Power might be out entire week--help me brainstorm to save my freezer!

[ThisIsTheDay]

Our power went out Friday night with that horrible storm that moved across the country. We are getting word that we are expected to be last back on the grid, as late as next Saturday.

 

County water went out yesterday (Sunday), but I'm at the library and reading that it is back on now this morning. (Thank You, God.)

 

My freezer stuff appears to still be fine. As of yesterday, the ice cream was melted to the consistency of milkshakes, and my kids thought that was a great treat to eat (drink) as much as they wanted.

 

Ice is virtually impossible to find. We were out of town yesterday and had luck two hours away. What are sources for dry ice? We're competing with everyone in the area . . . It's been recordbreaking 100s and upper 90s.

 

If I can salvage my freezer stuff and at the very least keep it cold until the power comes back on, I can maybe, maybe cook up a storm and freeze the cooked meat.

 

Any other ideas?

[Tenaj]

Not sure your location but I know that our Meijers sells dry ice but I dont think I've seen it anywhere else. You may want to try bait shops/camper supply stores.

 

If I were in this situation I'd be hunting for a generator fast! I know when this happened a few years ago in our area my friends happened upon a generator at our Odd Lots because no one thought to look there so you might want to try some stores that might not be on your normal radar for such items.

 

If the generator idea doesn't work, another idea I would use is to use our church fridge/freezer or even move my freezer there if there is electricity there - we go to church in a different community so that would be a viable option for us.

 

Friends with electricity or employers with electricity might be another option.

 

 

If that failed I would just cook everything up on the grill and invite the neighbors over so it didn't go bad. I wouldn't be necessarily happy about it but I'd rather see it eaten than completely wasted.

 

I hope it works out well for you - our electric was only out for six hours on Friday night but I was already trying to plan for the eventuality of needed to take care of my freezer full of beef. I really want to go buy a generator when this is all over just to take the worry out of the equation.

[CalicoKat]

Our power went out Friday night with that horrible storm that moved across the country. We are getting word that we are expected to be last back on the grid, as late as next Saturday.

 

County water went out yesterday (Sunday), but I'm at the library and reading that it is back on now this morning. (Thank You, God.)

 

My freezer stuff appears to still be fine. As of yesterday, the ice cream was melted to the consistency of milkshakes, and my kids thought that was a great treat to eat (drink) as much as they wanted.

 

Ice is virtually impossible to find. We were out of town yesterday and had luck two hours away. What are sources for dry ice? We're competing with everyone in the area . . . It's been recordbreaking 100s and upper 90s.

 

If I can salvage my freezer stuff and at the very least keep it cold until the power comes back on, I can maybe, maybe cook up a storm and freeze the cooked meat.

 

Any other ideas?

 

We did this last summer for a week. We ran a generator outside, ran heavy duty extension cords through a window down the stairs, and plugged in the freezers. I'd just bought my organic chicken meat----20 chickens! We'd turn it off at 11 and back on at 6 a.m. All our neighbors were doing it by the 2nd day. Noisy, but effective.

 

Our neighbors plugged into the generator too and ran a cord to their house for their freezer. They helped with the gas.

 

:grouphug::grouphug:

[Dobela]

I would find someone with a generator and hook your freezer up to that.

[starwarsmomma]

You can can your meat, assuming you have a gas or propane stove (and gas works!) and a pressure canner. It's EASY!

 

You can dehydrate-- including makng beef jerky.

 

You can take it to another person's house

 

As far as saving what's int here now, might be too late. Only you know.

 

Here, before storms, I often freeze casserole dishes full of water, 2 liters full of water, etc.. The larger blocks of ice take much longer to defrost, thus keeping the freezer items cold for up to a week.

 

Also taking thick, heavy blankets to insulate teh freezer. Only opening as necessary, etc...

My dad always used to duct tape it closed when full of ice. (I know, you cannot get ice...)

 

I remember growing up, our city had a big outage. The entire block got out and grilled everything in the freezers and had a block party. Better to eat it up in a party than to let it go bad and throw away!

My dad found some pies, since we didn't have an oven, he grilled the pie too! (it was actually GOOOOD!) LOL

[justLisa]

Oh man that is just a long time. I am not sure what I would do. Can you find a small generator somewhere?

[lilbean05]

We were in the same storm and were able to find someone with power to stash our food. There are pockets of people with power--perhaps you know someone who has a bit of spare space in their freezer?

 

I know Safeway just started selling dry ice, though they might be out now. I also saw on the news last night that people are starting to steal generators out of people's yards, so if your home is in an area where you think that could happen, don't drive around trying to find one.

 

I vote find a friend, church, somewhere that does have power that will let you borrow some space.

 

Good luck!!

[ThisIsTheDay]

Thank you for the ideas, it looks like bbqing might be in the works, as long as we get our water back on as promised!

 

I also saw on the news last night that people are starting to steal generators out of people's yards, so if your home is in an area where you think that could happen, don't drive around trying to find one.

 

LOL, my dh has commented more than one about taking out our neighbor's generator. It sounds like a tractor right outside our window (he lives two doors down). He got it yesterday and ran it all night. This is AFTER he drained AND REFILLED his inground pool while we were in an emergency water conservation mode over the weekend.:glare: The only grace I'm giving him is that he may not have known about the water situation.

