Are You Prepared For A Weather Distaster?

FAOL Community Sound Off
1

If the electricity went out right now in your home would you be prepared???

Our old electric systems are interlocked. A disaster in the eastern seaboard could

cause rolling black outs and it could domino. We could have a Canadian weather front

come down and bring long term frigid weather. An Ice Storm could knock down electrical wires.

Are you prepared even minimally?

Do you have some bottled water? Canned food?

Do you have cold weather gear if your electricity goes out for even 6 hours?

Do you have an auxiliary heating source?

You think I am being a nervous Nelly here but I wonder how many people out in New Jersey and New York

wished they were a little warmer today and had clean water and some canned food to eat???

This Saturday the wife and daughter and I are going to our local Army Surplus store. Yes I am a cheapskate…

The first thing on our list is cold weather gear. Mickey Mouse Boots for all of us and cold weather gear.

I already have 4 cases of bottled water and canned food. I am going to get steno cooking gear at the Surplus Store too.

Maybe some good rain gear.

We boarded up our fireplace when our daughter was little. My wife has decided to let me open it up again. We are having

a guy come in and look at it to get it back up to working order and then we are going to get a big load of wood.

…

It happened to the one of the most populated area of all of the United States…

It could happen here. I am not being a fear monger…I am being realistic and taking care of my family.

…

Any of you have any good ideas for weather disasters?

2

I installed a 10kw propane fired generator a couple of years ago. It automatically fires up when the power goes off. It runs off of a 1000 gal. tank. With the gen we really don’t need anything else. It powers our entire house along with the well. We have around 6 months worth of food supplies on site. We are on a 2 acre lot at the end of a dirt road on top of a hill about 5 miles from the nearest population center. It is completely fenced by a 5 foot chain link fence with a gated driveway. 250 pounds worth of dogs have free roam of the property and the owner is heavily armed. We have complete control over access to the property. I am not a prepper but I see no reason not to take some precautions when it comes to my family and my survival. We can easily survive several weeks without power and/or isolation. Because of our preparations we are also in a position to be able to render aid to our neighbors or others if needed.

3

been looking at those generators.

WOW!!

They don’t give those away do they.

4

I think we paid around $3000.00 with interface for the generator. I have a good friend who is an electrician that helped me install it. We are already on propane for heat, hot water, and cooking so I purchased a 1000 gallon propane tank to run the house and property. Can’t remember now what I paid for the tank. A side benefit from owning my own propane tank is it frees me up from contracts with suppliers. I can shop for gas and sometimes save some significant money. Also buying a 1000 gallons at a time lowers the price.

Three grand may seem like a lot of money but the peace of mind we have because of it is well worth the cost. Where we live we can expect to lose power several times a year. Some of those outages have lasted for a day or more and they usually happen in the dead of winter when temps drop well below freezing. A brief few minutes, if that, of darkness is all we experience when the power goes off. The generator kicks on and we live as if nothing is wrong.

5

In the 80’s my wife and I were trained and Taught earthquake preparedness here in SoCal. We don’t do that anymore but we are still following what we learned. Food, water, clothing, first aid and medical supplies, bottled gas, batteries, 25 gallons of bottled water and a 300 gallon spa. Lots of candles, Coleman stoves, heaters and lanterns and 10 gallons of white gas. Also hand held CB radios, old transistor radios and hand crank cell phone charger. An outdoor fireplace and at least a cord of firewood. I would like a small generator for the fridge/freezer but I can’t have everything. Jim

6

Natural gas heat, hot water and stove, of course the HVAC has a electric blower, guess I will have to buy a hamster. But I do have my office with an old timey gas space heater and gas logs in my den. I could cook on my propane grill and burner if necessary this area is not immune to terrible weather but it is more rare than other places, but the people in NJ & NY probably thought they were also. One of my native Atlantan friends from church tells me we are well beyond the normal frequency for a serious frozen weather event which normally happen about every 11 years. The last nasty frozen weather we had was March 1993. Our neighborhood has a mile long hill to the north and a mile consisting of two steeper hills to the south if we get frozen precip, I doubt the county has a snow plow.

7

I live on a sand spit with the pacific on one side of me and the bay on the other, in case of earth quake or tsunami chances are everything I own will be washing up on the coast of Japan. I have water food extra blankets and cooking gear, Skip the sterno and buy a bottled gas (little propane bottles) camping stove, the sterno won’t heat up fast enough to significant amount of water or cook well, it is great for reheating. A bottle of gas will cook for our family for a week camping. That was oatmeal for breakfast, and a one pan dinner. In an emergency where I was using the stove for boiling drinking water etc I think I would probably need three a week to keep me going. I have switched from Coleman fuel to propane for camping and use it for both the stove and a lantern. I have led flashlights. a small battery powered radio for news. For food also add instant oatmeal, instant rice, instant soup (cream of something) and tuna. for more ideas the LDS church and the Red cross both have websights on prepairdness along with the federal government.

Eric

8

I once thought of building a true survival package. Then I realized that my health insurance plan will only give me 1-month’s supply of drugs at a time, so I’d be history after about 6 weeks.

We’re usually set up for about 2 months of doing OK.

9

Check to see if your meds are covered by Target’s prescription plan…3 months’ supply for 10 bucks…

Some meds at other pharms are cheaper by the bulk if you play cash…in one case, one of my meds was cheaper to buy 6 months supply, than to pay copay for three.