S/O: prepping for disasters

[DawnM]

There seem to be more and more doomsday preppers out there.   I am not a person who is a dooms day type, but I have lived through a big earthquake that took our power out for several days.   I have also lived through some ice storms, etc.   

If you are like me, and not a full on prepper, what do you stock?

We do some already, just having some extra cans of food and fresh batteries and some camping supplies from my boys' scouting days.   

But I feel like we should do more.   I am open to suggestions and ideas, but I also have a couple of questions.

1. Would a small solar generator be helpful, at least for charging things?   Would you get just something to charge like a phone and radio or would you get a larger one to generate a space heater, etc...????

2. We live on a well.  I am thinking of getting a manual pump that could be installed if the power goes out as we get no water or sewer if the power goes out.   We can bring in pool water to flush the toilets, but we will need water for drinking and bathing.

3. thinking of getting a short wave radio.   I grew up with them, but dont' have any anymore.

 

What things have you done or planning to do, if anything.

 

 

 

[Laura Corin]

I live in a temperate climate. We keep candles and torches as well as lots of dried goods. We have a small amount of fuel for the open fire and more for the outdoor grill. A battery radio might be a good idea. 

I could imagine flooding, but because of our location it would be minor. 

Edited February 9 by Laura Corin

[Carrie12345]

When you’re thinking about water, how long are you thinking? A manual pump can be a big investment. If you’re only thinking a few days, I’d put less money into storing water indoors.

We did invest in a pricey solar generator, because it’s multipurpose for us, including being able to run the well pump and septic pump.

[73349]

We have...

• a few days' worth of food and water. (We have municipal water.) I've organized the food into meals to make things feel more normal.
• a couple of little solar lanterns, which a phone can be plugged into for charging, in addition to the battery-powered camping lantern; a couple of flashlights and headlamps
• sleeping bags and tent from camping
• some hand and toe warmers
• a box we could grab and go (in case of an overturned chemical truck or something causing evacuation) with an outfit each, some toiletries, a copy of important phone numbers, and a note on the outside to do stuff like make sure the stove is turned off and grab the phone chargers
• a first aid kit that could be carried to help neighbors
• battery-powered AM/FM radio
• I do have a handheld radio and the lowest-level amateur radio license.
• We have a solar oven, but I'm considering getting rid of it because it takes up a lot of space. I bought a little butane burner that is rated for indoor use, and it's very compact by comparison.

 

ETA: We do not have a basement or garage for storage. Anything I stock has to be kept in the house.

Edited March 15 by 73349

[Pawz4me]

We have a gas powered generator and keep enough gas on hand to run it for at least a few days. We had a plug installed on our house so we can plug the genny directly in--no running power cords to a handful of things. It can run both of our fridges, the freezer, the septic pump, all of our lights, charge devices, etc. It can't run the big draws like oven, HVAC or water heater. We also have a camp stove and keep plenty of propane for it. And we keep a good supply of non-perishable food. I have no desire to cook gourmet meals if the power is out. PB sandwiches, cheese and crackers, canned/pouch foods like tuna, beans, soups. Plenty of coffee and juices. Those are what I aim to keep stocked.

[Katy]

There are “emergency” lanterns with phone chargers that you can just wind. They’re much cheaper than solar generators. Start there.  I think ours came from Walmart. 

Add one gallon of water for each person and pet you need water for per day you want to prepare. I’d suggest 6 weeks. I grew up with that because if there’s a devastating hurricane in an area, there are often two a few weeks apart. I stayed with that number because there are often 3-6 weeks of super cold weather or round after round of blizzard in the North.  

For water, I bought Primo dispensers for the house in a few places we lived bc the water wasn’t safe. But for emergency purposes, there’s a cheap camping primo dispenser that works well at Walmart. When we go camping we even use it for hand washing. I bought racks to store Primo water too. I think that came from Sam’s club. In one area we lived we used a different brand, but at the 3-6 gallon water cooler containers work IME. 

You should also have 2-6 weeks of non perishable food per person and pet.  And a manual can opener. And a case of fragrance free baby wipes. 

Edited February 9 by Katy

[DawnM]

19 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

When you’re thinking about water, how long are you thinking? A manual pump can be a big investment. If you’re only thinking a few days, I’d put less money into storing water indoors.

We did invest in a pricey solar generator, because it’s multipurpose for us, including being able to run the well pump and septic pump.

I was thinking a couple of weeks.

I am looking online and you can get the materials for $150-$500 and if you install yourself (DH is very handy) it isn't more than that, you just have to know how to do it.

But maybe a solar generator would be a good investment.

[DawnM]

5 minutes ago, Katy said:

There are “emergency” lanterns with phone chargers that you can just wind. They’re much cheaper than solar generators. Start there. 

