Seriously thoughtful are you prepared?

[Pookeysgirl]

[QUOTE=kindlekitten;1162785]what would you do with said fan during a blackout?
QUOTE]

I have a portable car battery booster. It has 4 outlets on it. I had to use it last winter to plug a heater in during a blackout. Unfortunatley I forgot to charge the stupid thing and it died half an hour before the electricity came back on, it gets cold pretty fast sometimes.

[kindlekitten]

ah! I see

[Pookeysgirl]

Everybody should have one, that thing has been a life saver a few times

[Stitchawl]

Having somehow lived through the middle of three major earthquakes (2 in southern California and the Kobe quake here in Japan, they seem to follow me where ever I go!) we keep a two kits in the bedroom on either side of the bed, one for each of us. Each is in a day pack and has;
------------------------------------------
Boots with heavy soles (walking barefoot through ruble is the pits!)
Powerful LCD flashlight
1 Thunderstorm whistle
1 Police style whistle
Triox stove and fuel for three days and two liter cook pot
2 Bic lighters, Firesteel, tinder.
1 liter of purified water plus a bottle of water purification tablets
large folding knife and 600 grit sandpaper for sharpening.
Freeze dried food for three days
nylon poncho and Mylar emergency blanket
pocket radio
$200 cash
First aid kit
(In winter time we add some cold weather outerwear to this.)
-------------------------------------------------
On the veranda, (we live on the 6th floor) I have a waterproof duffel bag holding;
two climbing harnesses and hardware
'Mammut' 10mm climbing rope 60 meters
two pair heavy gloves
There is a rappelling shackle already built into the wall of the building for just such emergencies as when the front door frame buckles and jams, but we need to get down quickly.

Stitchawl

[poohbear_nc]

they seem to follow me where ever I go

Memo to self: Throw out the preparedness kit. Just make sure you're not living on the same continent as Stichawl!

[I have nothing to boast about - I've been through Mount St. Helen's volcanic eruption, Mother's Day Killer tornadoes in NC, Hurricane Fran, the killer blizzard in Ohio ... oh heck ... we're doomed!]

[MickeyC]

I live in the DC area and the biggest threats there are lawyers and politicians. In fact, in some areas, they outnumber the humans.

[jaxx6166]

Hurricanes happen. And when we don't have hurricanes, we have wildfires. Seriously, I'd trade you guys for an ice storm. At least I had a fireplace back in NJ. Here, we don't even have gas powered anything (that isn't a car), so it's all electric. Which means when the storm knocks out the power lines, we're all SOL. And in a storm, you can't rely on emergency services, they don't run during the storm. So you're on your own.

I'll be at work during any sort of critical incident, so I really don't have half the preparation stuff that I should.

Should I be home though, I've got a charcoal portable grill, some pots, some pans, plenty of pastas and other MRE type stuff that you can heat.

A bunch of cans (vegetables, soups, fruits, etc)

Flashlight upon flashlight upon flashlight, hand crank, lantern, and regular ol'light
A couple candles
First aid kit, poncho, clothes, and rubber booties
Two five gallon jugs of drinking water
Lots of books
A storm radio, a portable television, and even one of those crank charger things.
And a small armory for when the bad guys come looting.

[jaxx6166]

Stitchawl is ready for the apocalypse!

I should get some of those purification tablets.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by jaxx6166

Stitchawl is ready for the apocalypse!

I should get some of those purification tablets.

In the first California quake, we got bounced around and some smaller stuff fell over but no major structural damage. That was in 1971, 6.5 San Fernando Quake. I was living in Laural Canyon at the time.

During the Kobe quake, everything in the house that was on shelves fell onto the floor. Pantries emptied. All glassware broke, bottles, jars, etc., spilling everything all over the floors. Two chests of drawers tipped over, TV shattered, windows broke, walls cracked , etc. In those days we were living 25k from the epicenter of the quake. We've since moved. We didn't have much choice.

These days, everything large is well anchored to the walls or ceilings. Shelves all have front lips or latching doors. And I forgot one item that we keep in the bug-out bags; hand-held transceivers that get recharged once every two months.

Mother Nature can be a real Motha...

Stitchawl

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Memo to self: Throw out the preparedness kit. Just make sure you're not living on the same continent as Stichawl!

It's a wise course of action. We've been through major floods in Malaysia, just missed being captured by pirates on the island of Sipadan by four days. (They held the divers hostage for almost a year!) We left Phuket, Thailand one day before the Tsunami. Our bungalow was right on Patong beach. Life can certainly be an adventure. Often I pray for boredom.

Stitchawl

[SameOldStory]

The worst that happened to us was a near hit by a hurricane. We lost power for 11 days near the end of a warm September.

