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| Colorado Sky - Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
Some Winners
and Losers among the things we keep for emergencies:
Several
things are suggested for Texas Gulf Coast residents to keep on hand, in case of
emergency. Basically, when we say
“emergency”, we mean Hurricanes. We get
tornadoes of course, but in lower strength and lesser frequency than north of
here in “Tornado Alley”. We don’t have earthquakes or damaging ice
storms, so when we “prepare”, we are preparing for hurricanes.
In
trying to plan for a storm, you have to narrow down what it is exactly you are
preparing for. With some focus, you can gather supplies that
will be handy, without wasted expense, or winding up with stuff in storage that
goes bad and is useless when you finally need it. So as a target, we say we are preparing for a
storm that cuts power, water and land-line phones, for a period of about three
days, during which time we need to remain at home, because places of employment
are also without power, traffic lights don’t work, etc.
Several
things are recommended by authorities, and others present themselves, there on
the shelf, without your ever expecting that they would be of use. Some examples:
Batteries:
(Winner) Important, but make sure you have the right
ones, and in proper amounts. As you’ll
see from “flashlights”, LED flashlights are best as they are highly efficient,
and thus don’t consume the batteries quickly.
As with all supplies, it’s best not to simply stick them in the drawer
and expect them to be charged and ready four years from now when the next
hurricane finally strikes. It’s best to
use a battery size that you might also have use for in normal conditions. As you occasionally buy fresh ones, “rotate
your stock” by putting the fresh ones in your emergency supplies, and take out
the oldest to use in your daily routine.
Flashlights:
(Winner) LED, it’s the only way. I have a nice (but inexpensive) LED light
that takes either 3, 6 or 9 AA batteries.
I used it in my attic once to do some work, and when I came down, I
forgot, and left it. Seven days later, I
was again looking for the light, and thought maybe I’d left behind in the
attic, I looked and found it…still on and lighting the darkness. Still on
after seven days !! Get an LED
light. A big winner !!
Water:
(LOSER !) You need water of
course. During the aftermath of
Hurricane Ike in 2008, we lost water pressure for 24 hours or so. My problem was that I had a LOT of water
stored. It isn’t something we were
successful at “rotating stock” with, and so it got old. The big problem with that was, getting old
mostly resulted in the plastic bottles cracking and leaking. Fortunately for me, I had stored them, 6
gallons each, in plastic tubs that I could more easily move if need be. The tubs caught the leaks before it made a
mess. So, store a little, and find a way
to rotate it.
Matches / Candles:
(LOSER !!) First, they are dangerous. If something catches fire, that’s bad, if it
happens at the peak of a storm when emergency services cannot respond, it could
be a disaster, maybe for your house, maybe for those downwind as well. Use flashlights, safer, more portable, better
all around.
Hand-Crank Flashlights:
(WINNER !!) We got a few of these from a couple of
different sources, mostly trade-show give-aways I think, with various logos on
them. No dependence on batteries, safe,
handy, store forever, a real winner.
Hand-Crank Radio:
(WINNER !!!) We got one some years ago, as a premium gift
for donating to public radio. An
AM-FW-Short-Wave Radio, with places for batteries, a plug-in adapter for if the
power is on, and a really cool hand-crank on the side, for when all else
fails. You can get storm information, or
just listen to music or radio-talk when power is off and the
TV-Cable-Computer-Cell-Phone electronic-baby-sitter-devices we all are addicted
to, are all dead. At one point, my
younger son (then 19) and I were sitting on the couch, cranking away and
listening to music. My wife asked, “…but,
doesn’t it have places for batteries ?”, we just looked at her like she was
interrupting and said, “yes”, and went back to cranking. It gave us something to do.
Glow-Lights:
(A BIG Winner !!!) You’ve
probably seen them, maybe at a hardware or home supply store. They are about 6 inches (150m) long, ½ inch
(12mm) in diameter, and in a foil wrapper.
There is an outer soft plastic shell.
Inside it is a green fluid and a fragile glass vile containing a second
fluid. When you bend the outer tube, the
glass vile breaks and the fluids mix.
The tube then begins to glow with a soft, cool green light that lasts
about 12 hours. Perfect in a power
outage ! I would break one about the
time it got dark, and it would last until morning. A cool, safe, green glow in the night. I hung one up so it would be seen by anyone
coming up my front walk…wanted all to know someone was home. Cost about $1.50, last a long time in
storage, everyone should have a few.