Add one gallon of water for each person and pet you need water for per day you want to prepare. I’d suggest 6 weeks. I grew up with that because if there’s a devastating hurricane in an area, there are often two a few weeks apart. I stayed with that number because there are often 3-6 weeks of super cold weather or round after round of blizzard in the North.  

For water, I bought Primo dispensers for the house in a few places we lived bc the water wasn’t safe. But for emergency purposes, there’s a cheap camping primo dispenser that works well at Walmart. When we go camping we even use it for hand washing. I bought racks to store Primo water too. I think that came from Sam’s club. In one area we lived we used a different brand, but at the 3-6 gallon water cooler containers work IME. 

You should also have 2-6 weeks of non perishable food per person and pet.  And a manual can opener. And a case of fragrance free baby wipes. 

I have one of those dispensers, I am more concerned about the actual water than the dispenser.   I just don't want to store 100 gallons of water in the garage.

I so want to get a rain barrel.   Thankfully we do live in an area where we get rain, so that might be helpful.   My oldest wants to get a small greenhouse and start a year round garden.   That is not really for prepping, but it might help.   I would love to learn to can, but I never have.   I guess that would be something I could learn.

Hopefully, none of this will ever be an issue more than a few days' worth.   

 

[DawnM]

I should add that we always have handy flashlights and fresh batteries.   When we lived through the earthquake, we weren't married yet and he lived in the area that was hardest hit.   He woke up and walked on glass because he couldn't see, didn't have any shoes, couldn't find his glasses, and the huge fish tank had fallen in the quake and shattered glass all over.

He now, even though it is 30 years later, still sleeps with a flashlight next to his bed, shoes or slippers next to the bed, and his glasses within reach.

His house didn't have electricity for almost 2 weeks.   The foundation was cracked, and there were lots of aftershocks and he was rattled.   He went to stay with a friend.   

I was without electricity for a couple of days but I was about 10 miles away and wasn't hit as hard.

The interesting thing (and very sad) is that my friend and I had lived in the building that collapsed.    We had moved out about 6 months before.   She was moving to San Francisco and I found an apartment to rent by myself.   

We actually lived on the 2nd floor of the main area that collapsed.   It was awful.   I was going through some old things recently and found a checkbook that I had back then and it had that address on it.   It brought back the memory.

Edited February 9 by DawnM

[Beth S]

Agreeing that once you've lived through some sort of natural disaster (we had 2 weeks without power during an Ice Storm), you are much more diligent to prepare.    I think we're ready for about a week of disruption.  Camping gear provides lots of easy backup gear.

[Carrie12345]

41 minutes ago, DawnM said:

so want to get a rain barrel.   Thankfully we do live in an area where we get rain, so that might be helpful.   My oldest wants to get a small greenhouse and start a year round garden.   That is not really for prepping, but it might help.   I would love to learn to can, but I never have.   I guess that would be something I could learn.

Picking up hobbies like the above is a great way to live in the now and have an advantage in an emergency.

My 13yo is obsessed with cooking over an open fire, which gives us all nice practice, as electric range people!

[Bambam]

We have an outside natural gas grill + one stovetop burner (back covered patio), so theoretically we can actually cook, boil water. 

We do have a gasoline powered generator and typically keep gas to keep it powered for several days (it can handle a freezer, refrigerator, window A/C that only comes out if necessary). If we have advance warning of some sort of disaster (hurricane, bad weather), we can increase the gasoline storage.

We keep plenty of bottled/canned water ready for drinking. Water to flush would be more of an issue, but we do have some. Again, we can fill one bathtub (that is all we have, others are only showers!) if we have advance warning. 

I keep some shelf stable food - PB, canned chicken, canned tuna, individual applesauce containers, crackers, canned soup - so we won't starve, and we do have the outdoor kitchen to cook the frozen meat/veggies if needed. 

We have several Luci lights (the floating solar charging lights). We have several LED lanterns for lighting plus a surplus of flashlights (I like flashlights!). I recently purchased a solar cell phone charger/flashlight combo for charging cell phones. We can use the generator, but I hate to do that. 

We do have first aid supplies - the regular stuff, and we try to make sure to try to have extra prescription meds (as much as you can with insurance limiting when you can get refills!). 

We have a few raised beds, but we usually only grow tomatoes - and not very successfully at that! 

Freezes this far south have not been real common, but we've had 2-3 the past 3-4 years, so our concern is more 98+ temp, 98% humidity and no power for 2 weeks.  If it does freeze and we lose power, we have a natural gas fireplace that still works. Note I'm assuming we do not lose natural gas!

If trees come down, we have a chain saw so we can try to get those out of the way.  

[Heartstrings]

My “baby prepping” started due to a power outage in freezing temperatures, so most of my prepping goes in that direction.

