Vehicles pass homes in disrepair 11 months after Hurricane Ida in Grand Isle, La., Wednesday, July 27, 2022. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
A headshot of LSU geogaphy professor and climatologist Jill Trepanier.
Vehicles pass homes in disrepair 11 months after Hurricane Ida in Grand Isle, La., Wednesday, July 27, 2022. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
A headshot of LSU geogaphy professor and climatologist Jill Trepanier.
An associate professor of geography at LSU visited with the Baton Rouge Press Club last week, and those who attended learned not only when to prepare for hurricane season (which is now), but also picked up some emergency survival guidance.
Jill Trepanier, initially from Wisconsin, not only studies where hurricanes will land and how strong they will be when they arrive; she received training from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2010 and is now also a certified hurricane hunter.
At times, she said, an emergency kit should include something more suitable to a lunch box.
“Does anybody like Fritos? Anybody eat a bag of them and feel like they’ve got a stomachache afterward?” she asked, raising her hand. “That’s because they are so filled with terrible fats that they are flammable.
“Most of those corn chips are, they have so much hydrogenated oil inside of them that you can light them on fire. Weirdly enough, every hurricane hunter has a vest and in that vest is a flint stick and a tiny bag of Fritos.
“The easiest way to start a fire is to crumble up some Fritos, hit that flint and it’s going to light up better than a Christmas tree in March.”
The Press Club lunch was shrimp and catfish, with side orders of French fries and hush puppies. All had been fried in oil.
No one lit a match.
Scientific websites say the combination of starches and oils make chips a good choice for emergency fuel to start a fire.
Email Kelly P. Kissel at kkissel@theadvocate.com and follow him on Twitter, @kisselAP
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