People who actually used their preps in a major crisis/disaster, what actually helped, what was a waste of time/resources and what was something that was surprisingly useful that was otherwise overlooked?
Posted by sewcrazy4cats@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 201 comments
I am a flood survivor plus went through the grid down of 2021 in Texas. I never knew how vital 2 liter bottles of water to flush toilets for 12 people would become. Plus really wished I had rain boots and got alot of nerve damage I'm still recovering from to this day. What I bought too much of was pool salt and took 3 years to use it all.
dancingqueen200@reddit
Useful -bottled water -canned chicken -battery powered candles -full tank of gas -flashlights -tealights -car charger
shucksme@reddit
A while back Michigan experienced a really bad ice storm in the middle of February. It was beautiful. Everything covered in an inch of ice. It knocked the power out for us for 5 days; with night temps in the negatives. Several people died throughout the state due to the cold and others from driving incidents- most trying to get to places with electricity.
Knowing how to keep warm without killing yourself from carbon monoxide poisoning is critical. For us, we lost power but had gas. Meaning the furnace fan can't run. Having a working CO meter while running the gas stove is the best way to heat the house. Running the hot shower till everything is steamy helps to hold heat better. We could get the selected living area up to 60° before risking the air quality then go to sleep without freezing to death. Every blanket and sweater on top of the bed and cuddle up.
Things you learn when you have a childhood filled with utilities being turned off due to non payment.
There is so much more to say about how to keep warm in your own house without killing yourself. Consider the various configurations you have. So many of our neighbors had generators. But enough gas to last two days at most. By the third night almost no generators could be heard.
Boardfeet97@reddit
When I used to sail, having the exact tools for working on the boat was important. Ie a10 mm socket if you need it. Sail repair kit. Wooden dowels for plugs ext. you can apply this to land scenarios as well. Also, solar electricity doesn’t know the power grid is down.
n3wb33Farm3r@reddit
Been prepping for over 20 years. Live in NYC. In that time used my gear once. Hurricane Sandy. Lost power for around 2 hours. Flashlight and AM/FM radio.
MuffinOk4609@reddit
How about the Blackouts? Were you there? Short but exciting, I hear.
n3wb33Farm3r@reddit
Dependent where in NYC you were. In Manhattan most people were unaffected. In parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island people were out for a few days to a few weeks. I work a telecommunications company, was working in Howard Beach the next day. Poles were down everywhere. It was a mess. .
jackfruitjohn@reddit
Oh, I’ve got one. I definitely have one.
Ok, so. Last winter the PNW where I live had an arctic freeze. Let me be clear about what I mean by “arctic freeze”.
The warming temperatures on the planet is causing the polar vortex to destabilize. Usually it keeps arctic air in the arctic. But it became weak and the polar air blasted down to North America. You can find news stories of people needing emergency medical care and getting amputations because of frostbite from attending a footballgame in Kansas, etc.
I live in Portland. There are lots of trees and no investment in the deteriorating power grid.
The ice caused thousands of trees to snap and fall. There were grid failures everywhere. People were trapped in their homes because or downed power lines. One family burst into flames because their car was on fire and they tried to escape. Only a baby survived because someone risked their life to pick it up off a burning body.
No, I’m not making this up. None of this is hyperbole. I can link sources but just go do a search.
For my cold preps I had a generator, fuel, three electric space heaters, one oil electric space heater, tons of firewood, heating pads for me pets, and I have a big stone fireplace. Plus I have a complete wardrobe of sub-zero clothes because I’m a wilderness person. I’m used to outdoor cold weather routines.
My power was out for the better part of 10 days.
Sounds like I should have been good, right?
Wrong.
The cold was so brutal, so bitter, and so deep, I spent every single day trying to get my home warm and never managed to get it above 1°C. Every day was just surviving. The cold just sucked any warmth right out of me, my home, my food, everything.
Most of my neighbors went to hotels but I saw it as an opportunity to figure shit out.
I was wearing my full sub-zero clothes around the clock. Every morning, I woke up exhausted from shivering. It would be 1-3° below C in the morning. Wake up, boots on, out into the ice, check on a neighbor or two, fill up the gennie, bring in firewood, and start the fire. Then try to figure out how to use my heaters more efficiently. Tend the fire all day, cook with an electric crock pot, eat some food, back to bed. Shiver all night again. (I was under so many blankets, the weight was annoying.)
The hardest thing about this is that I thought I was prepared. We’ve only just begun trying to survive this weather catastrophe. I thought I would be ok.
I wasn’t ok.
I had to wear gloves in the house but had to take them off sometimes to wash up etc. I never took them off outside.
My hands were burned from the cold inside my home.
They still have some discoloration. I don’t care about the way it looks. It just reminds me that all my prepping was inadequate in the face of the wrath of a planet being destroyed by billionaires.
One of my pets got a cough and it kills me. I couldn’t even keep my pets warm enough.
I’m not as capable as I thought and I actually think I need to move to a hardened home built for the coming years. So exhausting.
MuffinOk4609@reddit
WHEN was this? I live up in Vancouver (BC) and never heard of it.
We had a nasty windstorm last night. It gets cold when the power is out!
jackfruitjohn@reddit
Did you read it?
smsff2@reddit
Thank you. Very informative.
I wish I could post it on the front page of r/preppers. After nuclear winter starts, people will need to live like this for 30 years. The common narrative on this sub is to shop for EMP bags. A person needs to misunderstand something very, very badly to assume an EMP bag will make any difference in case of EMP. A wood stove costs approximately as much, and it will make a difference between life and death.
I plan to save the URL of your comment and give it to everyone, who seriously considers getting an EMP bag.
Are at least some of your pets being dogs? If so, you could sleep with the dogs under one blanket. What do you think about this possibility?
Typically. I make the vacuum insulated bottle full of tea in the evening. I use it to warm myself up in the morning, before my body start functioning properly, and the body heat output increases. Sometimes I take a sip in the middle of the night.
I keep a lot of socks and t-shirts around. If you are sweaty, you need to do something about it right away. I need to get more t-shirts.
MuffinOk4609@reddit
What IS an EMP bag, a Faraday cage? There are lots of electronics items worth saving, You can just try putting them in your microwave. I am more concerned with a CME. But one of my electronic items as a Geiger counter!
auntbealovesyou@reddit
"Are at least some of your pets being dogs? If so, you could sleep with the dogs under one blanket. What do you think about this possibility?"
Experienced train hoppers always have a smallish to medium dog...that they absolutely treasure. They get into their sleeping bag, take off their boots and push boots and dog to the bottom of sleeping bag. Stay warm all night, warm boots in the morning and no one trys to steal the boots or the dog.
jackfruitjohn@reddit
My pets are bunnies! I would love to sleep with them but when I have tried, they get so excited to be next to me while I sleep that they try to build a new home as close as possible. The “new home” they try to build is usually directly next to my stomach. Their building materials are strip of my clothes they bite off. One time I fell asleep and woke up with big chunks of my hair chewed off.
It is very sweet of them to try to make a new borrow for us to share with the softest stuff available to them. 😂
They also think my head makes a good trampoline for jumping as high as possible.
I actually don’t know about EMP bags. I’ve never invested the time in preps for a nuclear war event. I assumed it would time to bow out. But now I’m curious and will look into this.
Pbandsadness@reddit
Does your house need better insulation, maybe?
jackfruitjohn@reddit
No. The insulation is excellent. But it does have high ceilings. So the heat was traveling to where I didn’t need it.
I could just try to heat a section of my house but the fire is in the main section with the highest ceilings so I wouldn’t be able to use it.
globely@reddit
Would it have been better with a small tent inside your home for sleeping? To contain any heat you could generate?
jackfruitjohn@reddit
This is an excellent idea! I have only heard about the tent method in the last few months. I have a couple. So I will try this if (when) this happens again. Thank you!
Gunny_1775@reddit
Did you try an emergency blanket
jackfruitjohn@reddit
Yes. The one I had was the kind that I carry in my backpack whenever I’m in the wilderness. So it’s like a thin plastic sheet. The plastic was really loud and I am sensitive to noise. It kept me awake. Do you know if they make them non-crinkly?
But the sub-zero clothes I was wearing have therma-shield lining inside. So it’s like this silver heat reflecting interior. I was wearing two layers under my clothes of this type of long underwear. Then my main warm clothes. Then a coat that has the same lining. So three layers of therma-shield. When I have gone camping, even in sub-zero temperatures, even half of these clothes would overheat me. I know it’s really strange that I couldn’t get warm. It’s just what happened. I can’t even figure it out myself.
I have a sheepskin that is in storage. I was thinking that might be the thing to use as a top blanket this winter if (when) the grid goes down.