I have a tote with moving blankets to put down as rugs to insulate against the cold concrete, they could also be put over windows.  I have plastic sheeting and tape to hang over windows and doors and to close off a space. I also keep ponchos and hot hands in there, along with extra blankets and I have sleeping bags in a different tote. We have a fireplace but need more wood, we are out at the moment.  

  We have a dual fuel generator with propane tanks that we rotate out with the tank on the grill, plus gasoline that will go in the lawn mower in the summer, so it stays fresh.  We have a small propane heater with small tanks.   I keep water jugs lining the back of my deep cabinets.  We have a pool that we would use to fill buckets for flush water so I’m just worried about storing drinking water.  I always keep extra food. Lots of flashlights, lanterns, head lamps, batteries, etc.
 

I feel like I’ve hardly got anything prepped but people act like I have 2 heads if I mention my tote or the water.   Dooms day preppers have generated a lot of proud, purposeful un-preppers in a counter response.  “I don’t want to survive a nuclear war” is one thing, but I don’t want my children to freeze to literal death in my house because ice brings down some power lines for 72 hours.  People literally died in Texas during an ice storm that killed power for a few days and many more came very close to it.  

Edited February 9 by Heartstrings

[Faith-manor]

We are not preppers. I am pretty certain that there is no way to prep for an Apocalypse unlike many movies seem to indicate. I think there is a lot of money made from sources who take advantage of that extreme in human nature.

But, we live in an area that can have power knocked out for quite a while, roads that get packed in with snow drifts or covered in ice, and take days to be taken care of by the road commission. So this is what we have:

14-30 days of food, and that includes grains and legumes that could be cooked. We have a two burner camp stove and we keep 30 days of fuel for it. So I can use it in a well ventilated area indoors or go outside. We keep charcoal on hand for the grill.

We have a generator and keep 20 gallons of fuel for it.

We never get lower than 2 face cord of wood for the wood boiler, never go less than 20% on the propane tank for the back up furnace, and lamp oil for three Aladdin lamps, plus some extra pillar candles.

I try not to let any prescription run too low which is pretty hard given insurance never wants to let anyone have extra on hand. But sometimes the doc will order a longer supply. We also have a very robust first aid kit which is more of a tackle box of supplies.

2 fire extinguishers. We live 8 miles from the fire department and not on city water, so they have to bring a tanker. The hope is to put the fire out or contain it until they arrive.

We are on a well, and we have enough solar panels hooked to car batteries to run the electronics on the furnace and also the pump for the well. So I don't keep a lot of jugs of water on hand.

My sewing stash is should not be counted as prepping! 😂 If it were, one would assume that I believed there had been a cloth Armageddon and no fabric would be available in the future. 😁

[prairiewindmomma]

I am not in any way a doomsday prepper, but Mother Nature has not always been kind to the places we’ve lived. We have been through tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, icestorms, fires/smoke for us, etc. 

We have prepared in different ways depending on where we have lived—we no longer keep bicycle helmets in the bathrooms on stormy nights because we dont really have tornadoes here, iykwim. But we are in no way, shape or form doomsday preppers. The trauma of not having power for a few weeks or having to evacuate because you cant breathe or having to tarp a roof after a storm and walk everywhere because you cant buy gasoline sticks with you—you live differently afterwards. 

[Faith-manor]

I think there was a lesson last year to many Michiganders during the Wildfire/Bad air quality for an entire month disaster. Many of them just so not keep much on hand. Having to go out in it was horrible! But so many and to go stock up in the midst of the mess in order to then hunker down. Social media was loaded with posts about wishing they didn't have to go grocery shopping and such because they ran out of important things on some of the absolute worst days to be outside. Of course, this was pretty much a first for a lot of folks. Wildfire smoke at that extreme is just not something this state has ever had to spend a lot of time thinking about. We will occasionally get a little wildfire or a bush fire, and between our fire departments and DNR, they have always been able to control it pretty quickly. Then bam, we had a good size one up by Grayling, followed by all of the Canadian smog drifting down. It was an eye opener.

[Wheres Toto]

We don't really prep but I occasionally think about how we would do/what we could do in different scenarios.  We're more in the hurricane/blizzard area of the world.  We lost power for a week each from Sandy and Irene.    Since then we usually only lose power overnight or for a few hours, but the potential is there.

We have a gas generator that can run the lights, internet, refrigerator and well that we keep gas on hand for.   
We have a propane stove with two big propane tanks because we used to have more things that used it, but now it's down to just the stove so that would last a while. 
We do have a well so water is out without the generator, but we live on a river so we could get water for flushing, etc if we had to if things were out longer and we couldn't get more gas for the generator.   
We have a couple weeks of food on hand but would run out of certain things that ds (ASD) eats regularly so he would have to eat things that aren't his preferences.  
We have a fireplace that could be used in an emergency. 
We have a bunch of solar powered flashlights, tons of candles, camping lanterns and propane stove, sleeping bags rated to 0 degrees, tents, and 60 years worth of camping supplies from dh.  
We have a TON of extra blankets.
My work (science center) is about 5 miles from home and has additional supplies like a water cooler with 5 gallon bottles, tons of flour, baking soda, city water, etc so if we had to, we could utilize that stuff too.  

