Emergency Food … Preparedness

[The Annoyed Man]

I can't stress enough rechargeable AA/AAA batteries (I like eneloop or the green duracells for amount of cycles), a usb battery charger, and small solar panel to go with your flashlights. So even if you have to get out of dodge, you can still have light, which I think is very important.

I have a bunch of those too and a solar charger for them. One caution though...... do not use rechargeables that exceed the specs for your device. BE SURE AND CHECK THEM FIRST!!! I trashed a perfectly good L3 Insight WL1-AA weapon light that way a couple of years ago. I had deliberately purchased a weapon light that was AA powered with the idea of being able to use rechargeables and a small solar charger — and ended up frying it by putting those rechargeable AAs in it. $249.00 right out the window. It just hadn't occurred to me to check and see if it would make a difference. Live and learn.

[locke_n_load]

I can't stress enough rechargeable AA/AAA batteries (I like eneloop or the green duracells for amount of cycles), a usb battery charger, and small solar panel to go with your flashlights. So even if you have to get out of dodge, you can still have light, which I think is very important.

I have a bunch of those too and a solar charger for them. One caution though...... do not use rechargeables that exceed the specs for your device. BE SURE AND CHECK THEM FIRST!!! I trashed a perfectly good L3 Insight WL1-AA weapon light that way a couple of years ago. I had deliberately purchased a weapon light that was AA powered with the idea of being able to use rechargeables and a small solar charger — and ended up frying it by putting those rechargeable AAs in it. $249.00 right out the window. It just hadn't occurred to me to check and see if it would make a difference. Live and learn.

TAM the voltage on the batteries was above the rating of the voltage for the flashlight? Something like a NIMH and Alkaline voltage tolerance?

[txglock21]

Two things that I have not seen mentioned that I keep on hand since I got stuck in the extreme cold winter weather when our power was out for two days is a portable gas generator and a well stocked stack of wood for heat/cooking. I had/have no fireplace, but am in the process of getting a wood burning stove to have as a backup for heat/cooking. Those were the worst 2 days of my life and I was in the military in foxholes where conditions were better.

[The Annoyed Man]

I can't stress enough rechargeable AA/AAA batteries (I like eneloop or the green duracells for amount of cycles), a usb battery charger, and small solar panel to go with your flashlights. So even if you have to get out of dodge, you can still have light, which I think is very important.

I have a bunch of those too and a solar charger for them. One caution though...... do not use rechargeables that exceed the specs for your device. BE SURE AND CHECK THEM FIRST!!! I trashed a perfectly good L3 Insight WL1-AA weapon light that way a couple of years ago. I had deliberately purchased a weapon light that was AA powered with the idea of being able to use rechargeables and a small solar charger — and ended up frying it by putting those rechargeable AAs in it. $249.00 right out the window. It just hadn't occurred to me to check and see if it would make a difference. Live and learn.

TAM the voltage on the batteries was above the rating of the voltage for the flashlight? Something like a NIMH and Alkaline voltage tolerance?

Something like that..... I don't know if it was the voltage or the milliamp hours. There's a reason I pay others to handle my electricity.

Two things that I have not seen mentioned that I keep on hand since I got stuck in the extreme cold winter weather when our power was out for two days is a portable gas generator and a well stocked stack of wood for heat/cooking. I had/have no fireplace, but am in the process of getting a wood burning stove to have as a backup for heat/cooking. Those were the worst 2 days of my life and I was in the military in foxholes where conditions were better.

I have a 7000W generator on my back porch which, to this day, has never been fired up. It is still "NIB". But I do keep wood around simply because I also have a smoker. It'd be a shame to burn it for heating, but if it comes to that....... If you're referring to being left without power in the same ice storm that hit us a couple of years ago (I'm in Grapevine, the other side of the metroplex from you), I had the same problem. We still had natural gas, so I was able to run our fireplace, but that didn't provide that much heat. On the first day, our house hadn't gotten that cold yet, and we spent the night at home, bundled up, but comfortable. I figured the electricity would probably come back on overnight, but by the next morning it was cold as hell in our house. When I thought about starting up the generator, I quickly realized two things...... 1) I had no gas stored anywhere outside of our vehicles' tanks, and 2) I lacked the cable necessary to bring the electricity from the generator into the house, via the 240V outlet in our laundry room. Crap. Two more things to add to the list of things to do! (I had a small amount of gas—maybe a quart or two—in a gas can in the tool shed, but it was ancient and had no stabilizer in it, so I didn't want to mess up the generator by putting that crud in its tank.) Lessons learned.

We made arrangements to put our dog up at PetSmart, and a friend invited us to spend the night at their house, where they still had power. In the end, just before we headed over to their house, the power came back on. By the time we got home, the house was livable if still a bit cool.

I confess that I had forgotten to do anything about either the gas or the cable until just now as I'm writing this, so that's on my To Do list for the next couple of days until I can git 'er done.

[ScottDLS]

DON'T backfeed the generator into your dryer outlet. If you forget to turn off the breaker main, you'll end up trying to power Grapevine with 7KW as well as potentially killing the utility guys. Also a patch cord for this will have an exposed 240v male fitting ready to shock you. Use extension cords or have a transfer switch installed.

