I suspect watching what happened with Hurricane Sandy was a big wake-up call for many people. For the life of me, I cannot understand why people didn’t make even the most basic preparations for that storm when they saw it coming two weeks out.
My biggest takeaway? Expect NO HELP for at least a week to ten days.
Seriously. You have to be ready to take care of yourself and your loved ones for at least that long. FEMA will tell you to have three days worth of supplies, but that is obviously not even close to enough. A week is the minimum it would seem and if you have more than that then you can help others.
We’ve lived through the aftermath of a straight-line windstorm that knocked out our power for five or six days. We lived in an apartment at the time and had to stay with a friend that week. In our previous home, we would lose our power at least once or twice a year. While no one can prepare for every eventuality, there are basic things anyone should do even if you can’t afford a generator or other expensive equipment.
After reading many first-hand stories online, this is what I’ve gleaned to pass along.
First, when a storm is even slightly suspected of heading your way… jump into action! Don’t wait until the day before. As soon as there is any hint in the media, start getting ready. Top off the gas tanks, fill a couple of extra gas cans, do your laundry, and clean your house.
Put together a couple of bins of the most important stuff in your house. Put them in the car or right by the door so if you are forced to flee your home unexpectedly you can be out the door in under five minutes. This would also include stashing food and water so it is ready to go if you are forced to evacuate. I would also pack a suitcase with several changes of clothing, medications, and toiletries for everyone.
Make sure you have some cash so you can buy things (if stores are even open).
Store water. It seems like anyone who doesn’t have enough water for two weeks (yes, TWO weeks) isn’t prepared. And that’s not just water to drink. That’s water to try to keep yourself reasonably clean, flush toilets, etc. Fill up the bathtubs, fill up every pot, pan and container you have with water.
And speaking of toilets… Do you have an alternative? A portable toilet and toilet liners is not very expensive. Buy it and put it in your emergency supplies.
Do you have a way to keep warm? Part of me is glad the gas insert went on our fireplace. We now have a wood burning fireplace. And while fireplaces are not super efficient in terms of heating an entire house, we will never freeze as long as we have the fireplace going. And if you are counting on your gas fireplace to keep you warm, just hope your gas line is okay. If might not be if you are in an earthquake or something.
Do you have any food that requires no refrigeration? Canned soups, canned meats, granola bars, canned fruits, apples, instant oatmeal, juice boxes, hot cocoa, etc. I think comfort foods are super important when you are in a stressful situation (chocolate, chips, pop, etc.) Again, after reading what I’ve read I think if you don’t have a minimum of two weeks on hand you are asking for trouble. You might choose to store foods you wouldn’t normally eat because they are appropriate for emergency situations. If you end up not needing them and they are getting close to the expiration date, then donate them to a food pantry. We all spend lots of money on insurance for our homes and cars that we never need, but we wouldn’t go without it. It seems like having some emergency food on hand all the time falls into the same category. (And make sure you have a couple of basic can openers!)
Do you have an alternate way to cook food? A camping stove? A gas grill? If you have a gas grill, do you have an extra tank of propane? Did you know you can make pizza on a gas grill? Bread? (Hint: Print off the recipes and put them in your emergency binder.)
Do you have a way to make coffee if you drink it every day? You do not want to go through caffeine withdrawals on top of everything else!
Do you have alternate lighting? LED lanterns? Flashlights? Lots of extra batteries? Crank flashlights are also very handy.
And speaking of cranking things… Do you have a really good radio to get information? Crank ones won’t run out of batteries. Do you have a NOAA weather radio that backs up with batteries so you can continue to be aware of other weather threats or civil emergencies?
Do you have a way to charge your cell phone off your car battery?
Do you have disposable everything? Plates, cups, silverware, etc. Unless you can store a LOT of water, you don’t want to waste precious water doing dishes.
Do you have toiletries you need? Disposable diapers? Plenty of TP? Feminine needs?
These are just a few things off the top of my head and this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list. What have you learned from observing or even going through a similar situation?
I was thinking more about this after reading some more first hand accounts today. What would have happened if this type of storm had hit in the heat of summer? The water situation and waste/sanitation situations would have been dire very quickly.
Another reason to store some water… You cannot rely on the safety of the public water in an event like this. And if you don’t get the boil water advisory in time, you could be in for a (literal) world of hurt.
I grew up in the country, where we could be snowed in or without power for several days, so most of this comes naturally. Water preparation is the hardest for me now, because I keep thinking that I could just use rainwater or pond water. I think of these things in terms of redundancy: having more than one source for everything, so if one fails, there is at least one backup.
This kind of resilience is good to have even when there’s not a major disaster. A lot of minor things have broken or gone wrong in our house lately, and it is always nice to have a Plan B that does not require immediately spending our way out of the problem.
We started canning this year and are working towards having a significant food storage. In addition to canning we just bought a dehydrator (arrived today!) as another means of preserving food. We do have a deep freeze but we have a solar powered generator that we use regularly and is available for back up. For water we have both a pond and rain barrels and a Berkey for water purification. We’re working on an alternate source for heating such as a wood burning stove, which would also provide another cooking source if we needed it. We use propane though so provided the gas line was fine our stove would continue to work without electricity. We don’t have hurricanes where we live but we’re right in the middle of tornado alley and survived a severe ice storm a few years ago.
You offer some good common sense ideas on ways to prepare for an emergency. It seems like people now days expect someone else to take care of them or to take responsibility when there is an emergency. I don’t feel like I would have peace of mind unless I knew I could take care of myself and my family in an emergency. Granted, we can’t prepare for every emergency contingency, but we can prepare for some things. We live where it gets rather cold in the winter and I have worried about what I would do if the power went out and I couldn’t run my furnace. We bought a wood burning stove and installed it in our basement. We also got a bunch of firewood and stored it in our backyard. We have also been storing other emergency supplies.