[City Mouse]

I find it really easy to fall down the rabbit hole of prepping anxiety, and sometimes I have to make an effort not to do that. I try to keep things multipurpose such as Camping supplies that can be used in emergencies, shelf stable foods that are part of the regular pantry, wood stoves that are our primary source of heat, etc. 

Because we live in a fire prone area and have had to evacuate on short notice, I do keep a couple of totes of food and kitchen supplies ready to go, and other empty totes ready to pack quickly. 
 

My plan for this summer is to improve my rain water collection that I use for watering my gardens. I currently have a bunch of plastic buckets and old recycling bins. I want to get some metal watering troughs that will be more permanent and not blow all around the yard when empty. That water could be used for flushing toilets if needed or even treated for drinking. 
 

I would love to have a freeze dryer so that I could rely less of our freezer to store meat, but I can’t justify the price. It would really just be an expensive toy. 

 

[cjzimmer1]

3 hours ago, DawnM said:

 

I so want to get a rain barrel.   Thankfully we do live in an area where we get rain, so that might be helpful.   My oldest wants to get a small greenhouse and start a year round garden.   That is not really for prepping, but it might help.   I would love to learn to can, but I never have.   I guess that would be something I could learn.

  

I'm much further north so a greenhouse is too expensive for us to heat in the winter but I do have an indoor garden.  I'm growing lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, kale arugula and radishes for our winter salads (I have other things growing just for fun to see what I can grow indoors).  A few weeks ago we got hit with a major snowstorm.  I had no desire to fight the crowds prestorm to grocery shop so we just made due with what we had.  We had some frozen veggies but not enough to last the duration so we hit the salad garden pretty hard.  They were an amazing addition to the stored food and I was so glad that I didn't have to deal with the crowds or storm to get enough veggies on hand.  But I will warn you there is a pretty big learning curve with indoor gardening.  It's very different than outdoor gardening.  Just some of the things I've had to deal with: adapting the city water for plant use (we have extremely high PH), bugs (aphids, spider mites, fungus gnats and all very common in indoor settings with no natural predators).  Fertilizing (requires way more supplementation and tweaking than outdoors).  It's a great hobby and really helps with the winter blues but it is not money saving however the taste is so far above anything you find in the grocery store this time of year that it is absolutely worth it to me.

Canning, it's not hard but it is very particular.  While there are "rebel" canners who can and will can everything, it is highly recommended that you follow safe canning practices.  Ball is a great source for tested recipes.  Water bath canning is "easier" for me just because that is what I did with my mom growing up however it really limits what you can do.  It's mostly fruits, tomatoes, pickles, jams etc.  Nice to have but not really the things that I would want to rely on for emergencies.  For anything with meat you will need a pressure canner.  If you ever take this step, I would highly recommend getting the Presto digital canner, it's so much less fussing that stove top canners especially for someone new to it.  I love having canned meat (specifically beef and pork chunks), I use them regularly on nights I don't feel like cooking.  Meat can be turned into stroganoff, tacos, shredded meat sandwiches, a base for shepherd's pie etc.  Having the meat precooked just makes supper so much faster.  I also like to take a jar of beef and a jar of french onion soup and add a few veggies for a supper quick beef soup.  

So both of those are good ideas for having things in an emergency, they do require a fair bit of labor and unless they are activities you enjoy for themselves might be too labor and time intensive to be practical sources of emergency prep.

Edited February 9 by cjzimmer1

[SHP]

Short term power loss I have emergency Light bulbs in my wall sconces. Link below. They come automatically and can be removed and will stay lit for quite a while. I prefer them to a flashlights because, amazingly, when they stay in a Light fixture and turn on automatically when the power goes out, they are easy to find. My husband uses them to find his flashlights that are "right here, I swear" but not actually there. I keep batteries for his flashlights on hand. 

I have ready to eat foods and freeze fried foods that are safe for me to eat in with our regular foods. For freeze dried we order foods from Cumin Club. I know they are safe and since we we eat them as part of our regular meal rotation we know they are within their use by dates. We also keep ingredients on hand and are knowledgeable and competent in cooking on a grill/open fire outside. Probably enough food for 5 days as long as no one is eating because they are bored.

We keep bottled water on hand in unused/hard to reach shelves in the top of closets. Fun fact: Squirrels know to eat through the plastic and will do so to extend how long they can live in your closet, especially if your teenager leaves food in his backpack.