When they said it might hit us I started doing all my laundry. My wife didn't bother.

It was after that that we (I) bought a generator.

We put in a high efficiency heat pump/air conditioner in the house we moved into 6 years ago. But we kept the fairly new oil burner/hot water heater. Should we lose power in the winter our generator has more than enough power to run the oil burner to heat the house and give us lights.

All we need are some claymore mines to keep the neighbors at bay if it's really freezing outside.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Having somehow lived through the middle of three major earthquakes (2 in southern California and the Kobe quake here in Japan, they seem to follow me where ever I go!) we keep a two kits in the bedroom on either side of the bed, one for each of us. Each is in a day pack and has;
------------------------------------------
Boots with heavy soles (walking barefoot through ruble is the pits!)
Powerful LCD flashlight
1 Thunderstorm whistle
1 Police style whistle
Triox stove and fuel for three days and two liter cook pot
2 Bic lighters, Firesteel, tinder.
1 liter of purified water plus a bottle of water purification tablets
large folding knife and 600 grit sandpaper for sharpening.
Freeze dried food for three days
nylon poncho and Mylar emergency blanket
pocket radio
$200 cash
First aid kit
(In winter time we add some cold weather outerwear to this.)
-------------------------------------------------
On the veranda, (we live on the 6th floor) I have a waterproof duffel bag holding;
two climbing harnesses and hardware
'Mammut' 10mm climbing rope 60 meters
two pair heavy gloves
There is a rappelling shackle already built into the wall of the building for just such emergencies as when the front door frame buckles and jams, but we need to get down quickly.

Stitchawl

and you keep those packs solvent and pristine all the time!? I have a hard time keeping my search and rescue pack packed! and I've been doing this for a lot of years!!!! it's not even a matter of duplicating things! *I really need to get more organized!!!*

Originally Posted by cassidym

I live in the DC area and the biggest threats there are lawyers and politicians. In fact, in some areas, they outnumber the humans.

yeah but you had snowmaggedon last year!

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

It's a wise course of action. We've been through major floods in Malaysia, just missed being captured by pirates on the island of Sipadan by four days. (They held the divers hostage for almost a year!) We left Phuket, Thailand one day before the Tsunami. Our bungalow was right on Patong beach. Life can certainly be an adventure. Often I pray for boredom.

Stitchawl

how funny!!! I had just said that to someone here in private messages the same thing!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

and you keep those packs solvent and pristine all the time!? I have a hard time keeping my search and rescue pack packed! and I've been doing this for a lot of years!!!!

All the time. Once bitten, twice shy. We change the water and check the batteries every two months. Not even a day late. It's just way too important. Everything else is static. I put in my time with Sierra Madre S&R back in the late 60's when Minor Harkness was running it, then continued when I moved to New England in the early 70's. Keeping my 'ready gear' ready is no problem any more, especially these days as it doesn't get used. I only stopped teaching winter mountaineering and skiing because I left the states to move to Asia.

In April of 2000 we had spent a wonderful week scuba diving and had just left the island a few days before when the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas landed on Sipadan, Malaysia's tiny but spectacular dive island, and abducted 21 hostages including dive tourists and resort staff. Less than five months later, armed rebels struck again taking hostages from the Pandanan Island scuba diving resort near Sipadan. The following year in yet another attack inspired by the huge ransom payments the Abu Sayyaf demanded and received for the release of the Sipadan hostages, 15 more hostages were abducted near Sipadan.

We dive these waters several times a year. These days we carry what we call our 'hostage rescue kits' with us any time we are not under water in these areas. The kits are the little cigarette box sized waterproof boxes that fit in our pockets. Inside we keep fresh Cotrimoxizol, amoxicillin, Tramadol, Imodium, water purification tablets, heavy duty plastic bag, razor blade, and both US and Japanese money. Then we pray that we never need to use it.

Frankly, I trust this sort of stuff more than the health insurance I have to pay for.

Stitchawl

[astra]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

in my neck of the woods we are being told to expect the worst winter in 55 years

I think you have misunderstood the forecast.
It is a Global Waming, not a Global Freezing. Otherwise jeep owners should earn money by heating up the Earth, instead of paying higher taxes.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

in my neck of the woods we are being told to expect the worst winter in 55 years.

When I first moved to northern New England I met an old Abnaki indian who told me that we were in for a very cold winter. I was excited knowing believing I was getting ancient lore right from the source, "Indian Knowledge" handed down word-of-mouth from generation to generation. Hoping to learn some of this myself, I asked him what signs gave him this knowledge.
He replied "Being wise in the ways of nature, I noticed that most of the winter vacation ski houses belonging to the 'flatlanders' from New York City were stocking up on firewood...'


Stitchawl