Winter Storm Preparedness

[kev]

On December 4th, 2009 East Texas received an early (and unexpected snowstorm). It was not really a “snowstorm”, as compared to what the northern states get, more like some snow flurries. But for East Texas, an area that rarely gets snow, it was more like a snow storm. In all, may 1/4 inch of snow fell.

On the morning of December 5th, some of the residents of Kirbyville Texas woke up to no electricity. This seems like a good time to discuss to your life revolves around electricity and being connected to the grind.




Lets do a quick self evaluation:


Can you cook without electricity? Some people are so connected to the grid that they can not even cook a simple meal without electricity. Have a small camp stove – either propane or liquid fuel – on hand to be able to cook during power outages. Maybe consider converting your home stove to either propane or natural gas. Get an outdoor grill – these can be used for cooking outside during the summer time, and cooking when the electricity goes out.


Can you heat your house without electricity? Some people have no way to heat their homes without electricity. If this is your case, consider getting a kerosene space heater. If your home stove uses propane or natural gas, the top burners can be turned on to heat part of the house – but be very, very careful with exposed flames. Some people will turn on their oven, and then crack the door to allow the heat to escape.


If you have natural gas or propane, some small space heaters are an option. But be careful around children. Children just learning to walk will pull up on anything they can get their hands on - including the metal bars in front of the heater. This can result in VERY serious burns.



Do you have a private water well? In rural areas its common for people to have their own private water well. When the power goes off, their water supply also gets cut off. There are several fixes to this problem – such as a hand powered water pump, solar pumps,,,,. But one option is a type of air forced water well. This is where the water is forced out of the well and into a holding tank using a air compressor. When the power goes out, the holding tank has a certain amount of water in it – depending on the size of the tank.


How about extra pillows and blankets? For people who may need to stay with you because you have plenty of supplies and a warm house.


Please post your suggestions and ideas.

[extremejoy9]

thanks for the reminder!
I live in Quebec so winter storms happen pretty often. I'm not as ready as I would like to be, but am working on it.

Getting ready for winter storms is what got me into prepping in the first place.

[Texas]

I just moved back to the midwest, so being without electricity (new house) means no heat, which is a major problem when it is 0 degrees out. I am installing a transfer switch into my master fuse box for a generator hook up. If power goes out, just plug in the generator and run selected switches.

If you have a wood fireplace, even better. But I will need electricity to run the furnace and gas fireplace. Wood fireplace is at the BOL.

I would also recommened oil lanterns, candles, and (as always) plenty of food on hand. When a blizzard is announced, there is a common run on basics at the grocery store.

[Haffenreffer]

I got propane for cooking
wood stove for heating
blankets, candles, food, batteries, hand crank radio

It's raining right now, suspose to switch to snow later on
Usually get a decent amount of snow every year

[weasel]

Hopefully most Americans in risky areas are that smart and get a generator before the blackout happens.
Hopefully they have checked the generators before they need them. Have in mind that starting a generator in the cold isn't that easy.

It is amazing to hear that some folks believed that those sold out generators will be in stock again the next day. How should they have been delivered on icey roads?
Thats more than stupid.

Don't forget to prepare your car too! Basic maintenance already done?
Already added personal items to handle a cold night in the car with ease?

[aramchek]

This week it really dipped here in Minnesota. Windchill puts it down to 17 right now.

Last year, I think by suggestion from someone here on this board, I got a small Mr. Heater, with regulator, and hose for the large 20 pound tanks:

Amazon.com: Mr. Heater MRHF273400 Buddy Portable... Amazon.com: Mr. Heater MRHF273400 Buddy Portable...
Amazon.com: Mr. Heater MRHF273400 Buddy Portable...

I fired it up in my garage last winter and was pretty happy with it. Not enough to heat your whole house, but enough to keep a couple rooms warm. Big thing here is your water pipes. If they freeze & burst, you're really up the creek. So our emergency plan would be to camp out with the sleeping bags near the laundry room.

