I almost wrote this post a couple of weeks ago. I almost wrote this post last as the news was showing people scurrying to get needed items before Harvey hit. Now, I see the same thing happening in Florida. I do not understand it! Especially for people who live in hurricane areas, but, in my opinion, what I’m going to say applies to everyone.
Keep supplies on hand! It doesn’t have to be everything you’ll need or everything you’ll need for weeks, but who wants to be stuck in lines with frantic people looking for items that have already been taken by others?
Another caveat – Harvey’s flooding had really made me think about my prepping skills. When your house has 6 – 8′ of water in it, you cannot stay home. When you’re being rescued on a raft, you cannot take all your supplies with you. So, flooding as presented by Harvey . . forget about prepping . . you’re losing everything!
Let’s hope Harvey was a 1,000 year flood and we never see anything like that again. But my idea of prepping doesn’t apply to something like Harvey.
Otherwise, please consider keeping enough food, water, toilet paper, and other things that you really need .. keep enough on hand for at least a few days. Rotate your stock. Use the oldest and keep replacing it. You don’t have to spend a lot of money! A few cans of tuna, a jar or two of peanut butter – whatever you would eat if you had nothing else to eat.
If you don’t already know how to make bread, learn! Unless you have to eat gluten free, this is a great recipe for even beginners. Buy a few packets of regular yeast, keep it in the freezer. Watch the expiration date on the yeast but it’s good for a while even after the expiration date. Learn to make flour tortillas. They’re so easy. Keep flour on hand (store in the freezer if you don’t use it much), and when everyone else is fighting over that last loaf of bread, you know you can make your own!
Buy a case of water and keep it somewhere cool (not necessarily refrigerated but not in 100° heat.
Keep a list of phone numbers. If your phone is dead and someone offers to let you use their phone to call a loved one, do you know their phone numbers? We live in a day when we’ve stopped memorizing phone numbers because they’re right there in our contacts.
If you have kids (or a husband!), think about what they will do if you go days and days without power. Keeping kids entertained inside without electricity can become a real issue.
Please take the time to think about everything you do every day .. and plan what you need to keep on hand for emergencies.
- Food – what would you eat if you had no power and couldn’t leave the house or the stores were empty?
- Personal Hygiene – What if you couldn’t flush the toilet or take a shower for a few days?
- Pets – Keep a few days worth of food/kitty litter, etc. on hand.
- First Aid – Keep the first aid supplies you would need on hand – antibiotic ointment, alcohol, peroxide, bandages, fever reducer for children, aspirins.
- Lights – Flashlights, solar handheld type lights, candles if you can safely use them, lanterns.
- Battery operated radio/weather radio – Having a way to listen to news and weather is a must.
This isn’t meant to be an all inclusive list but just a few things to get you thinking.
You may live where there’s no chance of a hurricane hitting but you never know what’s going to affect you. This past Saturday we were in Walmart, in the middle of Texas where we got no wind, no rain, no nothing from hurricanes and this is what some of the shelves looked like in our store.
Empty Shelves
It was the first of the month and lots of people got paid. I’m guessing supply trucks had gotten hung up with the issues around Houston. No matter why it happened, seeing empty shelves seems to cause people to panic.
Empty Shelves
There’s one 10 pound bag of Wheat Montana flour left and one 10 pound bag of Gold Medal flour left. There were a few 5 pound bags of flour left but not many.
We’re never going to be able to be 100% prepared for everything and anything that may come our way but it kinda makes me crazy seeing people on TV going nuts and grabbing cans of tuna and peanut butter and jelly and fighting over bread. Two weeks ago, or the beginning of hurricane season, they could have stocked up on a few things, learned to make bread and not be caught up in that rat race!
Maybe it’s just me . . but it seems so much easier to keep a few things on hand.
Tina in NJ says
We don’t get many hurricanes up here in NJ. Sandy made landfall as barely a Category 1 storm and we were without power for 7 days. We have natural gas up here, but I had to clue my neighbors in to the fact that they could, in fact, light the burners on the stove with a match.
Whenever a winter storm is forecast (anything over 5-6 inches of snow), people head to the grocery for “white stuff” -eggs, milk, bread. Apparently, French toast is the food of choice in a blizzard!
I pray for anyone in Harvey’s or Irma’s paths, and I’m keeping an eye on Jose and Katia.
treadlemusic says
Brilliantly simple practical post. I/we live 5 miles from a small town of 995 and 35 miles from a town of larger size. Running/driving for that bit of milk or egg is NOT part of our lives (since moving from Minneapolis/St. Pault 44 years ago). W/0 electricity, here, there’s no water, lights and (in the winter) heat. Your info helps to get beyond that “taking it for granted” mind-set. I would think that we, who reside in a more rural setting, would fare better than those in a concrete jungle.
Laura says
I don’t consider myself a prepper but we always have lots of water, flour, peanut butter, jelly and crackers on hand. Also lots of paper goods (toilet paper, etc.). Think I’ll add tuna to the list.
