What disaster prep things have you undertaken in your homes

In My Humble Opinion
41

Power outages are the biggest problem we face. I have a Coleman 2 burner propane stove and 9 or 10 bottles of propane for it. I have two charcoal BBQ’s and a charcoal smoker and 40 or 50 lbs of charcoal for them. Cooking won’t be an issue. We used to do a lot of camping and so have the usual sleeping bags and… uh… actually, I may have gotten rid of most of my camping equipment now that I think about it. We definitely have the sleeping bags though, and lots of extra blankets.

While we don’t deal with much snow here we still have cold weather clothes from our camping days so dealing with a cold house shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Not ideal but certainly not dangerous. We used to snow camp in tents, we know how to dress warm.

I have a kerosene oil lamp somewhere in the garage. Probably should identify exactly where. I don’t think I’ve ever used it. I do still have a big Coleman propane lantern. I have a couple of the OG (incandescent) MagLites and several smaller flashlights. Numerous candles.

I have several power banks to charge a cell phone with. I keep those charged always. I should get some more.

We usually have at least a week’s worth of food on hand, usually more. Water… I should probably stock up on some emergency water.

We have a fireplace in the living room but since it’s a fireplace it doesn’t heat the house worth a damn. We don’t use it but I do have some firewood under a lean-to, in a power outage I’d… well, probably still not use it. It just doesn’t work well enough to bother with.

I do have at least a week’s worth of my prescription meds including my insulin set aside for emergencies.

All the birth certificates, SS cards, vehicle titles, copies of medical insurance cards, some cash, and other odds and ends are in the same place, easily accessible in an emergency. For reasons I can’t remember I have about £3 in random coins a $20 Canadian bill in the same location, as well as some rubles and francs in a different drawer. I’m sure those will come in handy in an emergency. I have about $200 American change in an old Lily’s coffee can as well which in an emergency evacuation I’m sure I would forget to grab.

Since Covid we always have a couple of big Costco packages of toilet paper on hand. I’m more paranoid about running out of TP than food. But I do need to get a better supply of food squirreled away.

We have 5 vehicles, my wife’s is an AWD and big enough for us 4 and the dog and cat carriers. I’m not religious about filling my car up at half a tank but between the 5 we have the means to get out of here if needed. We usually have ~5 gallons of gas in the shed for the lawn mower – until I get an electric mower in the next year or two, anyway. In an emergency it can be poured into one of the car’s tanks, something I have never had to do.

42

I’ve had a whole house generator for the past 12 years to avoid another hurricane-related 9-day power outage. It’s come in very handy several times.

43

Realistically if you don’t eat you’ll probably not need toity paper after awhile. So maybe balance that out.

I have a well…it would be pretty difficult to get water out without the pump. I bet we could figure that out quickly. I still have cases of bottle water all the time. I could ration the alcohol usage enough to keep people from murdering each other.

We could eat for weeks maybe more with the food I have in freezers and the pantry. Wild game, catfish and sardines might get a bit unappetizing after awhile. Cats would like it.

44

The only thing we’d have to worry about around here is a power outage due to a blizzard, ice storm or maybe a really bad rain/wind storm. The last time we were without power was about 3 years ago in a very rare situation when a plane flew into a house about a mile away. It took some electric wires with it. That lasted maybe 5 hours with most of those hours happening while we were asleep and oblivious to the situation. I couldn’t tell you the last time we lost power for more than an hour due to weather. It’s been many years.

We have enough food in the pantry and freezer for a couple of weeks if not more. We may not like what we’d have to eat, but we wouldn’t starve. I have some water in jugs stored in the basement. Is there a expiration date on water? If we ran out of water during a blizzard, I guess we’d just use snow. There are flashlights all over the house, but we’re probably lacking in the battery department. There are a lot of candles also. I have some battery packs for the phones, but haven’t charged them in a while so no help there. The cars always have at least a half tank of gas. We have loads of heavy, warm outerwear so we would be able to bundle up if we lost heat.

45

I guess we’re the “preppers” here. We are not SHTF, or camo-and-ammo types though. We just like having sufficient buffers in case of lengthy interruptions. After the TX deep freeze, we improved these from “maybe a week or so” to a well-planned, coherent storage system in order to manage 3+ weeks. Much beyond that drives the storage volume really high. Plus it’s very difficult to rotate that much stuff.

