Real Life - When my preps have saved my butt... How about you folks?

[k0xxx]

Growing up in southeast Louisiana, we always had hurricanes. As a child they were exciting, we got to eat by candle light and kerosene lamp, eat a lot of neat canned food and have neighbors over to share meals with us, etc. It wasn't until I was older that I realized the reason that it was fun was that my parents were well prepared.

In the last few years we have had two ice storms that caused us to be without power for extended time, once for 7 days and the other for 17 days. We also had a F5 tornado pass through that left us without power for 7 days. Each time, we were able to fire up the generators, light the lamps, and cruise through. We stored insulin and milk for one of our neighbors in our refrigerator after the tornado.

On day 15 of the big ice storm we were told to expect to be without power for up to 30 days more, since we were the only house on this leg of the power line we were low priority. That evening we heard over the radio that one of the repair crews had come up from the New Orleans area, and that they were staying at a local church. The next day we cooked up 30 pounds of Louisiana Red Beans (kidney beans) along with 10 pounds of hot sausage and delivered it to the church and visited with some of the crew. The following day we had our power back on. It pays to be prepared.

 

[MorelCabin]

We have had three instances where we had to live without power for a week. One was the quebec icestorm...and we are close enough to quebec that it knocked us out as well. We had a woodstove, so I used it to cook all our meals. Our freezer food went out to the garage where it was cold enough to stay frozen. Milk and stuff went to the cold room, and we melted buckets and buckets of snow for everything from coffee, cooking water, bathing, drinking, and flushing toilets.
It wasn't so bad. I had oil lamps for light. You can live very simply when you need to, and it can actually be very relaxing and enjoyable, with the right attitude.

Losing power during the summer is actually alot more tricky. Sure, you might not freeze to death, but you can lose your freezer, water is actually harder to come by unless you have a generator or hand pump.

 

[Wifezilla]

I am from snowy WI tortoise When I was really young we lived in the burbs. When I was a teen mom & dad bought land out in the boonies. Our road was on the side of a really steep hill. If the snow got too bad, you couldn't leave. Being unable to get out of the driveway for days at a time was not unusual.

There were severe blizzards where we had no electric for almost a week. Once, during a really bad snow storm we ran out of propane. Good thing we had plenty of firewood. Mom had a habit of keeping the pantry full of campbell's soup and jars of spaghetti sauce plus they usually got 1/2 a cow every fall. We had no trouble riding out the snow.

We also had preps in the basement for tornado season. Nothing major, but dad kept his camping stuff down there and we broke it out when we had to hide in the basement.

Now in Colorado you can still get those blizzards and tornados, but we also had flash floods. A while back a flood washed out a major electrical tower and we had no power for 2 weeks. My camping gear came in really handy that time

In another instance we had a spring blizzard so bad a friend of ours couldn't get home. He spent 3 days on our couch. Good thing we had extra food.

 

[Farmfresh]

Ice storm and 10 days with no electric here a few years back.

Because of the prep, the knowledge and the practice we skated through fat and sassy eating pot roasts and pies. Heating and cooking with my cast iron and the fireplace. We read and played games by lantern light in the evenings. My neighbors all left their homes for shelters and later talked about eating only cold PB and J's for days.

I mainly prep for this kind of situation.

 

[SKR8PN]

On day 15 of the big ice storm we were told to expect to be without power for up to 30 days more, since we were the only house on this leg of the power line we were low priority. That evening we heard over the radio that one of the repair crews had come up from the New Orleans area, and that they were staying at a local church. The next day we cooked up 30 pounds of Louisiana Red Beans (kidney beans) along with 10 pounds of hot sausage and delivered it to the church and visited with some of the crew. The following day we had our power back on. It pays to be prepared.

This is kinda the same thing that happened to us during our ice storm. Out of state crews were brought in to help with the repairs and one of the first things they did was cut the drops to every single house with a generator! After watching these crews drive past for 3 days straight, knowing that all my neighbors already had power, I flagged a crew down as they went past. They had now idea we were still cut from the grid! They backed the truck up and within 15 minutes had us hooked back up to the grid. On the way back in that evening, they stopped in to pick up their adult beverages.

 

[Beekissed]

Ice storm and 10 days with no electric here a few years back.