On your dilemma with the gasoline, I had a problem with my 8KW "portable" in that I left gas in the tank for a year. It turned into varnish and I had to replace the carb and spark plug... Even worse when I drained the bad gas I forgot which can I put it in and ended up pouring it in my BMW, which right now is having the tank removed and fuel system cleaned and 6 sparks replaced .

Since your natural gas was working, there is a solution to this. You can get a tri-fuel carb converter for your generator that will let it run on NG, Propane, or gasoline for about $200. You can then buy propane which keeps forever or use NG service if it still is up, and you can switch to gasoline if you need to.

[Soccerdad1995]

Canned food, canned meat, MRE's (I keep 48 MRE but I use 12-18 a year and just rotate them). Chest freezer is lined with one gallon water jugs and keep 6 cases of bottled water in garage and rotate. Canned soups are good. Keep all 4 propane cylinders full. Having a water filter is good once you have attained food storage. I would try to go for 3 month supply. Remember the more people know what you have the less they will prepare for themselves because they will count on you to share.

Also, remember to have a lot of bullets on hand so you are not forced to "share" your provisions.

[txglock21]

I can't stress enough rechargeable AA/AAA batteries (I like eneloop or the green duracells for amount of cycles), a usb battery charger, and small solar panel to go with your flashlights. So even if you have to get out of dodge, you can still have light, which I think is very important.

I have a bunch of those too and a solar charger for them. One caution though...... do not use rechargeables that exceed the specs for your device. BE SURE AND CHECK THEM FIRST!!! I trashed a perfectly good L3 Insight WL1-AA weapon light that way a couple of years ago. I had deliberately purchased a weapon light that was AA powered with the idea of being able to use rechargeables and a small solar charger — and ended up frying it by putting those rechargeable AAs in it. $249.00 right out the window. It just hadn't occurred to me to check and see if it would make a difference. Live and learn.

TAM the voltage on the batteries was above the rating of the voltage for the flashlight? Something like a NIMH and Alkaline voltage tolerance?

Something like that..... I don't know if it was the voltage or the milliamp hours. There's a reason I pay others to handle my electricity.

Two things that I have not seen mentioned that I keep on hand since I got stuck in the extreme cold winter weather when our power was out for two days is a portable gas generator and a well stocked stack of wood for heat/cooking. I had/have no fireplace, but am in the process of getting a wood burning stove to have as a backup for heat/cooking. Those were the worst 2 days of my life and I was in the military in foxholes where conditions were better.

I have a 7000W generator on my back porch which, to this day, has never been fired up. It is still "NIB". But I do keep wood around simply because I also have a smoker. It'd be a shame to burn it for heating, but if it comes to that....... If you're referring to being left without power in the same ice storm that hit us a couple of years ago (I'm in Grapevine, the other side of the metroplex from you), I had the same problem. We still had natural gas, so I was able to run our fireplace, but that didn't provide that much heat. On the first day, our house hadn't gotten that cold yet, and we spent the night at home, bundled up, but comfortable. I figured the electricity would probably come back on overnight, but by the next morning it was cold as heck in our house. When I thought about starting up the generator, I quickly realized two things...... 1) I had no gas stored anywhere outside of our vehicles' tanks, and 2) I lacked the cable necessary to bring the electricity from the generator into the house, via the 240V outlet in our laundry room. Crap. Two more things to add to the list of things to do! (I had a small amount of gas—maybe a quart or two—in a gas can in the tool shed, but it was ancient and had no stabilizer in it, so I didn't want to mess up the generator by putting that crud in its tank.) Lessons learned.

We made arrangements to put our dog up at PetSmart, and a friend invited us to spend the night at their house, where they still had power. In the end, just before we headed over to their house, the power came back on. By the time we got home, the house was livable if still a bit cool.

I confess that I had forgotten to do anything about either the gas or the cable until just now as I'm writing this, so that's on my To Do list for the next couple of days until I can git 'er done.

Yes TAM, that is the same storm I was talking about. I was living in Royse City at the time and the ENTIRE area was out for two and half days. Our house was new and all electric with no fireplace. That meant no nothing. We had to go sit in our vehicles every so often to warm up and charge our cell phones. We had to watch how long we did that because all gas stations were out too. No power=no gas. Several lessons learned in that event. I just have a small portable gas generator now to at least run a few critical needs if that ever happens again. I use it at least twice a month to run things like electric hedge cutters, etc. just to keep the fuel flowing and ready if ever really needed.

[Middle Age Russ]

After Ike, where we were without grid power for 17 days if I remember correctly, we had a liquid-cooled, 1800 rpm, natural gas standby generator installed with an auto transfer switch and whole house surge protector. It replicates the 100 amp service we have to the house entirely. When electricity goes down, we wait about 30 seconds for it to be restored, now. We were running on generator power about 15 hours the other day when the major storms came through. It is great peace of mind, and the 1800 rpm unit is only a little louder than the A/C.

