With winter weather right around the corner, it’s time to double check and renew your winter emergency stockpile. Power outages, snow storms that keep you shut in, etc. can wreak havoc on your life if you don’t have the necessary supplies–build yourself a little stockpile, though, and you can turn a bad situation into a mini-holiday {okay, I admit, a holiday without many amenities, but I am trying to make lemonade here}.
Preparing for Power Outages
The three things to remember during extended power outages will be heat, lighting, and cooking. If you have alternate sources for each of them, you’re going to be sitting pretty. For heat, plan on using a fireplace, wood stove, generator to run heaters, or a kerosene heater. You may have to hunker down in one room altogether, but hey, you can look at it as bonding time. Don’t underestimate the power of extra blankets, either.
For lighting, have plenty of flashlights and batteries. Candles work too, but most emergency preparedness sites don’t recommend using them as your only source of light. Finally, to cook you can use a camp cook stove, a charcoal or gas grill {remember to only use those outside–their fumes are bad news in confined spaces}, and you can still use your gas range, you’ll just have to light the burners with a match.
To prevent massive food spoilage in the event of an extended power outage, avoid opening and closing the fridge and freezer. The goal is to keep the cold contained.
Keeping Food Storage
Last year, I tried living off of an emergency food supply kit for 30 days. I learned two really important things: One, I had no where near enough food, and I would need far more water than I thought {click over to that post for estimates}. Two, having a kit of tasty emergency food {I tried Valley Food Storage and LOVED everything} is probably the EASIEST way to deal with an emergency. They have a 25 year shelf life, so you can keep it tucked in your pantry indefinitely. Plus, you can supplement with food you have on hand. It seriously takes the worry and hassle out of planning for an emergency, and I could not recommend it enough.
**Remember to plan for your pets too!
Water
Winter weather and power outages may or may not leave you without water. If the pipes freeze or if the pump system that gets the water into your home fails, you could be without. It’s best just to keep some on hand–by some, I mean a lot. Again, you can check out my previous post on amounts to get an idea. If you know a storm is coming, you can fill your bathtubs with water too. This is a great way to get water to wash yourself and save the bottled stuff for drinking.
Charging Electronics
This is kind of a bittersweet suggestion, because it would be awesome if a power outage meant we all got to check out from the world for several days, but the truth is, you’re probably going to want to be able to charge your phone {at the very least, to make emergency calls}. You may want your laptop too–you can work remotely. Let’s face it, if days off means no pay, working remotely can be a lifesaver. Plus, at the very least, you may be able to use your laptop as a mini DVD station and cuddle up on the couch with movies. My daughter has been using her solar charger for 2+ years now and LOVES it!
Cash
If the power grid goes down, remember, even if you can get out to stock up on basics like milk, stores operating on generators might still not be able to run credit cards. It’s best to keep cash on hand.
There are probably a million other things you can do to prepare for an emergency {especially the perimeter of your house}, but these are the very basics.
Have any of you ever been through an extended power outage or shut in by a winter storm? Would you like to add anything to the list?
~Mavis
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Carrie says
The longest time I was out of power was 30 hours. It was during the summer (a tree fell on a major transformer in the neighborhood) so we still went to work. Thankfully I have a gas water heater and range so I could shower and cook. It was hot in the house but we survived the night by opening the windows. I moved my frozen items to my work fridge and used our Yeti cooler for the fridge stuff (milk, cheese, produce was fine after a day).
I’m also an avid camper so cooking on a camp stove or using a dutch oven over the fire pit could have been done instead of heating up my already hot house. I think we ended up eating out that night to stay out of the hot house!
Conni says
We live in the mountains of coastal California and lost our power one winter for two weeks. We had a well so no electricity =no running water. We have a woodstove with a top that gets hot enough to cook on so that was covered. We moved our mattress and the mattresses of the four children into the room with the woodstove (again-coastal CA so we weren’t going to freeze but the nearness and warmth were comforting to all).
One tip I have learned is to store water in empty two liter bottles. When we lose running water I take a nail and ‘carve’ a hole near the bottom of the bottle, stick a golf tee in the hole, and you have a perfect gravity-feed system for washing hands. When the power goes, I use painter’s tape to wrap faucet and toilet handles (to remind us not to use!) and get out the two liter bottles (stored under each sink in the winter) and we are good. We also used wall mirrors to reflect and increase the battery candle lights in a room.
