Preperation for a Short Term Disaster !

[RSKY]

There have been some posts lately about EMP attacks, hurricanes, power outages and other short term disasters. I have a question about such event since my area had a serious one in 2009 that few people know about. The "Great Ice Storm of 2009" broke off a quarter of the power poles in our county, blocked roads, and cut people off for a couple weeks. We were in the middle of the worst hit area. No power and temps in the 20's.

Questions:

What are mistakes you have made in such a situation?

What preparations have you made in case of a like situation happening again.

Just something to provoke thought and give people ideas. Who knows, something said here may save somebodies life or one of their family's lives.

RSKY

 

[tcreeley]

The hardest thing I have found is to get water- consume, wash, hygiene, and toilets. - Our elec was out just recently for 3.5 days. Our generator bugged out on the 220 so we had the fridge/freezer but no water. We were going through the last of our rain collectors. Another 2 days and we would have been stuck.

 

[coobie]

There have been some posts lately about EMP attacks, hurricanes, power outages and other short term disasters. I have a question about such event since my area had a serious one in 2009 that few people know about. The "Great Ice Storm of 2009" broke off a quarter of the power poles in our county, blocked roads, and cut people off for a couple weeks. We were in the middle of the worst hit area. No power and temps in the 20's.

Questions:

What are mistakes you have made in such a situation?

What preparations have you made in case of a like situation happening again.

Just something to provoke thought and give people ideas. Who knows, something said here may save somebodies life or one of their family's lives.

RSKY

I am a retired electric lineman.Have seen a lot in 39 years of service from people not being prepared.It got us thinking what we needed to do at our house.Two outside gravity fed fuel tanks gas/diesel.Whole house 17kv propane generator,big garden,canning and fruit cellar.Keep plenty of water and canned goods on hand.IMHO one cannot be prepared for all situations but many you can.

 

[dodge man]

We would usually have enough food and a wood burning fireplace. I agree we had a good ice storm here and water is the issue. We filled our bath tub and got by. We now have rural water so that痴 not really an issue any more.

 

[Garandman]

We took note of what Hurricane Sandy did to coastal areas, since we live near the coast.

Notably, people in areas that seldom lose power were without power for weeks.
Even if they had a generator, they usually ran out of fuel in a few days.
They didn稚 have enough gas cans even if they could travel to get gas. *

Based on that, we had the house in Boston wired for generator use, bought Inverter generators that don稚 use much fuel, increased our fuel storage for eight days, and added fuel cans for even more.

We also increased our medical supplies, and took a three day wilderness medicine course: wilderness training assumes you can稚 just call an ambulance. We purchased a family medicine book, assuming we壇 have no internet, even though we are less than five miles from some of the nation's best hospitals.

Finally, we made plans to 澱ug out because it is possible that we couldn稚 stay in Boston (we are very near the harbor). We even keep an unflatable boat and outboard, and a dirt bike.

Up north, after adding a propane fueled generator we also added storage capacity, and got a small Honda EU2000 so we could shut down the whole house system overnight.

* The smartest move we heard of was a guy who ran a PTO genset off his Kubota BX. Low investment, high function.

 

[RSKY]

Since I asked the question I will start first.

When the ice storm hit I was at work forty miles from home. I did have enough sense to stop and fill up with gas before I got into the worst hit area. Took me three hours to make the 45 minute drive. Then another five hours to make the thirty minute drive to another county, pick up my pregnant daughter, detour to pick up my mother (84 at the time) and get home. There were times the anti skid buzzer on the little Toyota AWD was going off for thirty or forty seconds at a time. Being in a rural area there were farmers with tractors (wow, I need a tractor!!!) out everywhere clearing roads. We saw four or five tractors in ditches stuck or on their sides. Ag tires slide on black ice. While all this was going on trees and limbs were still falling. I kept that RAV4 for five more years and never got the scratches from driving thru downed tree tops buffed out. Even though the driveway was clear when we got home it took over two hours the next day for five people to clear the 160' to the road. That many limbs and one tree fell that night. By nightfall on the first day we had eleven people staying with us because we were the only ones with gas logs in a cast iron stove and fireplace. No generator, but my wife managed to scramble eggs on the cast iron stove until they run out. Water for baths was heated in metal pans on that little stove and poured in a tub. Was two days before I made it back to work. Found a generator, drove forty miles for gas and groceries because I had no cash.