Gunny_1775@reddit
Did you have a sleeping bag? If so I can tell you that when we were doing cold weather training we would get in the sleeping bags with just underwear on and was so hot it was ridiculous. If you wore anything more than that you stayed cold for whatever reason
MrsLobster@reddit
One possibility regarding your inability to stay warm despite so many clothes is that you had too many snug layers, as counterintuitive as that may seem. When you’re in a house and not exerting yourself as much, it’s better to have fewer looser layers so there’s room to trap a layer of heat between your skin and your clothing. Same would apply at night, and why using a tent would work as that would keep your body heat from escaping into a large room. A nice subzero-rated down sleeping bag with a hood will keep you seriously toasty as well. One layer of merino wool long underwear is all you’d probably need inside it. Use a hot water bottle to preheat if you’re a really cold sleeper.
fattest-fatwa@reddit
We did this in Texas in 2020. We slept in the tent in the living room and were comfortable over night.
No_QuarterGiven@reddit
In this situation a livingroom fort with a "ceiling" would help trap the heat into a lower concentrated area. You could also just hang tarps or a patio umbrella in a pinch.
jackfruitjohn@reddit
I bought a dog house for my pets. I haven’t set it up yet but I was thinking I could put it near the fire and put a lot of straw in it. Maybe I’ll put the heating pad underneath. The tarps are a great idea. Maybe I could put a tarp or similar above the indoor dog house.
GreenDog27@reddit
I have numerous family members in the Portland area. Lost power - one had a tree fall on their roof. None of them had this scenario and one of them was a 90-year old. They pulled the couch up to the fireplace and kept the 90-year old there. Add in a heated blanket and they were fine. (And they live in a massive house with 2 staircases and no central heat or space heaters during the freeze).
Things to consider:
- People camp in below freezing. Maybe just a below-zero sleeping bag would help?
- Trying to keep the entire house warm is not the top priority. Yes, you want to prevent freezing pipes. But, first priority is to warm up your CORE every few hours and overnight. I would have thought a young person could do this with an electric blanket.
- Another way is to warm up the smallest room (preferably interior with no windows) with a space heater. Try it - it will get warm pretty quick. This is probably a small bathroom or laundry room. Yes - it is boring to sit in a tiny bathroom with your pets for hours but once your core temperature is up, it will keep you going for awhile.
- Warm up water and put in Nalgene bottle or other containers and tuck into your bed or wherever you are sitting.
- I live in a snowy, cold, northern climate. We go out all day and are not freezing. Something is wrong with your gear or you need to find another way to get warm before going out.
- Do you have a car? Run it and crank up the heat. (Pls do not do this in a closed garage.). Again, the point is to get your body temperature up and body relaxed so you are not trying to create heat for some period of time.
- Hand warmers?
I could go on with suggestions. And while everyone I know was checking on neighbors/elderly/vulnerable, no-one was going directly to worse case scenario. If you can, maybe try to reframe these ideas. While I prepare for various things or steel myself for checking on a neighbor, I have learned to not "live" the scenario until it happens. Because it seems that then I have lived it when it did not happen. If that makes sense? Good luck!
2lros@reddit
Couldnt run the fireplace or woodstove all night?
jackfruitjohn@reddit
The fire burned out while I slept. The fires goes cold fast in those temperatures. It has to be tended all day.
2lros@reddit
You should get a wood stove
sylvanfoothills@reddit
Yeah, that's tough. If you have green logs, you can build a hot fire around them. They will hold the heat longer & give you good coals, but you will still have to get up and stoke the fire throughout the night. You would need to have a lot of firewood to keep a fireplace fire burning all night and day like that.
jackfruitjohn@reddit
Agreed. When I tried to load up the fireplace too much, I ran the risk of one falling out. Have you heard of the book When Disaster Strikes? Basically, when tragedies happen, it’s because multiple things stack up and go wrong. I think it’s really important to be super mindful about additional potential hazards during a crisis.
chi-nyc@reddit
I've also spent some time in the wilderness in marginal situations and my fingers, toes, and cheeks have paid the price. I'm too familiar with cold induced clumsiness and have been closer to severe hypothermia than is comfortable to think about.
Thank you for checking on your neighbors when it was difficult and risky - too few of us (Americans) do.
I'm glad you survived it and learned some valuable lessons. Would a wood stove insert in the fireplace have been better for heat and cooking? Do you have an estimate of your caloric intake? If you do, how much was fat?
ReturnOfJohnBrown@reddit
Did you have any type of mass that you were heating, or just air? Wondering if you tried heating objects so they'd hold the heat longer, like those flat rocks people put on their wood stoves back in the day, then slipped into the bed.
jackfruitjohn@reddit
I was so exhausted and fumbling all the time. Especially with gloves. I wouldn’t have trusted myself with a hot rock out of the fireplace. I did think about it tho! So I was just hearing the air.
sylvanfoothills@reddit
Wow. Sounds like you gained a lot of valuable experience. At the very least, you know that you can find a way to manage when you have to. Did you say 1-3 degrees below freezing, or 1-3 degrees below zero?
Some thoughts, just in case you face something like this again...
I have found that using those cheap fleece throws instead of regular sheets helps to keep you warmer in bed. Even if you are sleeping in your coat, warm blankets underneath you are as important as on top of you. If you have a sheepskin, try sleeping on it. Also, hot water bottles are fantastic for eliminiating chills. So inexpensive and efficient. Have at least two: one for your feet and one to hold/snuggle when it's really cold. If you can afford a down comforter, of course, it's amazing.
Unfortunately, a fireplace has to get the bricks really hot before it starts throwing out much heat. Even then, most of the heat goes up the chimney. If you had high ceilings and no ceiling fans to push the heat back down, it would be very, very difficult to warm an entire room.
jackfruitjohn@reddit
Another thing I didn’t expect is being asked to go check for dead bodies.
I was the youngest one that stayed so that’s why I was checking on my neighbors. A couple down the street stopped responding to messages. I don’t know then but one of the people I know who is a serious person thought they might have died. Since I was the one with the sub-zero clothes and outdoor gear, I was the one that went to look.
They were fine. Their cell phone wasn’t able to hold a charge in the cold.
But I thought for sure I was going to have to axe my way into the home only to find bodies of really old people.
DeFiClark@reddit
Multiple hurricanes, flood, ice storms, freeze ups;
Many big storms are known in advance. Take your coolers down to the beer store and ask if you can cool them in the cold room before the storm, cone back in a couple hours and then buy your ice
Stash cleaning supplies and battery powered lights where you can find them, the last thing you want to be doing when water is coming in and the power is out is rummaging in the overstuffed back closet
Most underrated preps are mops, buckets, towels, plastic sheeting, lots of tarps, staple gun, firring strips, simple green, bleach.
Two burner camp stove minimum if you don’t have a propane grill with side burner. 20lb tank adapter
MuffinOk4609@reddit
Get at least one small flashlight with a lanyard so you can keep it handy around your neck before it gets dark. Then you can find the other lights and candles.
BentGadget@reddit
I rented a chainsaw in a non-emergency setting to help family out while visiting. The first thing I did was to flood the engine so it wouldn't start. I called the guy at the rental desk and he got me back on track with advice. Anyway, get that step out of the way before you are in a hurry.
ec6412@reddit
Most people (raise my own hand) don’t maintain gas engines and if they don’t start don’t know how to fix it. Electric battery operated chain saws are simpler to start and use. Easier to maintain and have plenty of power for most usage. Most people aren’t using a chain saw regularly. Of course, you need to have batteries and a way to charge them.
DeFiClark@reddit
Electrics have a place but every time I’ve needed a chainsaw I’ve needed the ability to run it for extended periods and had no power. For limbing small trees and clearing downed branches, great: for multiple large trees eg for road clearing, gas.
ec6412@reddit
Don’t disagree. Just saying for a lot of people like myself and original commenter, gas engines aren’t something we know a lot about. And engines sitting around not being used won’t work when you need it. Of course, prepping is all about keeping things in working order and knowing how to use and maintain things. Also keep a couple spare batteries.
Woolfmann@reddit
Anyone who obtains a chainsaw SHOULD also obtain safety gear to go along with it. The last thing you need is a large gash from a chain saw when power is out and roads are impassable.
Highly recommend:
hard hat
gloves
kevlar chaps
steel tipped boots
protection googles (that will fit your glasses if you wear them)
long sleeve shirt and pants
My first chainsaw was just a Home Depot junker. When using it once, I got a kickback, the chain flew off and came back and nicked my pants in the groin region. Fortunately, it just nicked my jeans and did not hit ANYTHING else.
I put my chainsaw down, went back to camp and grabbed a beer cuz I was DONE for the day. That next week, I made it a point to find out precisely what safety gear lumberjacks used and I obtained those items. I now own a great pair of kevlar chaps that have never been needed again to protect me, but I am glad to have them. I also switched to Husqvarna chain saws (Stiil are good too).
2airishuman@reddit
With chainsaws, you can't buy safety. It's about skills and anticipating hazards. I (M59) have been cutting down trees all my life. I presently have two battery saws and one gasoline saw, many other saws have come and gone over the years. I buy gas saws from Stihl and battery saws from Milwaukee, and get bars and chains and cant hooks and pruners from Baily's. Have had 4 friends and relatives in ER from treecutting accidents over the years and one who died. Go into the woods with sandals and shorts and the attitude that the tree will kill you if the saw doesn't and come out alive. Or wear steel-toed boots, chaps, and a hardhat and see what that does for you when a 24" limb comes at you like it has your name on it.