Pam says
A couple of years ago we lost power after an ice storm here in SW Michigan for a week. A week without power in Michigan during the winter seemed like forever! But we made it through. We have a little heater thats attaches to a propane tank and works pretty well at keeping it above freezing anyway. For light we use camping lanterns, which give off some nice heat themselves, and oil lamps. We always have water on hand, but your right, it never seems to be enough. We have a gas stove so cooking isn’t a problem other than the oven not working without power. The old stoves used to so that wad a bummer. We made our Christmas ham in a dutch oven on top of the stove and it turned out pretty good. It was actually kind of fun. We sat around the heater, played games and had a great time with no electronics to distract us.
Vickie says
Don’t underestimate the common suggestion to make sure you have a full tank of gas. We were out of power for a week after Hurricane Sandy and gas quickly became in scarce supply due to people using generators. Also, next time I would make/buy a ton of ice and put it into my freezers ahead of time so that we could use it for the coolers for as long as it held out. That also become in short supply at stores. Batteries for flashlights and lanterns as you can go through quite a few during an extended power outage. lastly, a camping stove or single burner if you don’t have a gas stove, a hand (non electric) can opener, and stovetop coffee pot. We camp so we had those supplies on hand. We lent our spare stove top coffee pot to a neighbor and they were ever so grateful.
Deborah says
We were without power for about two weeks one winter. We put a quilt on top of the freezer to help with insulation, but everything thawed out anyway. :(. We had a rally bad ice storm. Luckily, we had water, so we could still cook and we have propane so we stayed warm. 2 propane fireplaces warmed the whole house. One in the living room, and one in the master bedroom.
We do have bad storms at times, and I fill up several containers of water and also the tubs.
Linda Tibbetts says
We lived through the last big Johnstown (PA) flood in 1977 with 2 small kids and a brand new baby. People with small children would be well advised to keep an emergency stock of disposable diapers on hand, along with wipes, even if you don’t usually use them. It is unbelievable how quickly the stores shelves are stripped of everything useful in an emergency, so having stuff on hand really is a necessity.
We have a wood stove, so in a pinch we can cook on it and heat water for washing up. But that isn’t as practical in the summer, of course. I keep 2 sets of oil lamps on hand. You need water, water, water, as has been said – remember you’ll need to flush that toilet with a bucket once your pump stops running.
Keep a good book on first aid handy, along with a kit and extra supply of bandages, tape and gauze. People who aren’t accustomed to “roughing it” have minor accidents, burns, etc.
Going to restaurants is great if a) you have the money, b) the restaurant itself isn’t affected by the emergency and c) getting gasoline isn’t a problem. We were faced with bridges out, curfews to prevent looting, streets torn up and mud everywhere. The airport and one of the hospitals were closed and in the first hours there was no radio or TV. The purity of the water supply was questionable, and we had to boil any water from the tap.
Preparation is a life and sanity saver.
debbi says
We were out for 15 days during an ice storm a few years ago. In order of importance for us…..a generator (couldn’t run it the whole time, but we have one that hooks up to our house. To save propane, which it runs off of, we would run it for a few hours in the am and pm.) Secondly was heat for our house. We had plenty of firewood and put up blankets to block areas we weren’t using. The fireplace was going 24/7. You have to have a stash of cash, no stores were taking cards, nor were gas stations down the road that were open. Fortunately, we are retired, so didn’t worry about work things…dogs and horses were ok, we had water, but our one big mistake was not having the generator hooked up to the hot water heater. The local churches were open and they and the red cross offered shower facilities because I absolutely cannot take cold showers!! Went through lots of baby wipes and Clorox wipes, and have lots of snack food and a stash of books–it helps! Our local Wal-mart was also open, about 15 miles away, so we could function…most important though, gasoline, cash, generator. Medicines are delivered by mail, so I now know to never let them get low either…
Vy says
We were out for almost three days during the big Chaunakah windstorm, but my mom (just half a mile away) was out for 12 days. The first thing I did was run out and get a french press for my coffee! We had a clock radio that took 9v (the only type of battery that seems to be everpresent in my house) so we had music and news. A stack of board games and books, and an assortment of teas (water heated in the fireplace) were more than enough to keep us sane, and I had battery operated white christmas lights from camping, so we strung those. We put blankets over the doorways and had a big slumber party!
Cass says
Matches. You mention you can light your gas stove or cook over wood, but (unless I missed it) you didn’t mention having a supply of matches or lighters in the house.
This used to be a no-brainer…every wedding you went to gave out matches and every bar/motel had them sitting around for you to take. (remember putting phone numbers on the inside of the matchbook cuz it was the only paper around?)
All your ideas are right on, but without matches or some other form of ignition a lot of it is going to fall to the wayside….there will be no using your gas stove or lighting your fireplace/campstove.