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Please share your stories with the community here and me about a time something happened whether it be a storm, power outage, or other event in which you had to use you prepping supplies and knowledge!
July 21 2003. A string of EF1-3 tornadoes hit NW PA (the very storm that knocked over the kinzua viaduct bridge) and so wiped out the power system, we were without power for 8 sunny days later.
The area is very sparse now since the 90s, less than a third of the residences are owner occupied and it is very rural to begin with. with the loss of power, it became 1800 real fast. Kinda cool at night. not even being at moms at 6500ft outside the ramah navajo is that desolate at night. this was before a decent cell service system, no power, no phones, but oddly, I had cable - that system survived so I had internet once I made my own power.
since it is a country home and I bought it from my grandparents who were depression era raised country folk, everything you really need is there, only now the well is deeper and you need power to drink. Being a licensed electrician helps - the house is genset backed and I have gas at to cook/heat water. I was literally able to work my day job, still ran the shop...the first 4 days I was the only person almost 20 miles in any direction with lights. slowly but surely the gas stations got closer. Everyone lost everything in the fridge for the most part, but they are country folk - they just make do without whining.
Wildfire evac a few summers ago. We have a plan in place that follows an order of time for evacuation- from immediate to some time. I posted about it before and here are some of the excerpts-
I think the best thing we had going for us was an actual 'plan'. We had immediate things to evacuate 'on a moments notice' which we're already in totes. We stage it in the garage during fire season. We then had a list of precious items with their locations that given time we could get out. I give a lot of credit to my family- they were calm, collected and driven. It all went like clockwork. My son especially was an enormous asset. I didn't even have to tell him anything. When it was apparent we were 100% ready to go- he hopped on the lawnmower, dropped it as low as it would go and mowed down ALL dried grass. The deputies came up our driveway to give us that final 'you gotta get out' and when the saw what we were doing they encouraged us to finish it.
We already had a place to bug-out to. My co-worker lives 20 minutes to the west of me and she has about 20 acres and an R/V hook-up and water- so we went there.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Back in December 2006, we had a nasty windstorm with 65mph winds with gusts at 68-80. There were trees/branches flying around, over roads and power lines, some damaging homes, many closing roads, and power outages for 1.5 million people. In all there were 13 known fatalities, most from tree crushing but also from asphyxiated by carbon monoxide due to running a generator or charcoal grill indoors. The day after it dropped into the 20s, so people were desperate to get heat, and some were not too smart about it.
I had bought a 6,000 watt generator for doing work in my business, and kept it at the house. When we got news of the coming storm I had filled both cars with gas, along with my 5 gallon can and several smaller cans. Our power was out
for 5 days, so no grocery stores, no gas stations open, everything was shut down. I would run the generator outside next to the garage with a heavy-duty extension cord, Y splitter, and two more cords. One ran to the gas furnace, to run the blower, so we had normal heat. The other powered one lamp for light at night and the other I switched between the refrigerator and upright freezer. We were able to cook using the gas stove, lighting the burners with a match. We never lost any food, and between the freezer and pantry had plenty to eat. Eventually, though, I ran low on gas for the generator,
and had to drive about 20 miles to find a station with power, and wait in a long line to get more.
My area gets pretty regular floods as well as blizzards that lock the roads down, so having supplies on hand is just business as usual.
One time that was a little different, I was out hunting. Really bad roads, and I buried the truck in a snowbank. It was pretty dark, no way out since I was at least 15 miles from anywhere. The snow was falling, and it was about -5F, winds weren't bad because I was in the timber, but still not a good situation.
I carry a survival pack when I hunt, and so when I decided the truck was there until morning, I just took my pack, made a shelter using the small tarp I carry, covered it with branches and a blanket of snow for insulation, made a bed of fir branches to keep me off the ground, made a campfire, had some tea and a rehydrated meal of chicken and rice, pulled out my wool blanket and had a decent night's sleep.
Next morning after breakfast, I started digging, and I didn't have a winch, but I was able to use my hi-lift jack attached to a tree to jack the truck back to where the chains on the tires could dig in and I could get out.
I always carry a survival kit in my pack, and it's always in the truck. It could have been a long cold miserable night trying to sleep in the truck without that kit, but with it, I had a comfortable camp, no real stress, a full belly and I went home next day.
Every time we go camping or there is a power outage, we use a little bit of our knowledge.
The worst I ever had it was 10 days without electricity in the middle of winter, and my family was fine. Hardly a disaster as the stores were still open, other areas had power, the cars still ran, and the wood stove kept the house warm.
Adding this: there have been many times when we have dug out or pulled out city folk stuck in the snow or mud because they tried to drive their city car where it was not qualified to go and they had no idea about how to get their car unstuck, and they had driven up into the mountains without any proper equipment. No shovel, no jackets, no blankets, no water, and gosh darn, surprise, your cell phone does not work in 100% of the places that you can drive a car into.
Really, it gets quite tiresome. Especially the common entitled belief that they have the absolute right to have someone come and rescue them after they do something stupid.
Please share your stories with the community here and me about a time something happened whether it be a storm, power outage, or other event in which you had to use you prepping supplies and knowledge!
Thank you
I've never needed more than common sense. I have yet to live through a situation that was long enough duration to need more than that. After a small hurricane hit we had to go without power and broadband internet for several days. Using the generator etc was an inconvenience but I hardly considered it a benefit of being prepared. We raise and harvest our own meat and having a way to keep it frozen without the grid is just common sense.
What amazed me was the number of people that did nothing to get ready for a storm we knew was arriving for several days. There were people unable to buy things because the stores were cash only due to the credit card network being down. People were blaming the government for not having enough ice and food available.
It did teach me that we weren't prepared. After the storm we invested in solar so that we can keep the freezers running without relying on a generator and fuel.
I was sick and had to get medicine. Fine I go to the Doctor get meds get home and find I didn't have anything in the way of broth, bread, tea, food. I had to shlep out sick, miserable in the freezing cold on a rainy night and buy what I should have prepped for in case of emergency. I got sicker because I didn't prepare for something so simple.
Then a few months later the power went out and this time I was prepared much better I had all the food saved up and I even had extra ice cubes I always keep in the freezer. I hate having to rush out to buy ice before it runs out. That kept the food frozen longer and I put the other extra ice cubes in the refrigerator to help keep it cold longer. This is why people should always have a cooler and extra ice cubes handy if they can't have a back up generator.
I also had a mini emergency camp stove. But I found that because I had a gas stove I could still get the stove to work so I had fire for the soup and broth I made damn sure I always have.
I used the emergency LED lights battery operated camping lantern for at night. I still use that when the power goes out. It's really blinding so I like to put something in front of it and I keep it on the other room when I forget to take the flashlight with me.
So I didn't have much prepping done the first time but for a not so real world, earth shattering catastrophe I sure learned my lesson. Be prepared even when it's just being sick and when the power goes out.
how about 12 years living off grid, no power of any kind, everything done by hand, growing my own food and shooting small game for meat. alone, unaided, no major health worries and no interference from outside.
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