Standard Mischief

OK, so Uncle is talking about emergency car kits again, (earlier, here too), and Jacqueline Passey is complaining talking about no electricity and nearly running out of gas, and I just can’t take it any more.

I think Katrina and the duct tape and plastic sheet alert changed us as a nation, such that when people notice my two-liter bottles filled with tap water tucked away in the corner and ask about them, I can say “Katrina Kit” and they at least don’t seem to get that weirded out look on their faces anymore.

Really though, nothing has changed. When Andrew hit Florida, they had civil unrest and widespread looting, although it wasn’t as severe, and we didn’t have Flicka pools or MMS feeds from local New Orleans TV stations to tell us how bad it was. Back when people half kiddingly asked me about my Y2K prep, I was able to twist the conversation around by reminding them of the bad ice storm we had around here almost exactly a year before. Many people were out of power for three days. I told them that preparing for a week of no power wasn’t too wacknut paranoid.

But this post isn’t about extensive prep for mammoth disasters, it’s about near zero prep stuff you can do before a big snow or ice storm hits, or bad spring thunderstorms, or when the remnants of a hurricane pass over the area.

1. Fill your gas tank.

Jacqueline blames her brother. But if you have any time at all before the storm hits, go fill your tanks. There’s two reasons. First, twelve gallons of gas equals about 72 extra pounds of weight in a car trying to safely pilot around on slippery roads. Second, if everyones loses mains power, no station can sell gas.

2. Fill up some pots and pans with water.

This is still a good idea during a severe winter storm because you can always get frozen pipes, but mainly this is important when hurricane type weather is due. Inevitably during the big storms, the water treatment plant will pass untreated water into the system, and people will be cautioned to boil their water. That can be hard to do when all you have to cook on is an electric stove. I have those refilled two-liter bottles and a few cases of single serve bottles already, but it only takes a few minute of work to fill up a few pans or stockpots.

3. Shut off your water main.

(Yup, this post is pretty long. more below the fold)

Only for severe thunderstorms. It’s better in severe cold to keep the faucets trickling so they don’t freeze. But again, if they pass down a boil water order, but you shut off the water main before the brunt of the storm hits, there’s likely several gallons of safe water in the pipes. You could also pop the breaker on the water heater and get 30-40 gallons that way too.

You can also fill your tub with water and use a bucket to flush down those number twos, but if I was staring down a number five hurricane and for some stupid reason I decided to stay, I’d probably scrub the tub out and be ready to treat that water to consume in an emergency.

4. Have something around that you can cook with.

I mean besides the electric stove. Usually, if you have natural gas, you can easily cook or heat water for baths if you keep a few packs of matches or a lighter around. If you’re in an earthquake zone, however, I suppose you can’t really rely on natural gas. Any camping stove would work, though I would recommend something using canisters over something using white gas. Compressed gas stoves are about a hundred times less fiddly then the white gas ones. They even simmer better too. Even though the safety nazis will cry foul, I feel it’s safe enough to have my well behaved butane backpacking stove lit in the kitchen for the five minutes it takes me to heat up a can of chili.

Although the propane grills many people have are real fuel hogs, the single burner stoves that many of them have on the side are quite miserly. In the junky house I rented before I bought my own home, I cooked for myself for over a year with only a microwave and a single burner stove fueled by one of those grill tanks. It’s really quite a lot of fuel if you don’t try to bake or grill.

It requires a little foresight, but keeping a hibachi around with a spare bag of briquettes isn’t too hard, but if that’s too much like planning ahead, maybe you can scrape together a hobo stove and burn sticks.

5. Have something around to eat.

Really, is it too much foresight to get yourself a dozen cans of chili, a few cans of ready to eat ravioli, and a dozen cans of peaches and fruit cocktail stashed away in that cupboard above the fridge that you hate using because it’s too tall? People on food stamps should be able to scrape together enough to buy themselves a large bag of rice and some cooking oil (add a few tablespoons of cooking oil over your rice if you’re trying to get all your calories from boiled rice). Something is better than nothing.

6. Charge you batteries. Check your flashlights

Rechargeable Nicads and NiMH batteries self discharge. You know bad weather is coming so charge them up while you can. Don’t forget your laptop and phone too.

LED flashlights are so cheap and easy on the batteries that there’s just about no reason to use the old style bulbs anymore. Plus, they’re about a thousand times safer than candles.

7. Fill your freezer.

Actually, I emptied mine. I cleaned out the chest freezer and packed the small freezer compartment full in the fridge in the kitchen. Then, I filled every extra space with bottles of water and let them freeze too. Ice or frozen food store more cold than just air. Keeping it sealed kept every thing cool.

Seeing as the local Super*Fresh sells dry ice nowadays too, I’ll consider preemptively buying some if another tropical storm was on it’s way.

8. Bread, Toilet Paper, and Milk.

That’s what everyone goes for when they hear of a snowflake on it’s way. I hate waiting around in long lines at the store when this happens, so I don’t. Your average winter storm around here will only keep the weenies off the road for about three days, and in my household a four pack of reserve TP should last me at least a week.

Bread freezes well. Throw a spare loaf or two in the freezer.

I don’t drink milk, but I use it all the time in recipes. I buy a brand of full cream dried milk that tastes better than the average powder.

9. “…Specialization is for insects.” -RAH

Ok, so I was living in an apartment with my girlfriend about ten years ago when the mother of all Washington DC area storms hit. Compounding that was the fact that the new apartment management failed to contract anyone to plow snow that winter. After about three days, I’ll admit, we were out of bread (we still had rice, pasta, and cereal, but we had cabin fever and the nearby store was open anyway). So we walk up to the open store, and pick through the picked over isles. There had not been any deliveries for three days, so if course there was no bread, TP, or milk. There was quite a line anyway, and everyone was bitching about not having any bread. My girlfriend started a stampede when she said aloud “There’s plenty of bread”. Holding up a lump of frozen dough, she said “Frozen uncooked bread. Just toss it in a bread pan and bake it.” The half dozen people ahead of us decided they all had a date with the freezer case, and we hopped to the head of the line. That was pretty cool.

The saddest part was that in addition to the frozen bread, there was plenty of stuff like Bisquik, flour, yeast, cornbread mix, and foil loaf pans left too. Think outside the box, people.

Did I miss something? Something simple that anyone can do? Comments are open.