Severe weather emergency supplies/plans

[smock]

I thought we were doing okay until I checked the FEMA recommendations. They suggest one gallon per person, per day, and say it’s best if you have a 14-day supply. That much water would weigh like 450 pounds. 😳

But we have a lot of other emergency supplies. So, I’m voting “sorta.”

[Velar Fricative]

I honestly don’t know if our likeliest next disaster is another hurricane or another terrorist attack. So that’s really fun to think about. So after the disaster itself, power outages are what we need to plan for most, most likely.

We are moderately prepared. I feel like we are more prepared for less likely events like floods. Our house has never flooded due to weather or whatever in its 30-year history. Ida flooded a lot of homes and buildings in NYC but none on our block, yet I still got (cheap) flood insurance after that juuuuust in case.

As long as we can leave our house and roads and bridges are navigable, my ILs’ house in Brooklyn somehow never ever loses power so that’s our planned evacuation location.

[pixy0stix]

Jan 11, 2023 21:04:10 GMT -5 smock said:

I thought we were doing okay until I checked the FEMA recommendations. They suggest one gallon per person, per day, and say it’s best if you have a 14-day supply. That much water would weigh like 450 pounds. 😳

But we have a lot of other emergency supplies. So, I’m voting “sorta.”

Yeah, humans require a ton of water, which is why it's always the #1 concern when disaster strikes. It's been on my list for a while to buy a filtration system for my emergency supplies. Our tap water here is fantastic, so we don't have anything on hand.

[notreal]

I work with public water systems and know first hand how precarious the water situation is and I still only have a one day supply on hand. I get it, it's hard.

[kadams767]

I’m in Buffalo and would say moderately prepared. Preparedness ebbs and flows based on the weather report - clearly our concerns stem from snowstorms and ice storms, so we usually have some time to prepare in advance. I heed all cautionary warnings and be sure we have food and water, along with some cash, whenever the warnings hit now. We don’t have a generator and were without power for 8 days during the ice storm in 2006, so I generally know what we’ll need if it were to again. We always have propane for a small propane heater, and we have a gas stove for cooking. Gas fireplace insert as well for some heat. We could probably be more prepared, but I don’t have a lot of space to stockpile things and that’s also a major anxiety trigger of mine, so I try to balance the two schools of anxiety, honestly.

ETA:  we also always have flashlights, headlamps, etc. charged and ready.

[pixy0stix]

Somewhat off topic - I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but you can buy water bottles with filters. I'm going to get one purely for when I travel. I haaaaate getting bottled water, but tap water in some places makes me sick. I'm looking at the Epic Nalgene water bottle. You can buy filters for outdoor filtration or tap filtration.

[devonpow]

Jan 11, 2023 22:48:25 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Somewhat off topic - I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but you can buy water bottles with filters. I'm going to get one purely for when I travel. I haaaaate getting bottled water, but tap water in some places makes me sick. I'm looking at the Epic Nalgene water bottle. You can buy filters for outdoor filtration or tap filtration.

I have a Life Straw in each of our “bug out bags” (DH thinks I’m nuts but you never know). They make pitchers as well lifestraw.com/

[mrsukyankee]

Nothing other than to always have canned foods that would last a week or so. London isn't known for having many natural disasters. I'm more prepared for terrorist or other types of events where I may be stuck away from home because public transport isn't working, so always have reasonably comfortable shoes for walking distances (or carry them & have a pair at work near central London).

[basilosaurus]

At least with hurricanes you get a few days warning. We'd seal the tubs and fill them. It's not potable necessarily, depending on if house was impacted, but can be used for flushing. Can always be boiled (with our gas stove to make ends meat)

Because I cannot consume tap water here I'm very conscious of my water consumption as I have to fill my 9 liter bottles at the corner store often. I'm a big water drinker and consume maybe 2-3 liters per day without accounting for cooking or toilet.

It's easy to see how it can be a gallon per person.

But I also grew up with pretty severe water restrictions. I'm probably more conscious than most. We were either on rain catchment (fun without power!) Or on a boat with minimal water capacity. Even with showering in ocean and only fresh water rinse, flushing with sea water, we budgeted about 2gal pp /day. With small children being part of that so round up for adults.

I'm fully convinced fresh water is the cause of our next global war, possibly the end of humanity. We don't even realize how much we use. 1gal/day is pretty conservative.

[shauni27]

Jan 11, 2023 16:17:26 GMT -5 abs said:

I’m surprised by how many people aren’t prepared and don’t think about being without power. Is my anxiety that bad that we have multiple plans? Or has Houston broke me with our yearly once in a lifetime storms?