Sue in Desert Hills (Phoenix), AZ (formerly in Scottsdale, AZ) says
Great post. Thank you for reminding all of us of how simple it is to be prepared. I have a month’s supply of freeze dried food in the house for both myself and my husband (no one else at home) and we always have plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, and bottled water but it is always good to be reminded of other things to have.
Verna says
It pays to be prepared–you never know what the weather will do! Last summer, we had an unexpected windstorm overnight which knocked down numerous trees and power lines in our area. We couldn’t get to town for a day due to the trees down on the roads and had no power for five days, but we had plenty of food, water and necessary supplies on hand and were fine. And we’ve since purchased a generator to be better prepared in case it happens again. We also have plenty of firewood as we had 40+ trees down in our yard! The winds we had were scary, about 70 MPH–can’t imagine what a hurricane would be like.
dezertsuz says
As you know, I’m right there with you. I have all those things in place, and more. I keep two 24-packs of water in the bottom of my chest freezer. It keeps the food closer to my reach, and makes the freezer more efficient – plus it’s water when electricity fails! I keep about 20 $1 bills in a wallet because when things are tough, no one is going to change large bills and you can bargain better with smaller ones. I have a hand crank sewing machine, a washing machine in a 5 gallon bucket, and a toilet in another one. =)
It’s plain common sense to me. Two winters ago, I was stuck on my hill for 12 days in a terrific ice storm followed by a snow storm. It was the only bad weather all winter, but I never worried about a thing. We’ve had electrical failures – 3 days for me in a terrific summer storm, two weeks for some people in the valley. People lose jobs, or get laid off for significant amounts of time. It just makes sense to store up. I tithe 10% of my grocery budget to storage items – finding things on sales. I don’t tend to use my freezer as much as you do, but I do have a lot of pork chops and chicken breasts and sausage in there from Zaycon. Lots of prep goes on here and at your house, and it really gives us peace of mind.
cassews says
YepI have always has a full pantry of items that are practical along with gas for the generators. Great Post !!!!
montanaclarks says
Yep, well said Judy!
Linda in NE says
I agree, Judy. Having extras on hand relieves the stress. About the worst thing weather wise that could happen to us here in Nebraska is a tornado wiping us out. In which case the best prep would be some cash to find a place to stay. You will never find me racing off to the store when a blizzard or ice storm is predicted. I may make some bread and save water for drinking and flushing, but that’s about it. I have a camp stove & gas grill for heating/cooking food and a small Mr. Buddy heater that would keep at least 1-2 rooms tolerable for a while. Still have my grandma’s oil lamps and some lamp oil as well as a couple LED battery lamps & a couple of good flashlights. I make sure the Kindle and laptop are charged and make sure I know where the little inverter to plug into to car to keep them charged is. The car is always at least half full of gas. Being a little bit prepared isn’t all that hard and sure beats being stuck in the house with no food, water or a way to flush.
Liz says
I’m set to stay at home for a period of time – I have freeze-dried food (Thrive brand) so I can make lots of different meals. I actually use these foods on a daily basis, so it is just a matter of keeping a stock of my favorites. But, I don’t have to worry about a freezer going out with my stash of food.
I also have lights, cookstoves and solar chargers from Biolite. The little cookstoves use twigs as well as wood pellets and charges a battery that you can then use to charge your lights or phone. I opted for going this route instead of relying on batteries for flashlights. I also have a crank radio.
For water, I bought some water filters so even if I have to use a pond, I can clean it.
I agree on having a stash of money in a variety of amounts. In an emergency, no one will break a hundred, so you better have ones and fives!
It’s a good exercise to think of what you use everyday and slowly build up your supply from 3 days to a week to several weeks to months. When you have a home supply, you can actually save money in the long run by buying when it is on sale and not when you really need it. Things will be a little scarce and more expensive for a few months until the supply chain is back to normal.
Keep safe everyone!
Nancy says
A really good reminder. September is preparedness month and the local news station has been running ads about what to have on had in case of disaster. We expect an Earthquake in our area of the country. I was surprised that they are saying to have 14 gallons of water per person to last two weeks. My husband and I would need 28 gallons of water on hand. I had always thought it was water for 3 days. This week in the Columbia Gorge people were having to leave their homes because of fires. They were having to make the decisions of what to take with them. At least they had their cars or trucks to haul belongs out. Most were taking their pictures and important papers. Some were able to relocate their animals others had to leave them behind and pray they survived.
So far only 3 homes have burned and 4 out buildings. Wild fire is another thing that you can’t really prepare for except possibly to make sure you have combustibles away from your home to increase the changes that it will not ignite. I have a water proof box that I store documents in. It is also easy to grab it if I should need to leave the house quickly.
Joyce says
My only issue is where to store things. I live where we can and do have tornadoes. Plus I live on the New Madrid fault line, so we can and do have earthquakes. If everything is stored upstairs and there is a tornado, it could be all blown away. On the other hand if it is all in the basement and there is an earthquake, I may not be able to get to the basement…I try to keep some upstairs and some down…
JudyL says
We cannot prepare for everything but we can do what we can and it sounds like you have a good solution. There are things that can happen, and no matter how much we’ve done, it just isn’t going to be of much benefit but hopefully those incidents will never happen.