Because of the prep, the knowledge and the practice we skated through fat and sassy eating pot roasts and pies. Heating and cooking with my cast iron and the fireplace. We read and played games by lantern light in the evenings. My neighbors all left their homes for shelters and later talked about eating only cold PB and J's for days.

I mainly prep for this kind of situation.

Same as my dear Farmfresh. Been without electric in big snow storms for up to 3 wks. time, no way of getting out and the Nat'l Guard called in to clear major highways of debris. Having lived without electricity or running water for a good portion of my life, it was no big thang to do it again.

We were prepared. Outhouse? Check. Water? Check. Oil Lamps? Check. Wood heat? Check. Plenty to do? Check. Plenty of canned foods? Check. Plenty of no-how to make do? Double check!

God always seems to take care of us no matter how little we prepare for this emergency or that one, so I don't lay awake at night worrying over these trifling things anymore.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Gotta think that anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong and at the most inopportune moment. Ever notice how much more annoying things get when stuff fails in Winter? In summer no one really gets too excited. But when it is a matter of -20 to -30F, folks get real concerned.
Just the other day, I said to a couple, "seems that I spend all summer just trying to get ready for winter."
So, I guess the point made in many of the posts here is "If you are prepared, you aren't worried". That may be a false sense of security in some cases but the more prepared we are to live without the luxuries of the 21st Century, the easier it will be to deal with the adversity we all seem to expect.
As one person put it, their Amish friends simply smile. They won't really even notice a SHTF scenario. They are still quite skilled in lving in the 19th century.
Hopefully, we learn from all this.
YMMV

 

[Wildsky]

We've never really had anything like this happen to us.

The worst we had was having to evacuate during the Cedar fire in San Diego. I was 8 months pregnant, and we had a little 4 year old, and two cats.

We got everything that was important out, photos and stuff like that. The cats in the laundry hamper and off we went - to sit it out at family's house. SO no biggie.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Got a weird start to learning this stuff, but it's been handy. I spent most of my life in Fla and loved camping. I was in SCA too, so it' s not that big a deal to be without electric. Got married later in '88 and we spent a few years traveling and living like hippies. We lived over a year on a tree farm in Ga., that was way off the grid. We got a woodstove, had a battery radio, a couple oil lamps and a flashlight. Made a solar oven from a box and tin foil too. It worked fine.
Our bathtub was set under the spring pipe and filled in the morning so the sun could warm the water during the day. Or we heated water on the stove for a washcloth bath. We hauled water up a pretty steep hill, but it was a reliable spring at least. (Wish I'd had a solar shower bag then. I have one now and LOVE it. ) Living there was more effort, but it was peaceful and I frequently miss it.

I ended up going back to Fla later. Went through Hurricanes Charley, Francis, and Jean, at home. Charlie did lots of damage in the neighborhood and left 3 big oak trees on their sides in our front yard. I got pretty good with a chain saw.

Had lots of candles already, and kept a 7 day (jar) candle going from sundown to morning. Lit other candles from it, to use around the house. I kept it in the sink at night since there was nothing easily flammable nearby. I used tiki torches if I needed to be in the yard at night.
I wedged a mattress tight up against the biggest window to limit flying glass if the window got busted. Ordinary things can be used in different ways too.
I missed 3 days work because many roads were not passable and the city bus system was shut down. I stored a weeks worth of dinners in the freezer at work to eat there, since that neighborhood was a high priority for electric service ( near a Hospital and a power substation ).
We had no electric at home for 10 days. I got food poisoning once from guessing wrong about if something was still safe in my frig. Lost a full frig/freezer. I had lots of jugs of water already , since that city used too much chlorine in the water.

The house phone and the cell phone both only worked sometimes - for that week. I charged my cell at work but the networks were too busy. Having both options was a big help.
I hung out the solar shower bag before going to work. Brought it in and hung it on the shower curtain rod when I got home. It was heavy, so make sure your rod is anchored well before trying that.

 

[Farmfresh]

During a bathroom renovation we were without electric in there for a week or so. My Geek son made us a bathroom light with a 9 volt battery a resistor and a small LED and a bit of tape that worked great and lasted well after the week was over. We turned it off and on by sliding a wire under the tape and onto the battery post. It provided an amazing amount of light. Handy in an emergency situation and safer than candles.