I'm just not a big fan of having kerosene in my home, so went with LP instead. One thing I should mention on the Mr. Heaters, I see that they're more expensive this year. I'm awfully pleased I got mine when I did, and on sale also (got it for about half the price I've seen them at now).

blankets + winter sleeping bags
hats + gloves
candles, crank flashlights
other ways of cooking (propane for me)
proper insulation and winterizing on your home

Lots more...

[stant]

woke up this morn with 1/2 inch snow in central ky. what makes it odd is none was focasted

[anchorbanger]

I received some e-mails from some friends around Corpus and they were gettting snow yesterday.

We here in Virginia (Prince Willam Co.) are currently getting around 3-4" which naturally shuts down the entire Local/State & Fed. Government but luckily it's the weekend.

I grew up in Buffalo NY and as a kid I learned a couple things I'd like to share.

Plastic bread bags and a rubber band make great sock covers/boot inserts and your feet will stay dry and toasty (cheap too).

A small shovel (telescoping handle type) and a bag of sand in the trunk is priceless.

Layered clothing is a must.

A large contractor plastic trashbag makes a good temp. poncho in sleet and freezing rain.

Keep your woodpile under a tarp or covering, scraping snow off of logs at 2 a.m. while juggling a flashlight is just retarded (trust me on this one).

Add a touch of isopropyl alcohol to your windwhield washer tank.

Keep a blanket in your car trunk.

Since joining this group we have added some things we would have probably overlooked such as:
5 hurricane lamps with sufficient oil to last a week.
25 bottles of Coleman brand propane cooking fuel.
1 Coleman propane double burner cooking device.
5 Five gallon Potable water containers, plastic, blue.
30 1 gallon jugs of water.
1 Water Bob bathtub water bladder.
Food...
2 spare Propane tanks for the grill on my deck aside from 1 the one installed and another in standy.
1 camp style percolating coffee pot (nothing says good morning in a crappy situation like a good cup of joe).
Candles, candles & more candles. (My wife's Dept. at least we will be able to see at night and smell nice too).
Blankets, sleeping bags and inserts to keep 6 individuals warm.
NOAA handcrank radio (Weather Channel version with Alert Option)
Include all bug out bag and refugee pack stuff (whole nother post, lol).

We continually learn more from posts like these and I personally feel that a day not learning something new is a day wasted.

Be safe all and Have a wonderful Christmas & Holiday Season..

AB out!

[Maine Russian]

Snow shovel

Lots of good advice by others but I would add in that don't forget to put some equipment in the vehicle. Blankets, food, water, flashlight, snow shovel, war clothes, some sand/litter, etc. You know, the usual survival stuff you have in there already......

Did I mention a snow shovel?

Thanks anchorbanger, beat me to it.......

[SurviveIt]

Originally Posted by aramchek

This week it really dipped here in Minnesota. Windchill puts it down to 17 right now.

Last year, I think by suggestion from someone here on this board, I got a small Mr. Heater, with regulator, and hose for the large 20 pound tanks:

Amazon.com: Mr. Heater MRHF273400 Buddy Portable LP Gas Heater: Kitchen & Dining

I fired it up in my garage last winter and was pretty happy with it. Not enough to heat your whole house, but enough to keep a couple rooms warm. Big thing here is your water pipes. If they freeze & burst, you're really up the creek. So our emergency plan would be to camp out with the sleeping bags near the laundry room.

I'm just not a big fan of having kerosene in my home, so went with LP instead. One thing I should mention on the Mr. Heaters, I see that they're more expensive this year. I'm awfully pleased I got mine when I did, and on sale also (got it for about half the price I've seen them at now).

blankets + winter sleeping bags
hats + gloves
candles, crank flashlights
other ways of cooking (propane for me)
proper insulation and winterizing on your home

Lots more...