We do not have a way to heat the house in the winter. We have debated a generator that hooks into the city gas since that is more reliable than electricity. We have very little storage, no garage or shed, or place to build any. We don't have a place for large solar panels that would run appliances. 

Emergency lightbulb https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0797RK52Q?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[Arcadia]

For my area, the most frequent “disaster” would be power outages due to storms and wildfire haze during wildfire season.  A friend was without power from Sunday until Tuesday night and another friend lost power for three days in a previous storm. We have flashlights and batteries and enough canned foods (and manual can openers) to last a week without cooking. We have disposable plates and utensils too. The only prep we do is to charge up all our power banks, laptops, cellphones whenever there is a storm and flood warning, as well as doing a grocery run because it is not fun to buy stuff like bread in the rain. Typically people would go to another town or city’s library to keep warm/cold and to charge up their cellphones and power banks if they have a power outage at home. 

Our worse case scenario would be for the power grid to go down due to a major earthquake and having wildfire haze at the same time. We do have a box of N95 masks just in case. 

[DawnM]

Just a note as you all are mentioning manual can openers.

I have never had an electric can opener.   I grew up with them and we didn't have any electric ones available.   

Well, some of my friends who grew up like I did came to our annual beach trip and we stayed in a condo.   We spent (I am not kidding!) at least 45 min. looking in all the cabinets and drawers for a can opener so I could make buffalo chicken dip.   We were scowering around, making comments about how stupid it was that the place didn't even have a can opener!   Then, after 45 min. one of us piped up with, "Wait a minute, isn't this a can opener?"

And there, on the COUNTER, in plain sight, was an electric can opener!   😁

It took us another 10 min to figure out how to use it.

 

[Ethel Mertz]

If you go out and buy a manual can opener, try it out when you get home. We had duds until we finally found one that worked. This one worked for us. YMMV

https://a.co/d/eC7ejrf

[MEmama]

In addition to the many common sense suggestions here, we have a portable shower head. Years ago we lost power for 10+ days, and of course ran out of hot water (our tank holds enough for 3 quick showers for 3 days, I discovered--which is pretty good!). I bought a battery powered (USB charge, so can charge in a car if necessary) shower head that hangs on the shower curtain or over the normal shower head, and the battery part goes into a 5 gallon bucket of water (in the tub). We have a gas stove, so I can heat water on the stove, pour into a clean Home Depot bucket and take a warm shower. It's pretty awesome. It was inexpensive and definitely worth keeping around.

It takes a significantly damaging and widespread disaster to prevent deliveries for more than a couple days, unless one lives very remotely. I keep that in mind when preparing for a storm; even towns nearby are unlikely to be out of power, for example--most damage/inconvenience is pretty contained. Ofc there are exceptions like wildfires, but you're not sticking around at home for those anyway.

[MEmama]

45 minutes ago, SHP said:

Emergency lightbulb https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0797RK52Q?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

These are so cool! I've never heard of them. We have several sconces we never otherwise use and these would be perfect. Do you know how long they stay charged when not used? 
 

thanks for the link!

[SHP]

2 minutes ago, MEmama said:

These are so cool! I've never heard of them. We have several sconces we never otherwise use and these would be perfect. Do you know how long they stay charged when not used? 
 

thanks for the link!

I haven't done any official testing, but I pulled one out of a box that had been ignored for a long while and it still worked. 

If it is in the wall sconce or light fixtures it will always be charged.

[Arcadia]

@MEmama we have a gas stove and had to go buy a gas/butane lighter years ago to use our stove during power outages. We don’t keep matchsticks at home and I don’t like using the cigarette lighter on stoves. 

[bolt.]

I'm quite surprised how many of you have gas generators. For myself, if the power goes out, it would mean that we would have to do without lights, maybe hot water and heat (but I think those have pilot lights and no-power modes) and we'd lose refrigeration eventually. In terms of a few days, or up to a week, other than lost food -- that doesn't seem so hard to deal with. Maybe it's because I haven't done it!

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel as a camping accessory, that might double as something that helps in an emergency.

My husband says he has a battery operated radio somewhere, but I'm thinking of getting one anyways -- so I know for sure that it's real, and where it is.

We do have matches for the gas stove, plus a natural gas bbq and a propane camp stove, and plenty of other ordinary camping gear. We'd have to find it all, if an emergency hit, but it's all around here somewhere.

Edited February 9 by bolt.

[Faith-manor]

15 minutes ago, bolt. said:

I'm quite surprised how many of you have gas generators. For myself, if the power goes out, it would mean that we would have to do without lights, maybe hot water and heat (but I think those have pilot lights and no-power modes) and we'd lose refrigeration eventually. In terms of a few days, or up to a week, other than lost food -- that doesn't seem so hard to deal with. Maybe it's because I haven't done it!

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel as a camping accessory, that might double as something that helps in an emergency.

