Being Prepared!

After WW's post on the ice storm and the price gouging crud that went on, I'm gonna look into seriously being prepared for these unfourtant events.

I don't wanna look up and have to pay outrages prices for simple things and I'm tired of throwing away half my food out of the fridge.

I need to look at it better, I'll admit I have not thought this thru well in the past,

I'd like to start a list, get everyone involved, this could only help us.

what you should have, please by all means add to it [-o<



I'm gonna say
Heat(which I burn wood)
Water
Medical first Aid
Generator!!

what else?

Gas for the generator.
Radio,batteried is nice.
Batteried lights,unless your generatorn has that undercontrol.
Sometimes have acouple 5gal pails full of water or the tub,for the toilet.
Games...cards,boardgames,the generator can run a t.v. and playstation,aleast it does in the woods

Here is a copy of my hurricane plan in word format. I feel it is best to be ready in advance than to wait until the last minute.

KMixson thats a heck of a list there you got, I see where most could be used in my situations, On the water jugs frozen for the fridge, how many do you do and how long has this helped your fridge??

what do most of you guys do on food storage? just wondering whats a good product to keep, I'm thinking about jerky as one, but the wife don't eat that.

paper plates and cups = no dirty dishes
toilet paper
tv type dinners for microwave - if you have generator to run it and fridge
canned goods like vienna sausage,tuna,potted meat

plus things already listed above


We had a problem with power going out alot for the first few years here and I got tired of chasing down a generator to rent, so we bought one big enough to run fridge, deepfreeze, pond pumps, tv's, computers, lights, and if needed washer and dryer if I unplug deep freeze. Best money I've spent for piece of mind.

Fishingbuds, I freeze as many jugs as I can in there so if we lose power I can transfer the ice to the fridge to keep the fridge as cool as I can. A full fridge/freezer will keep cool longer than an empty one when the power goes out so I put as much water as I can in as a hurricane approaches. I also have an inverter I can use to plug it in also when needed. I went through hurricane Hugo in 1989 and was without power for three weeks and water for about two weeks.

You can never be to prepared for ANYTHING!!
Great lists guys..

switchback said:

paper plates and cups = no dirty dishes
toilet paper
tv type dinners for microwave - if you have generator to run it and fridge
canned goods like vienna sausage,tuna,potted meat

plus things already listed above


We had a problem with power going out alot for the first few years here and I got tired of chasing down a generator to rent, so we bought one big enough to run fridge, deepfreeze, pond pumps, tv's, computers, lights, and if needed washer and dryer if I unplug deep freeze. Best money I've spent for piece of mind.

Click to expand...

what is the size watt of your generator??

Fishingbuds, this is a link to the one I bought. I know B&S are a lil louder but Not as expensive as onan. Besides if power is out, and it gives you power ..... who cares right.

https://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200342952_200342952

I've found through the past week that if you're using a propane camp stove to have several cylinders (1lb size) on-hand (which we didn't). Our daughter brought us 12 from another town. Have some type of backup heat if your house is all-electric. We found (5 days into this ordeal, and after a store opened) a small heater that runs on the 1lb propane heaters. There again, you'll need lots of cylinders. Oh, don't cook indoors with the propnae stove! :wink: . Batteries, you can never have enough. I'm not going through this power outage again if I can help it (7 days was enough for me). Next year I will have my own generator and kerosene heater. As mentioned by someone above, have cash on hand. All the banks in town were shut down, and when your paycheck is direct deposit (electronic transfer), you can't get any money.

I always have about 20 bottles of drinking water I put in the fridge for fishing purposes. I put them in my cooler so they double as ice and water when they start to thaw. Might be a good idea in case power goes out too.

Waterwings said:

I've found through the past week that if you're using a propane camp stove to have several cylinders (1lb size) on-hand (which we didn't). Our daughter brought us 12 from another town. Have some type of backup heat if your house is all-electric. We found (5 days into this ordeal, and after a store opened) a small heater that runs on the 1lb propane heaters. There again, you'll need lots of cylinders. Oh, don't cook indoors with the propnae stove! :wink: . Batteries, you can never have enough. I'm not going through this power outage again if I can help it (7 days was enough for me). Next year I will have my own generator and kerosene heater. As mentioned by someone above, have cash on hand. All the banks in town were shut down, and when your paycheck is direct deposit (electronic transfer), you can't get any money.

Click to expand...

Never even thought of having cash on hand for Emergency purposes. #-o

Waterwings said:

I've found through the past week that if you're using a propane camp stove to have several cylinders (1lb size) on-hand (which we didn't). Our daughter brought us 12 from another town. Have some type of backup heat if your house is all-electric. We found (5 days into this ordeal, and after a store opened) a small heater that runs on the 1lb propane heaters. There again, you'll need lots of cylinders. Oh, don't cook indoors with the propnae stove! :wink: . Batteries, you can never have enough. I'm not going through this power outage again if I can help it (7 days was enough for me). Next year I will have my own generator and kerosene heater. As mentioned by someone above, have cash on hand. All the banks in town were shut down, and when your paycheck is direct deposit (electronic transfer), you can't get any money.

