Severe weather emergency supplies/plans

[pixy0stix]

With the discussion yesterday with people saying their gas stoves saved them (please, don't do this it's actually a big hazard), it got me wondering if people are at all prepared for our current norm of severe weather emergencies. That includes hurricanes, snowstorms, floods, etc. I'm including things like TX grid going down because of cold weather and increased demand. Are you prepared?

Poll answers are:
Yes - I'm prepared and we can weather (heh) anything
Sorta - we have a few things, but could prepare more
No
SS

[cattledogkisses]

Pre-generator we would prep in the winter when they were predicting a nor'easter by making sure we were stocked up on bottled water, wood for the wood stove, and food we could make on the stove. The longest stretch we did like that without power was 5 days.

Now we just rely on the generator.

[Susie]

Generally I would say yes we're prepared.  We have a 24 kW home backup generator more than sufficient to power all circuits, and an outdoor grill connected to a natural gas line.  Our day to day lives would be impacted during an extended power outage more by all the neighbors we'd end up inviting in, than by the underlying power outage.  We're relatively low risk of flooding, and our basement sump pump has the generator as well as a Venturi backup to fall back on.

One area we could do better is potable water; we rely pretty heavily on municipal water supply/sewer.  We do have a creek behind our house, we would be able to boil water, and we have backpacking filters, so we have some backup.

[mrsslocombe]

LOL I live in a Brooklyn apartment, the bodega is my emergency plan.

But really, if there is a storm coming we make sure we have water and food and we get out the flashlights. The management company takes care of making the building as prepared as possible. If we lose power or heat for a long period I guess we are going somewhere else.

We did purposely buy an apartment on high ground with as little chance of flooding as possible and the neighborhood did not lose power during Sandy.

[tiki]

I live in a cold place, but in the city where backup systems like household generators and wood stoves are not common. A large-scale extended power outage in winter would be a rough scene.

[Patsy Baloney]

We have tornado plans, as that’s our usual weather emergency. Although it seems like derechos have been happening with more frequency around us. Maybe hurricane prep is more what we need to be aiming for.

Although I get made fun of a lot because my general tornado plan is: if sirens go off, bellow, “GET YOUR SHOES ON!” to anyone nearby and get to shelter.

I’m just here to keep everyone safe from stepping on broken glass, ok? We have flashlights and water and stuff, too, but don’t hurt yourself. Sheesh.

[wanderingback]

For those that live in apartments or condos, what supplies do you have?

I don’t really have anything other than a flashlight and candles. This area isn’t too prone to earthquakes or fires or tornadoes so storms are more predictable and could stock up on food if needed. We live on the top floor so our specific apartment wouldn’t get flooded but the building could and obviously power could go out in any emergency.

But it’s always good to be prepared so wondering what other apartment or condo dwellers have (especially where space is limited)..

[joy]

It occurred to me while watching the Buffalo storms that we have no power back up. If the heat went out at our house during 17 degree weather, we’d be screwed as we have no fireplace.

Anything else, I feel like we’d be okay.

[abs]

For the most part yes. We have all our important documents together in a safe so we could easily grab them and leave if necessary. Please do this if you haven’t. Know where your passports, home insurance documents, birth certificates, social security cards are.

Twice a year we stock up on batteries. We have lots of lanterns and flashlights. Winter we make sure we have stuff to cover pipes. Before any major storm we stock up on water and dry goods but always have at least a little just in case. We can cook on our grill (propane) if needed. We used to just really worry about hurricane prep but now it’s just year round prep.

[icedcoffee]

I said sorta. We could use the gas fireplace for some heat, could cook on our gas stove or our propane grill (which has a burner). We have tons of blankets and warm clothes and hats. It wouldn't be comfortable, but we wouldn't die. We usually have a case of water and if we just ate from our pantry we'd be bored and malnourished, but not hungry for several days. We have a lot of those always charging backup lights so good in that regard.

And my inlaws are 10 minutes aways and have a generator if we could get there.

ETA:  if the house got below 50 I'd drain the pipes.

ETA2:  If we had to drain the pipes we'd just use the @ travel potty and throw it all outside in the trash.  LOL

[pixy0stix]

For those that worry about heat, you can buy kerosene or propane heaters rated for indoor use for about $70-150 depending on what you get. I can't remember who mentioned that yesterday, but I started looking at them last night. We're set for anything other than heat, and I don't know why I didn't think about that. Our power supply is super stable, but you never know.

[krystee]

We are not highly prepared, but in Chicago, we don’t get hurricanes or gigantic blizzards (or if there is a blizzard, there’s also advance notice). If there was a tornado, we could walk to my parents’ house with a generator if we lost power and couldn’t drive around trees in the streets.

I think we should be more stocked with water, though.

