subject: Be Prepared For Inclement Weather [print this page] A freak storm recently hit our small townA freak storm recently hit our small town. Winds gust of 100 miles an hour knocked out power for 47,000 people for 32 hours. The temperatures dropped into the single digits. As people went door to door checking on each other, the questions at hand were, "how prepared are you". "Are you alright"? "Do you have alternate heat, enough food, plenty of blankets"? "Do you have light sources, a battery powered radio, and supplies on hand"? "Can you keep from having frozen pipes"?
The idea of a seventy-two hour emergency kit is certainly nothing new. In any natural disaster, it takes about seventy-two hours for power and services to be restored. Keeping the pipes from freezing, keeping babies and the elderly warm is top priority. I thought we were better prepared than we were. It was hard not to have outside communication. Our phone lines run off the Internet, so no electricity, meant no phones. The wind was so fierce it blew out cell towers; we didn't have a battery-powered radio. There was a feeling of isolation from the rest of the town. It was hard to know who had power, were friends and loved ones ok, and how far reaching was the problem?
It was a good exercise in personal preparedness. Keep faucets repaired, make sure you have wraps for pipes, keep fireplaces in good working order. We have a gas fireplace, but the thermocouple was broken and we hadn't had it fixed. Don't procrastinate fixing important emergency equipment. A generator is invaluable for keeping refrigerators and freezers in working. You can run most household appliances off a generator as long as you store gasoline.
Most big cities have emergency essential stores to buy all the things you need to make power outages livable. It can be a fun time with kids. The noise of the world is shut off for a day, families can read together, play games, or just snuggle down and visit. However, if you don't have heat, water, or food, those incidents won't be too pleasant.
Store a little food that doesn't have to be cooked. Purchase a camp stove and propane for heating stews and chili. Cliff Bars and protein bars are a good source of emergency food storage. They last up to a year and fill you up for several hours, just make sure you have plenty of water on hand! They can get a little dry.
Keep your faucets repaired, keep pipes from freezing, have a little food, light source, battery powered radio, plenty of blankets and a good book to weather the next storm in comfort!