I actually have one of these. I've been happy with it. The only danger is that they use up oxygen, but the nice thing is that it turns off before it uses up everything. I am extremely happy with my purchase.

[cranky1950]

Around here when the storm team announces the likelyhood of snow or ice you run to the supermarket and scoop up all the milk and bread you can. nothing else matters.

I've got stuff that guarantees that my family is warm and eating well without broadcasting that to the surrounding community.

[MikeK]

Here in El Paso we had 3 days of rain followed by a light snow, then a couple days later, another snow. Nothing impressive, but fun none the less. Your reminder is well timed!

As for electricity, I have no dependance on it whatsoever, other than my internet addiction. People really need to learn to consider it an expendable luxury rather than a necessity. Since the beginning of time, we got along fine without it, and we're in a better position to do so now than we were back then.

Kev is right about alternative cooking and heating methods. There are a lot of options out there and they don't have to be expensive. For short term, camp stoves and kerosene cookers work fine. With wood as a nice long term option.

Same with heat. Short term options include propane and kerosene. Long term is wood again. In most climates, you don't need to spend a fortune to have wood heating installed. You can get inexpensive "wall tent" type stoves, either military surplus or from an outfitter. Colder climates will require several in different rooms. You don't even need to install them permanently. Just make a chimney pass through out of plywood that you can use to replace a window with. This lets you install the stove and chimney without doing any permanent modification to your home. You can always remove it and reinstall the window.

Water, as always, needs to be a prime consideration. I will never for the life of me understand why so many people put such little priority on it. I can't count the number of "I have a years worth of food and 2 cases of bottled water" type posts I've seen. Even those with rivers and lakes nearby needs to consider keeping more at home. What if it's too cold, stormy, or dangerous to get to the river/lake?

[ColoradoWildcat]

Originally Posted by ......from KEV
Do you have a private water well?[/B

In rural areas its common for people to have their own private water well. When the power goes off, their water supply also gets cut off. There are several fixes to this problem – such as a hand powered water pump, solar pumps,,,,. But one option is a type of air forced water well. This is where the water is forced out of the well and into a holding tank using a air compressor. When the power goes out, the holding tank has a certain amount of water in it – depending on the size of the tank.

Please post your suggestions and ideas.

Can you tell me or PM me with how this works? Or where I can find info with pix? Thanks

[East Coast Woods]

Here in Virginia Beach we are just getting lots of liquid sunshine. Guess we are still under the influence of global warming.

[Tuppergun]

Originally Posted by ColoradoWildcat

Can you tell me or PM me with how this works? Or where I can find info with pix? Thanks

Same here. The only way I can draw from my 480 foot deep well is with my genny. I guess its time to do a deeper search.

[crownvic]

Another thing is a chainsaw. I live in a ice storm area and a chainsaw is always nice to have. Never know when ice or wind will bring down a tree in an inconvienent place. Plus, just staying at home when the snow/ice is flying is a good idea. A lot of crazy drivers out there. Great topic, it allowed me to do a quick checklist and realize a couple of gaps.

Thanks

[WARWAG]