[icedcoffee]

The problem with emergency supplies is they go bad. My H's company gave him emergency car kits and he gave me one. When I got my new car 3 years ago I cleaned it out and everything was dry rotting or melted or evaporated. Thank god I continued to drive that shit around! LOL

[steamboat185]

We have a small solar generator and 12v fridge. We also have a campervan with a diesel heater fridge and battery system. I’d like to get a fireplace insert that would provide better heat for the house and a large solar generator, but DH isn’t ready yet. Eventually we’d like to get a heat pump. We have a bunch of camping gear which helps.

[gerberdaisy]

I think we're in the sorta set area. Snow storms would be the risk where we are. We have a generator, fireplaces, and gas stove. Municipal water, but if something were to happen with that we could get water from the lake and filter with the berkey. Food wise - we don't keep a ton of extras, but would be fine for 3-5 days, just unhappy. Not sure what else we'd do actually? But *knock on wood*, we have never lost power for more than an hour and our area handles snow really well, so haven't had to test it.

[atarianna]

I am married to a somewhat paranoid, closet prepper. We are prepared for almost any emergency. Generally it’s exhausting to be around, but in the few times we have needed something, we’ve always had it. Also, now that we have an insulin dependent child, we’ve had to expand our worst case scenarios to include shortages, power failure and long term storage.

[pixy0stix]

Jan 11, 2023 15:17:47 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

We have a small solar generator and 12v fridge. We also have a campervan with a diesel heater fridge and battery system. I’d like to get a fireplace insert that would provide better heat for the house and a large solar generator, but DH isn’t ready yet. Eventually we’d like to get a heat pump. We have a bunch of camping gear which helps.

Which generator do you have? I've been looking at them, but they're $$$

[rupertpenny]

Jan 11, 2023 15:03:29 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

For those that live in apartments or condos, what supplies do you have?

I don’t really have anything other than a flashlight and candles. This area isn’t too prone to earthquakes or fires or tornadoes so storms are more predictable and could stock up on food if needed. We live on the top floor so our specific apartment wouldn’t get flooded but the building could and obviously power could go out in any emergency.

But it’s always good to be prepared so wondering what other apartment or condo dwellers have (especially where space is limited)..

I'm in the same situation as mrsslocombe, almost word for word. I actually do have a pantry so we have whatever is in there, but I don't have any other supplies. If I did the only place to store them would probably be in the basement which may not actually be helpful if something happened. 

I have heard horror stories from people who lived on high floors during Sandy. Apparently some elevators were out for WEEKS and people had to climb 15 stories every time they came home from somewhere. I'd never been so happy to live in a walk-up as I was when I heard that.

[gretchenindisguise]

We aren’t purposefully prepared for anything, but the other thread helped me realize we could at least cook because we have a camp stove.

[wesleycrusher]

We don't have a plan. I guess a large ice/snowstorm would be the concern, but we're not prone to many natural disasters. Our power very rarely goes out (we live in the city) and has never been off more than a few hours, so it's never been an immediate worry. We live right around the corner from one of our city's warming shelters, so if the power was off for a long period, walking the block there would be our plan.

My parents and ILs, who live in a suburban neighborhood, loose power frequently and they have been without it for days. They both have generators.

[goldengirlz]

I’d go with prepared-ish. We have most of the supplies, but not necessarily in a go-bag. We usually keep our pantry pretty well-stocked because covid taught us the importance of always having 14 days of food and toilet paper on hand if you can’t get to a supermarket. I always carry cash on me and our important documents are kept together. We’re planning to invest in solar in the near future.

But those things feel less important than the fact that we made strategic decisions in terms of where to live, avoiding low-lying coastlines and land that could liquify in an earthquake (the term for that is escaping me right now.) We’re at low risk for flooding and relatively low risk for wildfires. We stacked the deck as much as possible. This month’s disaster in California is devastating, but the collective risks of climate change (things like bad air quality and heat waves) still feel larger than the individual risk that we’ll be fleeing in the middle of the night.

[gardengal]

I rotate out emergency food & don’t keep water unless disaster is on the horizon. We’ve got alternative cooking & light sources if no power but I’m intrigued by the kerosene heater.

[sequins]

I'm honestly not even sure what to prepare for, living in the middle of Los Angeles.

[pixy0stix]

Jan 11, 2023 15:50:24 GMT -5 sequins said:

I'm honestly not even sure what to prepare for, living in the middle of Los Angeles.

emergency.lacity.org/la-preparedness/get-prepared-get-ready-la


For everyone else, a lot of Emergency Management Depts will have plans you can access if you don't know what you're at risk for.

[joy]

Jan 11, 2023 15:22:05 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Jan 11, 2023 15:17:47 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

We have a small solar generator and 12v fridge. We also have a campervan with a diesel heater fridge and battery system. I’d like to get a fireplace insert that would provide better heat for the house and a large solar generator, but DH isn’t ready yet. Eventually we’d like to get a heat pump. We have a bunch of camping gear which helps.