I mean 99% of the time we have zero power issues. But when we don’t it’s not fun. I didn’t actively think about it until Hurricane Ike in 2008 when we went 17 days without power. Now much you can do to plan for that beyond whole house generators.

I live in the northeast and we are usually given warning when something like potential power outages can happen. For example, Christmas week we had insane storms that had people without power for a week. But folks knew the storms were coming and could get gas for their generators, etc.

As for us, we are basically not prepared at all, but with warning we would be somewhat prepared. The toughest for us is how rural we are--if we get a bad storm we can be blocked in by trees down and snow, but the most that has "trapped" us is like a few hours. We have a diesel run generator that we can hook up for things, but honestly, my emergency plan is if we lose power for a long time to go stay with a friend who has power, lol.

[pixy0stix]

So a couple of re-occurring themes here that are worrying from any emergency preparedness plan:
1. Reliance on friends/family to bail them out. This puts a lot of pressure on said friend/family and can put them in danger if they're in an impacted zone. If your plan is to really do this, make sure you bring your own supplies (aka have them on hand), and talk to them before any disaster hits that they are your emergency plan. They might not want to say no if you're in the thick of things, and I've seen the other end on message boards. It can strain your relationship pretty significantly.

2. Relying on warnings - we're entering a time where there potentially isn't much warning. Hurricanes, maybe, but the way they ramp up now it's hard to tell what Cat they're going to be when they land. We've now had several where they were supposed to be a Cat 2 when landing, and ramped to a Cat 5 when it hit with not enough time to evacuate. Blizzards can also be mostly predicted, but there's *always* a potential they'll go sideways. Tornadoes - anyone who lives in a tornado area knows there's no warning for those. Yelling "put on your shoes" is a pretty good plan.

[hermione]

I am going to put in a plug for this flashlight. My husband originally selected it out of a catalog for years if service at his university. Since then we have bought more and to have in our cars and the more than one room. Last fall we had no power for 5 days and we could set it on an end table pointed up and it provided enough light in the room at night to read or play board games.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NF2HS9M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[jinkies]

I think we are generally prepared. We have a whole house generator and are on well water so we should continue to have water. We do have life straws too though.

We usually keep a relatively stocked pantry, and have chickens so a pretty much endless supply of eggs.

My son keeps a fully stocked 24-hour pack for one of his extracurriculars. It has any basic survival items we would need short term.

We aren't full on preppers or anything, but I feel good about our ability to survive any short- to medium-term emergency.

[breezy8407]

I picked sorta, but not really. At the beginning of the covid pandemic, I bought a few things like battery/manual powered radio, life straw, and a bunch of medicine and first aid supplies. The medicines are all expired now of course. We have some extra water on hand, but not enough for multiple days. Losing power in cold temps would be the most challenging emergency since we don't have camping or indoor heating type equipment other than our gas fireplace.

[rubytue]

Jan 12, 2023 12:36:49 GMT -5 breezy8407 said:

I picked sorta, but not really. At the beginning of the covid pandemic, I bought a few things like battery/manual powered radio, life straw, and a bunch of medicine and first aid supplies. The medicines are all expired now of course. We have some extra water on hand, but not enough for multiple days. Losing power in cold temps would be the most challenging emergency since we don't have camping or indoor heating type equipment other than our gas fireplace.

I have a box with some emergency prep stuff. Mentioning the beginning of the pandemic reminded me that there was the point where I needed to go out, and it was right when it seemed masking would help, but they weren’t recommending it. I remembered I had some KN95 masks in this box, and I got them out. But then, I was so hesitant to use my emergency supplies. Because, they were for an emergency, and, you know, the fact we’d been home for a few weeks with power, water, food, etc didn’t *feel* emergency.

i did eventually talk myself into opening them, with the reminder that *this* is why I had the box. In case I needed it. 

Speaking of, I need to find that box. I’m not sure where it ended up after we moved. 

[msmerymac]

Sorta - we have a small solar generator that can charge our electronics/rechargeable flashlights and stuff. We have some camping supplies/lanterns and a camp stove, plus a charcoal grill and a backyard fire pit. We always have a stash of filtered water. We keep a good stock of canned things and pantry items in the basement, including things I can myself.

Our house is very, very, very unlikely to flood, we don’t have a finished basement, and it’s 100 years old, so it’s designed with natural light and good airflow - assuming the heat or AC is out. We don’t live in a place where fires or earthquakes are a concern.