In the preparedness vein, I also have a back-up generator powerful (6KW) enough to run the well, keep the freezers and fridges up and all, and a small supply of fuel. I can back-feed the dryer plug (gas dryer), but I'd need to pull the power meter to ensure I wasn't back-feeding the neighborhood if I used it. I had a gasoline 11KW welder/generator right after Ike hooked up in this manner, but only ran it about four-six hours a day to keep the freezers up due to the high fuel consumption and price of fuel.

[Bitter Clinger]

DON'T backfeed the generator into your dryer outlet. If you forget to turn off the breaker main, you'll end up trying to power Grapevine with 7KW as well as potentially killing the utility guys. Also a patch cord for this will have an exposed 240v male fitting ready to shock you. Use extension cords or have a transfer switch installed.

Excellent explanation!

I had an auto transfer swicth in our last home with a 15KW natural gas b/u generator. Only needed it once but it was awesome!

[WildBill]

DON'T backfeed the generator into your dryer outlet. If you forget to turn off the breaker main, you'll end up trying to power Grapevine with 7KW as well as potentially killing the utility guys. Also a patch cord for this will have an exposed 240v male fitting ready to shock you. Use extension cords or have a transfer switch installed.

Funny, I just got off the phone with a friend five minutes ago and we were talking about this same subject.

[The Annoyed Man]

DON'T backfeed the generator into your dryer outlet. If you forget to turn off the breaker main, you'll end up trying to power Grapevine with 7KW as well as potentially killing the utility guys. Also a patch cord for this will have an exposed 240v male fitting ready to shock you. Use extension cords or have a transfer switch installed.

On your dilemma with the gasoline, I had a problem with my 8KW "portable" in that I left gas in the tank for a year. It turned into varnish and I had to replace the carb and spark plug... Even worse when I drained the bad gas I forgot which can I put it in and ended up pouring it in my BMW, which right now is having the tank removed and fuel system cleaned and 6 sparks replaced .

Since your natural gas was working, there is a solution to this. You can get a tri-fuel carb converter for your generator that will let it run on NG, Propane, or gasoline for about $200. You can then buy propane which keeps forever or use NG service if it still is up, and you can switch to gasoline if you need to.

Cool! Thanks for the tips. I'll follow up on them.

[Txtension]

Dont forget hot water heater holds water and gutters can be your friends.

Do not drink water collected from roofs via gutters even if filtered with a purifier. Many wood and all composition shingles leach toxic chemicals that might not be removed by filtration.

Check out the berkey water filter. Theres a guy on youtube that fed ditch water, rain gutter water, pool water, etc to his kids to taste test. I haven't got one yet, business has been slow, but soon. The berkey people say its good for 10 years and filters all kinds of nasty's. Lead, parasites, bacteria etc.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xC9iN_Kyico

[troglodyte]

Something to think about if you decided to run generators in a time of emergency or unrest. The sound will eventually draw people towards you. That will probably not be the best thing.

For short-term outages it shouldn't be a problem. If it is an extended outage or unrest is occurring I think I would prefer to put up blackout curtains, kill the genny, and break out the GPAs. Lay low, stay grey.

My main problem right now is water. If our electricity goes out then we lose the well. I'd love to get a manual pump but at 175' they are hard, and costly, to come by. I am working on rainwater harvesting so that may be the short-term solution.

[WildBill]

DON'T backfeed the generator into your dryer outlet. If you forget to turn off the breaker main, you'll end up trying to power Grapevine with 7KW as well as potentially killing the utility guys. Also a patch cord for this will have an exposed 240v male fitting ready to shock you. Use extension cords or have a transfer switch installed.

On your dilemma with the gasoline, I had a problem with my 8KW "portable" in that I left gas in the tank for a year. It turned into varnish and I had to replace the carb and spark plug... Even worse when I drained the bad gas I forgot which can I put it in and ended up pouring it in my BMW, which right now is having the tank removed and fuel system cleaned and 6 sparks replaced .

Since your natural gas was working, there is a solution to this. You can get a tri-fuel carb converter for your generator that will let it run on NG, Propane, or gasoline for about $200. You can then buy propane which keeps forever or use NG service if it still is up, and you can switch to gasoline if you need to.

Cool! Thanks for the tips. I'll follow up on them.

During that aftermath of hurricanes most of the stores and gas stations are closed, so trying to keep a generators running is troublesome.

If you plan to stay in your home for a while, I would buy a generator that runs off of natural gas.

The power companies sell and install them with all of the electrical works that automatically switch when the power goes off..

They even have timers that will fire up and cycle the generator every so often to make sure it still works properly.

[WildBill]

Something to think about if you decided to run generators in a time of emergency or unrest. The sound will eventually draw people towards you. That will probably not be the best thing.

For short-term outages it shouldn't be a problem. If it is an extended outage or unrest is occurring I think I would prefer to put up blackout curtains, kill the genny, and break out the GPAs. Lay low, stay grey.

My main problem right now is water. If our electricity goes out then we lose the well. I'd love to get a manual pump but at 175' they are hard, and costly, to come by. I am working on rainwater harvesting so that may be the short-term solution.

Not only the noise, but if people see lights on in the house they might guess you have a generator.

In my conversation today about generators a friend told me that after Ike his neighbor had his generator stolen during the night while it was running.