November 3, 2012 AsktheBuilder Newsletter Special Alert
If you're a new subscriber in the past three days, please understand this is not a normal newsletter. Hurricane Sandy that struck the East Coast of the USA has caused not only tremendous damage, death and hardship, but it's also caused me to publish extra alerts.
GENERATOR RECALL - VERY IMPORTANT!
My friend Steve emailed me overnight to tell me about an immediate recall concerning Champion portable generators. There have been reports of these machines catching on fire during use.
There are TWO models involved: 41332 and 41532
CLICK HERE to read all the facts about this recall.
PLEASE FORWARD this email to all your friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. We need to get the word out ASAP to those that own either of these two generators. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT.
TIM CARTER IN NEW JERSEY NEXT WEEK
I'm going to be in northern New Jersey in a few days just 30 miles west of some of the worst devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. I'll be there for about 30 hours.
I want to help you, any friends, relatives, etc. that live in New Jersey, New York City or surrounding areas. If you or they were harmed by Hurricane Sandy, come meet with me to see what advice I can offer to assist in the repair and rebuilding of your/their homes.
You or your relatives or friends can come visit me and ask ANY questions about how to mitigate damage to their homes or apartments. I'll answer questions about how to repair damage. I'll answer questions about how to get prepared for a disaster.
If your house was not damaged, I'll still answer your questions. Just come to visit.
I'll be at the Garden State Exhibition Center at 50 Atrium Drive, Somerset, NJ 08873. I'll be inside the center on Wednesday November 7, 2012 from 10 am until 3 pm. I'll be there on Thursday November 8th from 10 am until 2 pm. You can find me at booth 732 in the second aisle near the concession stand. You'll see a Stain Solver banner at the booth.
You can get into the Exhibition Center for FREE if you fill out a simple online form. You MUST do TWO things when you fill out the form at this Attendee Registration page to get the FREE admission.
You MUST click the radio button that says you were invited by an exhibitor. See the red arrow on the left in the above image?
You MUST fill in the words STAIN SOLVER in the box that opens up when you click the Yes radio button. See that large red arrow in the image?
When you show up at the Exhibition Center, they'll ask you if you did this and give you your ticket or badge to come see me. It's not hard to do.
Please go fill out the form now in case you decide to come. It costs nothing but a few minutes of your time to fill out the form NOW.
GET PREPARED CLASSES
After sending last week's newsletter, I was stunned. You may be one of the *thousands* that responded. I was deeply humbled by your kind words and sentiments. It was simply impossible for me to respond to every email.
Before I hit the SEND button that causes the newsletter to get to you, I actually thought, "This going to be a DUD newsletter. I'll get a boatload of complaints from subscribers that don't care about the hurricane, weren't affected, and just want home improvement information."
The exact opposite happened.
Hundreds and hundreds want me to do the Get Prepared classes. Many want me to do the classes about how to read topo maps.
Amid all the other work I've got going on, I'm preparing to do them. So WATCH for an announcement about all the classes. If you can't attend the LIVE online classes, I'll be taping them so you can get access when it's convenient for you.
Since the Hurricane, I've been hypersensitive to the news. I've been collecting headlines and links to articles and videos that backup exactly what I warned about last week when I sent my first alert about Hurricane Sandy.
Each day, I see horrific photos and videos about the damage.
Each day, even this morning four days later, I hear about people still being found dead from the storm. It doesn't surprise me after taking the CERT training. There are thousands and thousands of houses to search.
Watch this video I just found online this morning. It's raw footage, but often that's the BEST. You can see the mayhem, the frustration, the desperation and the anger. You'll also see a top government official giving citizens lip service.
Tell me if you might be the next Rose Sokolow. You'll see this woman first in the video. Listen closely to what she's saying as she's holding back her tears. Will that be you or someone you love next time?
Listen very closely to what Anthony Fratto says. Go back and listen to his comments twice. I'm serious. Listen to what he says.
Then you'll see a clip of a press conference held just east of where I'll be. Oh how I wish I could have been at that press conference as a member of the press.
You may not know this, but I am a member of the working press. My syndicated newspaper column, Ask the Builder, still runs in sixty newspapers nationwide.
Had I been at the press conference, I would have said the following and asked two questions:
"Ms. Napolitano, you and your team had five days advance notice that Hurricane Sandy was going to strike the East Coast above North Carolina. It's about a 4.5 hour drive from Washington DC to New York City.
It's been many, many hours since the storm made landfall. Moments ago you said, ' .... we want to make sure the right resources are brought here as quickly as possible.'
I have a two-part question for you Ms. Napolitano: Your job is to know ahead of time exactly what resources will be needed for each natural disaster scenario. You knew it would be a hurricane, and you should know ahead of time what's needed after those events. Why weren't those resources identified last week before the storm?
My second question is: Since you had over a week's notice that the storm was going to hit, why weren't the resources and assets mobilized before the storm, move to safe zones close to the predicted damage areas and then put in place at the damaged areas on Tuesday afternoon once the storm subsided and it was safe to travel on the roads?"
Assuming you're not a victim of Hurricane Sandy and assuming you don't live under a rock, you're seeing the same things I'm seeing from the safety and warmth of our homes. Next time it could be you, me, or my family out in the cold looking through plastic bags of donated clothes.
Actually, I'm getting prepared so I never ever have to do that. You can too. You can be prepared so you're not a Rose or Anthony. You can get prepared so you don't care what the folks from FEMA or Homeland Security are saying at press conferences. Why? You'll not need what they'll bring you at some point in time days or weeks after you need it.
The bottom line is that hundreds of thousands of people in the affected areas are having to survive on their own. The truth is the government is not equipped to handle situations like this. The evidence is blaring at all of us in the news right now.
If local, state and Federal government agencies COULD deal with all of this, there would be none of the video footage you just watched. All the victims would be already taken care of and housed in temporary shelters, tents, trailers, etc.
That was the spirit of my warning in my Special Alerts. The government will either be overwhelmed or too slow. You need to know how to fend for yourself.
Here's the good news.
The Get Prepared classes I'm going to teach are going to show you:
- How to Prepare for Disasters to Minimize Damage to You and Your Possessions
- What to Do During the Disaster
- What to Do After the Disaster
- How to Survive Without the Need of Local, State or Federal Government Workers
I'm working on these classes now in between all my other work.
Stay tuned and STAY SAFE.
I HOPE to see you next Wednesday or Thursday in New Jersey. Come see me if I can HELP you or a friend.
Remember, Do It Right, NOT Over.