How To Prepare for an Extended Power Outage? (water, good, temperature)
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After following the stories about the hurricanes in Florida I started to think about what I would do if I had to cope with an extended power outage due to a storm or natural disaster. For food and water I think I would be in pretty good shape. I generally always have at least a month's supply of bottled water and frozen food, anyway. I think I could keep most of my food frozen for several days, and at least somewhat cold for a week or more, with no power at all.
First problem. What would be a good simple way to heat up food without electricity? I wouldn't really need to cook anything, just heat it to a reasonable temperature. I live in an apartment, so a portable generator wouldn't really be an option. Though I suppose maybe I could run a small gas generator outside my door or window in an emergency. Another option might be to use my car engine heat or something. But I might rather do it inside my apartment if possible. Any ideas?
Second problem. What would be a way to maybe charge a cell phone or maybe even a laptop during the power outage? Battery packs or something?
I'm interested to hear some ideas. Especially for some cheap solutions. This is nothing I want to spend a lot of money preparing for. But if I could buy a few things to make life more bearable during a power outage, it might be worth it.
Propane grill or portable camp stove. I wouldn't use either one inside, but would on a balcony.
When we have power outages we use our propane grill. Heck... when we do have power, we often use our propane grill.
Best short term bet for charging your phone is a car charger. Also - If you can drive around, others may have power, you might be able to charge at restaurants, etc. Can also refill water storage there.
Find a place to retreat to and leave at first warning. Earthquakes and meteor strikes do not give enough warning for that to work. How do you expect to keep frozen food frozen for a week or three? People on Puerto Rico are now facing this problem. Store freezers are starting to thaw when they ran out of diesel fuel.
There are solar cell phone and PC chargers available. Some energy is gathered on cloudy days.
Propane grill or portable camp stove. I wouldn't use either one inside, but would on a balcony.
When we have power outages we use our propane grill. Heck... when we do have power, we often use our propane grill.
Great idea, but unfortunately I don't have a balcony. I would have to do that outside in the parking lot, and it's usually raining around here most of the year. Which is not great for outdoor cooking. I might be a little nervous about storing propane in my apartment too. Would that be something I should worry about?
Best short term bet for charging your phone is a car charger. Also - If you can drive around, others may have power, you might be able to charge at restaurants, etc. Can also refill water storage there.
Cloudy - buy a folding shelter, a collapsible table and a folding chair. Set up a shelter in the place you usually park the car. Or just live in the car for a while. It is waterproof, has comfortable seats and, in your area, warm enough to sleep in with a couple of blankets.
The two best options for safe indoor cooking are first, a single burner butane stove, for about $25, plus some cans of butane, which last forever. Second is a Sterno stove, which is usually foldable, and some cans of Sterno. Both are compact, inexpensive, and totally safe indoors.
For your phone and other USB devices, the battery pack is a nice idea - IF you always keep it charged! Even that will draw down quickly, so you might want to get a compact folding solar panel of 15 to 20 watts. These are often used by backpackers and hikers, and are pretty reasonable.
For really cheap, you can get an adapter that lets you charge USB devices with your 12v car charger. I also recommend a 12v "power center", usually a jump starter as well, but with 110v AC, 12v DC, and USB connections.
BTW, I live full time off grid, so every day's a power outage for me!
Find a place to retreat to and leave at first warning. Earthquakes and meteor strikes do not give enough warning for that to work. How do you expect to keep frozen food frozen for a week or three? People on Puerto Rico are now facing this problem. Store freezers are starting to thaw when they ran out of diesel fuel.
There are solar cell phone and PC chargers available. Some energy is gathered on cloudy days.
Most of the year it is not as warm here as Puerto Rico is. I have a chest freezer loaded with frozen dinners that I buy when they are sale. I'm sure I could keep everything frozen for 24 hours with no power. After that I expect I would start to lose some of the food. The rest would be in various degrees of coldness. I'm not really sure how many days it would last. It's not something I want to test. But if I decided to get a portable gas generator, I could probably hook that up to the freezer a couple of times a day to get it cold again. In that case I could keep it cold until I run out of gas.
Cloudy - buy a folding shelter, a collapsible table and a folding chair. Set up a shelter in the place you usually park the car. Or just live in the car for a while. It is waterproof, has comfortable seats and, in your area, warm enough to sleep in with a couple of blankets.
I would consider the option of staying in my car. In that case I might be inclined to drive to some place with power, if roads were passable.
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