Be prepared… next time
There’s nothing like a massive power outage to make us all realize just how important it is to be prepared.
In general, us country folk are used to losing power once in a while and we handle it pretty well. At our house, we like to think we are ready for anything nature can throw at us.
But somehow, this past weekend, we found ourselves caught off guard. There wasn’t much fuel in the vehicles, the 10-year old “emergency” bottled water was misplaced in the dark basement and we had difficulty finding the flashlights. Then, none of the batteries worked and all of our rechargeable batteries weren’t charged.
It was just mild enough that we had run out of firewood inside the house so someone would have had to brave the freezing rain in order to get the woodstove going to cook dinner. In terms of survivalism, it was pretty lame.
At one point, we were prepared for a power outage… probably after the last power outage. But over the years we became complacent and the contents of the emergency kit were scattered throughout the house.
Now, we are determined to be ready for the next big storm.
The emergency preparedness standard is that people should be prepared to cope on their own during a power outage for at least 72 hours.
People should have water on hand – two litres per person per day – as well as non-perishable food, such as canned food, energy bars and dried foods, which should be replaced once a year, a manual can opener, flashlight and batteries, battery-powered or wind-up radio, extra batteries, a first aid kit, special needs items such as prescription medications and equipment for people with disabilities and cash.
After this past weekend’s storm, we have every intention of creating a new emergency kit so that everything is stored together in one place and is easily portable in case we have to leave the house in a hurry. Flashlights, spare batteries, fuel for lanterns, candles and matches, they’re all on the list.
Having ample warning that the storm was coming, we could have been better prepared.
We could have filled the bathtub with water so we would have it for cooking and flushing toilets.
The power outage reminded us just how reliant we are on electricity. We were conserving battery power on laptops and battery packs in order to charge cell phones. Worst of all, we could not make coffee because we have an electric coffee grinder!
I am very tempted to put ground coffee in the emergency kit.
Not being naïve enough to think that history won’t repeat, I have no doubt that the contents of the emergency kit will be absorbed into the household over time but at this moment, I have every intention of being better prepared for the next power outage.