Not trying to minimize the importance of safety just pointing out that gear won't save you if you make serious mistakes.
Woolfmann@reddit
And then the mosquito with West Nile virus bites your ass and all your precautions go out the f...g window. Agreed that mental attitude DOES make a difference. But having the right gear can help when/if mishaps occur as well. That's all.
Peace.
lowrads@reddit
You don't always know in advance. Eight years ago our region got flooded after three strait days of torrential rain with an unnamed storm. It did as much or more damage than most hurricanes, dumping as much as 80cm of rain that weekend in some places.
Adubue@reddit
No electricity for a week, what benefited the most was: 1) Headlamps and lanterns with D or C batteries. A decent lantern can light up a living room for a few hours each night all week without running through a single set of batteries.
2) Having canned food and snacks in our pantry where we could just eat without having to worry about cooking.
3) It was during the winter and having the ability to keep a small room warm was awesome. We used the "little buddy" heater and it worked fine.
4) My Kindle - having extra downloaded books is always stellar.
MuffinOk4609@reddit
Yep, the Kindle. I have a bunch of survival books on mine too.
ATHiker4Ever@reddit
My oldest daughter just moved to Texas from Minnesota and I bought her a "little buddy" and its extension hose for Christmas. I will have her buy some small canisters of propane too.
Adubue@reddit
With the extension hose you'd be better buying her 3-5 propane tanks from a gas station or home depot. After you do that, take them by a propane refilling place and let them get fully topped off as they notoriously come filled to about 80%.
Full size propane tanks will work so, so much better than the little bitty green ones.
ATHiker4Ever@reddit
Thank you!
heliosboy@reddit
What kinds of canned food would you recommend?
Adubue@reddit
Just canned food that you are okay eating regularly, throughout the year. During the summer months, I'll add 2-4 cans of our favorite soups to my grocery delivery order. By the time it's winter, we'll have 40-60 cans of soup, ravioli, and the likes in our pantry. We then just rotate through it for random lunches or lazy dinners.
I'm not so much of a "doomsday" prepper, but rather I focus on just always being able to continue my lifestyle as-is for at least a month, regardless of what life throws at me. This sub calls it "prepping for Tuesday."
Forest_Spirit_7@reddit
I’ve lived through storms with flooding in 2015, 2018, and Helene in October.
Fortunately this last go around our house took minimal damage. But many others in our area were wiped.
The most useful things for us were having radios, food that required no cooking, bottled water, water treatment/filtering, battery banks/charging, flashlights, and frankly entertainment.
We were fortunate to be in a position to provide food and water to many families in our area, as well as operate an outdoor fire pit/kitchen people could use.
Having clothes and shoes for wading through water was useful. After all that, shovels became one of the most in demand items in the area around Asheville. Vinegar was used for cleaning. And everyone should have a 5 gallon bucket kicking around somewhere.
ee-5e-ae-fb-f6-3c@reddit
What type, and which bands?
24North@reddit
Don’t underestimate a good old FM radio too. While the cell towers and internet were still spotty there was a local FM station that dedicated their entire airtime to calls and updates from listeners. I listened to more FM radio in those first two weeks than I have in the last 25 years by far. It’s a modern country station so there’s no way I can listen to them now (I like the old stuff) but they were a godsend during that time.
MuffinOk4609@reddit
We had an outage due to a windstorm so I used my little Retekess V115 radio a lot more than usual. I found that I had could get about a dozen FM stations, some with local information and some across the border (I am on Vancouver Island). I didn't bother with AM but I could get a few stations on short wave with the builitin whip (like WWV @5). I got the radio because it sounds so good, but it is also an MP3 player/recorder so you could put audiobooks on it too. Best part is it is only $20. Battery lasts hours.
ee-5e-ae-fb-f6-3c@reddit
A lot of GMRS and other types of radios include broadcast FM and NOAA functionality.
24North@reddit
Good to know. I’ve been looking into those but never really had an excuse to deep dive into them until this all happened. Wife is finally on board with some prep stuff now so I’ll take a look at them. I know the HAM/shortwave folks were coordinating a lot those first few days. Might have to look into those licenses too.
Too much to learn, too little time…
ee-5e-ae-fb-f6-3c@reddit
Honestly, your Technician and General Ham licenses are going to be the most valuable for communication. It's also a greater barrier, since your license only covers you, and requires a test. The test is not too demanding, but you do need to study for it, and you also have to sell the idea to your spouse, kids, cousins, etc. I'll outline some of the services which are free, or have a lower bar for entry.
MURS requires no license, is VHF, but is limited to 2 watts. Repeaters are not permitted for use with MURS. VHF may penetrate vegetation more effectively than UHF, so it's a good option in some cases. Both VHF and UHF are line of sight, and will be greatly impeded or rendered ineffective by hills and the like. Link to FCC MURS CFR.
FRS requires no license, is UHF, but is limited to 2 Watts, and permanently attached antennas. These are the walkie-talkies you usually see at the store in a bubble pack. These are good for hiking and vehicle convoys, but don't have any of the really useful stuff, like repeaters. Link to FCC FRS CFR.
GMRS requires a license, is UHF, may use anywhere from 0.5 watts to 50 watts, depending on the station type, and type of channel (main versus interstitial channels), and allows removable antennas. The license is $35 for 10 years, and covers your entire immediate family. It uses the same frequencies that FRS uses, but also allows use of repeaters. Hand-held portable units (walkie talkies), mobile radios (car/truck mounted radios), base stations, and repeaters are allowed. GMRS is frequently referred to as "Ham-lite", due to its lower requirements for operation, and fewer privileges. Depending on which area you live in, there may be active and publicly accessible repeaters. Link to FCC GMRS CFR.
Whether you go with GMRS, Ham, or both, you'll get use of repeaters. In order to find out if there are any repeaters in your area, you can use both of the following resources to look them up. MyGMRS has a nice map, which is especially handy. It does not list tones, unless you sign up for a (free) account.
https://mygmrs.com/
https://www.repeaterbook.com/index.php/en-us/
If I were to recommend anything to you, it would be to sell the idea of studying for and getting your Technician or General licenses. That would give you access to a lot, with a relatively low commitment. If you can't do that, next best is GMRS. It only gives you access to a relatively small number of UHF channels, but gives you repeater access which neither FRS nor MURS give you. Additionally, GMRS can talk with FRS radios, since they share the same frequencies.
24North@reddit
Awesome info, thanks! Looks like mygmrs shows several around me. I’m in the mountains so anything line of site is probably not great, even cell service goes in and out depending on which side of which mountain you’re on. GMRS seems like a good place to start. Thanks again!
ee-5e-ae-fb-f6-3c@reddit
Sure thing. With those repeaters, just make sure it says the repeater type is "Open System", or it specifies the repeater owner accepts access requests.
Forest_Spirit_7@reddit
We specifically have a pair of AR-152 baofengs. You can probably get away with a cheaper model. But we’re in the mountains, so I wanted something more robust.
We were told to evacuate when the flash flooding started. We left for a few hours. It was nice to be able to communicate without cell service and receive local stations and dispatch.
ee-5e-ae-fb-f6-3c@reddit
Got it. Looks like dual band VHF/UHF radios. If you don't mind me asking, what distances did you communicate over, and which frequencies or bands did you find most effective?
Forest_Spirit_7@reddit
In close proximity either work fine. We weren’t ever further than a couple miles apart. VHF and it depends on what is being used, open, or if you have your own band
ee-5e-ae-fb-f6-3c@reddit
Got it. Thanks for the info.
less_butter@reddit
Containers for collecting water for flushing were in pretty high demand for a while. I volunteered at a water distro site and there were quite a few people who showed up with gas cans that they paid $30 for just to hold water. People brought their kitchen garbage cans to fill up. People were bringing any random container they could find around the house. People brought 5 gallon buckets but they didn't have lids so they could only be filled halfway. There were people who showed up every single morning, for weeks, to get water to flush their toilets. I got to know more than I ever wanted to know about peoples' bathroom habits.
So I'd say "containers for collecting and storing non-potable water to flush your toilet" are an actual, bona-fide overlooked prep that nobody ever talks about. I'd say a 5 gallon bucket with a tight-fitting lid at a minimum for this purpose. 3 is better. Or something like one of those cheap plastic jerry cans for holding water for camping, usually around 6 gallons. Or a 7 gallon Aqua-Tainer.
The other thing that was very in-demand and hard to find in the first few days was gasoline. I filled up my truck the night before. My neighbor had like 1/4 of a tank and he spent the first 2 days after the storm driving around looking for gas. It took about 4-5 days for tanker trucks to start showing up, and even then gas stations were limiting people to 10 gallons total and they were only taking cash. By the time I needed gas, there were no lines, no limits, and they were taking credit cards again.
