Power outage survival tips

[Joe S]

We just went through a 41 hour power outage, which is pretty easy compared to Terri's family ordeal, but it is still traumatic to be cut off from your usual things you depend on. I thought I'd pass on a couple things I learned, as well as open a thread for more useful ideas.

Oil lamps, lanterns and the paraffin oil are dirt cheap at the Wal-Mart here, and provide adequate light for reading after the kiddies go to bed. Brighter, longer lasting, and safer than candles.

I knew from the very heavy wet snow followed by sleet and freezing rain that the pine trees were going to explode, so we drew up the bathtubs full of water for flushing the toilets and washing and such (since we have well water). We had 8 gallons of drinking water on hand already, as well as plenty of sodas.

The fridge is only going to stay cold a few hours, so if you expect a long term ordeal, have some coolers ready. We had two 48 gallon coolers that we put the fridge stuff in and packed them with snow. We left them on the porch and the stuff stayed very cold the entire time, while after maybe 5 hours the refrigerator was room temperature.

We almost lost our chest freezer stuff; it had begun to thaw and wouldn't have made it more than a few more hours. It is supposed to be bitter cold tonight and not get above 30 the next few days, so I had a plan; I intended to put our meat in a trash bag, put a layer of snow in the bottom of a thirty gallon trash can, put the meat in, and top it off with snow up to the top. Then probably half bury the can in snow. The power came back, so I don't know how well that would have worked. The USDA says a chest freezer that is full will last 48 hours, half full 24 hours; ours was about two thirds full and when the power came back, and the meat was thawing but still partially frozen. I hope it will be ok. Its rock hard again now.

I discovered that I could arrange the fake ceramic logs in our gas log fire place so that they would easily support a pot or frying pan, so we were able to cook and, more importantly, I was able to have coffee. It worked much better than you would think; frying ham and eggs was a snap, and water boiled very quickly. The gas logs put out a lot of heat, so staying warm was no problem.

If you aren't echo-friendly, buy some throw away plasticware, plates and cups and save yourself the trouble. We found that washing dishes, pots and pans was a bit of a pain with no running water.

This ordeal wasn't all that bad for us, as we weren't snowed in but half a day and could go to town and buy food and supplies as needed, get water if we ran out, go to the laundromat if we had to etc. It was mostly just an aggravating inconvenience.

[tking]

That's a great list, Joe, and you pretty well covered it. Gas logs are great, aren't they...lol. (I'm a coffee addict, too!) And yes, putting food outside in a container will hold them for a pretty fair amount of time, especially if you have a spare cooler to sit out there and aren't worried about it freezing (ours never did in '02, but it wasn't out there more than a day or so).

I'd add, if you're expecting ice, to be sure and have either some rock salt (you can go to the Farmer's Co-op and get cattle salt in 20 lb. and 50 lb. sacks--much cheaper, same thing) or some cheap kitty litter or sand stashed back because the last thing you want is someone stepping out the door and landing on the ground possibly injured.

As you found out with the logs, if you have enough warning to cook up some stew or beans or anything like that, do it before hand, and you can reheat it over the fire. Don't forget the cornbread or crackers...lol. Cold cornbread's okay if the soup or whatever is hot!

Something I've been planning to get but kept putting off is a crank-style emergency radio. I used to keep a transistor radio here at all times so I could at least catch the news and weather to see what was going on, but I'm thinking the crank style would work better. I haven't tried the shake-charge flashlights, but I'm going to pick up one of those as well. If it stretches into days, you can spend a fortune in batteries, and since we have power outtages in winter and in tornado season as well, I'm thinking they might be a good investment.

I also keep a couple of those little bitty LED reading lights (you know, the clip on kind and such). The batteries last quite a while, and they can be a tremendous help, especially if you use them sparingly. They'll even light up a room so that it's not total darkness and you can pick your way through the house.

You're right about candles being dangerous, but on the other hand, if you have a total electric home, the big pillar type emergency candles can help keep you warm, believe it or not. If you have several to put in a little room, the flames will put off enough heat to keep it tolerable with blankets for a few hours. We don't have little ones anymore, so I do keep those.

If you have cell phones, charge them. If you only have portable phones in your house, get a regular phone to plug into the jack so that you can use it with or without power. The portable phones rely on the electricity, but the wall-jack phones don't.