After reading the above you will be surprised at what our main problem was. We had no small bills for cash. There were a couple of local gas stations that somehow managed to get the pumps going with generators but couldn't take credit cards, how we pay for all our gas. Even some bigger stores were open with no power BUT it was cash only. We had a couple thousand dollars in MAD money in a lockbox in the house but IT WAS ALL IN $100 BILLS. Nobody had change. We now have a couple hundred each in $1, $5, $10, $20, and $50 with the other thousand in $100 bills. We also have a couple rolls of quarters. In a short term emergency as that was CASH IS KING.

We have a generator. It is not a large one, about 5500 watt I believe. The original 4000-watt I bought during the storm was stored with alcohol gas which ruined it. Every fall I crank it, put some kind of load on it, and run it until empty. I then change the oil and fill it with fresh no alcohol gasoline. I store the generator with 30 weight oil. That weight will stick to the parts over long periods of storage unlike lower viscosity or multi weight oil (so I have read).

I will also fill all the gas cans I have with alcohol free gasoline. Fill all my diesel and kerosene cans. In cold weather kerosene can be mixed with diesel to keep it flowing or to extend your supply. That comes from a heavy equipment mechanic brother-in-law who has run half kerosene in his diesel work truck while up north somewhere.

We have two freezers with various food items in them. There is a pantry full of canned and dry food items. We are on city water, no well pump, and keep two or three cases of bottled water stored somewhere in the garage. We can use books or magazines for toilet paper.

In other words I think we could take in both my daughter's families and survive for a couple weeks to a month with no problem even in the coldest weather we have here.

Anybody see anything I could change or have any ideas to add please feel free.

RSKY

 

[MossRoad]

Don't rely on a freezer and generator. Have plenty of dry foods on hand, like beans and rice, canned goods, etc... While a generator is great for short term outages, weeks on a generator is out of most people's planning and budgets. Gotta plan on running the generator only a few hours per day, at best, to run the freezer, fridge, and well pump. If you're going to rely on a generator to run a furnace for weeks on end, it won't be pleasant.

We have a wood burner and several years worth of wood. We can cook on the wood burner if needed.

We have a well. So we'd need to run the generator for water. Worse comes to worse, we could take the cap off the well and dip water with a small rope and a piece of pipe.

And one thing I've heard here on TBN several times from hurricane victims... keep a large stock of toilet paper. They said that's one of the first things to run out at the stores.

Also, keep a very good first aid kit. That's something we are lacking and I've got to step up on that one.

 

[Dadnatron]

I was without power in the middle of Denver in 1997. Freak snowstorm dumped about 10" of heavy wet snow when the leaves were still on the trees in Sept. We had not heat, so I took the fireplace stove insert, which I had previously removed from the fireplace, stuck it back in, and began burning wood. We all slept in the living room in sleeping bags until the heat came back on.

It was crazy as there was electricity across the street. The thing I have learned is that Fire is ALWAYS hot... and if you have wood and a way to burn it, even in Denver city limits. I grew up with wood heat. We had a house stove which heated the entire house. My grandpa liked it warm, and since there was no bill in the mail, he could keep is as warm as he wanted.

Now... I keep a generator and enough diesel for at least a week. I also have food available at all times. That doesn't count my 'prepper' food... or as my son's call it... the "Apocalypse closet."

When I build my house and barns... I'm going to add solar to one barn. That should provide enough power for the farm without issue. But, I always remember... fire is always hot.