The neighbor that spent all that time looking for gas had a whole-house generator that ran on gas but it was empty. He told me "I was going to fill it up the night before the storm but I figured I'd just wait to see if the power goes out and then get gas in the morning". Well, that morning, it wasn't even possible to get to a gas station from our street due to all of the trees down. By the time we got the trees cleared, there was no gas available anywhere.
Upvotes_TikTok@reddit
Just on size of water vessels it's better to have lots of smaller ones than a few big ones you can't lift as then you will only fill it halfway, which means sloshing water which is a lot of weight to control.
Eatthebankers2@reddit
They have water/ fuel/ pump out dollies that you can roll for boats and campers- RVs. They would seem to be easier than carrying buckets of water.
Upvotes_TikTok@reddit
Sure, my point is to consider that water is heavy, which in my life I have seen a ton of people not do.
Both-Fortune-577@reddit
I had to leave an idyllic (but rough and broke) life living in tents on top of a mountain because a drought and a broken car meant water collection involved a 30 min bushwalk downhill, and 45 min hike back up -including a literal cliff face- carrying every kilo of water.
heykatja@reddit
Yes yes yes. 2.5 gallons is comfortable for me to lift as a moderately strong woman, I can carry one full in each hand
mckenner1122@reddit
My water bricks are 3.5 and have lovely handles.
meg_c@reddit
I have a couple of 5 gallon containers, and can confirm -- they're heavy! 😆
Key-Alternative5387@reddit
Composting toilets seem handy in this situation.
LaBorjair@reddit
the look my wife would give me if I paid 10 grand for a whole house generator but had no fuel for it when a storm came and wiped out the town. *shudders*
alanamil@reddit
Lol. Love my generac, and we are on propane. After Hurricane mathew, i had the propane company add a 2nd large tank. I can go 2 weeks easily now. And if there is any storm out there, i fill up. What's the worst that happens? I have full tanks for next time.
freddbare@reddit
I just swapped to propane myself. Have a full tank sitting for years unused ( outdoor heater never use, they kept filling it without us knowing and when we realized it the buyback price is a fraction of current value) best 50$ I could've spent!
farmerben02@reddit
It's crazy to me that he would prep with a whole house gen but not prep the fuel to run it. I had a $600 gas gen in rural upstate NY, we used it twice in five years. Both for winter storms. I had it wired to power well, furnace, fridge, chest freezer, and our movie room. We spent the majority of our time watching DVDs and listening to music, then we would kill the Gen and cuddle together in one bedroom. overnight.
I kept 12, 5 gallon cans of gas and cycled them out every month (fill up the truck with the year old can, put another 15 gallons on top and refill the can). My gen used about four gallons a day running it for 14-16 hours. And if we got low we could have run it for two hours a day to heat the house and power fridges etc.
Open_Database2123@reddit
Where did you store the fuel?
farmerben02@reddit
I had a pole barn that i used, out of the rain but it got a lot of wind. If it went up in a fire it would have been fine.
LaBorjair@reddit
F’real. wut a ritard
HelenEk7@reddit
Buckets with lids.. is now on my shopping list.
Pbandsadness@reddit
For non-potable water, cat litter buckets are decent.
auntbealovesyou@reddit
and pretty much free. just ask anyone with a cat if they want to get rid of some.
hdizzle7@reddit
We're in upstate SC and while it wasn't nearly as bad, we were without power for 5 days. We have three gas cars and three electric and we charged/filled them all to full before the storm. We ended up running T-Mobile/Starlink off one car and a mini fridge off the other, along with a battery charging station. People would come to our house to charge their phones. We have a 30k gallon pool we can use to flush toilets and rain barrel for drinking water, but our water was fine. At first I felt dumb for not having a generator but our friends spent hours a day looking for gas and it cost a fortune keeping their generators running. We grilled up everything in the freezer and actually ate really well. We got Spectrum Internet back 3 weeks after the storm and ran the entire time off T-Mobile and Starlink, which is critical as half the family works from home.
photojournalistus@reddit
How did you access power from your electric vehicles? I own three BEVs (BMW i3s, BMW i3, Ford Focus Electric), and two ICE vehicles (Ford Taurus SHO AWD, Ford Fusion). Each BEV has a separate, standard 12V car battery to run accessories (and is no more capable than any other standard car battery). How did you access the main BEV battery?
hdizzle7@reddit
I used the center console and power inverters. Accessing the main battery would have voided the warranty. With the electric cars (model 3 and two Leafs) it was still enough power to run a mini fridge, a Dishy, a tmobile, and charge phones. If we'd had an electric truck it would have been better as they allow powering a house like a generator.
heykatja@reddit
I have hard sided water containers but you can get cheap collapsible ones with a spigot too. We have the 2.5 gallon size for camping and backcountry use because they are easy to lift for smaller people. Because they are collapsible, they can be easily stored in a small space and make a good auxiliary prep to stored drinking water.
lswat1@reddit
Cat litter buckets are perfect for toilet flush use. I have several stacked on each floor in an out of the way place. Very handy when our rural water plant goes down.
SniffingDelphi@reddit
We had a surprise freeze that not only froze everyone’s water lines, but the mains as well. At that point we had an empty carboy that we filled in the horse waterers for flushing. Our laziness paid off in that all the critters had deep enough waterers that they did not freeze all the way through, and we were already in the habit of topping them off every afternoon before the hoses froze. Bonus - two of our three horses figured out how to break through the ice in their waterers by themselves!
We don’t have horses anymore, so I work harder to keep a stock of water in the house, and we’re all trained to wash hands and dishes in a large stock pot to collect water for flushing.
BTW, chicken bedding in a bag under and held open by the toilet seat will convert any toilet to “no-flush.” And peeing outside, especially if you use different locations each time, is relatively harmless. It might even help your compost pile.
FreshFondant@reddit
Out of nostalgia i had impulsively bought a radio from the 80s two weeks before Helene. (Yay Goodwill) lemme just tell you, putting a 9v battery in and listening to the updates on the radio was priceless to me.
bodhi_mind@reddit
Good answer. My humble additions would be small isobutane backpacking stove/fuel with 1liter pot for ultra fast and easy instant coffee in the morning.
Sanitary wipes to feel a little sense of clean when you can.
Headlamp to make night/dark work easier
Make sure you have pet food stocked like you do human food
lowrads@reddit
Propane handles very cold temps a bit better, and it's cheaper and more readily available than butane in most regions. Those small bottle refilling kits are getting a lot more popular.
bodhi_mind@reddit
Glad you brought this up. My recommendation was what I actually found most useful during a disaster.
One of the “upgrades” I want to make is a liquid fuel stove. Some of them are capable of burning naphtha, kerosene, or diesel if you’re really in a pinch and are field serviceable.
Particular-City-3846@reddit
I have two old school Coleman double burner stoves. They will work with any liquid fuel. Plain ole gasoline, works very well and is the cheapest. I used them in Chimney Rock to make hot meals for first responders manning check points until they got a restaurant up an running. My 30 yo stoves got out gunned. But those folks were very happy for a hot meal after 4 days of MREs
ElMage21@reddit
I've been a volunteer several times at clearing rubble after big fires and it's always the fucking shovels. Not really something you need during the emergency itself but instantly after.
Forest_Spirit_7@reddit
Absolutely
shesaysImdone@reddit
What constitutes as food that requires no cooking?
Forest_Spirit_7@reddit
Pouched chicken or tuna or other protein. Canned and jarred food. Dried fruit and nuts. MREs. Ben’s ready rice. There are tons of items and options available. Many things that are definitely better heated (like canned food), but are safe to eat as is.
There weren’t many people interested in canned food or ready rice with chicken in a pouch at first. But after a few days people were excited about it.
Peanut butter was the hottest item by far. Skippy makes squeeze pouches that are fantastic.
Choice_Upstairs4576@reddit
Non-perishable items that can be eaten without access to electricity. Some people were able to cook on gas stoves or outdoor grills, but if you don’t have either, then things like PB&Js, granola bars, nuts, jerky, etc.
Ashequalsninja@reddit
I was hiking and came upon a man with an injury. I was able to administer first aid and offer comfort. I have felt like a hero for a decade.
DonkeyGlad653@reddit
Tornado damage trapped us. I always have at least 3 days of water on hand. I had 5 days at that time. I had several months of canned goods stocked. I had a generator we powered up to run the fridge and tv. No real damage to the place but we were trapped for 4 days. Water came back on, on day four. We chainsawed out by day four. I cooked with BBQ propane and BBQ charcoal. This happened in early summer so it wasn’t awful. I was fortunate to have about 15 gallons of gasoline. Normally I have 8 but I was fixing to to do some clearing that week at another property.
A couple of chainsaws and hand cranked come-alongs with a few logging chains were the big surprises. I can’t say anything was a waste of time or resources.
NutzNBoltz369@reddit
Was out of work. Used the food stash and fuel stash to keep things going until money started flowing again. Had some cash hoarded as well too. Disasters can be on personal level.