Stay home prep:

  • 180 gallons of potable water stored in raised tanks, climate controlled area.
  • Pumps to move above water to toilet tanks, sinks (avoid lugging 5 gal buckets)
  • 12KW propane generator, semi-permanent mounting (runs anything in the house, but not everything at once).
  • 50A connection and transfer switch for above.
  • Onsite propane sufficient for ~20 days of necessary power/heat/air-conditioning (not continuous).
  • Adapters and braided steel propane line to connect all the above.
  • Propane powered infrared (indoor-rated) heaters.
  • Sufficient CO/Propane/Smoke detectors.
  • Multiple fire extinguishers in house/garage.
  • Emergency lighting inside (hallways, stairwells, exits)
  • Battery-powered lanterns for carrying inside.
  • Propane lantern for outside.
  • 2 months of food.
  • Sufficient supply of paper goods for cleaning, etc.
  • Good supply of gloves, N95 masks, first aid. (Note: we did this long before the pandemic).
  • A month of meds (difficult to keep this due to insurance/pharm).
  • 250 cubic feet of firewood, mostly split and dried (at start of winter).
  • 1000 miles of fuel stored for the car for local travel.

Departure prep (fire, flood, etc. forces us away from house in haste):

  • Stored fuel: 700 miles minimum of onboard range kept in pickup.
  • Copies of all financial and other docs scanned, encrypted, and stored in BOBs.
  • BOBs, with cash, directions, emergency food (for in vehicle).
  • Substantial water stored in the truck.
  • Originals of all important docs in deposit box at bank.
  • Except winter, several days of water and food stored in the RV.
46

Violent agreement with this.

The last thing I want to do is leave my somewhat safe home with some water, some food and some shelter and then run out of gas in nut-to-butt traffic on the New Jersey turnpike with 10,000 of my closest friends.

In order to, what? Go into the woods to shoot non-existent deer and fieldstrip one for the first time in my life?? Also, with 10,000 of my closest friends?

47

I think that one depends on where you are and what the danger is.

I’m on high ground; with food, fuel and water; in an area in which forest fires are nearly unheard of (grass fires yes, ones that spread for miles no); ditto significant earthquakes; and while we get storms, if we’re having a bad storm somebody east, south, north, or west of us is getting it much worse and the worst of it is worn off before it gets here. Yeah, my plan, short of the house catching fire, is shelter in place.

If you live in major fire country (which is expanding), hurricane country (also expanding), floodplain areas (also expanding), or downwind from some types of chemical production and/or transport – being prepared to get out of there is a really good idea. Even better is having a plan for someplace to go that doesn’t amount to running into the woods with 10,000 other people; which, if nothing else, is likely to be unreasonably hard on the woods.

48

If you live near a rail road line there is also a possibility of needing to get out of Dodge quickly in the event of a derailment that leads to a toxic spill. Not as common as some other emergencies, but it can happen.

Even so - most people are best off planning to stay in place. Have all your important papers a few things ready to grab and go, but extensive wilderness/bushcraft bags is not realistic. These days if you have to bug-out a credit card so you can check into a hotel 50 miles down the road actually makes more sense.

49

How do you store fuel for your generator? I have acquired a pump with a clever, narrow pipe that can defeat the anti siphon protection on the truck, so that I can get gas out of the truck tank into Jerry cans for the generator. I pour unused gas back into the truck.

I have about fifteen gallons of fresh water in gallon jugs to provide de chlorinated water for several aquariums. Oh yeah, the OP. Many years ago there was an ice storm that took out power lines for a couple of weeks in Arkansas, 20 miles West of Little Rock where I was living. I had a pull start generator, a pain for a little guy like me. I moved the gas furnace 110v to a plug, and ran it off the generator. We had heat, satellite TV and lights. The generator isn’t large enough to run the refrigerator. I’ve wired this furnace the same, with a plug and socket for house power. We haven’t had to use it yet. I did have to work on the new electric start generator in the recent snow storm, removing the float bowl and hosing the carb inside and out with carb cleaner.

50

Not much really. It’s just normal living.

We heat with propane, so unless the tank is near empty we are good. It’s also a passive solar house. As long as the sun comes out we are good to go.

I’ve a plow truck and a 4x4 loader for snow. That’s just SOP. Both my wife and I have 4 wheel drive. Also SOP. Ya just have to where we live.