Someone emailed me this comment because they couldn’t get it to post:
Sallie,
I am SURE we are connected in some way because these are the same exact thoughts I have had these last few days. I remember reading a quote from a lady who was in the thick of the damage and her demanding she be sent food, clothing and water. Now I understand if my house were demolished from a surprise event that I too would have immediate needs as those. But what I realized is that the help is me. Regular people like me who then have to go in and render aid to those affected by the disaster. What was crystal clear is that people think help should arrive immediately. Within hours- but most times it can’t arrive like that. If roads are washed out, or flooding and electrical wires threaten electrocution then help might not be there for a while. Like- a LONG while. It takes a long time to fly in helicopters and pluck people from rooftops. It takes time to refuel and return. It takes time and trucks to move in water, food, blankets, cots and medical help. Logistics take time. I cannot count on outside help showing up for a very long time. In our immediate family many of the men have jobs that would require them to serve the public instead of our families. It’s just the expectation- so in their stead we have to be ready to support ourselves and our families without them most of the time. Thankfully I grew up in the country and I know how to do a lot of things to end-run most problems we could encounter with a disaster. Not all of course, but I have a good foundation with tools and the like.
The last thing that just slayed my heart was the article where a journalist uncovered that one of the major emergency centers only had information available on their website-for people smack in the middle of the disaster. The quote was that essentially people could use the last of their laptop battery to check their website for help and information.
(Stunned silence I am sure- until I start to holler)
“WHAT IF THERE IS NO INTERNET CONNECTIVITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR DISASTER?” Ahem. So, I believe your ideas about the water, food, clean clothes and a clean house are spot on- your comments about the weather radio with crank is brilliant. So in printing off all necessary information like radio station numbers and emergency info I would normally just look up online. I can imagine just printing that out and taping it to my weather radio. Your emergency binder is also brilliant-phone numbers, directions for items used in an emergency (like a little used camping stove, how to relight the pilot lights on things, how to turn off your water or gas lines etc) and numbers for family and county/state offices since my phone might not work for a while.
I am just getting started.
At any rate, thinking through what you and yours will need takes very little time and it leaves the rest of the community able to use up what supplies are left in the stores, charitable food pantries, gas stations and the like. Those who prepare can just stay home and not add to the craziness out and about. Besides, I have neighbors I will need to check on.
Here’s something to ponder… How many other countries have come to help in America?
Zero?
While I appreciate that we are a compassionate country and we want to help people in need, it is striking to me that with the millions and millions of private dollars and assistance we give to people all over the world when something goes wrong, NOT ONE COUNTRY has sent ANY help to our people. Not even in a token display.
Food for thought.
Peggy – I totally agree about the redundancy. What is the saying? Three is two, two is one and one is none?
Jenny – It sounds like you have a great start! Good for you!
Re: an emergency binder… This is something I really need to finish up. For example, there are things that only David knows how to do around here. Even though we are both home together most of the time, it is conceivable that something could happen while he’s gone. And really vice versa. There are things I’ve thought through that I’ve probably never communicated to him and I should write those things down.
I work hard prepping our family for all sorts of disaster scenarios I pray never come true. This is the thing that really gets me and causes me to keep up the hard work prepping & preparing:
What happens when something SO BIG happens the entire USA is hit? Think Sandy coast to coast…
Not likely you say? Well, a financial collapse would be Sandy times 100 to this nation and most everyone would be hit hard. Won’t be pretty.
As we often say in the prepping circles I frequent: Beans, bullets, and bandaids. Stock up.
Lindsey – I said to David today… Imagine if Sandy hit and there was no outside help coming. Can you imagine where things would still be there without the help that poured in from all over the USA?
The one scenario I think concerns me the most where I live is the New Madrid Fault. It doesn’t concern me as in it keeps me up at night (nothing keeps me awake once my head hits the pillow!), but of all the “big” natural things that could happen that would directly impact me, that’s the one I wonder about. Transportation of goods would be a total and complete nightmare through most of the eastern half of the country.
I’m glad you wrote this! I used to make sure I kept up on that, but I’ve let it slide the last couple of years. In the meantime, we’ve acquired more animals. When you were writing about the water, it dawned on me that I haven’t made sure we have water for THEM. I like to think of these animals as our backup food supply–they provide milk and eggs daily, and when we have breeding rabbits they’ll provide meat, too. But without *water* that would dry up very quickly, and it hadn’t even dawned on me!
About the ladies feminine needs…I needed that reminder, too!
Brandy – Glad it helped! We take water so much for granted every day. It is hard to imagine going without clean, running water for more than a day or two.
Brenda also wrote about preparedness this week and I’m going to copy the comment I made over there concerning backing up photos and other important items:
We back everything up with Mozy – including pictures. It doesn’t cost that much per month and it backs everything up a few times each day. If we lost our computers for some reason, we could have everything back as soon as we could go to a store, buy a new computer, and log in to Mozy.
I also took digital photos of all my scrapbooks a number of years ago and they are all stored on Mozy. Many of those scrapbooks were made before digital photos so I only have hard copies of the photos and negatives.
We also have multiple copies of our home movies. The original tape is in the safety deposit box and then we have a DVD copy at home and a DVD copy stored elsewhere. I would be more upset to lose these than the photos.
Sallie, just to add a bit to one if your earlier comments, I know of Canadians personally through Mennonite Distaster Service and the Red Cross who have helped Americans after Katrina and Sandy.
Jen C – Thank you for correcting me. I’m glad to hear this. 🙂