How Prepared Are You?

[NYCgrrl]

Thank you for that, @Disneylover99 ! The visual has me in stitches.
Right behind you in a wheelchair hoping my companions don’t leave me….

 

[Disneylover99]

My family would ditch me and run--I'm old, fat, and slow, I'd been zombie food in no time.

Right behind you in a wheelchair hoping my companions don’t leave me….

They really should make a movie about the physically weak conquering the Zombies, while the fit and healthy people fall.

Starring us, of course.

 

[barkley]

NH here. We moved from coastal/southern NH to a mountain in the lakes region less than two months ago. We have snow on the ground

We always have water stocked as we have a well,

it's not cheap but if you are on a well and live in an area where temps drop below freezing you might want to look into a generator that powers your well. if power is off long enough your pipes can freeze and when power is restored and the well kicks back on you can have thousands of dollars in burst pipes.

Lastly, share with people around you if you can. We brought a thermos of hot coffee to an elderly lady every day of the nine day outage to go with her wood stove meals.

so true-and coffee lovers need to keep in mind that if they are fans of whole bean vs. ground to either have some ground on reserve or a means to grind those beans. we had neighbors who thought to have an old school camper's coffee pot for their woodstove but did'nt think about how to grind their coffee beans, lucky for them we have a manual coffee grinder we could loan.

 

[hertamaniac]

Have my standard hurricane kit untouched, thankfully, for about 3 years now. I had to rebuild my gasoline generator and now run it empty in the fall/post hurricane season. 3-4 cases of water and rechargeable batteries. I have extra containers for fuel should a strike becomes imminent. If it passes, I merely pour them into the vehicle (no need for extended storage chemicals).

 

[QueenIsabella]

They really should make a movie about the physically weak conquering the Zombies, while the fit and healthy people fall.

Starring us, of course.

On the good side, I'm crafty, and DH and I both have engineering degrees, so we might be able to McGyver up something--a catapult made out of deck planking and fabric to chuck dishware at the approaching mobs or some such thing.

 

[jo-jo]

On the good side, I'm crafty, and DH and I both have engineering degrees, so we might be able to McGyver up something--a catapult made out of deck planking and fabric to chuck dishware at the approaching mobs or some such thing.

Use the elastic from underwear and shoot off all those bars of mickey soap we took home 10 years ago.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Use the elastic from underwear and shoot off all those bars of mickey soap we took home 10 years ago.

Now you're thinking! Thrown hard enough, anything can be a weapon! I still have a few dozen homemade masks that could comfortably fit a Mickey soap for flinging!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

They really should make a movie about the physically weak conquering the Zombies, while the fit and healthy people fall.

Starring us, of course.

LOL the fit people run and seemingly doom the guy in the wheelchair. Some loser on the way by says sorry, we're faster and you're doomed and laughs at him. Meanwhile, the guy in the wheelchair whips out a crossbow to seemingly make his last stand and go out like a champ. Instead, he shoots the person that said it in the leg making them scream and the zombies get them instead of the guy in the wheelchair. Cut to person in the wheelchair after they've rolled away with the kill line, yeah, you were faster, but I'm smarter.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

For something like a global pandemic, like what we just went through, we are fairly prepared. Our freezers and fridges are always full and we carry a full pantry of items (flour, pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, oils, toilet paper, laundry detergent, hygiene items, etc.) at all times, with at least an heir and a spare. We wouldn't be eating balanced meals, as our produce items are lacking (we mostly eat fresh and don't care for canned or frozen), but nobody would be hungry for quite awhile. As long as we were able to get fresh items like milk, produce, and cheese, we would be fine. We do keep some water on hand, but would not do well for more than a three day stretch.

We have a gas generator, but if we lost that and couldn't keep our freezer running, we would be in trouble. We have lost power for two days in the middle of summer before and were able to maintain our supplies.

We have a woodstove for an alternate heat source in the winter. We have purchased backpacks to fill with bug-out supplies, but I haven't done that yet. (I really need to get on that!) I do have a list of priority items I would sweep the house for if we needed to get out in a short amount of time.

 

[Imzadi]

Does anyone have a solar power bank as one of their preparedness tools to charge their phones & tablets if the power goes out?

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Bank-Solar-Charger-42800mAh-Portable-Built-Flashlight/dp/B0C4JTVBBH/

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Does anyone have a solar power bank as one of their preparedness tools to charge their phones & tablets if the power goes out?

