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This is my first winter in about 8 years, before here I lived in Phoenix, and before that I lived close to my parents who had a lifetime of preparations made for bad weather. I never really had to concern myself with being prepared for power loss.
Last night as the news reports started talking about 1/2" of ice my wife said "we should probably at least have a kerosene heater, right?". So we went out hoping to find one leftover in a store, but we had no luck.
I always like to be prepared, and honestly I'm upset that I haven't considered this earlier. Do you think I'm over reacting by hunting down a heat source today? Obviously no one can predict the future. To those that have lived here longer have you seen similar storms knock out power?
Yes in 2002 there was a huge ice storm with 3/4+ inch of ice that knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of NC residents. I was in Durham for the storm and I think we were without power for 4 days, but some people had to wait more than a week to get power back.
I'm concerned about a power outage. It's just me and my elderly dog, but a week long power outage would be a problem.
I've followed most of the usual advice - have battery powered flashlights and radio, stockpiled water and sandwich stuff/things that don't have to be cooked, and am charging all electronics/phone. Just need to gas up the car.
Aside from that, my pooch and I will just bundle up on the sofa together and be thankful we have a roof over our heads and food to eat. :-)
I'd only be concerned if I had elderly/sickly/infants at home. Other than that be prepared to hunker down but don't worry...it's out of your hands.
We have:
food
drinks
gas stove and water heater (both operational during the last big power outage)
Plans to boil lots of large pots of water (we have smke/CO2 detectors on battery power)
batteries
plans to sleep in one upstairs room with our twin 9yr olds under heavy blankets under a makeshift tent
If we lose power we will feast on all the expensive stuff in the freezer for breakfast/lunch/dinner!
I've followed most of the usual advice - have battery powered flashlights and radio, stockpiled water and sandwich stuff/things that don't have to be cooked, and am charging all electronics/phone.
A little Sterno Stove will allow you to boil water, heat soup, etc.
Dont forget about your gas grills, if you really need to cook meats (or if your grill has side burner you can make soups). We have just relocated from Tampa and in hurricane season we found our gas grill came in handy during power outages. We put our grill on the back porch here and if we have to use it, it is under cover but far enough from house to cause a problem. Set it up and got propane just in case we need it.
We have a backup generator that I installed, just in case. I brought it with me when we moved South because the person who bought my house already had a gen.
I never thought we would need it here and maybe we won't but just in case we will have some power for lights and to run the fan on the gas fireplace. Not great but better than nothing. I only hope that I can get fuel in case of a long outage.
We have natural gas, with a line run to the outside grill. If the power is out, we can't run the furnance, but can take hot showers and cook on the grill.
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