Repair_Scared@reddit
We recently went through a hurricane in an area that doesn't normally get weather like that. We had no power or internet for 10 days and man was I grateful we were prepared. So many in our area didn't even have shelf stable food or gas for their cars which really shocked me. By day 4 we drove up the street were there was internet and seeing the desperate posts online definitely made me nervous for looting. Some looting did happen but more so at stores and people leaving stores. We had what needed so thankfully we didn't have to leave our house unless we wanted to which we did in order to help family and friends.
Canned protein and veggies this allowed us to minimize opening our freezer during a prolonged power outtage as well as shelf stable foods. This allowed us to conserve our gas. Also water, gas for our generator, a generator, camp stove with extra propane. Solar chargers and rechargeable fan came in handy. The weather was decent so we had our windows open along with constantly going in and out so fly traps came in really handy. They weren't pretty but they helped to nab any fly that snuck in.
Working chainsaws and a sharp machete helped clear a path out of our subdivision and downed trees in our yard. We definitely carried our pew pews.
Lanterns both battery and solar charging ones, bright head lamps really came in handy at night. Important documents in a safe we also put jewelry in there and other valuables before the stormmewe don't take medicine on the regular but having it along with a good quality and stocked first aid kit is a must!!
We do have pets and had 2 months of dog and cat food along with cat liter on hand.
lowrads@reddit
Spare chains and knowing how to work a sharpener help.
Repair_Scared@reddit
Yes I didn't even think of spare chains. I'll add that to my list of things I still need.
Capt_Gremerica@reddit
The fly traps are a great idea!
apocolake@reddit
In the first—-Generator, extra water, food that didn’t require electricity to prepare.
In the second—-n95 masks, alcohol, shelf stable food and games.
Open-Attention-8286@reddit
What actually helped: Canned meats, canning lids and jars, a small flock of chickens, and a book on animal nutrition, all were a godsend in 2020! My fabric stash, most of which was made up of costuming-type fabrics, made for some very pretty masks that year. And while it didn't end up being needed, I packaged up part of my seed stash and had it ready to share in case the seed shortage got any worse.
What didn't help: My geiger counter, thankfully, has never been needed. Yet.
What was surprisingly useful: Winemaking equipment allowed me to grow more non-sourdough yeasts for making bread. I've never liked the taste of sourdough, and bread yeast was sold out everywhere. I had most of a jar of yeast in the freezer, so I used that as the starter. It takes some trial-and-error to get the right amounts when using fresh bottom-of-the-carboy yeast instead of dry active yeast, but it worked.
Astroisbestbio@reddit
What book if you don't mind me asking?
Open-Attention-8286@reddit
I can't remember for certain, and everything I own is boxed up for moving, so I can't check.
I think it might have just been called "Animal Nutrition". It was one of several used veterinary textbooks I bought years ago when researching home-grown chicken food. But there was a section about cats that came in handy when some areas were reporting cat food shortages. And knowing chickens can overdose on protein probably kept me from making some huge mistakes!
Astroisbestbio@reddit
Oh damn. Im raising chickens. If you ever find it let me know please. Ill look around.
Open-Attention-8286@reddit
I'll keep an eye out, definitely.
(If it helps ease your mind, protein overdose in chickens requires that they get way too much protein every day, over a long period. It won't happen just from normal treats. But so much chicken-feeding advice focuses on "more protein!!!", so it is something to keep in mind.)
Astroisbestbio@reddit
So much does. Does protein source matter? As in, insects vs feed?
Open-Attention-8286@reddit
That is an excellent question. I don't recall seeing anything specifically comparing the quality of protein between plant-based and insects in terms of chicken nutrition.
BUT there is another nutrient, choline, that is going to be at a higher concentration in meats and insects than it is in plants.
When I was trying to figure out the perfect chicken-feeding plan that could be entirely home-grown, calcium and choline were the two sticking points. By the time I got enough of those to meet the recommended daily requirements, it involved protein levels 2x-4x the maximum safe amounts.
If you're feeding them mostly "boughten" feed, it's unlikely the chickens will catch enough insects on their own to be a problem. If you're catching insects in large quantities to feed them, I'd say try to keep it so bugs make up less than 1/4th of their food (by weight).
That number is from memory. If the roos start acting sickly, or if you notice the ammonia smell from their manure getting excessively strong, dial back on the proteins a little more.
Astroisbestbio@reddit
Thank you so much. That gives some really great information.
cop1edr1ght@reddit
Not really an emergency. But recently had a power outage. I know my risks and have plans for each. It was so nice just getting the lighting out and spare battery banks to charge phones. Girlfriend was happy and didn't worry which is the main thing.
So my answer, is having a hazard based plan.
drowninginidiots@reddit
Been through a few floods where we couldn’t leave the house. During that time the water and gas went out, and eventually the power. Having things to keep you occupied without requiring power can do a lot for passing the time. Paper plates, cups, etc., can be useful if your water is out or is contaminated. Camp stove is an obvious one.
Also been through extended power outages (5 plus days). Best thing there is a generator. We were on a well, so rigging it up to be able to run the well was a necessity. We then rotated it between us, our in-laws (same property), and the well.
Currently I live in a cold climate. We got a wood stove insert put into the mostly useless fireplace, and I intend to set up a generator connection for our heating boiler, as heat during a winter power outage would be the biggest concern.
ThatGirl0903@reddit
Loving this thread OP! Thanks for sharing.
East-Selection1144@reddit
Katrina- I had a patio grill and large cast iron pan. That sucker could handle anything we put in it to burn. We even used some broken 2x4s at one point. Fed 8 people for 2 weeks solely on that grill.
SlteFool@reddit
I recently was set to evacuate due to a wildfire so being woken up from a. Dead sleep and loading up the truck showed me the things I actually care bout so that was cool 🤷♂️ didn’t end up having to evacuate (wind shifted) but out power was out for a couple days. Used my solar charging station to charge flashlight batteries and cell phone and thermal monocular. I have a lot of water and pasta. Didn’t have to use it but during actual real uncertain times I felt very comfortable and confident and all that stuff was just one less thing to worry about. 👌🏼
Jose_De_Munck@reddit
Great sub. I just wrote an article related to this: https://www.theorganicprepper.com/leaky-roof/
J701PR4@reddit
I’ve used mine twice. The first was the Texas freeze of 2021, and the second was Hurricane Beryl last summer. The generator worked perfectly for nine straight days after the hurricane and powered fans for Beryl & space heaters for the freeze. The prepped water kept us hydrated. We didn’t have to dip into prepped food until the last three days, and that was only because all the stores were still closed due to lack of power, but it kept us fed when we needed it.
Haywire421@reddit
Wasn't a disaster by any means, more of a Tuesday event, but I have always kept a car kit stocked in my car. Mine isn't the typical warm blankets and tools to fix a flat. It's a shit ton of camping gear ready to go too.
Anyway, I was working up at a national park in Monatana and got fired. My housing was employment based, and with my job terminated, I lost my housing, too, and was more or less stranded on the other side of the country from my permanent residence. My car kit allowed me to not only survive what could have been a very stressful situation, but thrive out in a nearby national forest for a month while I raised funds to travel again. Everything I had was used, but I'd say the most surprising and one of the most useful things wasn't even part of the intended kit. A freaking frisby I had in the car ended up being used for so many things. It was great for fanning the fire, a plate, a surface, entertainment, etc. It's been years since that time, but a frisby is still part of my main kit to this day lol.
auntbealovesyou@reddit
we always carry three frisbies in the car...but we also have a retrieving dog that is frisbie obsessed.
Routine-Mode-2812@reddit
You just went camping 😆
Haywire421@reddit
Pretty much. Camping while working a new job to get out of the situation. If it weren't for that car kit though, I would have had a much harder time and may not have been able to raise the funds to get out of there before the winter snow blocked the roads out of the area. According to the locals, I had about a month before the village got snowed in and nobody would be able to come or go. They weren't joking either. If I were paying for lodging in a major tourist destination working minimum wage, I wasn't getting out of there
Routine-Mode-2812@reddit
Amazing how a well prepared kit can completely change your circumstance.
lowrads@reddit
If it was your established residence, they should have been required by law to serve you with an eviction process, and a regulated minimum amount of time to arrange your affairs.
Haywire421@reddit
To my understanding, since the "housing agreement" was part of the employment contract, it isn't protected under the FHA. These places do allow people to arrange things if they get laid off, but not typically if the person is fired. My case was also a little extreme lol
SixMillionDollarFlan@reddit
Dude I am putting my frisbee back in the car. That's a great idea.
usefulidiot46@reddit
Sounds like a shitty situation turned life long memory.
MROTooleTBHITW@reddit
I lived through tornadoes that took out the grid for miles. Water. I filled my tub, so that was good, but I didn't have filters. I now have filters. (When we got water back, there was a boil notice) The filled tub let me flush the toilet. A solar radio was the best thing for keeping up to date! The first couple of days were great as we ate the best of what was in the freezer.
