Dealing with "Emergency!"

[S.A. Boggs]

I am curious as to how does one deal with this occasion, usually weather related. Many people have become "Preppers" whatever the definition is and seem to prepare in glee. I for one find this quite alarming to say the least. My "emergency" supplies consist of an electrical generator and rated power cords and that is it. An "emergency" is hard enough to deal with out of the ordinary so we have lived as we "prepared" to decrease the bump in the road. Too many store in beans and rice to live on, their system is in for quite shock! I feel sorry for those who live in towns and apartments if one is too dependent on other's for their well being.
How will YOU AND YOUR FAMILY deal with your "emergency" and get safely thru it?
Sam

[Merc]

We don’t really plan ahead for emergencies except for power outages. I do have a 5kw generator that I bought several years ago during a power outage from a summer storm. The outage lasted for 5 days and I haven’t needed it since then. We just react to the situation that presents itself.

In December, 2017, my gas furnace began leaking carbon monoxide and had to be replaced. The level of CO “finally” got high enough to set off the smoke/CO detector. I shut the furnace off and I bought electric heaters. I say “finally” because I think we were starting to notice the effects of the CO several weeks before the detector alerted us that there was a problem. I bought a second detector and put it in the furnace room.

[Fred]

A generator that runs on propane to keep our well water pump going and to supply electricity to our underground heat and cooling system as well as to our home. Everything is electric.
Lots of food in the pantry.
More than enough ammo for several generations. Reloading tools.
Seven alert dogs.
Five horses and a buggy.
We live on our easily defended hill on several acres of land that can be used to grow our vegetables.
We’ve our orchard that supplies us with lots of fruit.
Two hummers that can go just about anywhere in bad weather and terrain.
Our own fuel storage.
Lots of Rayo oil lamps and wicks and fuel.

So, we aren’t “bugging out” to anywhere.

Below is a panorama looking to the North...East...South from our house.

89F23CD2-22C3-42A7-972D-B8E3828A33E4.jpg

[S.A. Boggs]

A generator that runs on propane to keep our well water pump going and to supply electricity to our underground heat and cooling system as well as to our home. Everything is electric.
Lots of food in the pantry.
More than enough ammo for several generations. Reloading tools.
Seven alert dogs.
Five horses and a buggy.
We live on our easily defended hill on several acres of land that can be used to grow our vegetables.
We’ve our orchard that supplies us with lots of fruit.
Two hummers that can go just about anywhere in bad weather and terrain.
Our own fuel storage.
Lots of Rayo oil lamps and wicks and fuel.

So, we aren’t “bugging out” to anywhere.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45005[/ATTACH]

Where do you park your M-60?
Sam

[Sunray]

One needs to define 'emergency' more. Having a generator will keep you lit, but not much else. Unless you heat electrically. It doesn't, for example, fix your internet connection if your provider's server room is without power. Happened 10 years or so ago when I was doing tech support. Woman called and asked why her's didn't work. Took a few minutes for her to say, "Oh. I have a generator." "Verizon(or whoever it was' doesn't." says me.
Most other stuff doesn't last long enough to require much of anything anyway.

[m1ashooter]

We live on the Texas Gulf Coast. So I have a gas generator and a bunch of gas cans to provide some power. I have a big old water bladder that I fill up if needed. A bunch of head mounted flash lights and batteries, matches and a very good first aid kit. After the last Ebola scare a few weeks ago I asked myself could we survive if we had to stay in our home for 30 day. So I have a 30 day at least supply of food on hand for my wife and I.

[Vern Humphrey]

My wife and I have been through many power outages here in the Ozarks. I built my house with a finished basement, and a wood burning stove in the basement. Each time we have a significant power outage, we note what we wished we had, and didn't. The longest outage was the Mother of All Ice Storms beginning on Jan 27th in '09. That ended a 12-month periods where we spent a total of 30 days and nights without electricity.

Here is my list, based on plenty of experience:

1. A generator -- currently a 7.5 kw gas generator, but I'm planning on a propane generator next year, with two tanks.
2. A chain saw -- to cut firewood, and to cut downed trees on our 3/4s of a mile access road.
3. A variety of canned goods.
4. Plenty of fuel -- I keep 15 gallons of gas and 5 gallons of diesel in the shed.
5. Guns and ammo -- because, why not?

[Fred]

Where do you park your M-60?
Sam

image.jpg

If The Memsahib would let me, I'd buy one from Surplus.
Here's me with two of my five tank crews back in 1982.

[Former Cav]

Here's me with two of my five tank crews back in 1982.

wow, 1982 and you were still on an M60?
I thought the Abrams came out in 1980 or so.
I was trained on the M60 at Ft. Knox, tested the M551 POS sheridan during the summer of 67 at the armor engineer test board at Ft. Knox. Was on an M48A3 in Nam in 68.

[Fred]

[Art]

wow, 1982 and you were still on an M60?
I thought the Abrams came out in 1980 or so.
I was trained on the M60 at Ft. Knox, tested the M551 POS sheridan during the summer of 67 at the armor engineer test board at Ft. Knox. Was on an M48A3 in Nam in 68.

There were still some M60s in the Marine inventory in Desert Storm but they were kept mostly in reserve.

[Art]

It depends on what you're "prepping for." There are some people for whom prepping for Armageddon and to those folks prepping can be also an end in itself/hobby...nothing wrong with that.

We don't live that far from M1A shooter and our main concern in hurricanes. My area is notorious for flooding but we've never come close to that happening to us.

