Emergency Preparedness
For those who don’t know, last year Buffalo got hit with a nasty storm that would later be called the October Surprise. We had an unusually early snowfall on October 12th and since the leaves hadn’t fallen from the trees as yet we suffered massive tree damage. By 8am on Friday the 13th 22” of snow had fallen leaving vast amounts of the area without power. Even though the snow melted just a couple days later it took quite a while for many people to get power again and months to clear up most of the devastation.
You can read up on it, of course, in wikipedia.
I was one of the lucky ones in that my power was only out for a couple days. We were all lucky in that we didn’t have such devastation in the middle of the winter. The fatalities would have been ludicrous.
During that time I had to make a run out to the grocery store to get some more food because we didn’t really have enough around the house. After that we had to go on another quest for something to cook on since our one camp stove was old, and trying to cook soup on a regular grill doesn’t work out so well. On the other hand we were able to figure out a few ways to make life easier in that situation.
Afterward I got to thinking about planning for such things. It wasn’t the first time we’ve gone without power. Just a few years before when I was living in another house we had an ice storm that took our power away from us in the middle of winter, and honestly that sucked beyond all compare.
So now that we’re reaching the time of year where our last catastrophe happened I’ve been thinking about it again. I have to remember to get some extra canned goods so we can eat in case we’re snowed in. I have to make sure I know where all of our emergency supplies are so we can get to them quickly. I’m thinking of investing in a generator so I can get the furnace rewired in case we’re without power when we really need the heat, or at least get a couple space heaters going to keep the pipes from bursting.
The big issue I’m having is trying to figure out a good way to catalog where everything is and what we’re prepared for. This way I can look for gaps in our plans, and make sure things are fresh. After all, nothing would suck more than huddling in the basement with a pile of expired food.
I wonder how many other people have emergency plans, and how thorough they are. I can easily see myself going overboard with as I tend to, but honestly just having a little extra food and some way to keep the house warm will make a huge difference the next time the shit hits the fan.