I have a lot of solar lights now. And some extra lighters. I quit smoking years ago and didn't think about needing lighters.
EF_Boudreaux@reddit
The charcoal grill in my frunk was a lifesaver during Helene in WNC. The bag of charcoal it came with? Useless.
Feisty-Belt-7436@reddit
Why was it useless?
EF_Boudreaux@reddit
It was short lived
Jimmy_the_Heater@reddit
Amazingly useful-Blackstone griddle/stove combo along with the 20# adapter. Ended up using it 3x daily.
Limited use-Jetboil Flash. Great for rehydrating backpacking food, so limiting in actual cooking.
Really need to up my game on hooking the generator to the house and have a way to monitor freezer temps.
Bikesexualmedic@reddit
Biolite has a neato small wood burning stove with a coffee pot attachment and it generates an electric charge. It’s like the size of a gallon jug, maybe smaller.
Commercial_Yak7468@reddit
Second the biolite.
I have the portable firepit. https://www.bioliteenergy.com/products/firepit-plus?srsltid=AfmBOorCWY9acFHP0XFw1vfKxpPdTeWOp8qBQ-HQBG27YmsfwWLel6vx
You can use either wood or charcoal as fuel and it comes with battery pack and fan (to help feed the fire).
That thing is awesome! It puts out really good heat, the fan makes starting and maintaining the fire easy, and the battery pack holds a great charge (and it has ports to charge small electronics).
Mysterious_Touch_454@reddit
I lived in finland in rural house and we got this massive snowstorm that cut electric power for 2 weeks when it got -30C (very very cold in american terms). I didnt have much prepared, so i had to go buy everything i needed.
Trangia campstove and candles were golden, also dry food that lasted and could be eaten without heating. We have good insulation, but still, without constant heating, it got cold inside.
Basically main problem was "Not preparing at all". Now i rather be over prepared than none.
meelaii@reddit
Survived a typhoon with no water and power for 2 months. We were stocked with food and water for 2 humans and 11 pets for a month which saved us. I didn’t expect cash to be sooo valuable. No ATMs running within a one hour radius. We were just lucky we had 2 months worth of cash when the typhoon hit. Helped us pay for the help we needed and also be generous to the neighbors in need.
PotentialSpend8532@reddit
Water and toilet paper. During blackouts, and saving me a run from the store when i dont want to or cant. Winter gets bad here too, so again another really nice thing to have.
SouthernWindyTimes@reddit
This isn’t as helpful as many answers you’ve gotten, but I’ve gone through periods of extremely unemployment and no job or money, and my food preps have really helped me. It’s nice to know I could go months and months without spending a dime towards food.
ThePaperPrison@reddit
PAPER PLATES, paper bowls, disposable cutlery! You will have no power for dishwasher or hot water. Toss in a case of shelf stable milk (I keep coconut or almond) from Costco and a couple giant boxes of cold cereal. I could survive on cold cereal for weeks!
Additional-Stay-4355@reddit
I too am a survivor of the 2021 tom foolery. I was in an apartment at the time and lost water for three days. Life was highly uncomfortable and inconvenient.
I was also a survivor of Ike and Harvey, and suffered all the unpleasant after effects (Houston).
I bought my house about a 18 months ago and have since put in a standby generator and 275 gallon tote with a pump for backup water. The water is plumbed into my house so I can switch over to backup if I lose city water.
The generator, and stored food/ beer were clutch during Beryl when power was out and roads were impassable.
I do wish I had a chain saw. I was using my Sawzall to whittle down fallen trees. It wasn't ideal.
This winter, I'm daring the water mains to freeze and break. Bring it on!
Phylace@reddit
I love my Ryobi chain saw. One battery lasts at least an hour. Thats a lot of sawing. Get a couple extras. Light weight, powerful enough, no fumes, fuel, or pull string.
lowrads@reddit
I find that the time needed to run down the battery is about the same amount of time that the chain needs to get dull, so it all works out.
Phylace@reddit
Or I get tired of sawing.
Additional-Stay-4355@reddit
Thanks for the tip. All my cordless tools are Ryobi, so that will work nicely. The 40v 14" bar looks pretty tasty.
Usernamenotdetermin@reddit
Multiple hurricanes in Florida, lost power for over a week, twice
Try it after you buy it, for any and every prep
If it does not work right during normal hours it certainly won’t be OK when you are dealing with a disaster of any nature
Additional-Stay-4355@reddit
There is nothing worse than losing AC down here in the South. The heat can literally kill you.
lowrads@reddit
I'm currently working on a neglected generator with an electronic governor. I highly recommend getting a cheaper generator with a normal, mechanical governor. Those are easier and cheaper to fix after watching a few tutorials, even if you have to go inside them and adjust the centrifugal components.
If you are already have extensive knowledge about circuitry, then the electronic governor may be easier to troubleshoot. For me, it's just not worth the hassle.
tempest1523@reddit
Had our A/C go down and need to be replaced 1.5 years ago. In Georgia in July- August. It sucked. Luckily we had power so window units saved the day. But that’s what all my preps revolve around, worst case scenario of an outage July to September
Additional-Stay-4355@reddit
Oh my god yeah, me too.
We were without power for two miserable weeks after Ike (Houston), then, my AC died a few years later when it was >100 degrees out. I was out of town and my (ex)wife was beside herself!
Having a generator and window units could literally save your life.
Somebody remind me why we chose to live here again?
RedGambit9@reddit
Surprisingly useful, you say?
A clay pot for plants, bought at lowes.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, we were quite unprepared to how long we would be without power. And how short on food my wife and I had.
In short, we eventually got into the local Kroeger and got what we needed. Besides a grill(charcoal type).
My wife got some firewood and a couple of cooking pots. But when we got home, the pots' melting point was too low.
Ended up using the planting pot to cook some burgers we had. It was one of the best hot meals of my life.
nifflerqueen@reddit
There was some major flooding in California a few years back. I was on my way home from a weekend trip. Due to evacuations the drive home was hours long and people were running out of gas in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
I decided to stay with an overnight with a friend to wait out the traffic. My go bag in the trunk was helpful with a clean dry change of clothes, hygiene products and chargers for my electronics.
The next morning, I used my food preps for coffee and breakfast and hit the road back home.
jennnings@reddit
Grew up in a typhoon prone region. Filling your sinks and bathtubs with water was a must (very useful for toilet flushing, hand washing… basic hygiene). So was shelf stable food. Flashlight and candles, and family to chit chat and pass the time with stories.
Firm-Impress@reddit
I live in Western NC, and went 11 days without electricity and running water.
Power banks, water storage, rain barrel to use to flush toilets, lights and batteries, food storage(mostly dry and canned foods), propane to cook with, disposable plates and utensils, and a generator with fuel stored.
Useless (for Hurricane Helene at least) would be guns and ammo, knives, tactical gear like plate carriers etc.
I still love all of guns and gear, so I will continue buy it, and convince myself I need it.
Princessferfs@reddit
Losing power and using candles for light, better to have unscented candles instead of having 20 different scents going at once.
RedYamOnthego@reddit
Our home is well situated, so we've never had major damage from typhoons or earthquakes -- the biggest problem has been blackouts after. Our longest time was almost three days.
If you are on a well system, have 2 liters of drinking water per person for at least three days. Keep a supply of batteries. A camp lantern is much better than candles, but if you need to use candles, put them in front of a mirror for more light. Table top burners that run on gas bombe are great, if you know how to cook on one and have the water.
The MOST important prep is to keep up to date with basic maintenance. Keep your gas tank above half. Keep the house clean. Keep up with the laundry. Always have three days of clean towels and underwear. Check your batteries, keep things charged more than half. Buy essentials on sale, and have at least a month's worth in your cupboards (toilet paper, canned soup, crackers, etc.) On the lighter side, keep your cookie jar at least half full.
Because unlike typhoons and blizzards, you just don't know when an earthquake is going to hit.
ashmegrace@reddit
I was also in the 2021 big freeze
Most appreciated items in my house: Heavy heavy blankets that people in texas thought were ridiculous to keep after I moved back there after living in colorado. Tons of power banks for electronic charging. Book lights (rechargeable ones - I have like 8). Mini flashlights. Batteries. Lots and lots of batteries. Board games and puzzles
ashmegrace@reddit
Oh. And my French press. Because no one needs to be around me without coffee
No_QuarterGiven@reddit
Being in Florida and knowing the value of gasoline, as soon as the first named storm enters the Gulf of Mexico I fill every cas can that I have, I fill my boat, my generator and never go less than a half of a tank in my truck during hurricane season. I have a siphon to pull gas from my vehicles if I need to run the Genny. I fill all of my propane tanks and start freezing water. I pull several hundred dollars of cash out. If we make it through without needing the gas it goes into the vehicles as needed. I've lost power for expended periods of time on several occasions. I have found that Christmas lights work great and use very little power. Also cheap solar lights from the dollar store work great for indoor lighting if you charge them during the day. We use one window unit AC in the master bedroom and that's where we stay all together at night, kids dogs and all. As a boyscout family we have lots of camping equipment so headlamps, lanterns, solar battery packs, cooking stoves, tarps are always on hand. Think of it like camping, what will you need to survive with no help from the outside? To be self sufficient?
emorymom@reddit
When Helene was supposed to hit Atl straight on, I spent hours ratchet strapping various outdoor things (trampoline, fruit arbors, etc) to 55 gal barrels of water with wire rope fed through the bung holes. I also started filling 5 gal buckets inside for addl clean water storage.