Which generator do you have? I've been looking at them, but they're $$$

Yes, hi. I’m also interested.

We could hole up in one room with an electric space heater but I’d need a power block/generator to run it. I like the idea of a solar one but money. We could charge in our car if necessary, too.

We have a large power block already that could charge phones/iPads.

[mrsslocombe]

Jan 11, 2023 15:03:29 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

For those that live in apartments or condos, what supplies do you have?

I don’t really have anything other than a flashlight and candles. This area isn’t too prone to earthquakes or fires or tornadoes so storms are more predictable and could stock up on food if needed. We live on the top floor so our specific apartment wouldn’t get flooded but the building could and obviously power could go out in any emergency.

But it’s always good to be prepared so wondering what other apartment or condo dwellers have (especially where space is limited)..

Honestly not much on a regular basis. I don't have kids, so don't have to worry about those needs. Just flashlights and batteries. We don't have room for much food storage and don't really eat a lot of shelf-stable items, so it's hard to justify keeping that kind of stuff on hand in our limited space. 

If a major snow storm is coming, we get food for a few days. 

If it's a Sandy-esque storm we get food for like a week, and fill every container we have with water (no bathtub to fill). We can't get a generator or anything like that. We live very close to a bunch of essential federal and local government buildings so we will be one of the priority areas to get back power. 

The worst part will be walking up and down 8 flights of stairs if the elevators are out. But at least we don't live higher?                                                  

[steamboat185]

Jan 11, 2023 15:22:05 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Jan 11, 2023 15:17:47 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

We have a small solar generator and 12v fridge. We also have a campervan with a diesel heater fridge and battery system. I’d like to get a fireplace insert that would provide better heat for the house and a large solar generator, but DH isn’t ready yet. Eventually we’d like to get a heat pump. We have a bunch of camping gear which helps.

Which generator do you have? I've been looking at them, but they're $$$

We have a small Jackery combined with a solar panel we can run our 12v fridge for a long while. It could also run LED lights, charge phones, computers, fans etc. We bought it at the start of COVID mainly to make camping and traveling easier. I’ve been looking at getting at larger Ecoflow delta pro model that could run what we needed and is expandable to 25kw. Costco has some decent deals every few months, but it’s still 3-4K plus for something we’ve never needed. My thought is that we could run what we needed on the generator (it can be integrated into the electrical panel) to offset the greatly increased cost of electricity from 1-7pm to offset our cost.

[wanderingback]

Thanks for the recommendation to check our emergency management agency. This is what they say we should have:

One gallon of drinking water per person per day
Nonperishable, ready-to-eat canned foods, and a manual can opener
First-aid kit
Medications, including a list of the medications you take, why you take them, and dosages
Flashlight or battery-powered lantern, battery-operated AM/FM radio, and extra batteries, or wind-up batteries that do not require batteries
Battery-operated AM/FM radio and extra batteries (you can also buy wind-up radios that do not require batteries)
Glow sticks
Whistle or bell
Back-up medical equipment, if possible (e.g., oxygen, medication, scooter battery, hearing aids, mobility aids, glasses, facemasks, gloves)
Style and serial numbers of medical devices (such as pacemakers) and usage instructions
Child care supplies or other special care items

[wildrice]

Nope, not at all lol. I mentioned yesterday we have all electric, and I'm completely unprepared for an outage. I guess we should get some stuff, idk? Outages are infrequent here - I don't think we've had one for more than a couple of minutes since we've lived here, and it's been almost 3 years. Which certainly isn't to say it couldn't happen, but spending a bunch of money on supplies just in case seems kind of wasteful, not to mention we don't have a ton of storage space. I kind of assume that if we really ran into an outage that lasted more than 12 hours or so we'd go stay with a friend or go to a hotel?

We do have some bottled water set aside and I was just thinking we need to restock some non-perishable food in case of...whatever. But we don't really get hurricanes, fires aren't a common thing here, a snowstorm that comes out of nowhere and leaves us stranded is unlikely, and I guess this is just one of the few things I don't spend a lot of mental energy thinking about. We probably should do better, though.

ETA: We do have flashlights!

[wawa]

I'm not sure I'd ever say that we're ready for anything. 

We don't have a ton of water storage on hand (some though), but we live in a wet area (there's a spring in my backyard) that isn't a floodplain, and have the ability to filter and sanitize water, we are an ingredient house that shops at costco and always have a metric fuckton of dry goods and staples, batteries, basic first aid stuff, etc on hand at any given moment, we have full cold gear, wet gear, tools, three different ways to cook food without our stove, our house has a fireplace if we lose power and need heat, we store ~2 cords of wood generally and we own a generator.  

I think we're ready for *most* things?