Land of Oz

Katrina

All the news about Katrina has brought something to my mind. How are your disaster plans? It doesn't have to be something as severe as a Category 5 hurricane (BTW, isn't it cool the way everyone picks up these esoteric terms in times of disasters) or an F5 tornado. Do you have plans on what you're going to do if the neighbor decides to trim his tree and drops it on the power tranformer and kills you power for the next 12 hours. Or how about when the Jeff Gordon wannabe next door wraps his 1976 Ford Pinto around the fire hydrant across the street and you have to evacuate for a couple of days?

Last winter, for no specific reason that I'd ever heard, I lost power for about 13 hours. It was snow covered and in the teens outside. Luckily, it was only for about 13 hours and the temperature inside never got much below 50F. I have a gas water heater, so I could take a hot shower and later fired up my little Sterno stove and cooked up some tea and soup. This summer a storm knocked a tree down a couple of housed away and we were without electricity for around 5 hours - luckily it wasn't too hot. We sat on the porch swing until dark and then came in and read by kerosene lamp and listened to my battery powered radio.

I'll admit I'm not all the well prepared for a major multi-day disaster, but I have some stuff ready. I have a kerosene heater and lamp and several gallons of fuel on hand. A couple of cases of bottled water and a few cans of easily prepared food are also sitting around. I have flashlights, battery powered radios and fire extinguishers sitting all over the place along with a bunch of candles and extra blankets. In the winter I toss a bag with extra clothes, blankets, candles, tea and chocolate in the trunk. My cars rarely reach less than half a tank of gas and I have a pocket knife or multi-tool almost constantly at hand. I also have one non-remote phone that I can use when all power is out. Cell phones and portable phones all run out their charge eventually.

How about you? Do you have any disaster supplies laid in? Extra food, water, medicine? Do you have small kids or a baby - how about their needs? If a flood hits, can you feed your kids for a few days? If the power goes out, do you have a flashlight to find the candles you probably don't have? It doesn't take much. If you're on a budget, t dozen bottles of water can be had for $3-4. You can pickup a few cans of pork and beans for about the same price. Go to the dollar store and grab a few candles and lighters and keep them in a kitchen cabinet. Of course, you can go all out and pickup a generator to keep your house going for a week and lay in a couple hundred pounds of the latest freeze-dried food and install a hundred gallon tank for extra fuel or potable water. It's up to you.