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I think it is often not a matter of being soft but of taking things for granted.
We were completely jolted out of this when we went to South Africa in May and experienced their “load shedding” or recurrent black outs, which average about five hours a day, nearly every day. Keep in mind that the majority of people cannot afford generators, so when the power is down, street lights and traffic lights go down. Safety is compromised, traffic is chaotic, children try to do homework by candlelight, fires are more common, people eat too much packaged junk food because they cannot cook, water supply is affected, trains cannot run and food production is reduced.
We realised on our return home that we take for granted that the power will come on when we turn on the switch, the rubbish will be collected weekly, the water supply will be clean, the trains will run close enough to timetables that there is outrage when there are disruptions, the mail will be delivered and even in the height of Covid lockdowns everyone could access sufficient food even if not exactly to their taste. Unlike the poor children in SA who were deprived of their school meals and went without.
But we did see resilience in action in South Africa, with people somehow coping. It is also something we see here in nature, as it is a normal occurrence for our fire ravaged bush to regenerate.
So it is perhaps not a matter of being frightened of being without the ammenities to which we are accustomed but a hope to be able to cope if need be.
We used to have extended power outages here. Our solution was to go out to dinner, check the phone, and see if the cameras are working. If not we will go to a movie, check again if still out we will check into a hotel.
If that's an option.
The prolonged power outage during the Winter of 2021 was citywide. Stores were closed. Cinemas were closed. Going to a hotel didn't make a sense and with power outage you couldn't even get a room.
That's when is important to have emergency food and water, and also a small cooking device with fuel. Get gas as soon as possible and never park your car with gas tank almost empty. Having generator is great, but even a battery bank it's better than nothing.
People got soft, because most don't experience real hardship during their lifetime.
It was a good test during pandemic.
First thing what disappeared from stores was noodle and spaghetti sauce. There was still lots of food on the shelves, but most people didn't know what to do with it.
Then ready to eat food started to make way to the stores. The demand was (and still is) so big that this section took a big part of the stores.
Pandemic ended, but the demand is still huge.
So, people instead of learning how to cook to be sustainable, switched to buying ready to eat food.
Yes, people became soft, especially city folks that is spoiled by abundance of services provided to them.
Many can't sew, iron, repair simple things, cook simple meals, grow food, preserve it, administer first aid, cut hair, etc.
Any "disaster" that takes more than few hours is life shattering to them.
We should get a little solar panel for the laptops and router.
YES! A must. *Edit: I read further down...you already know all this! Yay! But I'll leave what I wrote for others.
They are pretty inexpensive from Amazon. Me? it's to make sure my -phone is charged.
Then I have solar lights IN my house, the ones with extension wires for the solar panel to always be
in the sun, say, 16 ft away placed outside, if your south windows are blocked with tree like mine
Ha, if you hike or camp...you can clip the solar panel on your back pack and have power!!
What will they think of next?
Someone said ''...generator in my house''...UM...NO..it goes outside!!!
After the USA crash of Oct 1987 ...I guy talked to me about what HE has done forever....He dug a hole...bought a water bed ..filled it, covered it...and empties and refills it periodically. He had so many cool ideas.
Last edited by Miss Hepburn; 08-05-2023 at 07:57 AM..
YES! A must.
They are pretty inexpensive from Amazon. Me? it's to make sure my -phone is charged.
Then I have solar lights IN my house, the ones with extension wires for the solar panel to always be
in the sun, say, 16 ft away placed outside, if your south windows are blocked with tree like mine
Ha, if you hike or camp...you can clip the solar panel on your back pack and have power!!
What will they think of next?
Someone said ''...generator in my house''...UM...NO..it goes outside!!!
After the USA crash of Oct 1987 ...I guy talked to me about what HE has done forever....He dug a hole...bought a water bed ..filled it, covered it...and empties and refills it periodically. He had so many cool ideas.
Well, on that note, one should appreciate what those little units on Amazon are......and are not. I have two, given some of this type: https://www.amazon.com/Charger%EF%BC...70385394&psc=1 (or the earlier model) and is more meant for something to be charged up from main power and then topped off by the sun than to be charged from zero by the sun.
Why? Because that is a very small grid and one needs optimum position to the sun for best power......not saying anything about the clouds.
Now maybe things have improved since I bought mine but such considerations of such tech one should keep in mind.
If you live with well water and don't want to run it on a generator in an extended outage, a storage tank uphill from the house can meet water needs in a power outage too. When we lived in the foothills on acreage, our house had a well for irrigation water, and we used the city water connection for the house. The pump to the well uses electricity, but it was long ago disconnected, and we just used city water for everything by opening the valve to the irrigation water lines and closing the valve to the storage tank. Once we accidentally left open the valve between the city water and the tank, and we ended up filling the 1000 gallon storage tank with city water. We only discovered it when the tank overflowed down the driveway. Boy, was that a high water bill! BUT the great thing was we just turned the valve off to isolate the tank, and left it filled with water for emergencies or fire (a real threat in our area). If we ever lost city water due to an outage at the water facilities, we would be able to use the water from the tank to gravity feed our house and irrigation.
We have a generator in North Carolina, purchased after Hurr. Wilma when we lived in Florida and had no power for 4-5 days. Neighbors across the street got their power back on much earlier. We remained in Florida another 13 years but never needed the generator until we moved to North Carolina.
Latest time: Christmas Eve AM 2022 power went out, rolling brown out that power company neglected to warn anyone about.
Not sure why tijlover is hoarding water unless they don't trust their water system.
In Florida it IS necessary to hoard water because we discovered in Hurricane Wilma we had no water and no toilet flushing. Why? Because the lift stations to provide water and sewer in flatland Florida are electric-powered. No lift power=no toilet flushes. Many people don't find this out until losing it.
So we also have a porta-potty stored in our garage, along with disposable bags. So far not needed in 18 years since Wilma.
We also have a small window A/C unit that we have used in North Carolina. Last summer our whole house HVAC died in 100 degree heat. That little window unit allowed us to sleep comfortably and take our time choosing a replacement instead of rushing it.
Our 18 year old Honda gas generator is still in great shape but husband is 75 now and thinking about a gas whole house generator (our heat is gas) like couple homes in our neighborhood have, some also have solar panels.
Sometimes I wonder whether power companies have put off enlarging their power structure because they think solar will make them obsolete in a few years. Or are they just bottom-liners and don't have to keep the power on if it costs too much.
Last edited by twinkletwinkle22; 08-05-2023 at 11:31 AM..
Not sure why tijlover is hoarding water unless they don't trust their water system.
Well, any water system could be compromised at some point. Keeping enough potable water on hand to last a week or two is not expensive and doesn’t take up much space.
Another option, if a person has access to a relatively clean natural water source, would be a filter like backpackers use. They only remove certain pathogens, however, and I doubt they remove any metals that are in the water.
A note on gravity feed from an uphill well system. Yes....but......
I thought I had it perfect, solar power to pump the well, a 2700 gallon storage tank, the house downhill from the system. What was found in construction, however, was that the gravity feed (not enough elevation drop I guess) would deliver water but there would be no pressure in the system. For that, I needed a house boost pump and that runs on main power. So when the power goes out, the house is effectively without water once the last pressure is gone......sigh.
Now, there are always alternate plans, for the next phase, but until then.......
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*Edit: I read further down...you already know all this! Yay! But I'll leave what I wrote for others.
