As you know, "The Italian" and I live in a city and we recently had a very early snow storm which caused about 350,000 people in our area to loose power. Many will be without power until this weekend.
One article in particular caught my attention. It is in a local on-line community newspaper. The title "What's Your "War Story" Now That the Storm is Over?". You can read it here. I was absolutely amazed about what the author has learned from this experience and the comments. You have got to be kidding me! You rushed around looking for an open gas station and something for the kids to eat??? McDonalds??
We have learned a lot from this storm!
- We are not nearly as prepared as we need to be
- We are much more prepared then most
- We are sitting down this weekend and making a checklist of some very important items that we need
- We are also going to discuss and re-think a few "things" around here
- We were very lucky that were many open gas stations, restaurants and stores
- We were very lucky that it wasn't really cold out and it wasn't windy
Oh dear. THis is a very sad commentary on the state of most families nowadays. I cannot believe people can't adjust for a short period of time. Wow. Nothing to eat? I feel sorry for their children.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are safe and doing okay. It was a terrible storm. And I know you guys are WAY ahead of most!
Sue, I am totally amazed on how dependent so called intelligent adults can be in our society! We could survive quite awhile without utilities. But, to not have any food to feed your children?? Come on...that's crazy! My in-laws are in their 80's and did just fine without electric for 3 days! They didn't even go out to eat! I'm sure a 5 year old learned more then these adults did from this storm!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing people survived without power for thousands of years now people are so used to it in such a short time and paralyzed without it. I knew someone who lost their power in the winter and let all the food in the freezer go bad. When asked why they just didn't put it out side in the freezing temperature until the power returned they said " I never thought of that" . Oh my.
ReplyDeleteJane, It is definitely is amazing! With the state of this country's infrastructure, I am sure we will loose utilities more and more. We are definitely making some changes and a few minor investments around here! Although we didn't loose power for long and would be just fine for quite awhile, this was an eye opening experience for us!
ReplyDeleteI read this morning that over 1 million people were still without power after the storm and that was down from the original 3 million.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to lose power often and have a system in place that works quite well. However, there is always room for improvement to allow us to be more comfortable during a long powerless period.
OH my! I must say people "now a days" are stupid...lol I think it has something to do with a generation or 2 of kids being raised in front of the t.v eating frozen dinners and now that generation is trying to raise kids of their own...Okay I sound like i'm 90, but its true. A lot of adults in my age range have no common sense..lol Happy to say my parents raised me right and I am only stupid 50% of the time :P
ReplyDeleteRachel, Yes, there were and still are alot of people without power. I am just amazed at how people cannot even feed themselves without power.
ReplyDeleteI think that I loose power here more then any place that I have lived. It is inconvenient but we definitely need to make a few changes to make it easier.
Mrs.P, I agree! My in-laws and my hubby are from NYC. My in-laws had no problem dealing without electric. It has been so warm and nice out....you don't even need a sweater!
There is information here on 72 hour kits.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html
Each member of our family has a 72 hour kit. This year I want to make at least 2 deluxe kits - 1 for each car and an additional kit for my husband's office since he parks in a large cement parking garage and we live in an earthquake prone area.
If we take care of the essentials first we don't have much to fear. I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to feed my children. We are also working on a one year supply of food and much of it came from my garden this summer. We have a one year supply of propane to heat our house - of course we have to living where we do and don't like filling up in the middle of winter when prices are much higher.
At the school my children attend they have emergency kits the teachers keep in an easy to carry bin ready to go. The PTA started this. Each child gets a gallon bag when school begins. At home we place 2 drink pouches, 2 suckers, 1 sandwich bag favorite cereal, 2 fruit snacks, and 2 granola bars and send it back to school. We've been snowed in before and it's nice to know that even if they don't get dinner they'll get something.
Hi there Bees by the Lake! That's a great link with a lot of good information.
ReplyDeleteThis storm has made us re-think a few things. We have a lot of preserved food, essentials and the ability to cook etc. But, we really need to sit down and really go over everything.
No one is snowed in as the temps reached the 50's & 60's right after the storm. I just can't imagine how a lot of these people could survive if they were snowed in and without power.
It really sounds like you and your school are well prepared to take care of yourself in case of a disaster. I think this should be something that all schools should take part in.....at least the children would have an idea what to do!!
Everyone should be 'prepared'. It doesn't snow here, but we are prone to bushfires. Our preparedness is different (i.e. we will evacuate on days of extreme fire danger and we have plans for our animals, a suitcase packed with photos, insurance papers and the like - ready to go) We loose electricity often due to trees falling over the power lines. So we have torches, candles etc. and an alternative for cooking (small gas burner). I suppose it is because we live in a society where our needs are met, 'someone else' is always responsible, convenience stores are on every corner, that people forget that they still need to be prepared for a crisis. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteMy children joke about how we preserve our food and could live quite a while without going to the store...I wish they would take hint.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very good post. When we lose power here at the ranch, we celebrate! Dutch oven cooking, sleeping bags, board games by lamp light, story telling...the kids and grand kids love it and so do I. Long term, I don't know. I'd be ok...the family might get antsy.
ReplyDeleteHazel, I agree that we should all be prepared to take care of ourselves if there is a crisis. As you said, our society has become so used to having our needs instantly met and everything is always someone else's responsibility. It's quite sad.
ReplyDeleteGinny, Hopefully your children will start to preserve and enjoy some good eatin!
Thanks Lynda, We just looked at it as an inside camping day! I wouldn't be the happiest of campers if we were without utilities long term....but, we would definitely survive and eat well!
We've become dependent in so many ways. We'll have to rediscover how to make our own food and support smaller communities.
ReplyDeleteThat article was astonishing to me. I know many people need a trip on the clue bus, but really, the comments about how unprepared people were was more than I could believe.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in rural Maine, we had our share of power outages from storms etc. and we all learned to cope. I also spent a lot of my summers at the family camp, (lakeside cottage) Girl Scout Camp, and tent camping, all of which have taught me to be learn to live quite comfortably without electricity. In 1998, Maine had a terrible ice storm and many, many thousands were without electricity for a week or more. I lived in an apartment in those days, so had no heat and no cooking facility other than my camping stove used outside. I was lucky that my employer go electricity back quickly so I could hang out at the office until bedtime, but it was a long cold 2 weeks. When I bought a house, I made sure I had a woodstove and propane range!
I do worry about a loss of electricity and the food in my 2 jam packed freezers. I can live without lights, but the loss of the food in those freezers would just about kill me.
Rohrebot, Yes, many people have become way too dependent and lazy!
ReplyDeleteAli, Wasn't that article just amazing! That township is at the end of our city, near us where the plots are located. It is suburban and some a bit rural. I think most of the commenters were McMansion people. I think that a 5 year old learned a lot more from the storm then the author did. No one was snowed in and it was warm outside!!
"If we ever have a 'real disaster', I don't think many people could survive very long..."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Sad but true. But, basically, you've just gotta be the last man standing. Of course, you'd have to think through what you'd do when people come to steal your stuff...