 

[Looking4new]

I have enough TP to last the three of us for 6 months. 25 gallons of Shell V-power gas. (read that as no ethanol). 200 gallons of diesel fuel/furnace oil. 2 freezers full of food. A 8000 watt genny to run the freezers, fridge and well pump. There are two sizeable first aid kits, one for the people and the other for the animals. I also keep a quantity of cash on hand the biggest bill is $50.oo
I probably could be better prepared, but that is it for now.

 

[newbury]

Store a LOT of water.

Get a food quality tote or two.

They are easy to move by hand when empty, hold 200 to 300 gallons, easy to plumb and are relatively inexpensive.

I've been keeping one down by my sheds that fills with rainwater since 2012, use it for sawmill water and wash up water.

About last March our Mississippi "town" water sprung a leak between the meter and the house/sheds. We were losing several hundred gallons a day at least. The plumber advised it may take days to find the leak. Since we were only down there for a limited time I chose to put one of the totes by the house and we transferred water by bucket for most things not requiring potable water.

It was a great aid in keeping my wife from worrying about "running out of water". And like they say "when mama's happy, everybody's happy" and "When Mama's Not Happy - Nobody Is Happy!"

 

[CADplans]

A brand new 200 foot deep well that fills to within 6 feet of the top,,
and a hand pump, just in case.
150 pounds of hard red winter wheat berries, and a wife that can cook with it.
20 pounds of chocolate chips (cookies or waffles, with the whole wheat flour)
NOTE, these are whole wheat,,, and yes we store 10 pounds of Kisses,,,too!!

Enough yeast to last 3 years, literally.
Last years left over garden seed,, (those seeds would be good for years)
Apple, cherry, fig, plum, and peach trees,,
Several varieties of berries,,more to come. AND asparagus,,

Did I say berries??!!

Chickens get the leftovers,, we get the eggs,,,

We have a generator, but, just recently, we have found how useful the Harbor Freight inverter is.
I will get a couple more of those.

 

[CADplans]

Just last week, my son-in-law was mentioning how many devices actually operate off of DC.
He was saying, if we are careful when buying, we can get many versions that operate off of 12 volts DC.

No generator is needed, no inverter losses converting AC to DC.

Many travel campers are set up to take advantage of this.
I might even wire a couple 12 volt DC outlets,,
I believe the modem, router, computer, Dish Network box, and TV can operate directly off 12 volts DC.
If I had that,, what else would a man need???



I will be looking into this more.

 

[TnAndy]

Water is no problem here....very first issue I tackled 30 years ago. Two 1500gal tanks constantly refilled by gravity feed from our spring, which then gravity feeds the house. Pressure isn't the best (about 25psi), but we lived with it for decades before I finally put in a nice booster pump. I did not put that on the backup power panel, but would just flip a couple bypass valves and go back to lower pressure if depending on backup power.

Food is no problem. We have 6 smaller freezers, because as we empty them down, we shut one off. I do this because the chance of a failure would not take out a huge portion of our frozen food.....and as I pointed out to someone that once gaped in amazement: "We ALL have the same amount of freezer space....in my case, it's right here under my control....in your case, it's at the supermarket, warehouse or manufacturer's place...and it takes you multiple trips to the store to access it"

We also can and root cellar quite a bit, and could can a lot of the meat out of the freezers if need be, getting down quickly to one-two. And keep many cases/buckets of long term dehydrated foods, and dried whole grains.

One of several dry storage areas:

Root cellar....late summer, not to stocked yet.

Also raise our own beef, pork, chicken (meat + eggs), catfish. (Got steer in quarters in the walk-in cooler right now, to be cut up in another week or so)

Have two greenhouses we can grow 3+ season in.

Heat/etc: We now heat with wood 99%....use couple of super energy efficient mini-splits early fall/late spring when don't want the full heat of a fire. They are there mainly for some AC the few weeks of summer it's needed. I keep 12-15 cords of hardwood cut ahead....yesterday I was cutting wood for the winter of '19-20. Have a propane space heater that will keep the house well above freezing if needed, and 3-500 gallon tanks of propane (typical use for all propane is about 300 gal/yr). Range top is propane, water heating is propane (switched from electric after a 2 week power outage in a 90's snow).

