Having the power off yesterday for six hours (a tree in a neighbor’s backyard fell on a wire) led me to think about emergency preparedness. What do you suggest having for localized emergencies? Given where I live, wildfires and floods are extremely unlikely whereas trees falling and snowstorms are likely, so think about equipment, supplies, and plans for situations in which I can stay in my house.
Thank you.
We have three generators because my H could never be without TV! They actually came in handy when we were out of power for 11 days after Sandy.
I would suggest a gas generator, gasoline in plastic containers made for it (store these outside and never run a generator indoors), batteries, flashlights, large containers that can be filled with water for drinking (you can also fill the bathtubs with water for general use), a first aid kit, powdered milk (if you have young children who drink milk), a container or 2 of Parmalat type milk (you leave it on the shelf until you need it), canned and other foods that don’t need to be heated, like tuna. My youngest son came up with the idea of slipping thin flashlights into 2 liter bottles frontwise and taping them in place. They functioned like lanterns and could be turned on and off as needed.
If you have a fireplace, ample supplies of wood. We actually cooked in our fireplace during Sandy.
If you have pets, a supply of extra food. Wee wee pads or lots of newspaper if you can’t let them out. During the height of Sandy, we couldn’t walk the dogs…
A portable charger that you keep charged, Keep a shovel in the house because you could get snowed in so badly that you can’t reach the shovel in the front yard - it’s happened to us. A transistor radio or one that runs on batteries.
A list of important phone numbers in case your phone dies and can’t be charged…
Board games, decks of cards.
If you have some warning that a storm, etc. is coming, fill up every car with gas, check the tire pressure and the oil, place water, first aid kit, flashlights with batteries, some food and blankets either in the car or by the front door or in the garage in case you have to evacuate on short notice.
Can you tell that I learned my lessons from Sandy?
Here are some recommendations from the CDC
https://emergency.cdc.gov/preparedness/kit/disasters/
We live in New England. Honestly, even being without power for a week (like we were with that October snowstorm) is not a huge issue.
We have a generator that is large enough to power our fridge, some lights, and alternately our well pump and our heat. We have used it one time.
We always have peanut butter, and the like here. Also, our grill is able to be used even when there is no power. During that snowstorm, we just cooked everything in our freezer, and shared with our neighbors. It was fun.
We keep a lot of gallons of bottled water in our utility room. We keep new unopened bottles for our use. And we keep refilled ones in case we need to use them for the toilets.
Nothing else special.
If conditions which could lead to power loss are threatening - Do the wash !!! Most washers/dryers operate on electricity, and they use too much electricity for most generators.
All of the above posts have good info. One thing I would add is to make sure you either have food cans which open by a pull tab, or you have a hand-operated can opener.
You probably want to have some cash around too. Depending on how extensive power outages are, ATMs may not be working.
Cash is a great idea. When they predicted Sandy as being a bad storm, we took out money from the bank. We then used the cash to gas up the cars and fill the gas cans. We sent the 3 sons who could drive to the gas station with 2 cars and the gas cans whenever it was our day to fill up.
Thanks for all the recommendations! I’m a minimalist in many ways, so several of the suggested items are not things that I regularly have on hand.
Earthquakes are the biggest threat where we live. I have a bin with supplies, but I admit I am not great about refreshing the food. I always refresh it right after we have a little shaker and then I slide the longer we go w/o activity. I do keep all the standard stuff that is recommended-work gloves, a crowbar, flashlights, etc plus water, food, first aid. I keep a supply of meds including a week of my Mom’s meds. She lives close enough that I could walk to get her after a major quake. Guess I’d better go check supplies while I’m thinking about it.
I have a somewhat related question. For years now, my garage doors haven’t functioned properly; they don’t open automatically (that is, with the control in the garage or with the long-lost handheld garage door opener). But I can open and close them manually. When the power was out yesterday, I couldn’t open them even manually and that continued this morning, when the power was back on. I hit the switch in the garage, and then I could open them again. Does anyone know (in electricity for dummies speak) why this is? Thanks.
Always fill your prescriptions as soon as your insurance company will allow you to. You don’t want to get down to the last pill at a time when your local pharmacies are closed because of a power outage or storm.
And keep your gas tank at least half full, always.
@rosered55 My garage doors have a lever that locks them for manual mode (still works for automatic). Make sure the door isn’t locked and then try opening it manually. Other than that, I’m clueless about garage doors. 
When I lived out in the suburb, my emergency plan was to check into a hotel. When Sandy hit and my parents were out of electricity for a week, I checked them into a hotel with electricity. My dad thought it was outrageous. He held out for 2 days without electricity and heat. He thanked me after he checked into a warm room.
