If something happens.....

[WV_mom_of2]

how prepared are you? This kind of goes along with the pioneer spirit thread I think.

If a disaster happened in your area(blizzard, hurricane, tornado, flood, major power outage) how prepared are you?

Assuming that your home and stockpile are ok but the power is out for an extended amount of time.......

How will you cook?

Do you have a water source?

How would you wash clothes?

Are you prepared to hunt/fish for food?

How would you heat your home?

Could your family manage for two weeks or more?

I recently read a book about a family that was faced with this problem. At exactly the same moment all over the world everything stopped working. Cars stopped right where they were, planes fell from the sky. Mowers, generators, etc. wouldn't start. Radio, tv, cell phone, phone, electric....everything was out. Watches wouldn't work. People were stranded miles from home. The people in the community had to band together to figure out what on earth to do! They had to make a decision of whether to hoard what they had to make sure it lasted for their family or share with neighbors. It really made me wonder what we'd do in a situation like this.

[Cricketlegs]

Well we could fire up dhs bbq pit for one.

Oh gosh I need a manual can opener!

I do know from trips and being in hotelrooms that I CAN drink my coffee black---YECH--- if I have too!

As to water--you mean a source of CLEAN water???I don't buy water, a waste here as our water tastes fine.

[WV_mom_of2]

We've actually been in this situation twice LOL. In 1996 we had a major blizzard. A couple of weeks later it warmed up and POURED rain and our area flooded. We are the last house on the town water system and the flood took out the water line between our house and our neighbor's. Everyone had water but us! I was 8 months pregnant with no water! We waited for two weeks for them to fix it and just got excuse after excuse. We hauled water from my Grandma's, took our laundry there to wash, took baths there, etc. Finally my uncle came and hooked up a spring water system that we have water rights to into our house for the next four weeks. Yep, it took them SIX weeks to fix my water! Even with the spring system we didn't have water half the time. If the neighbors below us(who use the spring system all the time) were using water, we had none.

In 1998 we had a major snowstorm that took out power over half our state. We had no power for 9 very long days! After the first two days we borrowed my grandma's generator, used it for 2 days. Then they called for us to get another storm so my uncle took it back to grandma's. We bought a generator a couple of days later(and the power came back on that night LOL).

Cooking- I have a gas grill, a charcoal grill(with gas and charcoal extra), a propane camping stove with extra propane, and a firepit in my backyard. Dh built me a cooking grate to take camping with us and I can put that over the firepit and cook. It's very large so I can do several pans/skillets at once. I could cook and heat water for baths or washing clothes.

Laundry- I would heat water outside and wash the clothes in the bathtub

Water- our town water system is gravity fed, so even when the power is out we still have cold water. If something happened to the water we have the spring system we could hook back into the house and we also live near a stream so we could get water from there. In a snowstorm we could melt snow. I also have some water stored here (I'm working on getting more)

Light- I have tons of candles, two camping lanterns and two oil lamps. I have matches and extra lamp oil.

Heat - we heat with an outdoor woodstove. We would use the generator (which is hooked into our whole house) to keep the stove running. We would run it for an hour or two, then bundle up and turn it off for a few hours. We have tons of warm winter clothing, hunting coveralls, blankets, etc.

We all hunt and fish and have everything we'd need to do this. I feel like we are as prepared as we can be for an emergency.

[WV_mom_of2]

Oh gosh I need a manual can opener!

This is the only kind I own. I actually have three of them LOL. You can get one at Dollar General/Tree for 1.00

This is what I was hoping for....that we could help each other get prepared by listing things we have or need. It might make somoone see something they need!

[Lady_V]

If a disaster happened in your area(blizzard, hurricane, tornado, flood, major power outage) how prepared are you?

We normally only have to worry about blizzards -- this is New England, we go in to blizzard prep mode around Halloween

Assuming that your home and stockpile are ok but the power is out for an extended amount of time.......

How will you cook?

We have a gas stove. If for whatever reason our building had no gas, we do have a propane grill/stove we use for camping.

Do you have a water source?

No. We usually have a few gallons of water in the house. There is a place where we can buy fresh spring water down the street.