It diverted at the fall line and devastated Augusta instead.
My stuff is still mostly battened down and there’s about thirty gallons of water still sitting in my kitchen.
Ratchet straps, 55gal barrels, 5 gal buckets with lids. Would have been very helpful if the storm had come as predicted.
4BigData@reddit
how did you get nerve damage?
OddBlueberry6@reddit
This may not be popular for me to say, but after my house was tornadoed this spring the thing that helped the most was having a strong community, and an emergency fund.
Sometimes, your preps get blown away, flooded or burned.
One thing I wished I had prepared more for was being in better shape. We had our storm shelter cleaned up and ready but we weren't in the physical shape it takes to cleanup from a tornado.
DarkReaper90@reddit
My car died around midnight and the tow truck wouldn't arrive for about 5-6h. It was pretty chilly and everything around was closed, but I had snacks, water, and extra layers to stay warm.
I realized it's important to check if the food is still edible, have something fluffy as a pillow, and have a book or some form of entertainment to pass the time with.
GamblinGambit@reddit
Lost my home a few years ago to a tornado. It was a glancing blow that essentially twisted the house off of the crawl space.
Some how, some way my shop wasn't effected other than losing most of the attached lean-to on the shop. What help up was where I mounted my solar panels. Just 2 on a diy 2x4 bracket.
I used power to keep my freezer going until I could get to it, all of my tools for all kinds of tasks. I always figured that if I was going to prep I'd at least need to have the minimum hand tools to do general things That was a huge help. Not having to rely on a noisy generator all day that would definitely attract looters (which there were plenty). I kept my freezer going for a week and a few lamps plugged in over night to make it look like someone was at the house.
Cats_books_soups@reddit
Been through a lot of storms with power out for and water out for several days. What helped most was easy food like canned soups that I could eat as one serving without having to worry about heating or refrigeration. A headlamp so I could see but have my hands free was so useful. Much better than a flashlight or big lantern. Filling the bath tub with water is also good, having 5 gallon buckets filled with non-potable water for toilet flushing. Oddly useful was a small glow in the dark bracelet that I got for free. I put it next to my dying flip phone (this was 2010), headlamp, and glasses so I could find them. By day 3-4 when literally everyone I knew had left the area and I was by myself in the dark that little glow was a lifeline.
Peyote-Rick@reddit
My power went out for like 4 hours over the weekend. Plugging my freezers and refrigerators into off-grid power was nice. Still went into town for the kids to poop, but they were more than willing to poop in a hole outside.
PrepperBoi@reddit
Why couldn’t they poop at home? No water to flush?
Peyote-Rick@reddit
Ya, we're out in the country. We could've flushed once and plugged the sump pit pump into off grid power. And to hook up the well I would've needed to run 240v from my off grid shed. I'd only worry about that if we were without power for a while.
OldWarrior@reddit
Definitely not a disaster but we had a microburst this August that knocked out our power for more than a day. What I learned was that is is miserable sleeping without air conditioning on a sticky august night deep in the south. So I bought a portable 6k BTU A/C with an exhaust tube that runs out the window. My Honda generator is able to run it — though it sometimes takes 2 or 3 times before compressor comes on.
When Helene knocked our power out for 4-5 days, I was able to watch football on TV in an air conditioned room and sleep comfortably.
Helene taught me I needed a better large cooler, so I bought a $200 RTIC one. It also taught me I’d need more gas than I realized for extended power outages so I bought a siphon to take case from Vehicle and I will have about 15 gallons in gas cans next time a big storm is coming.
ScaryFrogInTheMorn@reddit
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet but a camping stove and extra butane came in handy recently during Helene. I had warm food and boiled water every day and it doesn’t cost much to get. Another is a converter to switch my car cigarette lighter outlet to a 3 prong outlet so I could charge 3 pronged items in my car.
CrowdedSolitare@reddit
It’s been interesting to watch the Justin Rhodes family on YouTube as theyre in hard hit NC. I recommend going back and watching their hurricane/flooding experience.
AdditionalAd9794@reddit
Via floods and wildfire, I'd say guns included, everything I don't use every week/ every day already is a waste of time.
When the water rises I've been stuck at home for a days without power. When we had a nearby wildfire we were without power for ten days.
Most useful thing was my smoker and propane grill outside
No_Establishment8642@reddit
Chopped wood kept me and some day old chicks warm during the Texas freeze. Wood burning fireplace. My house was so cold my houseplants froze. 2 weeks without power.
My pool has saved many a day without water. Flushing toilets, heated for showers and cooking.
Natural gas stove top for cooking when there is no electricity.
Keeping a stocked pantry of packaged food for emergencies.
Never down to one roll of toilet paper.
I do primitive camping so I have lots of resources at hand from propane cooktop to headlamps.
When we moved to Texas we used to call our area, outside of Houston, 3rd world for all the times the electricity went out during the day. Now it just goes out for weeks straight rather than for hours or days. We still refer to it as a 3rd world country.
happyaccident7@reddit
I haven't had any major natural disaster in 32 years+ living here in So. CA that impact me but my Power Walls has helped SEAMLESS transfer power during a blackout.
Waste of time is buying food I don't routinely eat just for emergency like can of tuna etc.
DorothysMom@reddit
Dealt with Helene. I'm going to list some of the situations we had to deal with that may help with your personal preps, and I'll also list some of the things we found especially helpful.
Our road was blocked off for about a day due to flooding. Thankfully, our town stationed a firetruck on our road in case of emergency. The only way on/off our road was by boat. Our town was also ready with chainsaws, and those were going all through the night once flooding subsided to restore access. For us, our preps have a big emphasis on being stuck at home for up to 2 weeks, if not longer.
We didn't have power for almost 2 weeks. We were lucky to have family with power so that we could go to their place and shower and recharge phones. One of our preps now includes additional recharging and solar pannels. We also had our weather go from warm and rainy to dry and freezing quickly - without power. Appropriate clothes, blankets, and ways to warm yourself are helpful.
Gasoline was difficult to get your hands on. Anyone with a generator wants it. People who are sleeping in their cars or using those to charge things want it. People who need to get resources or who need to get to work want it. Consider stocking some and rotating it out, and consider not putting all of your prep eggs in one (gasoline) basket. Solar, Gas, Fire, Glowsticks, Crank powered, Charcoal, Propane, Keronse - there are so many options
We luckily never went completely without water, though I still dont trust anything out of the tap yet for drinking. Having plenty of drinking water really can't be overstated. Having plans for flushing toilets, showering, dishes, or laundry is helpful. If it's a big storm coming, go ahead and get everything washed up.
Items that were especially useful (in no order): - Paper plates and disposable utensils - Backup batteries for phones (sms texting was the only reliable communication we had for a few days) - Batteries for flashlights and the radio - An Am/fm/weather radio - our local fm stations played press briefings and annoncements from state and local officials and were letting people know where resources and shelter were - Easy to prep or grab non-perishable foods and snacks. I love canned tuna with relish and crackers. Relatively filling and satisfying. - Candles, lamps, glow sticks, and flashlights - it is so dark when everyones power is out across the whole town. My little solar power outdoor lights were very comforting for letting the dogs out and cooking in the backyard. Having light in the house was a necessity late at night. I liked to keep a glowstick in the bathroom. - Drinking water! You really can't have enough - Hand sanitizer and Clorox Wipes - TRASH BAGS and ziplock bags. Not just for trash and sandwiches, but for anything you didn't want wet! (Like your go bag or important documents - everything was in baggies.) - Rainboots and rubber gloves for the flooding and gross water and cleaning. Steel toes and thick gardening gloves for dealing with wood.
A personal comfort thing for me that also might help with small children is some kind of battery-powered sound machine. The silence was very errie without power. It made sleeping difficult because every creek woke me up.
Soilstone@reddit
Multiple (cheap) tarps.
My natural disaster was far shorter and less intense in most ways than many of the floods others are talking about here, but our neighborhood was one of the ones that the record setting tornado bounced through October 2019 in Dallas. A small neighborhood of duplexes and quadplexes with folks from Honduras, Mexico, Suriname, Vietnam, all over.
After having a few trees across the park hurled through neighbor's car or home windows like javelins, we them had about 6 hours of medium to heavy rain and wind (not unlike what north Dallas had this morning, actually...)
I didn't save any lives, but being able to quickly patch up holes and protect people's remaining stuff from damage had an outsized emotional impact on people. It took us 7 or 8 days to get electric, water, and gas back.