We do not have a whole house generator. Our long-term plan is to move further north, especially as summers in the mid-Atlantic become more unbearable, and expand our garden, get a fireplace, and buy a generator.

[aprilsails]

We’re in decent shape. We have a small gas powered generator and a meter head connection. It can pick up our well pump, fridge, freezer, and fun the gas furnace as well. We have had some major storms in the past three years (two 2-5 day outage events in the region where we lent out our generator and supplies to family and friends) and our house has not lost power since we’re mostly buried underground. That being said, I’ve filled the bathtubs each time and made sure we had a couple flats of water bottles or some big jugs.

DH is all about the backup batteries and we have lots of flashlights, a mini propane stove, and a propane lantern as well. We have gas for the generator and propane for the bbq. We have way too much food in the house. We could definitely go a month no problem.

I’ve always felt overprepared but I also went a full 36 days with no power in the dead of winter in 1998 during the ice storm. We shut off water to our house and moved in with an Uncle who had a wood stove. When we renovate the basement I want to put one in.

It’s hard to know how much is enough or not enough. As an electrical engineer I’ve read the reports and know how quickly things can go to shit. I also am absolutely amazed by some of the repairs and recovery work that can be done. Support your linesmen everyone.

[StrawberryBlondie]

I think we're OK. Our main weather-related issue is tornados. And blizzards, which we get plenty of warning for. We have a finished basement and a small generator. The generator isn't big enough to power the whole house, but it can handle a space heater, chargers, a lamp or two.

I could probably do a little better with my car emergency kit. I took the blanket out over the summer to wash it and forgot to put it back.

[wildrice]

Jan 11, 2023 23:27:44 GMT -5 devonpow said:

Jan 11, 2023 22:48:25 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Somewhat off topic - I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but you can buy water bottles with filters. I'm going to get one purely for when I travel. I haaaaate getting bottled water, but tap water in some places makes me sick. I'm looking at the Epic Nalgene water bottle. You can buy filters for outdoor filtration or tap filtration.

I have a Life Straw in each of our “bug out bags” (DH thinks I’m nuts but you never know). They make pitchers as well lifestraw.com/

I was just looking at those the other day! Have you used yours with "undrinkable" water yet? We are going to Turkey and I really don't want to get sick from the water on that trip, but I also don't love the idea of buying plastic water bottles for 10 days. I drink a lot of water and that's so wasteful. But for some reason I'm nervous it won't work well enough and I'll be dealing with GI issues while trying to enjoy the trip...

[meanie]

Lurker here - We gave this a lot of thought ~10 years ago when we lost power for 2 weeks in the winter.

Where we live (MA) a generator is essential, we bought one as soon as they were available after the first big storm when we lost power. Remember to test run yours and let it run for a bit each month.

We also have a lot of "prepper" type things that we will hopefully never use. A few things might be handy in a storm though - solar radio, sleeping bags, water purifying tablets, hand crank flashlights.

Also remember to house your supplies in a water tight container, it would really suck to be prepared and find your supplies are ruined.

[pinkdutchtulips]

I'm prepped for an earthquake but I need to add doggie stuff to the kit since the last time I checked it we were dogless. 

The EQ kit doubles as the flashflood/wildfire kit too. #CALiving 

[InBetweenDays]

Our biggest threat is an earthquake. We don't have hurricanes or tornados, local wildfires are unlikely, and we're in an area where we don't need to worry about flooding.

We need to do better about keeping enough water on hand. Other than that I think we'd be ok for probably 5-7 days. Our pantry is pretty well stocked and we have a ton of camping and backpacking gear - so stoves, food, water filters, sleeping bags, first aid kits, portable chargers, etc.

[devonpow]

Jan 12, 2023 15:42:27 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Jan 11, 2023 23:27:44 GMT -5 devonpow said:

I have a Life Straw in each of our “bug out bags” (DH thinks I’m nuts but you never know). They make pitchers as well lifestraw.com/

I was just looking at those the other day! Have you used yours with "undrinkable" water yet? We are going to Turkey and I really don't want to get sick from the water on that trip, but I also don't love the idea of buying plastic water bottles for 10 days. I drink a lot of water and that's so wasteful. But for some reason I'm nervous it won't work well enough and I'll be dealing with GI issues while trying to enjoy the trip...

I have not used them (and hopefully I never will lol). We aren’t campers etc, so I really just have them for dire emergencies.