My husband says he has a battery operated radio somewhere, but I'm thinking of getting one anyways -- so I know for sure that it's real, and where it is.

We do have matches for the gas stove, plus a natural gas bbq and a propane camp stove, and plenty of other ordinary camping gear. We'd have to find it all, if an emergency hit, but it's all around here somewhere.

We have used our has generator numerous times. We are the last to get attention part of the county, so where some places are without power for a few days, we can be out for a very long time. We used it one time to power vitally needed medical equipment at my mother's home when my father was on hospice, and getting very panicky. We also powered my mother in law's freezer after she lost power for more than week having just purchased a side of beef that cost her $750.00. She had a $1000 deductible on home owner's insurance. We have used it enough that it has more than payer for itself. One time we ran it for a neighbor who had life saving meds that had to be kept refrigerated and at a specific temperature. His insurance for darn certain was not going to pay for him to go to the hospital and remain there just because there was a power outage. (Hospital has back up generators.) He would have been out thousands of dollars for that because I guarantee the hospital would have admitted him if he needed to be there for a week. They don't have a patient hotel or anything.

[Wheres Toto]

34 minutes ago, bolt. said:

I'm quite surprised how many of you have gas generators. For myself, if the power goes out, it would mean that we would have to do without lights, maybe hot water and heat (but I think those have pilot lights and no-power modes) and we'd lose refrigeration eventually. In terms of a few days, or up to a week, other than lost food -- that doesn't seem so hard to deal with. Maybe it's because I haven't done it!

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel as a camping accessory, that might double as something that helps in an emergency.

My husband says he has a battery operated radio somewhere, but I'm thinking of getting one anyways -- so I know for sure that it's real, and where it is.

We do have matches for the gas stove, plus a natural gas bbq and a propane camp stove, and plenty of other ordinary camping gear. We'd have to find it all, if an emergency hit, but it's all around here somewhere.

Lost food can add up to quite a bit.  We also don't have water since we are on a well so that was a major reason we decided to finally go for the generator.   

We also have two ND kids - one ASD, SPD and one with ADHD and anxiety.   Having the generator and being able to keep the lights and internet going goes a long way to helping them manage.   (we do go camping so they aren't totally incapable of managing, but it makes life easier) 

[MEmama]

34 minutes ago, bolt. said:

I'm quite surprised how many of you have gas generators. For myself, if the power goes out, it would mean that we would have to do without lights, maybe hot water and heat (but I think those have pilot lights and no-power modes) and we'd lose refrigeration eventually. In terms of a few days, or up to a week, other than lost food -- that doesn't seem so hard to deal with. Maybe it's because I haven't done it!

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel as a camping accessory, that might double as something that helps in an emergency.

My husband says he has a battery operated radio somewhere, but I'm thinking of getting one anyways -- so I know for sure that it's real, and where it is.

We bought a generator to run our pellet stove. Heat security is my number one concern. We do also have a fireplace (and wood) but it's upstairs and wouldn't heat the whole house like the stove does. It's a bonus that the generator will also keep lights on, internet running and so forth, but primarily we use it for heat. 

[wathe]

59 minutes ago, bolt. said:

I'm quite surprised how many of you have gas generators. For myself, if the power goes out, it would mean that we would have to do without lights, maybe hot water and heat (but I think those have pilot lights and no-power modes) and we'd lose refrigeration eventually. In terms of a few days, or up to a week, other than lost food -- that doesn't seem so hard to deal with. Maybe it's because I haven't done it!

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel as a camping accessory, that might double as something that helps in an emergency.

My husband says he has a battery operated radio somewhere, but I'm thinking of getting one anyways -- so I know for sure that it's real, and where it is.

We do have matches for the gas stove, plus a natural gas bbq and a propane camp stove, and plenty of other ordinary camping gear. We'd have to find it all, if an emergency hit, but it's all around here somewhere.

We don't have a generator, but all our rural neighbours seem to have one.  When power fails, we lose water, septic and heat.

The biggest problem without a genny is losing heat in winter.  Frozen pipes are my biggest worry.

We have a high efficiency fireplace that we can use to heat the house enough to prevent frozen pipes.  We keep a cord of wood.  But someone has to be home to feed it. 

We back onto a creek that we can use for water to bucket flush until the septic fills.  Rain barrel in summer.  I have a camping chemical toilet for back up

We store 60L drinking water.   I have a hiking water filter and a jug of bleach to treat creek water or rain barrel water for back up.

We keep battery banks charged for phones.  I have a camping solar panel that makes enough power to charge phones.  We also have an old fashioned non-portable  land line that works without power.

We keep talking about getting a generator, but then we keep coping just fine during power failures, so we never seem to get around to getting one.  

ETA:  The other worry in my area is flooded basements when the sump systems fail.  We are fortunate that our house doesn't rely on a sump system to stay dry.