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Bank-Solar-Charger-42800mAh-Portable-Built-Flashlight/dp/B0C4JTVBBH/

That actually looks exactly like the one we have, different brand but otherwise looks the same down to the orange color. Sister-in-law got us it as sorta a inexpensive stocking stuffer. It actually says in the instructions NOT to use it as a solar charger even though that's what it is. Go figure IIRC I think it mentioned solar power stability for the device and the charging time due to the size of it as part of it. The one you linked could have totally different instructions just mentioning what ours said. I had to laugh out loud at the concept of discouraging usage of a solar power bank.

I could see using this as a backup but would just caution that the solar capacity may be limited. Ours def. doesn't take straight sunlight to charge, it would charge even just sitting in our brighter dining room but as a phone charger ours at least wouldn't be our first stop. It's not a bad idea if you get an inexpensive one to have as a backup especially as without electricity other battery backups will eventually drain without a way to recharge.

 

[nw6675]

So....we have two tubs of disaster food. When Covid hit, I ordered them from Sam's. They never came so I canceled. Well, they came and I kept my money.

 

[nw6675]

So....we have two tubs of disaster food. When Covid hit, I ordered them from Sam's. They never came so I canceled. Well, they came and I kept my money.

Oatmeal anybody

 

[Imzadi]

That actually looks exactly like the one we have, different brand but otherwise looks the same down to the orange color. Sister-in-law got us it as sorta a inexpensive stocking stuffer. It actually says in the instructions NOT to use it as a solar charger even though that's what it is. Go figure IIRC I think it mentioned solar power stability for the device and the charging time due to the size of it as part of it. The one you linked could have totally different instructions just mentioning what ours said. I had to laugh out loud at the concept of discouraging usage of a solar power bank.

I could see using this as a backup but would just caution that the solar capacity may be limited. Ours def. doesn't take straight sunlight to charge, it would charge even just sitting in our brighter dining room but as a phone charger ours at least wouldn't be our first stop. It's not a bad idea if you get an inexpensive one to have as a backup especially as without electricity other battery backups will eventually drain without a way to recharge.

Yes, the power bank in my link also says something about not using it as an every day solar charger as the large capacity takes so long to fully charge. It's more for once in a while, emergency use.

Hmm, I like the idea of getting TWO inexpensive ones than one large capacity. Then one can be a backup solar power bank, so one of them should work. And I can be solar charging one while the other is charging my phone & tablet, and rotate them if I have to.

 

[Imzadi]

Oatmeal anybody

I could go for some nice, chewy oatmeal cookies.

 

[nw6675]

I could go for some nice, chewy oatmeal cookies.

I can for sure hook you up girl!

 

[barkley]

well, we are going on hour 7 without utilities-wind gusts nearing 60 mph this afternoon. thankful for the generac b/c we were at the movies when the power went out so we got a text alert but everything automaticly switched onto generator power while we were gone.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Does anyone have a solar power bank as one of their preparedness tools to charge their phones & tablets if the power goes out?

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Bank-Solar-Charger-42800mAh-Portable-Built-Flashlight/dp/B0C4JTVBBH/

No, but if you have a Halo Bolt or similar for your car, it can be used as an emergency power bank. We have one in each car, so that's 4. We don't need it so much now, we have the whole-house generator, but they came in handy during Hurricane Florence, when we were out of power for 4 days, and only had a portable generator. The smaller generator really only maintained the fridges and freezer, with the odd microwave use. The Halos helped with phones. It probably sounds dumb, but the person who had the biggest problem with the hurricane was my oldest--who lives in Boston. She feared losing her entire family (not likely, but...). Keeping in touch by phone really helped.

 

[slo]

We’re prepared enough that when the Weather Reporter says we’re going to get a snow storm that I don’t feel compelled to panic shop at the grocery store because we may be snowed in for one day.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes, the power bank in my link also says something about not using it as an every day solar charger as the large capacity takes so long to fully charge. It's more for once in a while, emergency use.

Hmm, I like the idea of getting TWO inexpensive ones that one large capacity. Then I have a backup solar power bank, so one of them should work. And I can be solar charging one while the other is charging my phone & tablet, and rotate them if I have to.

I mean if the price is right you can't go wrong! I've had to rely on power banks before with power outages so I would see value in having extras.