How would you wash clothes?

We have enough clothes to last a while, but it if was prolonged water outages... worse case, we could wash them in the pool.

Are you prepared to hunt/fish for food?

We could fish. We all know how to fish. We'd have to travel a distance to get to 'clean water'. The fish local to us can't be eaten due to mercury contents. We can't hunt. No gun, gun license, or area to hunt.

How would you heat your home?

Our heat comes from the condo complex. If they didn't have heat, and we had no electricity, we would have to bundle up. No other options available.

Could your family manage for two weeks or more?

Yes.

[peanut]

Interesting quesions!

"how prepared are you? This kind of goes along with the pioneer spirit thread I think.

If a disaster happened in your area(blizzard, hurricane, tornado, flood, major power outage) how prepared are you?"

We get severe summer storms. This year we were without power for 12 hours, no phone or Internet for 3 -5 days. Because we're in a city, things are taken care of fairly quickly. We relied on DD#2's cell phone during the five days the phone was out. We also have really cold winters, but I haven't had utilities affected by them in the 13 years we've been here.

Assuming that your home and stockpile are ok but the power is out for an extended amount of time.......

How will you cook?

We will BBQ, use the campstove, or use our fireplace, if necessary.

Do you have a water source?

We are on city water. We tend to keep a jug of filtered water in the fridge. We filter all our water because the city water tastes awful. Other than that, we would have troubles.

We used to have a huge freezer that I kept a layer of water jugs in the bottom of, but we had to get it out of the house before the basement windows were replaced. That was the only way to get it out of the basement, and the contractors weren't guaranteeing the windows if tried moving a freezer through it. So out went the jugs of water in favour of a smaller freezer.

How would you wash clothes?

By hand, the old fashioned way. Line drying...I have all the supplies. I used to do this when I camped in the bush growing up. Only once a week would we hit a laundromat in a town 1 hour away, if then. Could be an issue if we didn't have water though!

Are you prepared to hunt/fish for food?

No. We don't have the equipment and don't know how.

How would you heat your home?

If all else fails, we'd use the fireplace.

Could your family manage for two weeks or more?

Not without water supply. My stockpile would take us past two weeks for food, even if everything in the freezer went bad. I have a lot of canned fish we'd be eating!


Jean

[treeluva]

You know, my mother used to be the stockpile queen. She was ready for any emergency. So she thought. Then the levees broke. It doesn't matter how much you have stored away if your house has 15 feet of water in it.

Now, she doesn't stockpile. She doesn't see what the use is, when everything went to pot. Her plan for an emergency? Have enough cash in the bank to pick a place not in an emergency situation and go there until things are fixed enough back home to return.

[missmanny]

Good lord,

i think that we would probably perish! there is enough food her to eat for weeks - but clean water - never thought of that - I keep about 3 litres in the fridge - I guess we would have to ration.

[sunshine]

If a disaster happened in your area(blizzard, hurricane, tornado, flood, major power outage) how prepared are you?

Assuming that your home and stockpile are ok but the power is out for an extended amount of time.......

How will you cook? Wood stove, propane camping stove, charcoal grill, solar cooker, fire pit, open fire

Do you have a water source? gravity fed city water, well with a hand pump, well without a pump (would drop a bucket on a rope to dip it up), cistern without a pump, near by ponds, streams

How would you wash clothes? I own an old fashioned wash board -- but I've found it's easier to use a clean toilet plunger to agitate the clothes in galvanized tubs. . then grab a partner to wring the clothes out -- I have lines to hang clothes in the yard, in the ceiling of the basement, and a retractable line in the spare bedroom

Are you prepared to hunt/fish for food? yes -- rifles, shotguns, fishing poles, trap lines, fishing nets, etc.

How would you heat your home? kerosene heat, woodstove, solar heat grabbers, propane cooking range

Could your family manage for two weeks or more? yes, we've had to do it many times -- last was a couple years ago, when the Midwest got slammed with severe ice storms every month. We were without power for 14 days , 8 days, 26 days.

