Earthquakes, hurricanes…Mother Nature sure has pitched a little East Coast fit in the last week, hasn’t she? While there’s no warning about an earthquake (although there IS a rather chatty post-earthquake Twitter feed to confirm that, in fact, one is not just a dizzy broad, but has felt the movement of the earth), the East Coast did have ample warning to prepare for Hurricane Irene.
We lost power for about a day, and I felt that we were pretty well prepared. Carole’s Ten on Tuesday prompt will help create a good archive of advice for future storms. Here are my Ten Ways to Prepare for a Big Storm:
1. Create an emergency box. I didn’t have one, but I will, just to make preparation easier. Mine will include: candles, matches, envelop of cash, batteries (change these out regularly so they actually work, ahem), and an old-fashioned corded phone. This site has a more extensive list.
2. Gas up the cars. Not only so they are ready to take you to an emergency evacuation point, but also so if you have to charge up devices, you have a little juice.
3. Charge up all devices. Throughout the day on Saturday, as my phone and iPad started to drain, I plugged them in and charged. It was nice to have a little bit of contact on Sunday via my phone’s 3G.
4. Get sensible food in the house. We made a pasta salad (N’s creation: pasta, sliced olives, diced onion, olive oil) that would hold up in a cooling fridge. While I mock the empty bread aisle, it is good to have some bread and peanut butter on hand. And, if you’ve read or seen The Road, you know that canned fruit is a thing of joy in troubled times. Just be sure to have a manual can opener. This is not a problem at Chez Golightly as I have never mastered the art of the electric can opener. Stop judging. You’ll be knocking at my door when the power is out next, now won’t you?!
5. Pre-pop some popcorn. Boy it would have been nice to have a bag of popcorn as a snack!
6. Plan coffee consumption. We had an epic fail on this front. Neal prepped Sunday’s coffee on Saturday; it was ready to plug in and brew on Sunday morning. Except, you know, for that lack of power. My pathetic “no power, send coffee” Facebook post garnered several suggestions:
- Use a French press to cold brew
- Get a Coleman stove
- Brew it on the grill
- Make it and pop it in a thermos until needed
- Keep a pitcher of coffee in the fridge
I am so glad that you did not have much damage and that Irene was not the storm that they started to predict. I read and saw the movie The Road. Eerie!
I walked into our local grocery store all prepared to buy supplies, but then I realized I didn’t have a clue what to buy (hence the overwhelming cheese supply I came home with). I’ve been telling Dave for months now about the emergency box (we’re 50 miles from a nuclear reactor), but after this storm, I’m asking for one for my birthday. Glad your power came back and that you all are safe!
Awesome job on this topic – right on with all of it. We have a stove top coffee maker for camping and that comes in very handy when the power goes out.
glad you made it through (the coffee bumps are just that, bumps!)!! and now I realize I am seriously addicted to my hot caffeine and I’m not sure anyone’s suggestions will meet my needs – YIKES! – so I’m hoping for better weather…and enough advance notice to fill a thermos. and otherwise keep calm and carry on.
#9…I couldn’t agree more!
All of this is great advice! I’d also recommend one of those big lighters. I have a gas stove, but the spark thingie is electric so you have to light the gas manually. I always forget to check to see if the lighter still works. Oy.
An electronic can opener? Really?
There are labour saving gadgets, then there is sheer laziness! It takes less than a minute to open a can, goodness me!
great list, and so love the popcorn tip.
I add food for my cats. and I have my kids call our friend Gee in another area, so we can all check in if our respective powers are out and lines down. Someone suggested this after 9/11
Out here, we plan less for epic storms and more for blizzards, snowstorms, and dangerous cold snaps – so we keep a large stock of canned goods and toilet paper, enough insulin for my dad to last him at least a month, and plan to stay put when the roads get bad.
One thing to add about keeping a stock of canned foods, dry stock, and bottled water: you must rotate your stock. Even flour and rice can go rancid over time; we buy several cases of canned soup when flu season starts up and we make sure to use it before a full year has passed.