 

Edited February 9 by wathe

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, bolt. said:

I'm quite surprised how many of you have gas generators. For myself, if the power goes out, it would mean that we would have to do without lights, maybe hot water and heat (but I think those have pilot lights and no-power modes) and we'd lose refrigeration eventually. In terms of a few days, or up to a week, other than lost food -- that doesn't seem so hard to deal with. Maybe it's because I haven't done it!

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel as a camping accessory, that might double as something that helps in an emergency.

My husband says he has a battery operated radio somewhere, but I'm thinking of getting one anyways -- so I know for sure that it's real, and where it is.

We do have matches for the gas stove, plus a natural gas bbq and a propane camp stove, and plenty of other ordinary camping gear. We'd have to find it all, if an emergency hit, but it's all around here somewhere.

I’m on a very expensive medication that requires refrigeration. Plus without power for our septic pump we’d be able to flush/use water for about three days at most. Those are the two factors that led us to get a generator. 

[Heartstrings]

We’ve used the generator to run space heaters in our house that had no fireplace.  We have a fireplace now but the plan would be to use heaters to help extend the fireplace wood.  Since we have it we can also use it for the internet, to charge phones, run the fridge, power the insta pot and electric skillet so we can cook, etc.   I do have a small propane heater with small bottles that we could use as back ups or additional.  
 

The plan for an outage in the freezing cold is to use plastic sheeting to block off the living room to keep heat in and all just camp out.   We’d immediately turn the water off at the road and open the faucets to drain out as much water as we could to avoid burst pipes even though city water technically means we’d still have water service.   In above freezing temps we’d leave it on.  
 

A battery operated CO2 detector is a good addition to an emergency kit, just to be safe while using alternative heating sources.   

Edited February 9 by Heartstrings

[Annie G]

I feel very lucky. I haven’t been without power or water  for more than 24 hours since the mid 1970’s. 
The emergency lightbulbs look handy-ordering a few of those for sure!
 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

During our most recent icestorm (3-4 weeks ago), entire neighborhoods had so many trees down that people who wanted to get out of the neighborhood to evacuate to a warm hotel couldnt for over 72 hours. They chainsawed themselves a path out on the road around downed wires, etc. My extended family opted to stay home, and even with their fireplace going, their house got down to 15F inside. They thought they drained their plumbing adequately but still ended up with a couple of burst pipes. 

We never lost power but they were down for 5 days….we are both in the city.

We have solar panels, but our winter generation isnt enough to run a furnace (and our summer generation is enough to run some stuff but not ac) and we havent been able to charge a cell phone off of the portable solar chargers.
 

If you buy stuff, do a trial of it to see if it actually functions as advertised in your environment. It’s hella disappointment to realize you are SOL if something doesnt work out.

Edited February 9 by prairiewindmomma

[Indigo Blue]

We have:

Rechargeable flashlights and lanterns that we keep charged

rechargeable fan

small power bank (maybe two phone charges)

large power bank: lamps, maybe 15 phone charges

LifeStraw

few days worth of food

camping supplies

cat carrier in a convenient grab and go location

important papers grab and go file

cash

large generator, small generator 

Mr. Buddy heater and extra propane canisters (use with co2 detector and vent the area and use on heat resistant surface. Not carpet). 

large gas tank always filled ….to use gas logs as backup heat source

A flat top grill and a two burner Coleman stove

lots of camping equipment 

lots of wood to burn

Flashlights, distress lights, space blankets, battery starter in each car. Also glass breakers and folding knives. Gloves, umbrella  kept in car. Always fill up the big honkin’ Stanley cup to keep in the car. Lol. 

 

 

(I think a good plan may be to get an electric blanket/power bank combo if you don’t have gas logs or you aren’t comfortable using propane powered devices inside. This can give 12 hours of heat.. enough to hopefully allow someone to reach you and get you to a warm place).

 

Am thinking of keeping some freeze dried meals on hand. Just a few for power outages. I’ve never tried these. 

 

 

Edited February 9 by Indigo Blue

[KungFuPanda]

I don’t think of myself as a “prepper” because of the political connotation, but we do have a degree of self sufficiency.   I have camping gear, firewood, off-grid solar panels (that DH rigged to work on the patio), jars of canned produce, a garden, buried power lines, a full basement, gas heat, and DH is a ham radio operated with lots of equipment. 
 

I plan to convert my open fireplace with a wood burning insert. We also have a kerosene heater. My parents always had one as a backup so I thought I needed it,  it we never had to use it. I know how to dig a cat hole.  I can also read a paper map and use a compass. We also own wind up flashlights and always have candles. 

Edited February 9 by KungFuPanda

[Indigo Blue]

If you find yourself stranded in your house in freezing temps and basically unprepared but you have a sleeping bag and a Nalgene bottle, boil some water and put the bottle in the sleeping bag and zip yourself up with it to keep warm. 

