Just curious, but we had some amazingly powerful storms roll through here on Father's Day that knocked out the power, felled trees, downed power & phone lines, and flooded over some of the roadways. . . so when those things happen, what are you prepared for? I know a lot of members here live in rural areas so I expect many of us may be 'more prepared' than the average suburban/city dweller.
We lost power about 2pm Sunday afternoon. I didn't bother rushing to turn on the generator because the temps were very comfortable, there was a good breeze and frankly there was no urgent 'need' to watch TV or do any other such things. A few hours later I did run the generator for a couple hours to run the 2 refrigerators and freezer, cook some food, etc. Flipped it back off after about 2 hours. Couple hours later turned it back on and we watched a DVD during the evening hours. I could have left it running all day but honestly saw no point in it, nor did I want to listen to it's rumble.
We have a good store of food, which comes in handy in the winter when the road gets closed for a couple days. No need for the food in mild weather as we can get to the store in a couple of days even when the roads flood over (never been flooded in for more than 48 hours.)
I am most concerned about winter preparedness because of the cold temperatures. It can be hot and miserable in the summer but it is dangerous when there is no heat in the winter. For winter we have a furnace that we power with our generator, plus 3 fireplaces should the furnace fail. The generator and furnace run on Natural Gas and in my 47 years we've never had a N.G. failure, but as a precaution, my generator is also capable of running on Propane and Gasoline and I typically have some of both on hand so I feel I could run the generator for at least 30 continuous hours on those fuels (although I would likely run for a few hours, then shut it down for a few, run for a few, down for a few . . . ).
As for food supplies, we don't stock up on survivalist food, but we do keep plenty of staples on hand, I think it is just our nature to do so. Not necessarily for emergencies but just because we keep the pantry and other areas full by habit. I suspect we could 'survive' for a few weeks without going to the store. So no long term stockpile, but still plenty considering the longest we've ever been cut off from the outside world is only 3 days. We had no problems surviving 8 days without power in the winter several years ago when temps reached -20(F) on the first 4 of those days and we were snowed in for the first 3 days, never needed to go to the store and the house was reasonably comfortable the entire time, no freezing pipes, no major grief.
We have no hurricanes here, but we do have tornadoes. I suspect that as long as we don't lose the whole house we'd be in pretty good shape if tornados came through and hit the area hard.
Are you prepared? For what? How prepared are you?
We lost power about 2pm Sunday afternoon. I didn't bother rushing to turn on the generator because the temps were very comfortable, there was a good breeze and frankly there was no urgent 'need' to watch TV or do any other such things. A few hours later I did run the generator for a couple hours to run the 2 refrigerators and freezer, cook some food, etc. Flipped it back off after about 2 hours. Couple hours later turned it back on and we watched a DVD during the evening hours. I could have left it running all day but honestly saw no point in it, nor did I want to listen to it's rumble.
We have a good store of food, which comes in handy in the winter when the road gets closed for a couple days. No need for the food in mild weather as we can get to the store in a couple of days even when the roads flood over (never been flooded in for more than 48 hours.)
I am most concerned about winter preparedness because of the cold temperatures. It can be hot and miserable in the summer but it is dangerous when there is no heat in the winter. For winter we have a furnace that we power with our generator, plus 3 fireplaces should the furnace fail. The generator and furnace run on Natural Gas and in my 47 years we've never had a N.G. failure, but as a precaution, my generator is also capable of running on Propane and Gasoline and I typically have some of both on hand so I feel I could run the generator for at least 30 continuous hours on those fuels (although I would likely run for a few hours, then shut it down for a few, run for a few, down for a few . . . ).
As for food supplies, we don't stock up on survivalist food, but we do keep plenty of staples on hand, I think it is just our nature to do so. Not necessarily for emergencies but just because we keep the pantry and other areas full by habit. I suspect we could 'survive' for a few weeks without going to the store. So no long term stockpile, but still plenty considering the longest we've ever been cut off from the outside world is only 3 days. We had no problems surviving 8 days without power in the winter several years ago when temps reached -20(F) on the first 4 of those days and we were snowed in for the first 3 days, never needed to go to the store and the house was reasonably comfortable the entire time, no freezing pipes, no major grief.
We have no hurricanes here, but we do have tornadoes. I suspect that as long as we don't lose the whole house we'd be in pretty good shape if tornados came through and hit the area hard.
Are you prepared? For what? How prepared are you?
Those will be the first in need of protection as well as the ability to be able to supply their own meat. I'm sure they will be more then willing to share what they have.