Paper Plates:
(Another Winner) When the power is out (ours was out for 16
days following the storm), number one, you don’t have a working dishwasher
anymore. Second, you don’t have air
conditioning, and hurricanes are a “warm weather sport”. So, you don’t feel much like washing dishes. Worse, if you have electric water heating,
you are without a way to properly sanitize dishes (unless you do it the old
fashion way, with boiling water, but that means you have access to some other
alternative fuel, and not everybody does).
Paper plates, plastic cups, and the like are a big help.
Canned Food:
(Loser) Well, we failed. We didn’t rotate our stock, so the cans aged
and went bad. It seems simple enough to,
let’s say, keep additional cans of your normal stock of cans on hand, and
regularly rotate new for old, so you maintain a fresh stock. But we also were not desperate enough to sit around
eating out of cans, heated on a backyard grill, wanting not to get pans dirty,
because we couldn’t wash… To hell with
it, within a few hours of the wind dying down, a Chinese restaurant we know,
whose power comes from the line the Hospital is on, was up and running, setting
up a makeshift buffet, and feeding all the neighbors. Toss the cans, go for Sweet and Sour Pork !
Non-Perishable Foods:
(Loser) First, there’s no such thing as
“non-perishables”, cans, crackers, whatever, they all slowly go bad in
storage. Without “rotation discipline”,
it’s garbage. (see above…go for
Chinese).
Plastic-Ware:
(Big Winner !!) My (dear) wife works full time, as do I of
course, so we eat take-out food frequently.
Quite often, as a matter of habit, the restaurant places small packets
with each dinner, containing a small paper napkin, and a plastic knife, fork
and spoon. Nowadays many restaurants
will ask if you need such supplies, before throwing them in the bag, and having
you just throw them away later, because instead of eating at your desk, you are
taking it home and eating with your normal stainless. My (dear) wife had a habit of taking the
unused packs and sticking them in a box with our camping supplies (hello, we
haven’t gone camping in years !). I of
course occasionally fussed at her for hanging on to them and contributing to
our (considerable) mess. Boy was I wrong
(dear) !! Those little things are DAMN
handy when the power/water are off. A
BIG winner. Keep a couple of big
handfuls around.
Alcohol Wipes:
(One more Winner !) I keep the single, foil pack alcohol wipes in
my briefcase, car, and office desk. When
there isn’t any water handy, you still need to wash hands and face. They store well, don’t cost much and have
plenty of uses. Keep some.
Charcoal:
(Neutral) It stores forever, doesn’t cost much, and could
be handy if you need an outdoor fire. I
have the “self-starting” kind, so it’s easy to light. As it happened, we didn’t need it, but it has
other uses, so no big deal.
Propane Gas:
(Winner) We have an outdoor propane gas grill. It has a gas bottle that mounts on it for
fuel. I got an extra bottle and keep it
in the garage. Not only am I covered in
an emergency, I also don’t sweat running out of gas with the whole family
standing around looking at half-cooked burgers on the grill !
Paper Towels:
(Winner) Like paper plates, they come in quite
handy. No storage or cost issues, so
make sure you have them.
Rain Ponchos:
(Neutral) Had ‘em, didn’t need ‘em, but if we had to
move, they might have been handy. But, they
store easily and keep forever, and they are cheap, so why not.
Containers /
Portability: (Winner
!!) You never know when you might
have to move. Water could rise, a tree
could destroy your roof, windows could blow in, you might have to leave your
primary shelter (your house) and go elsewhere.
Having your supplies in some boxes, baskets or containers that enable
you to move them more easily is a really good idea.
Cash:
(Winner) Absolutely indispensable…opens doors, enables
transactions with there is no power to run computers, cash registers or ATM’s,
stores easily, doesn‘t spoil. Everybody
should have a little stash of cash (helps to have a safe).
.357 Magnum:
(Another Winner !!) With
Law Enforcement busy securing the city and deterring looting, I slept just fine
with my “little Friend” next to me. Some
TV Reporter asked a local Sherriff what he would do in the case of
looting. He said, “We don’t have looting
in Texas…Next Question” (and we didn’t !).
Take
care and…
…Be Prepared. (Old Boy Scout talking)
-
Mark W. Laughlin
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