The longest we were without power was three weeks (Alicia.) During that storm only a very few people had generators and it was truly miserable I must say. Now days as soon as a hurricane passes you can hear generators firing up all over my neighborhood and one of them is ours. We had 20 gallons of fuel for Ike and that only held out for 12 says running old Betsy 6-10 hours a day to keep the fridge and freezer cold. After that I had to drive 70 miles to get more and it was not cheap. We had power back on in 14 days so we now have at least 30 gallons of stabilized fuel on hand in hurricane season for Ms. Generator and about 10 gallons all the time. At the first sign of trouble both cars are fueled up. Generators have to be maintained. Just let them sit without running for extended periods (a year or two) and you may find yourself with a thoroughly useless hunk of metal, but I figure all you guys know that

Our daughter and son in law aren't as prepared as we are. Their house flooded in Harvey but they have lots of friends so were really only badly inconvenienced for about six months or so thanks to friends taking them in (they lived in a garage apartment most of that time.

Now, anticipating the worst, storm wise and the wife, our daughter, our son in law the grandson and me in at the max, and doubling the most time we've had to hunker down....We can live off the food in the freezer for a bit over three weeks due to the generator and ice chests should that run out. We've never had a gas or water outage even in the worst storms so prudence for us equals:

There are canned goods on hand to last at least 10 days to two more weeks.
We have freeze dried food for about two weeks after that.
We always have at least 30 gallons of purified water on hand and containers to add 30 more right before a storm.
I have medication I can not live without and maintain at least a years supply.
We have two USGI first aid kits that should handle any medical problem we don't actually need a trauma center for.
There are kerosene and led lanterns as well as head lamps
We are prepared to "repel boarders" but that has not been remotely an issue in our area so far .

Interestingly the lights went out during Harvey and came on within 10 hours. The reason was the high school behind us was a shelter and so at the top of the list to get power restored and we're on its circuit. Our generator and some of our fans then went to the house of some friends who had flooded to run fans to help dry the framing out after we'd ripped out all the interior walls.

Speaking of generators....want to put a real load on your generator, just turn on your microwave oven, especially when the compressors for the 'fridge and the freezer are running .

I do enjoy prepper sites, they can be a hoot, and sometimes quite educational!

[dryheat]

We don’t really plan ahead for emergencies except for power outages. I do have a 5kw generator that I bought several years ago during a power outage from a summer storm. The outage lasted for 5 days and I haven’t needed it since then. We just react to the situation that presents itself.

In December, 2017, my gas furnace began leaking carbon monoxide and had to be replaced. The level of CO “finally” got high enough to set off the smoke/CO detector. I shut the furnace off and I bought electric heaters. I say “finally” because I think we were starting to notice the effects of the CO several weeks before the detector alerted us that there was a problem. I bought a second detector and put it in the furnace room.

"Everything means something". Most important lesson I've learned. Pay attention to the little things. Numerous people have died from trying to heat an enclosed space. That doesn't mean you can't heat an enclosed space, just be cognizant.

[dryheat]

It depends on what you're "prepping for." There are some people for whom prepping for Armageddon and to those folks prepping can be also an end in itself/hobby...nothing wrong with that.

We don't live that far from M1A shooter and our main concern in hurricanes. My area is notorious for flooding but we've never come close to that happening to us.

The longest we were without power was three weeks (Alicia.) During that storm only a very few people had generators and it was truly miserable I must say. Now days as soon as a hurricane passes you can hear generators firing up all over my neighborhood and one of them is ours. We had 20 gallons of fuel for Ike and that only held out for 12 says running old Betsy 6-10 hours a day to keep the fridge and freezer cold. After that I had to drive 70 miles to get more and it was not cheap. We had power back on in 14 days so we now have at least 30 gallons of stabilized fuel on hand in hurricane season for Ms. Generator and about 10 gallons all the time. At the first sign of trouble both cars are fueled up. Generators have to be maintained. Just let them sit without running for extended periods (a year or two) and you may find yourself with a thoroughly useless hunk of metal, but I figure all you guys know that

Our daughter and son in law aren't as prepared as we are. Their house flooded in Harvey but they have lots of friends so were really only badly inconvenienced for about six months or so thanks to friends taking them in (they lived in a garage apartment most of that time.

Now, anticipating the worst, storm wise and the wife, our daughter, our son in law the grandson and me in at the max, and doubling the most time we've had to hunker down....We can live off the food in the freezer for a bit over three weeks due to the generator and ice chests should that run out. We've never had a gas or water outage even in the worst storms so prudence for us equals:

There are canned goods on hand to last at least 10 days to two more weeks.
We have freeze dried food for about two weeks after that.
We always have at least 30 gallons of purified water on hand and containers to add 30 more right before a storm.
I have medication I can not live without and maintain at least a years supply.
We have two USGI first aid kits that should handle any medical problem we don't actually need a trauma center for.
There are kerosene and led lanterns as well as head lamps
We are prepared to "repel boarders" but that has not been remotely an issue in our area so far .

Interestingly the lights went out during Harvey and came on within 10 hours. The reason was the high school behind us was a shelter and so at the top of the list to get power restored and we're on its circuit. Our generator and some of our fans then went to the house of some friends who had flooded to run fans to help dry the framing out after we'd ripped out all the interior walls.

Speaking of generators....want to put a real load on your generator, just turn on your microwave oven, especially when the compressors for the 'fridge and the freezer are running .

I do enjoy prepper sites, they can be a hoot, and sometimes quite educational!

A thouroly enjoyable and thoughtful post. It's easy to say, I'd move, but it's your home.

[S.A. Boggs]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45007[/ATTACH]

If The Memsahib would let me, I'd buy one from Surplus.
Here's me with two of my five tank crews back in 1982.

ext-01-e1523826438769.jpg
Here is a Leopold I for sale in California for a mere $260,000...no block which is sad!
Sam