Power: 11kw solar with battery backup, plus an 8 kw diesel generator with 1,000gal fuel storage. Another 8kw gasoline welder generator (Miller Bobcat). Plenty of stored gasoline preserved with PRI, and rotated/refilled regular into 300gal gravity feed tank for use around the place/vehicles.

Toilet paper ? Yeah.....big fan of it. Got on a kick about it some years back, and put a dozen plywood boxes like this (144 rolls per box) well sealed and stuck in around in various sheds/barns).

Lots more, deep and wide..and plenty of defensive measures to hold on to it.......this is but a sample.

 

[3930dave]

Just last week, my son-in-law was mentioning how many devices actually operate off of DC.
He was saying, if we are careful when buying, we can get many versions that operate off of 12 volts DC.

No generator is needed, no inverter losses converting AC to DC.

Many travel campers are set up to take advantage of this.
I might even wire a couple 12 volt DC outlets,,
I believe the modem, router, computer, Dish Network box, and TV can operate directly off 12 volts DC.
If I had that,, what else would a man need???



I will be looking into this more.

Not inexpensive, but when you get to checking out fridges, look at Sunfrost. They've been in the DC game for quite a long time, including 24v and and 48v models.

They started out building vaccine/med fridges for 500 miles from anywhere applications. Reliability is not optional out there.

Rgds, D.

 

[/pine]

Cross post...

This thread is in the 'Rural Living' forum so on the guise that many rural homes are on wells rather than municipal water systems...And since a human can only survive 3-5 days without water...I'd say it's one of the more important things in disruptive situations...

Hand pumps...without power, moving liquids like fuel and water will require hand pumps...folks with wells can install stationary hand pumps...hand pumps should be checked out as often as genny check runs...but nobody is going to get it done in 45 minutes...Take it from the boy scouts and "be prepared"...

 

[TnAndy]

Take it from the boy scouts and "be prepared"...

Eagle Scout here, class of 1965. I've always tried living "Be Prepared" (The scout motto for those that not familiar)

 

[/pine]

Eagle Scout here, class of 1965. I've always tried living "Be Prepared" (The scout motto for those that not familiar)

Salute and hat's off...I learned a lot in the scouts and had nothing but good experiences...I was just a merit shy of attaining 'Life' rank...
BTW...to this day one of my favorite supper meals is from the B.S. manual...(steak, potato, corn on the cob done on an open fire)...!

 

[ericm979]

The water level in our well is 190' down. I don't think they make hand pumps that can do that. But we have a 10,000 gallon tank which feeds the house by gravity. That water, connected to a hydrant, is required for fire fighting here. We're set for water when the power goes out.

Our challenges are roads out, trees down on the road, and fire. I can't do much about the first as the surrounding terrain is too steep. But there's more than one road in and out. I can handle down trees if there's no wires under them. Our preparations for fire include roof sprinklers, fire tools and hose, and of course plenty of cleared space around the buildings.

The recent fires where we packed but didn't evacuate showed that the prep work I still need to do are things like storing our papers somewhere safe, keeping pet carriers in a known location, and deciding what possessions to bring during an evacuation.

 

[CalG]

Two phrases come to mind, actually three, now that I think on the topic.

"If you are born to drown, Have no fear of fire".

"Consider the lilies of the valley, the birds of the air, they neither sown nor reap....etc..."

And

"The lord helps those who help themselves."

I'm not sure where that last one comes from. ;-)

eta

Pet boxes? Where are you going? Guilligan's Island?

 

[Garandman]

Some Mormon friends taught me a trick.

Pay with everything you buy for a week or teo with $20 bills. Keep all those small bills in the safe, unless you want to be paying $20 for everything.....