlights. These use hand cranks or shaking to recharge the battery. This is due to induction which was described fully by....you guessed it... Michael Faraday!

16. Cash:
    Make sure you hit the ATM or bank before the hurricane hits. It's important to have cash on you. Once the power goes out throughout the region if you need to fuel your car or run out of resources you won't be able to pay debit or use a credit card. You'll have to have cash on you. Take out as much as you think you will need to use and then add an extra 50 or 100% on top of that just in case.

Tips & Warnings

• Where ever possible always buy more water. You can never have enough drinkable water in an emergency situation. You can ,however, have to little.
• Get out there early and get supplies ahead of time. It's never too soon so don't wait until it's too late!
• You may want to divide the potable water into 75% drinking and 25% food prep. based on your own food supplies and drinking preferences.
• I have used these calculations in the past. However, I still feel that these calculations have not been fully vetted yet. I have prepared my own family's inventory according to these calculations.
• I have arrived at these figures by using the text/reference "Human Spaceflight mission analysis and design" and by using my own judgment and interpretation of the information therein.
• You must also use your own judgment when preparing your household inventory for such an emergency scenario.
• These parameters are for adults. I have not included children, toddlers, or infants! You should design your own inventory supply to take this in to account!
• Please use your own best judgment when designing your own inventory supply. Each household is different and requires its own custom inventory to be designed by the head of the household or someone in the family unit capable of doing so.
• This article is meant as a general guide and not a set rule or standard.

Resources

• How to Deal With Hurricane Damage. (Made it to the Top eHow of the Day)
• How to Shop for Hurricane Season

[taskeinc]

on 8/15/2008 Well thought out, nice research, this article could definitely save lives .. thanks for sharing..