Edited February 9 by Indigo Blue

[bookbard]

We've had so many natural disasters since 2019. Fire, flood, landslide, covid of course, storms. I still say the best prepping is to connect with your neighbours and to be embedded in your community. You can offer one another different things rather than needing to be on top of everything. 

[Indigo Blue]

We don’t think of ourselves as extreme preppers by any stretch, but I have an in-law who is. Pretty typical  in every sense, including the political connotation. He makes his own knives from old metal files. He made a hunting knife and sheath for Dh. (We don’t hunt, though). I knew he made them  but had never seen one. That knife is impressive. Well made. Heavy with heavy duty professional grade sheath. It looks like it something you’d pay a lot of money for. I am pretty impressed, I have to say.

[Faith-manor]

11 minutes ago, bookbard said:

We've had so many natural disasters since 2019. Fire, flood, landslide, covid of course, storms. I still say the best prepping is to connect with your neighbours and to be embedded in your community. You can offer one another different things rather than needing to be on top of everything. 

True. If you have a community. Ours is, apart from us who are willing to help, politically aligned with "every man, woman, and child for themselves".  I really can't count on a soul around here, not even my own brother two blocks away, yet have a mother and mother in law to worry about. We are the very last in the entire county to get any response from community services and first responders. You have to be more self a sufficient when your community doesn't act like one, and doesn't want to fund or take part in community response.

[MEmama]

19 minutes ago, bookbard said:

We've had so many natural disasters since 2019. Fire, flood, landslide, covid of course, storms. I still say the best prepping is to connect with your neighbours and to be embedded in your community. You can offer one another different things rather than needing to be on top of everything. 

Truth.

Our house was once out of power for many, many days longer than the rest of our neighborhood (a line specific to our house came down and it was obviously more essential to get entire communities back up than just us), and neighbors we didn't even know left notes on our door offering us everything from showers to their generators--it was amazing. 
 

[MEmama]

9 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

True. If you have a community. Ours is, apart from us who are willing to help, politically aligned with "every man, woman, and child for themselves".  I really can't count on a soul around here, not even my own brother two blocks away, yet have a mother and mother in law to worry about. We are the very last in the entire county to get any response from community services and first responders. You have to be more self a sufficient when your community doesn't act like one, and doesn't want to fund or take part in community response.

Faith, you gotta move east. You'd like it here! 🙂 

[wathe]

24 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

If you find yourself stranded in your house in freezing temps and basically unprepared but you have a sleeping bag and a Nalgene bottle, boil some water and put the bottle in the sleeping bag and zip yourself up with it to keep warm. 

I love this trick for winter camping. It makes a huge difference.   I'll be winter camping with the scouts this weekend with my trusty nalgene!

[Faith-manor]

3 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Faith, you gotta move east. You'd like it here! 🙂 

I would! I know I would. But we would have to abandon kids, honorary kids, and two elderly moms to do it. We haven't been willing to do that. However, we have put my mom on notice that when mother in law passes away or goes to a facility, we are leaving this community and going to a much much better area. She will be welcome with us. As it is, she splits her time between my sister in France, our daughter and family in Alabama, and here. So she would only have short periods in which she would have to guilt trip my lazy brother into acting like a person and helping her, or call my very fine nephew 35 minutes from here for some assistance if she doesn't come with us. The new area will be within 2.5 hours of our bachelor sons, two sets of honorary kids. Dd and hubby are thinking of eventually coming back to Michigan. So it is possible our winter retirement fun will not be the Alabama house which would be sold if they move.

[Indigo Blue]

Also if you had to spend the night in your car….

Jackery power bank and an electric blanket

[prairiewindmomma]

24 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Also if you had to spend the night in your car….

Jackery power bank and an electric blanket

This isnt super efficient. A Jackery 500 is about 85% efficient, which gives you about 4-4.5 hours of run time with an electric blanket. A Jackery 500 is also about $500. You are better off spending that $500 on a fantastic sleeping bag and wool clothing. 
 

ETA: If I get stuck on the interstate or highway here, odds are I am there for 12+ hours also. 

Edited February 9 by prairiewindmomma

[Pawz4me]

52 minutes ago, bookbard said:

I still say the best prepping is to connect with your neighbours and to be embedded in your community.

Agreed. It's one reason we love our little neighborhood so much. People aren't annoyingly nosey, but many of us do keep an eye out for each other.

[wathe]

1 hour ago, bookbard said:

We've had so many natural disasters since 2019. Fire, flood, landslide, covid of course, storms. I still say the best prepping is to connect with your neighbours and to be embedded in your community. You can offer one another different things rather than needing to be on top of everything. 

Yes.  And also, the better prepared I am, the more I have to offer.