Emergency Preparedness

I think I'm prepared with food, batteries etc. but I need (or should have) a generator. I've been looking @ them @ Home Depot.

Guess I'll buy one. Sure don't want the ice cream to melt.
 
The biggest emergencies I have had were snow storms where I only needed to shelter in place for a couple of days, still had power and water.

If I had to evacuate the biggest issue would be availability of gasoline to fill the car and get out of town.

I'm probably not very well prepared but I've been able to deal with whatever came my way for the last 63 years.
 
If there was an emergency, even a small private one, I would be the proverbial deer in the headlights. I was brought up to depend on others, but that is not responsible adult behavior. The only three things I remember being "somewhat" a community emergency. One was about 15 years ago when the Hudson River flooded during a period of heavy rain and rapid snow melt in January. The river almost came up to the road in front of my house (see panorama view from my front porch of the river in its normal state), but being on a knoll helped real damage.

view_from _porch.JPG

About 10 years ago there was an ice storm in December. Power was out all over and they opened up the local community center for people to come that didn't have power to keep warm and have food. I went up (leaving the cats I had at the time in the house - they have fur coats and can snuggle together for warmth and I left the water dripping so it wouldn't freeze), but it was slow going - took me 15 minutes to drive a half mile the roads were so icy.

Then there was a level 3 tornado 20 years ago - a rare twister for upstate NY. Played havoc in some local areas, but left others virtually untouched. It was scary - almost unceasing lightening and thunder, but we were far enough north of it not to get the brunt of the wind. It passed about 2 miles south and the devastation in trees and landscapes was apparent for years afterwards.
 
We are not as prepared as we should be. We have flashlights, blankets and plenty of food. Have a gas stove, if power out. Longest we have lost power in my neighborhood is a few hours. We do not get much else except snow storms or heavy rain here.
 
The year we had an ice storm proved that being a prepper doesn't mean you're waiting for the end of times. We had no power for 13 days, but, I had a wood stove for heat and cooking, a generator w/20 gal. of gas to run the fridge / freezer and the lights, a LP heater as more backup, and a pantry full of food. To top it off, I had the 4 golf cart batteries from my motor home along with a 2000 watt inverter that allowed me to watch movies while the wife was able to keep up on the news with her portable Verizon hot box. Living in the remote part of the Ozarks has taught us that one should always be prepared for natural disasters.
 

Attachments

  • ice storm.jpg
    ice storm.jpg
    205.1 KB · Views: 27
Living in an area where a catastrophic earthquake WILL occur, I will say that we're not properly prepared at all. There is enough water for uhhhhhh maybe a week at 1 gal/person/day. And I usually keep the flashlights all going well for camping. And the house is now bolted to the foundation, so likely the only place to be killed in it is near the chimney. But yeahhhhh otherwise not so much.
 
I think we're pretty well prepared, a lot of things we have because we were outdoor campers since we were young. We have wood for the fireplace, matches/lighters, emergency candles, battery/electric-free radio and flashlights, generator, small pump water filter, battery run lanterns, propane stove and lantern, etc. We always have some extra water, food, TP, etc. in the basement for emergencies or just for use in the future. We also have warm sleeping bags if we are not able to have heat in the house.
 
The worst disaster we've had to face was three days without electricity after we got hit by a hurricane. I cooked on a propane hibachi on the back porch, where we also slept.

Now I make sure I'm prepared. Fill the bathtub with water...check. Make sure I have tequila....check. Potato chips....check. Check the tequila again....check. Salt....check. Trashy novel....check. Enough clean underwear for the duration....check. OK, I'm ready.
 
Back in 1999, we caught the tail-end of Hurricane Floyd. It blew off a branch of a tree and pulled the electric cable right off the house. It was September, and in the northeast U.S., it starts getting cold at night. I called the power company and reported the outage and what had happened. They tried to say that it must be a problem with my breaker box and to check to see if any circuit breakers had been tripped. I knew that wasn't that problem, but I couldn't convince the company. I waited a few hours and called again. Then they said that the problem had been fixed. Now how could they say that when the cable was laying out in the yard under a 20 foot branch? I continued to try to convince them that the line was down, but they refused to acknowledge my complaint. I finally had to contact a local politician. In an hour an agent from the power company was standing in my back yard scratching his head. He told me the company had indicated to him that there was no problem. He could only surmise that they had serviced someone else in the neighborhood and assumed that I was that person. Within 2 hours they had the line re-attached, but what hoops I had to jump through.

Another time I had an outage (non-storm related, though) and almost the same thing happened. They refused to send anyone to investigate and suggested I hire an electrician to fix the problem since I was the only person reporting an outage. My neighbor also had no power. So I told him to call the electric company; if two people reported it, they had to send someone out. Within 2 hours there was a truck on the street. Come to find out, a tree ranch had rubbed against a transformer and shorted it out - my neighbor and I had the only two houses affected, but it leaves me wondering why the power company is so reticent about sending out an agent.
 
Last edited:
Being prepared for hurricanes is a way of life for me having lived in several hurricane prone areas. Always have on hand a few gallon jugs of water, fresh batteries, lamp oil and lighter and no-cook food items.
 
I've been through hurricanes, black-outs and floods (3 of those), so yeah, I'd say I'm prepared.

Funny thing is, I have my Bug-Out Bag ready, but no vehicle, so my plan is to "survive in place".
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top