Be sure your vehicles have plenty of fuel in them just in case you absolutely have to try to get somewhere to get help or something. And be sure to put some emergency candles, some trashbags, a blanket, some bottled water, and a basic first-aid kit in the vehicle as welll as something like crackers and raisins or anything that will tide you over for several hours or even a day or two. They say one candle and some trashbags will keep you from freezing if you get stranded. I haven't ever had to try it, but I'll take their advice.

That's all I can think of at the moment. It's amazing how little you can do that you're used to doing when the power goes.

*side note: Joe, there's more on the way. We're getting a snow/ice/blowing snow storm right now, and it's headed east...what a year!

[Tallen]

Sounds like you were well prepared.

I have a woodbuner, so I can easily heat the house. Natural gas for cooking and hot water. The township where I live provides the water, and the last ice storm that went through they had generators to keep it flowing. So those things weren't really a problem. In fact, we had quite a few friends who stopped by and took showers after a couple of days and warmed up in our living room. The oil lamps are a great idea, I think I will do that.

We are supposed to be hit with a winter storm tomorrow, and Wednesday. Unless there is ice in it it probably won't stop to much activity in Michigan. We can handle the snow.

[Tallen]

*side note: Joe, there's more on the way. We're getting a snow/ice/blowing snow storm right now, and it's headed east...what a year!

I would rather take the storms that come up from your way, Terri. If they come down from Canada they'll have Artic air, they are usually nasty.

[tking]

I would rather take the storms that come up from your way, Terri. If they come down from Canada they'll have Artic air, they are usually nasty.

Definitely. We get those arctic blasts, too, but by the time they get to us, they're considerably less fierce than where you're at.

[Tallen]

I don't mind snow so much, but I hate it when it's below 0.

[tking]

I understand that one! Our problem here is wind chill. We were having below zero wind chills out of that go-round we had at Christmas time. The wind slices to the bone. When it's already 2 or 3 degrees and you get 35 mph steady winds with 45 mph gusts, it makes ya hurt all over seems like. I reaaaaaaaally grow to detest the wind in winter and summer both. In the summer it's like a blast furnace. They tell stories of settler women who used to go mad from the wind. I don't know if that's true, but I can easily see how it could happen.

[Tallen]

I understand that one! Our problem here is wind chill. We were having below zero wind chills out of that go-round we had at Christmas time. The wind slices to the bone. When it's already 2 or 3 degrees and you get 35 mph steady winds with 45 mph gusts, it makes ya hurt all over seems like. I reaaaaaaaally grow to detest the wind in winter and summer both. In the summer it's like a blast furnace. They tell stories of settler women who used to go mad from the wind. I don't know if that's true, but I can easily see how it could happen.

No doubt, nothing on them flat lands to stop the wind blowing. I can believe it.

[Joe S]

Last night the power went out again. Stayed off a mere 12 hrs this time. My wife cooked a frozen pizza in a frying pan on the gas logs. I have stocked the chest freezer with bags of ice so it will hopefully buy more time next time. Which will probably be tomorrow. We are getting a little ice glaze tonight and tomorrow a nor'easter is supposed to blow us away with 50 mph winds. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on more widespread power outages in this area tomorrow. I've been seeing a lot of ambulances round here lately, which is highly unusual. I don't know what that's about, but it is somewhat disconcerting.

Our weather is pretty mild compared to Michigan and the Plains. Our Arctic blasts only result in single digits, and super winds are rarely a problem.

[Joe S]

I've been looking at wind up and solar power radios myself on Amazon, but I can't bring myself to buy one. I've bought battery operated weather band radios in the past that didn't work worth a flip.

Yeah, we bought a cheap wall jack phone yesterday- live and learn.

I watched a Survivorman episode where he had a thing called a kudlick or something that was just a tiny soapstone dish the size of a small ashtray that you scrape blubber oil into to burn for heat. The native Inuits traditionally used them to heat igloos. I bet the candles would work well, especially if you had a small room or something that would concentrate the heat. Or an igloo :)

I think the Appalachians broke up your latest storm pretty well before it got here this time. That last one did an end run up from the deep south avoiding our mountain barrier.

[tking]

I hear ya on the radios. I've talked to several people in various stores who say they work just fine, but I'm not about to buy one of those $50 jobs. I spotted some for around $15, so I figured I could give that a whirl and see. I know I definitely need to get another little cheap transistor radio. (Little story, in our old feed truck the radio wouldn't work, so I bought one of those and rigged it up on the mirror...my kids teased me that it was "so ghetto"....lol!! Hey...it worked!)

I'll be praying for you all. It can get pretty dicey for sure.