SURPRISINGLY USEFUL: simply wheeling our charcoal grill out into the street and boiling water for coffee in the morning for neighbors. Provide SOME sense of normalcy to absolute chaos.
SpaceKalash05@reddit
Radios, spare batteries, emergency medical equipment and booboo kits, water purification/filtration, spare clothes/boots, MREs and fire starting equipment have all been invaluable to me several times over in life.
LaBorjair@reddit
when i lost power due to a snow storm in MI my propane indoor heater came into play big time. kept my wife and I toasty warm while everyone else was freezing balls
ExtraplanetJanet@reddit
Power banks and a chargeable power station were very good when I caught the edge of Helene this year. (We were very much in the disaster area, but didn’t get the worst of the effects by far at my house. I had a little Jackery power station with a car charger that ran my CPAP and several power banks for our phones. I am bulking up my stored power for next time, but it was good for a few days. My most missed prep was nonpotable water. We didn’t have nearly enough for our toilets, especially considering how far we had to go to dip buckets in the lake. I have increased my water storage but the big prep change I made was buying a camping toilet that will use much, much less water per flush.
Hefty-Squirrel-6800@reddit
Gasoline and a Coleman Stove helped. Having a portable generator helped. Having several deep-cycle batteries to run small lights and fans helped. Having inverters helped. Canned food helped. I had some water on hand, but the emergency services personnel had more than enough water. Having cash was important. Having all of my insurance and medical information in a binder helped. While we were evacuating and riding out the storm, my wife was already opening claims so we would be at the top of the adjusters' lists. Having a cargo trailer helped.
Get a bank box and put all the essential documents in it. Have it ready to go as you leave to evacuate. If not, scan the documents to a thumb drive so you can open and print them from anywhere.
The food was single-serving canned meals (Raviolois). You could eat them out of the can or heat them on a Coleman stove. Paper Plates and Solo Cups minimized washing.
Another important thing before you evacuate is to take a nice hot shower and put on clean clothes. You may not get a chance for a while to shower and change. We loaded everything up to evacuate, showered, and wore bug-out clothes. Then, we left.
Weapons were a pain to take all the ammunition. The solution was to assemble "blister packs" containing a sampling of the ammunition (rifle, pistol, shotgun and .22 LR) and took several of those with us while stashing the rest.
jackfruitjohn@reddit
A lot of people heat food in cans. But I’ve heard that’s not a good idea because cans are lined with vinyl on the inside and you melt plastic into the food. Some people don’t care but I try to avoid it.
smsff2@reddit
In a first world country, you cannot be a flood survivor. You can only be a flood enjoyer. I'm the flood enjoyer.
I used to live in the Philippines. Imagine you need to grow your own food. You are absent from your field for a month - you die. You need to relocate - you die. You simply won't have any means to support yourself in a new place. Imagine you live an a bamboo shed, which does not even stop mosquitoes. They can fly through the walls. This is your only possession. You lose that shed - you are screwed. In the Philippines, a person can be a flood survivor.
Pretty much all my preps were useless in any real situation. I tend to prep after the fact. After the flood, I learned to keep important papers in watertight containers. Unfortunately, only after the flood. As decades go by, and flood is not coming, I spend less and less effort on that. Next time the flood will happen, I will be almost in the same boat, as the first time.
I was renting back then. Damage to the house was not my problem. Maybe that's the reason I tend to take floods lightly.
All physical prepping items were useless, but hobbies turned out to be a game changer on more than one occasion.
ratcuisine@reddit
Unless I misunderstood, using 2 liter bottles of potable water to flush toilets seems like a waste unless you had a surplus of them. Don't flush for just urine. Go outside if you can. If you have forewarning, fill a bathtub with water and use that for non-drinking water needs.
Bikesexualmedic@reddit
Go piss on the compost pile you should already have started 😂
616c@reddit
If you have a pool or a pond, you can draw non-potable water and keep it in the bathroom for sanitary use. Buckets are OK too, but it's hard for a kid to lift a 5-gallon bucket. Most have mastered the 2-liter bottle or 1-gallon milk jug.
You can wash dirty hands & body in non-potable water & soap. 2-liter bottle is a good way to meter it out so you don't wast it all in one accidental pour.
curiousitrocity@reddit
Radios and knowing which stations to tune into for info and for a neighbor. When the Electric is out and cell towers down and you have no idea if it’s 3 hours, 3 days, 3 weeks…especially with trees down and bridges out. We were reliant on our neighbors to know what was happening and coordinate supply runs with the limited gas available. Ability to collect water #2 Shelf stable gasoline was #3
Global_Release_4275@reddit
Obligatory not a prepper but I do keep about 60 two liter bottles full of water in my laundry room. When the Valentine's Day snowstorm knocked out the Texas power grid we were without electricity for 5 days and without water for 3.
That's the only time it came in handy.
Imaginary0Friend@reddit
Hello! I was in a bad spot during helene. What helped me was batteries, my radio, and food/water. I didnt need anything else at the time. Emergency blanket is good if it was winter.
Independent-Mud1514@reddit
We.moved on Wednesday. We went out and grabbed a few food things and a few liters of water. Helene struck the next night. We had downsized our stuff by 65% and git rid of a lot of older food preps.
I prayed all night to be spared from the storm, we were fine.
We kept our fridge going with our solar generator, we plugged it in a few hours per day and turned off the freezer. We used the solar generator for morning coffee.
I used an old bucket to collect rain water from a puddle. We bathed with it the first day and flushed afterwards.
After 3 days we were without water and hadn't heard any news (no internet, spotty cell service. ) We called a local relative and got news/dinner/water.
My spouse found a battery operated fan which was a treasure for sleeping through the hot and humid nights.
Our power was restored at 5 days, some in neighboring counties went 3 weeks. There were a few tree related deaths.
What made a difference: buckets, solar lights and solar generator. Coffee and pits and bits bath, were vital to maintaining good spirits. Prayer, community and a battery operated fan.
EverVigilant1@reddit
I'm in the Midwest.
The things that were most important for us in potential grid down situations and travel impairment are:
--plenty of food and water. Deep pantry
--alternative power source. You need a generator and/or a battery back up of some kind
--snow removal. Shovels, salt, and snowblower
--shoes, socks, and underwear
--tools. Chainsaw. handsaw. hammer and nails. power drill.
Ok-Scar7729@reddit
Knowing how to start a fire. A bandana. Whiskey and coffee. Pocket knife.
spacemanspliff__@reddit
This is the most useful, real-world advice thread I've read so far, thank you for asking!
HopefulBackground448@reddit
This is very helpful, thank you.
NorthWhereas7822@reddit
Not freezing up. There is no single prep that saved us in a variety of situations.
Simply learning how to stay calm under deep pressure and not going into shock was paramount. There are a variety of ways to learn how to do this: from breathing exercises to pressing on the spot under your eye by your nose to being hugged from behind for a minute.
Quick thinking and remaining calm is your best prep. The rest is harder to prep for in advance and I could parse it out by emergency. The things I wish I had down vary widely between situations, but staying calm wins out.
Melovance@reddit
nothing major but i blew a tire out last summer on a mountain road in the middle of nowhere with no service, and boy was i thankful for that warm water i keep for emergencies.
avid-shtf@reddit
My French press came in handy for my coffee fix.
I’ve used my generator multiple times. I keep plenty of spare parts, spark plugs, fuel, and oil. Having an interlock and valve on my gas line is a game changer.
When hurricane force winds come through my chainsaw has been more than helpful. My house is surrounded by trees so cutting them up and clearing a path is crucial.
Before I purchased an easy start for my air conditioner having window ac units on standby were life savers.
Outside of emergencies, having canned foods, condiments, and staples are convenient to have when you’re slacking on grocery shopping.
Protect_your_2a@reddit
I grew up in Texas, Hurricanes Ike and Harvey hit the hardest. Ike was hard because we were woefully unprepared, didn’t have a lot of resources and had my dad’s entire side of the extended family staying with us. We didn’t have a generator so everything in the fridge went to waste within the first few days. We had like three packs of bottled water, but were without water for about a week and power for about three weeks. We were surviving off of like one bottle of water and a bag of potato chips each day for a couple weeks straight. By the time Harvey hit, we had a couple 50 gal blue drums and multiple packs of water bottles stocked and on hand. We had a little prep time before Harvey so we got a generator and everything that could be dehydrated got dehydrated. We had 72 hour bags for each member of the family ready to go in the laundry room (our tornado room) and had prepped the house against any flooding. We got through that unscathed and were able to be amongst the first responders to help people evacuate from their flooded homes and then took part in the clean up afterwards. Now that I’m married and living on my own I primarily stick to canned goods, have a good stock of dehydrated goods, grow my own greens in-house and have water stocked at all times. I also have back up energy sources such as a portable solar generator that will charge my electronics up to 32 times before needing to be recharged. If I have a heads up of a natural disaster or civil unrest I spend days dehydrating everything I can in the fridge or freezer to minimize waste in the event the power goes out.