[Jamie45]

From: Seattle P-I; December 20, 2008

The storm that hit the Pacific Northwest Saturday afternoon "will be life-threatening," a National Weather Service meteorologist said, and previous forecasts for the Seattle area are on track.

...Plastic gas cans, logs and snow shovels were sold out. Portable heaters were gone within 20 minutes of the store's early morning opening. Batteries were expected to be the next to go Saturday afternoon.

"It was chaos," Lowes's employee...said. "Every question that came through customers' mouths were the same three: generators, ice melt, flashlights and batteries."

Me? Well I did go out to walk up and check the mail (through the snow, uphill - both ways).

Now I think I will toss another log on the fire, have a drink and check out my favorite boards.

Winter Storm preps? In stock since summer!

 

[Watcher]

Winter Storm preps? In stock since summer!

Being smug is fun:thumb:

Seriously through, how is it that every Hurricane season in the Gulf Coast and every winter in the North, people are caught by surprise by hurricanes in hurricane season and snow storms in Northern Winter?

 

[dsarver88]

good job and good luck

always found the 'storm rush' a crazy shopping event

plus they never get enough to last more than 3 days

and what is the deal with buying milk, eggs, bread???

when you are trapped in the house for days you planning on making french toast????

be honest and buy what you need: beer, pizza, and chips

 

[splat]

I live in Oregon, and I live in town so we dont lose power very often. But my brother in laws family lost power one night for 3-4 hours and they didnt know what they were going to do.... They had NO way to heat there house, and it was like 10 degrees that night, Im sure he doesnt have one flashlight in the house... It was a JOKE. I didnt lose power, but I am always ready. My pellet stove is always hooked up to the battery bank in the shop that is always on the trickle charger, and my oil lamps are ready. Not to mention 4-5 maglights other goodies all around the house.... I didnt sweat it one bit. But the thing that gets me is the next day they FORGET everything that happened the night before like it cant happen again. Did he go out and get a small indoor safe propane heater so they could warm up one of the kids bedrooms, a flashlight, some food you dont have to cook???? Nope, just dont worry about it til next time. Those will be the people banging on your door when it goes down.

 

[Ramona M. Faunce]

My husband and I picked up our grandson at the Portland, OR, airport this morning. Then we drove down to southern Oregon, where we live. The storm was bad up noth, but we found the drive do-able. People were driving great, and we didn't have any problems. Of course, we thanked God all the way up and all the way back, several times. He knows we're gratful.

 

[thorjeep]

"I'm prepper, he's a prepper, she's a prepper, wouldn't you like to be a prepper too"

Sorry, I just couldn't resist (Slinks off, in self-disgust)

 

[Guerrilla]

No kidding. We got whomped by the storm that just came through. Many got snowed in, some got snowed out... Nobody short of food or gas up here, it's almost a game to see how long we can stay on the hill.

However, still lots of people at the store Friday, though my purchases were stew meat, veggies, and most importantly, a gallon of cider, a bottle of rum, a half gallon of eggnog, a bottle of brandy, and two cases of beer. Today, I got home from a bit of work at the ranch, the wife looks out at the coming storm, looks at our firepit, and asks, wanna have a fire tonight? Yeah, it's a nice feeling to be ahead of the game.

 

[swwjeff]

Funny thing is we still got to the store for milk, bread, eggs, beer, and the like. Sure we didn't need it, but was great to see others in a panic. Talk about a ego stroke! besides why dip into the stocks, for something so minor?

 

[Bloodstripe]

Being smug is fun:thumb:

Seriously through, how is it that every Hurricane season in the Gulf Coast and every winter in the North, people are caught by surprise by hurricanes in hurricane season and snow storms in Northern Winter?

Your right about that. It's not like Hurricanes just spring up out of no where.
For Hurricane IKE, I had my generator in place and a few cans of gas ready when it was still spinning out in the gulf and they were unsure where it would hit.

The lines for gas were unreal!!! Plywood was like gold, I still had mine that was precut from Rita. The stores were like a mad house, people were in panic mode.

What floors me is the people that went out and bought generators only to return them days/weeks later!!!

I'd rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

 

[Bizarro]

A good friend of mine has precut plywood window shutters with happy faces painted on them. He went through a big one in Miami and has since moved back to Texas. I am fortunate I live in a neighborhood that has a large generator to run our water supply that runs off of natural gas and I have a natural gas water heater so Ike didn't leave me dirty. Need to pick up a gas stove this year and ditch the electric one. A 3 burner coleman took care of me this time but no oven.

 

[Bloodstripe]

I like the happy face touch, might have to add it to mine!!!!We have a gas stove and I love it. I also have the propane tank for deep fryinging turkeys/ crawfish boils ect.

I was lucky though when Ike came through. We were only out of power about 20 hours.

 

[weepingwillow]

This is what it comes down too. This is why we prep.
For some reason, I've never lost power here even though I'm surrounded by big trees, and I'm on the edge of rural. I've got plenty of Coleman fuel, Dragonfly stove, Coleman lantern, don't have wood for the fireplace, but I can snuggle in my Feathered Friends down sleeping bag, if I have no heat. I have plenty of food and water.
Think I'll fry up some Spam and eggs for breakfast.

 

[hatrixz]

good job and good luck

always found the 'storm rush' a crazy shopping event

plus they never get enough to last more than 3 days

and what is the deal with buying milk, eggs, bread???

when you are trapped in the house for days you planning on making french toast????

be honest and buy what you need: beer, pizza, and chips

I've heard that referred to as survival french toast, because when tshtf, those will be the first things to go.

OP, good job on having your preps and just laughing when everyone is rushing to buy the cheap plastic flashlights (god i hate those)

 

[pepoke]

I actually missed this storm as I am in TN vising in-laws. However, my house/dog sitter is stranded at our house because we live up on a hill. She is flabbergasted by all the preps and hasn't worried about anything except trees falling on the house during the wind storm. It feels good to have it all, but I must say that a part of me wishes I was there to live through it... I am lucky that I have preps, but I would love to see the look on my wife's face when she hears about no milk in grocery stores and other provisions emptied...