Click to expand...

Check out this handy item from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45989
You can refill those small cylinders. I don't remember where, but I have also seen an adapter hose that you can use to run a small cylinder stove or heater from a big cylinder.

thanks swtchback on the watts, I wanted to know how much from what you have run on it, that sounds perfect.

WW same thing happened to me on the small propane tanks for camp stove :x

Guys were buying up propane torches just for the cylinders :shock: that was almost twenty bucks a pop #-o

a fella bought three, I want to avoid having to do that [-o<

Henry Hefner said:

Waterwings said:

I've found through the past week that if you're using a propane camp stove to have several cylinders (1lb size) on-hand (which we didn't). Our daughter brought us 12 from another town. Have some type of backup heat if your house is all-electric. We found (5 days into this ordeal, and after a store opened) a small heater that runs on the 1lb propane heaters. There again, you'll need lots of cylinders. Oh, don't cook indoors with the propnae stove! :wink: . Batteries, you can never have enough. I'm not going through this power outage again if I can help it (7 days was enough for me). Next year I will have my own generator and kerosene heater. As mentioned by someone above, have cash on hand. All the banks in town were shut down, and when your paycheck is direct deposit (electronic transfer), you can't get any money.

Click to expand...

Check out this handy item from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45989
You can refill those small cylinders. I don't remember where, but I have also seen an adapter hose that you can use to run a small cylinder stove or heater from a big cylinder.

Click to expand...

The small propane heater we bought can be run on a large 20lb (outdoor grill type) propane tank with an adapter hose. If running a heater on the 20lb cylinder always ensure the cylinder is outside. Run the hose through a window or some other opening. You do not even want one of those cylinders exploding indoors.

Jim said:

Waterwings said:

I've found through the past week that if you're using a propane camp stove to have several cylinders (1lb size) on-hand (which we didn't). Our daughter brought us 12 from another town. Have some type of backup heat if your house is all-electric. We found (5 days into this ordeal, and after a store opened) a small heater that runs on the 1lb propane heaters. There again, you'll need lots of cylinders. Oh, don't cook indoors with the propnae stove! :wink: . Batteries, you can never have enough. I'm not going through this power outage again if I can help it (7 days was enough for me). Next year I will have my own generator and kerosene heater. As mentioned by someone above, have cash on hand. All the banks in town were shut down, and when your paycheck is direct deposit (electronic transfer), you can't get any money.

Click to expand...

Never even thought of having cash on hand for Emergency purposes. #-o

Click to expand...

Me neither and it definitely sucked. Luckily the truck had a full tank of gas because when the power dropped (town-wide) no station in town could pump gas. I'm not one to store extra fuel in cans, but next winter will have at least two 5 gallon cans of gasoline for the vehicle, and one 5 gallon can of kerosene for a heater on hand, plus some cash.

we havent been out of power for more than a day in several years. i think the last time was when a blizzard came threw in 93? thats got me thinkin...

heat - we have a wood burning stove and propane camping heaters
water- creek infront of the house
food- hopefully we'd have enough meat in the deep freeze. if not.. the neighbors dog fry'd in butter
beer- i guess i'd have to ride the 4wheel into town (8 miles). this has me worried..
battery radio - a must
power inverter for your car. i dont use mine much at all, but when you need it, its a life saver
cooking- small propane camping stove, or try to cook on the wood stove
always have an extra can of snuff in your truck for emergencys
matches! unless your a smoker and have lighters all over the house like my mom
light- candles and battery lights for the tent when camping. there awsome

my heart goes out to all yuns up north. we dont have the cold weather half as bad as yall. be safe!

Yep, the cash on hand is a good idea.... we usually keep some cash on hand for just incase purposes. Not for outages (down south) no snow storms like alot of you guys but for anything unexpected.

The inverter is a great thing to have to.

My girlfriend makes glass beads so we always have a #100 propane tank outside the window for her torch that we can hook to a propane heater. Guess It wouldn't hurt to buy a propane heater now :mrgreen:

The inverter is a great thing to have to.

Click to expand...

Tell me more about an inverter. What can it be used for?

Waterwings said:

The inverter is a great thing to have to.

Click to expand...

Tell me more about an inverter. What can it be used for?

Click to expand...

Inverters plug into your cigarette lighter in your car and then provide 110v to whatever you need. You can get inverters anywhere from 50 watts up to 3000 watts +. I have a 75 watt for running the laptop in the car, but for emergency situations a larger one would provide power for lights, tools, charging phones and batteries and stuff like that. If you go with a 3000 watt inverter I would suggest running an extra battery in the vehicle as well. I installed a 3000 watt inverter for a guy with a H1 hummer, he had 5 yellow top optima batteries in the thing to run all of his off road lights and interior electronics. Crazy rich.