We’ve done that, @oldfort. Of course, it doesn’t work in all scenarios such as downed trees blocking roads or ice storms or snowstorms preventing road travel (unless one escapes before the storm starts). Sometimes one is forced to shelter in place.
I like to use puck lights instead of flashlights. They are shaped like hockey pucks and designed to stick in a cabinet or closet but they fit into your pocket better than a flashlight and they only ever run on AA or AAA batteries which are easier to find (and keep). You can put them down on a counter in a bathroom and they won’t tip over. You could even get a big set with a remote and wander all over your house turning the “lights” on and off at will.
Headlamps are good too. If it’s on your head you can’t put it down and lose it!
I second the recommendation for parmalat. If I can have something to put in my coffee, I’ll start a fire and brew up the brew and be happy. Of course, you could always get teeny tiny bottles of Bailey’s and use that instead and you’ll have a happier blackout.
We have a bunch of LED flashlights. We have two in the kitchen drawers, and one each in the bathroom vanity drawers. They provide a ton of light.
We live in earthquake country and I have moved away from flashlights that you hold. I like headlamps or lanterns, which we have in small and larger sizes. Very nice to be able to put the light source down and have it illuminate a larger area. I hadn’t thought of puck lights but they sound like a great idea too. I also like to use ones that take double A batteries and just make sure I always have those. Used to have a couple of large flash lights that required 4-8 D batteries each and, a couple of times, the power went out unexpectedly and I didn’t have that many fresh D batteries.
I second the suggestion to have some cash in the house. Some years back I had a safe put in between the studs in a bedroom. Was relatively inexpensive to do and now have a place for that cash and my jewelry.
For those that still have land lines, which we do, I have an old plug in phone that works when the power is out. One of the very few reasons I can think of to keep our land line.
During hurricane Sandy,mew were the only ones on our stree who had phone service. We have a regular old landline…with a corded phone. Internet was out, power was out…we had phones.
Cash. If the power’s out at the pharmacy or grocery store the backup light may not power the credit card machine and/or the store’s larger system may be down or need time to reboot. A couple hundred socked away in a drawer should suffice.
If you have a detached garage remember to bring a shovel into the house before the snow storm.
Put together a list of your elderly or infirm neighbors and their phone numbers. Do a good deed and make sure they’re okay.
Make a list of larger neighborhood resources. Who has a winch to pull your car out of the ditch? Who could use some of your enormous wood pile to heat their house in an emergency? Whose 16 year old would love to earn $30 helping you clear the fallen tree?
A flashlight where you can find it in absolute darkness. It’s no good in the back of your closet or in a box in the basement.
Check your fire extinguisher to make sure it’s still properly charged. Most of us install one when we move into our new house then forget about it for the next 20 years.
If a storm knocks out the power you can cut off the water coming into your home then drink the uncontaminated water in your water heater until it runs out.
Snow = water. It’s amazing how many people forget that.
Snow = refrigeration. If a winter snow knocks out your power don’t fret about those steaks defrosting in your dead freezer. Just put them In a big Tupperware storage container and put it on your front porch or back deck.
Paremlat is a good idea but remember that it doesn’t last forever. The shelf life for an unopened container is 6 months.
Water can be store pretty much indefinitely but if it’s in plastic after a while it will start to absorb the taste of the plastic. Better to replace it every 6 months or so.
If a big storm is coming and you have satellite or cable TV record a few good movies in advance. Even if the power’s still on the storm may interfere with your signal-but you’ll still be able to watch the pre-recorded stuff.
If you get more snow than usual for your area make sure none of your vents are covered by snow. Blocked vents can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Take a short video of your home in its “before” condition for the insurance company in case you ever had a disaster. Take closer shots of any especially valuable items such as fine art.
Put all your family information such as insurance, passport, bank account and license numbers on an account like Dropbox so that if you ever lost your records they could be reassembled from other location. This is also really useful when traveling abroad.
I have a small emergency box with a plastic tarp, a roll of duct tape, a hand cranked radio/flashlight and a few other essentials. We’ve never had to use it in a real emergency but we have used and replaced things in it a couple of times.
^^^ adding to this - if you have a big snowfall coming, start your fire at the beginning. Even if you let the fire go out when you go to bed, the chimney should stay warm enough that snow won’t stick to it or at least less snow will. We started a fire after getting 2 feet of snow and the smoke backed up until the heat melted the big cap of snow on top of the chimney. Scary!~