We have some kerosene lanterns that while decorative, are very functional. They put out a lot of light, and even a little heat. My wife likes candles so we always have them around.

My wife usually has 4-5 gallons of distilled water because she does not like the taste of ours, and it has a lot of iron in it. Doc says my wife is too high in iron anyway…

We have a small spring on our property that while would be a bit of a bitch to get water from in the winter, it’s certainly doable. And we can melt snow 6 months out of the year on the propane heat stove. That though is not as efficient as you might think. It takes a lot of snow and time for little product. That would best be applied for warming water for ‘bird bath’ washing.

We don’t really stock up on food. But often have enough for a week or so with no complaints. I’ve got a gallon and a half of hearty ham and bean soup in the freezer right now. Though it would take days to melt and heat. But that’s quite healthy and satisfying.

My wife and I both have a jump starter battery in our cars. They can also charge cell phones, are flash lights and stuff.

We play chess and or cribbage nearly every night. While I would mis the internet and TV, we would make do.

If things really go into the handbasket, I have a number of guns and ammo. I should buy more shotgun shells though I guess.

51

Not much. I live in earthquake territory, so staying at home won’t be an option if one hits. For other disasters though, I have several 60-day portable LED lanterns and a 50-gallon water heater supply of water. Lots of canned food. It doesn’t get terribly cold here 95% of the time so that shouldn’t be a problem.

52

Before moving into a more metro section of Raleigh, I used to live in a less-developed area. We were on a well and power outages were much more frequent, so having water available was a big deal. I used a bathtub liner (basically a big plastic bag with a cap) to store water whenever there was a hint of a hurricane or winter storm. That’s no longer a big threat, but I still keep a liner available if I think I might need to fill it.

We rarely lose power, but we also rely on a heat pump, so we’re screwed if we do lose it when it’s cold. For this reason, I keep a kerosene heater out in the shed and about 10 gallons of kerosene (which keeps forever if sealed). Kerosene heaters get a lot of disrespect, but they will heat a small house pretty efficiently when you need them to. My wife just rolls her eyes, but I remind her that my in-laws, who live near North Hills, lost power for eight days during the 2000 snow.

OTOH, she loves the heck out of my dual-fuel (butane/propane) countertop burner. It came in a nice plastic case and it’s very easy to ignite and control. Sits right next to several propane bottles and my old camping percolator in the utility room closet.

Now, if I can just find a propane air fryer…

53

Where I live, the main natural disaster threat is tornadoes, so to some degree there’s limited preparation for them, save a bunker in the yard or something like that.

Beyond that, we occasionally get ice storms and severe thunderstorms that knock out the power, sometimes for extended periods. So to that end, I’ve got a bunch of propane and battery powered camping equipment that I got for Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts, that I can repurpose for cooking and lighting, and I’ve also got a crank-powered radio, some firewood, and a 4000 watt generator to which I’ve added a natural gas conversion kit. So I can detach the grill and hook up the generator, and do stuff like keep the refrigerators going, and/or run a space heater, TV, etc… as long as I stay within the 3600 or so watts that it produces on NG.

Food/water wise, we’ve got an obnoxious amount of food on hand most of the time anyway, and if we’re expecting bad weather, we usually try to stock up with 10-15 gallons of water.

54

We’ve a gasoline-powered generator that can run our heating system plus fridge/freezer plus another appliance or two as needed. We stock enough canned & dry foods to keep us going for over a week. Lots of wood for a fire if needed. Alliances with our neighbors and their plows/snow blowers/chainsaws/etc. I have basic medical supplies at home for emergencies, including suturing/splinting etc. We don’t stockpile water as our well has enough pressure to flow without the pump, albeit slowly. And we’ve Lake Michigan water right next to us in case we need to boil/filter if the well fails.

55

Instead of a bathtub liner, I saved up about a hundred empty and well-rinsed gallon and half gallon beverage containers, the intent is that I’ll fill them up when a threatening storm is forecast.

I filled up a bunch of these containers with water before Superstorm Sandy, but luckily I was able to empty them and but the bottle back into storage a few days later.

56

I used to use containers, but they took up way too much space and were a pain to fill. With a liner, you just lay it out in the tub, line up the filler with the spout, and let it run. (This is a bladder, not strictly a liner.) It will hold over 60 gallons of water. Very easy to drain, too, but I usually just used it to flush the toilet over the weeks after the emergency event.