[Soror]

I agree w/ pp the only options I see for that long of power outage are:

 

generator (even if you could just borrow one you don't have to run it 24/7 to keep the stuff frozen- I cannot remember how long is required off the top of my head)

 

-cook or preserve the meat in some way

 

-borrow someone else's freezer

 

Personally I'd be getting nervous already at this point as it has been 3 days. If we have a power outage we usually will hook up the generator to run a bit at least before the 24 hr mark. But as I said I don't remember exact time guidelines.

[Rivka]

We've given up on our food, because we just can't get ice. I am also kind of a worrier about food safety, and I realized that even if I wore myself driving all over the county looking for ice, at the end of the week I probably wouldn't feel comfortable feeding that food to my kids.

 

You sound so spunky about this. I am having trouble holding back tears. I know a grown woman shouldn't cry about not having power but it just makes everything really hard.

[lynn]

We hooked up our generator to our fridge when we lost power for a week during the Tornado's last April. It gave us time to use what was in it, which was not much because dd had been sick and I did not go shopping.

[Melissa in Australia]

we had no power for 4 days just 2 weeks ago due to a huge storm. What we did was on the 3rd day we borrowed a relatives generator for a few hours just to refreeze the freezers.

[blondeviolin]

A few years ago, we had a huge ice storm that came through and we were without power for nearly two weeks! All of the stores around here were without dry ice, but we went directly to the supplier and were lucky enough that it was close-ish by. You might check your yellow pages for dry ice suppliers.

[PrincessMommy]

Agreeing with others. we're currently keeping stuff frozen for others without power.

[mumto2]

Years ago I was able to claim my frozen food on my home owners insurance. I would be looking at my policy.

[hsmamainva]

:grouphug:

 

We went through the same storm on Friday night and JUST got our power back 2 hours ago.

 

We borrowed a friend's generator and that kept our fridge & freezer cold. Purchased a window air conditioner unit and put that in the family room and we all slept together .. for 3 straight nights! 2 adults / 4 kids / 2 dogs / 2 cats. :glare:

 

But we survived!

 

Hope your power is restored soon!

[PrincessMommy]

We've given up on our food, because we just can't get ice. I am also kind of a worrier about food safety, and I realized that even if I wore myself driving all over the county looking for ice, at the end of the week I probably wouldn't feel comfortable feeding that food to my kids.

 

You sound so spunky about this. I am having trouble holding back tears. I know a grown woman shouldn't cry about not having power but it just makes everything really hard.

 

It totally makes sense to me. We were incredibly lucky this time around. It's been so terribly hot, it makes a difficult situation much worse - imho. Do you have a friend's house to go to to get out of the heat? :grouphug:

[Rivka]

It totally makes sense to me. We were incredibly lucky this time around. It's been so terribly hot, it makes a difficult situation much worse - imho. Do you have a friend's house to go to to get out of the heat? :grouphug:

 

Thanks. We went to a hotel last night and will be there again tonight. Friends are having us over for dinner tonight too. I am hopeful that our power will be back on tomorrow.

 

I felt really calm and responsible during the storm and the immediate aftermath, but now that it's over my anxiety has really been spiraling. I want to keep very close tabs on everyone and everything, and I'm having stress-related stomach trouble. Honestly, I have nothing to complain about - we are able to afford a hotel for a couple of nights, and we're not going to go hungry because of the spoiled food in our freezer. I don't know why it's so hard.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Thank you again for all of your encouragements. We just got power back in the past 30 minutes. It's slowly being restored to our area, and as late as yesterday, we were told to continue to expect to be without until Saturday--or Sunday. We've been able to find ice. The bottom drawer of my freezer was still frozen, so dh put all of it with dry ice. I cleaned out the rest of the fridge earlier today. We were planning on eating whatever we can bbq each day and lots of condiments, because I trust those a lot more than anything else in the fridge. (Ds was thrilled to have two pickles along with his breakfast, lol.)

 

You sound so spunky about this. I am having trouble holding back tears. I know a grown woman shouldn't cry about not having power but it just makes everything really hard.

 

Rivka, :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

I understand. I would be so unhappy and angry and upset right now under other circumstances. However, we lived for five years in Colorado Springs before moving five years ago. I've been so sad and overwhelmed about their fire. Knowing the area so well, it has a special place in my heart. I've just continued to focus on the fact that there are 350 families in CSpgs that would do anything to return to their house, even if it didn't have power.

 

I'm not a spunky person. If the fire had happened somewhere else, in a place I didn't know well, I would not have the same perspective. We were also without water for ~30 hours in the middle of this, and we were just so grateful to get that back. When no one in my house is complaining about a cold shower, that's nothing short of amazing. In short, I'm so grateful that this is the biggest immediate thing I'm dealing with right now.

 

I'll be praying for you. I understand, I really do. It totally stinks, it's so unexpected, you have so little control, and it's expensive whatever you do, kids are bored and tempers can get a bit short, and it's so horribly hot. You are right, it is just really hard.:grouphug::grouphug: