Hurricane Matthew - some numbers so far

There is still a lot of work to be done but here are some numbers so far from the FEMA daily digest:

FEMA has provided so far:

• • Florida: More than 71,000 meals; 341,000 liters of water;
  • Georgia: More than 535,000 meals, 617,000 liters of water; 17,000 blankets;
  • North Carolina: More than 570,000 meals; 26,000 blankets; and,
  • South Carolina: More than 250,000 meals; 4,500 blankets.

And a couple of interesting programs out there:

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) is operating its SafeStor program on the M/V Cape Decision in Charleston, South Carolina, as shelter for local emergency vehicles in the region. A total of seven agencies, including the Charleston Sheriff's Department, have a total of 53 emergency service vehicles loaded on the Cape Decision’s massive cargo hold to weather out the passage of Hurricane Mathew. MARAD’s SafeStor program provides safe shelter for emergency equipment and personnel and allows affected areas to be up and running as soon as possible in order.

The American Red Cross is supporting a massive shelter operation in the affected areas. More than 18,000 people stayed the night in 183 Red Cross and community evacuation shelters in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The Red Cross has more than 2,200 trained disaster workers on the ground in addition to 95 pre-positioned response vehicles and 94 trailer loads filled water, ready-to-eat meals, shelter and kitchen supplies, cleaning supplies and comfort kits, insect repellant, gloves, masks, shovels, rakes, coolers and more.

They need blood and platelets too - go to http://www.redcrossblood.org/ to find out where to donate - literally the gift of life.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s United States Geological Survey (USGS) is preparing to collect the 393 surge sensors and gages deployed in advance of Hurricane Matthew along the East Coast to provide data that will assist water managers in determining the peak and duration of storm surge. This includes Storm Surge Sensors (190), Wave Sensors (79), Barometric Pressure Sensors (92), and Rapid Deployment Gage's (32). The information supports disaster recovery efforts and critical weather forecasts for the National Weather Service and FEMA. The information collected will be distributed live on the USGS website to help federal and state officials gauge the extent and the storm's damage as it passes through each area. This is the largest deployment of surge sensors by the USGS and surpasses the total deployments for Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.

And this caught my eye - from guns.com:

Florida emergency concealed carry law may see first use in Hurricane Matthew
As extremely dangerous Hurricane Matthew barrels down on the Florida coast, some in the state may be able to temporarily carry concealed handguns without a permit under a new law.

The National Hurricane Center as of Thursday morning places the eye of the tropical cyclone about 180 miles Southeast of West Palm Beach Florida moving at 14 mph to the Northwest. Packing Category 4 hurricane strength winds of 140 mph, the storm is expected to move close to or over the east coast of the Florida peninsula through Friday night.

With more than 1.5 million Floridians in evacuation zones, attention by some gun owners concerned with safety is falling on a law signed last year by Gov. Rick Scott to allow law-abiding citizens without concealed carry licenses to bear arms during declared mandatory evacuations.

The measure, which passed as HB209/SB296, creates an exception to Florida’s prohibition against concealed carry of a weapon without a permit by allowing adults not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm to temporally do so while evacuating. The law allows for a 48-hour window that this would be allowed after the evacuation has been ordered. However, the governor can authorize an extension as needed.

Further, existing state law does not authorize the seizure, taking, or confiscation of firearms that are lawfully possessed in an emergency, unless a person is engaged in a criminal act.

Wonderful idea - Lulu, her son and I have talked about getting Concealed Carry permits but the application is a long process and only open two times/week for a short time. I tried a couple times but was always too late or the line was too long. Where I live is very safe but if I was still living in some areas of Seattle and had to evacuate, I would feel a lot better if I had a bit of backup in my pocket.