GREAT THREAD! Here in my local area we had a Brown out a few nights ago. For those of you who dont know what a Brown out is it is your worst nightmare. A brown out is when you have less voltage comming through the lines. This is much worse than a surge if your not there to turn anything that is on OFF! All of my major big buck items are on Battery packs. These will disconnect from the main power if you have a surge or a brown out. My refrigerator was not on a battery back up and was a pain in the Ares to get unplugged. My nieghbors on both sides lost there TVs and some lost computers. They didnt know why there tvs stopped working and why the lights were about half as bright as they should have been. The Power Companies are responsible for these devices but having proof that the item was damaged due to the Brown Out can in some circumstances be hard to prove. ANYWAY this was my first Emergency with a Brown out and ran around making sure the wall heaters were OFF and that everything that was on was shut off. I even unplugged all the battery packs as I really dont know how they will last under prolonged brown outs. My wife and kids who know what to do in a power outage didnt quite get why I was running around unplugging stuff since the lights were kinda on. In all we lost a few light bulbs but other than that looks like everything survived. The family plan was initiated albiet a bit slowly but the kids soon had there LED lights on and I had the fire going in the fireplace and the wife had the kids books out reading to them. I was thinking this was agood time to test our plans and its kinda funny that the unexpected happen. It always will it seems at the worst time. The lessons learned from this "TEST" was that I need to buy the wife and kids head mounted LED lights. I had mine but head mouted ones that will fit the kids are a must. This allows them to use both hands when helping you out. EXTRA batteries is a must. We had dwindled down our home supplies over the year and I was forced to dig into my trucks stash. NOT what you want to do when its 0 derees outside and windy. That was my fault since I didnt check our supply level when I returned home from my last deployment into the field. (lesson learned) Other than that we did well. Oh and the Brown out lasted for about 4 hours!

[kev]

Originally Posted by ColoradoWildcat

Can you tell me or PM me with how this works? Or where I can find info with pix? Thanks

Originally Posted by Tuppergun

Same here. The only way I can draw from my 480 foot deep well is with my genny. I guess its time to do a deeper search.

Here is a basic diagram I drew up. It works off of the concept that 2 objects can not posses the same space at the same time.

As the air is forced into one of the pipes, the water is forced up and out of the other pipe. There are no moving parts except for the air compressor.

Instead of having to buy an expensive deep well pump, just sink 2 pipes into the ground, do some welding, go with an air compressor and an inexpensive shallow well pump.

air-pipe-water-well.jpg

In an emergency, you could use a car air compressor to force water out of the well and into the holding tank.

On of the setups I saw used a half buried 500 gallon fiberglass septic tank (it was a new tank). When the power went off, the people had access to the water just by lifting the lid of the tank. They then just scooped the water out with a bucket.

Just think of a hydraulic ram - as the hydraulic fluid is pumped in the ram goes out. Same thing here, except its air and water. As the air is pumped into the well, water comes out.

[WARWAG]

Can you cook without electricity? Yes the wood burning fireplace has a hug flat surface and I believe whoever built it (home made) designed it just for that purpose.



Can you heat your house without electricity? Yes. Massive wood burning stove / fireplace.




Do you have a private water well? NO, but our town is fed from springs up on the mountain and gravity fed to a (guessing) 40,000 gallon holding tank up above town. Everything is gravity fed and has plenty of pressure. We also have several 55 gallon water storage tanks in our basement.




How about extra pillows and blankets. YES. Owning a Snowcat Company tends to keep us up on Cold Weather Survival. Our vehicles have Cold weather Survival Kits and well as our Snowcats plus tons of Surplus wool blankets since I have been stashing them since I was a teen. There addicting once you start looking for them!


Heres a little unknown stash of Wool Blankets you will now be privy to. During the Spring and Summer Months go to EVERY Goodwill and Salvation Army store you can find. Also any Thrift store. You will find Wool blankets for a few bucks each (if that)! Most will be in excellent shape. Along with the wool blankets pick up comfortors and sheets for penies. These are all pre washed but you should run them thru the wash as well. Cheap and good stuff for those Emergecy situations. This is what I keep in my vehicles. My Snowcat has a stash of Artic rated gear.

[MacMillanRacing]

Generally keep a generator and a kerosene space heater around just for such occasions but have not yet had to need to fire them up for that purpose, usually used just in the garage right now. Camp stove and small LPG cans as well with our camping gear. Here its a law now that you need at least 1 carbon monoxide detector in your home, so I have ones that plug into an outlet and have batteries, feels like an important note to those who intent to heat there home with any type of space heater during an outage, especially if your camping out on the laundry room floor. Tons of blankets and quilts kicking around. I don't know how true it is but I heard if you can't heat your house at all to keep your taps running with a pencil wide stream to reduce the chance of your pipes freezing up.