[sunshine]

If a disaster happened in your area(blizzard, hurricane, tornado, flood, major power outage) how prepared are you?

Assuming that your home and stockpile are ok but the power is out for an extended amount of time.......

How will you cook? Wood stove, propane camping stove, charcoal grill, solar cooker, fire pit, open fire

Do you have a water source? gravity fed city water, well with a hand pump, well without a pump (would drop a bucket on a rope to dip it up), cistern without a pump, near by ponds, streams

How would you wash clothes? I own an old fashioned wash board -- but I've found it's easier to use a clean toilet plunger to agitate the clothes in galvanized tubs. . then grab a partner to wring the clothes out -- I have lines to hang clothes in the yard, in the ceiling of the basement, and a retractable line in the spare bedroom

Are you prepared to hunt/fish for food? yes -- rifles, shotguns, fishing poles, trap lines, fishing nets, etc.

How would you heat your home? kerosene heat, woodstove, solar heat grabbers, propane cooking range

Could your family manage for two weeks or more? yes, we've had to do it many times -- last was a couple years ago, when the Midwest got slammed with severe ice storms every month. We were without power for 14 days , 8 days, 26 days.

[Luv2BeFrugal]

[QUOTE=WV_mom_of2;986892]how prepared are you?

How will you cook?
Gas stove...and if that's not working...on top of the wood stove at my parent's (there's firewood there and a forest next to them).

Do you have a water source?
Yup, there are clean lakes all over the place (though I'd still boil all water first...and we have water treatment stuff). We also keep a flat of water bottles for emergencies...that would give us a starting point...plus water in the fridge.

How would you wash clothes?
In the tub, line dry.

Are you prepared to hunt/fish for food?
Yup...got everything you could imagine for it...closest place to fish is about 4 blocks away... And...if it was a worst case scenario...moose come into our YARD. (This is otherwise illegal).

How would you heat your home?
Wood...

Could your family manage for two weeks or more?
Sure...probably do fine for a couple months...but it wouldn't be too fun! I like electricity and running water!

We also have 4 oil lamps, extra oil and extra wicks, candles, tons of matches. A radio/shortwave/light combo that you crank to power. And we have survival skills for harsh climate... I think we'd do fine...

[heartofmine]

It has happened to us a few times. Once with a tornado, a few times with ice storms, and a few times with deep heavy snow.

I have an earth stove and a grill so I cooked on both of those. I kept water heated on the stove which we used for coffee, washing dishes, baths, as well as laundry. I also kept my neighbors supplied with hot water and hot food. I cooked on my stove and they either came and got it or my kids took it to them. Of course the stove is also our source of heat. We are planning on buying a new one before winter. This one is about 30 years old. Its been a good one.

I forgot to add that the grill was on the back deck so I just pulled it up to the back door and cooked from the doorway. LOL The deck was covered with snow. A few times a foot deep.

Laundry I washed the necessities by hand in a big tub sink downstairs, wrung them out by hand and hung them in the basement to dry.

We use candles as well as oil lamps for light. I also bought some of those battery powered lights that stick to stuff and put them in the bathrooms so we'd have light in there. We just turned them on when we went in. I put them in the bedrooms too. Just keep extra batteries.

We've also had to do without a bathroom when we had septic trouble and had to have lines replaced and we do not have an outhouse and can't have one where we live but that is another story. LOL

[Clutterbug Jen]

What's the name of the book that you read 'cuz it sounds really interesting!

As for myself, I would have food enough to eat as long as I still had my gas stove to cook on.

I do have flashlights and a lantern [battery operated] but other than that, not really prepared I guess.

One thing though is that I live in a hi-rise building with many elderly people and I'm sure when it come to help, that our building would be one of the first that was helped.

We're not allowed to have other sources of things here to cook on and also aren't allowed to have lanterns [with the oil, etc.]

As for hunting and fishing, I don't do either and don't eat either meat or fish.

Laundry could be done by hand, it wouldn't be fun but since there is only myself here then it wouldn't be any major deal.

I'm soon moving [to another floor in our building] but once I do move, I'm going to seriously start thinking about things that I can do to get prepared.