[ohgillian]

Jan 11, 2023 23:27:44 GMT -5 devonpow said:

Jan 11, 2023 22:48:25 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Somewhat off topic - I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but you can buy water bottles with filters. I'm going to get one purely for when I travel. I haaaaate getting bottled water, but tap water in some places makes me sick. I'm looking at the Epic Nalgene water bottle. You can buy filters for outdoor filtration or tap filtration.

I have a Life Straw in each of our “bug out bags” (DH thinks I’m nuts but you never know). They make pitchers as well lifestraw.com/

Not nuts. We have the same, and each have one in our car emergency kit.

[sweetchix]

I’m outside of Buffalo and voted “sorta”. While I feel I’d be good with food and supplies, if we were to lose power, I’d have no way to heat my home. I have an electric stove and no fireplace.

Reading through pp, I may look into getting some kind of generator, at least to keep the furnace going. I don’t think HOA would allow a gas one, so I’d have to look into the other options.

[SwimDeep]

Well, I voted "sorta" but after reading the replies of everyone who also said sorta I'm thinking I'm not actually prepared at all 😅

No generator.
No way to cook food or heat the house if we lose power.
No go bags if we have to evacuate.
No emergency kits in the cars.
Only one good carrier for the cats (I have a carrier for each cat, but two are very old and I'm pretty sure are too small now).

So, yeah. We have shelf stable food for a few days (maybe a week if we're careful) and some bottled water.

I guess I'll try to start picking things up here and there so I feel better prepared.

[bears]

We're in NC, so our biggest threats would be an ice storm or a hurricane.

We have a gas water heater and a gas stove. We also have a propane grill and a camp stove. Our neighbors have a whole house generator and have given us an extension cord so we can plug in our fridge, charge our phones, and have a light.

If we lose power and it's cold, we have a gas fireplace and the ability to close off our den/kitchen so the heat lost wouldn't escape to the rest of the house as easily.

If we lose power and it's hot, we have a screened in porch to sleep on.

[cattledogkisses]

Jan 12, 2023 14:39:14 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

We’re in decent shape. We have a small gas powered generator and a meter head connection. It can pick up our well pump, fridge, freezer, and fun the gas furnace as well. We have had some major storms in the past three years (two 2-5 day outage events in the region where we lent out our generator and supplies to family and friends) and our house has not lost power since we’re mostly buried underground. That being said, I’ve filled the bathtubs each time and made sure we had a couple flats of water bottles or some big jugs.

DH is all about the backup batteries and we have lots of flashlights, a mini propane stove, and a propane lantern as well. We have gas for the generator and propane for the bbq. We have way too much food in the house. We could definitely go a month no problem.

I’ve always felt overprepared but I also went a full 36 days with no power in the dead of winter in 1998 during the ice storm. We shut off water to our house and moved in with an Uncle who had a wood stove. When we renovate the basement I want to put one in.

It’s hard to know how much is enough or not enough. As an electrical engineer I’ve read the reports and know how quickly things can go to shit. I also am absolutely amazed by some of the repairs and recovery work that can be done. Support your linesmen everyone.

Oh man, the ice storm of ‘98. We were some of the lucky ones who were “only“ without power for two weeks. 

That’s pretty much my measure for the “how bad can things get” scale now. 

[cattledogkisses]

Jan 12, 2023 8:57:37 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

So a couple of re-occurring themes here that are worrying from any emergency preparedness plan:
1. Reliance on friends/family to bail them out. This puts a lot of pressure on said friend/family and can put them in danger if they're in an impacted zone. If your plan is to really do this, make sure you bring your own supplies (aka have them on hand), and talk to them before any disaster hits that they are your emergency plan. They might not want to say no if you're in the thick of things, and I've seen the other end on message boards. It can strain your relationship pretty significantly.

People should also have a backup plan in case they’re not able to leave their house to go elsewhere. In the case of a blizzard, ice storm, hurricane, or flood there’s a high chance that roads may be impassable for an extended period of time.  

[Pom]

We went through Texas hurricanes from Rita to Harvey. We were very lucky with minor repairs. And the winter storm with no power but we had a whole house generator. Now we are in northern climate. We happened to be in Tx for Christmas this year during the mini blizzard. Thankfully, we didn’t lose power. We have a snowmobile and tow sled if we had to leave. We don’t have a generator yet but we have fish shanty (propane heater) and supplies so we could cook. Heat is our main crisis. A few of our neighbors have wood burners so we’d shut off the water and seek shelter there. We always have extra food and bottled water.