Sunday, July 03, 2016

I wonder how many were not prepared for that power outage

On Canada day we had an interesting severe storm roll through the Ottawa area.  Where I live we lost power at the start of the storm.  Not a problem here as we have prepared for that ahead of time and the house was lit with solar lamps.  When I looked out and around the neighborhood I saw that only a few places were dimly lit and the majority of houses and apartments were black.  The power did come back on, but, we were without power for over six hours.  I will admit we may not be totally prepared, but, we have enough to easily get through almost a week with no power.
  • Radios:  We have a battery powered radio and two solar/windup radios.
  • Batteries: With all of our various devices I have over the last several years invested in almost 36 rechargeable batteries.  I keep them charged and an excess of 12 are ready to replace those devices that need them.
  • Lights:  Two windup flashlights and almost three dozen solar lamps in our backyard can be re-purposed to lighting the house.  We also have several dollar store puck lights and several small flashlights.  I check the lights on a regular basis and when they get low I swap out the batteries for freshly charged ones.
  • Food:  We normally keep the pantry filled with canned and dry goods that need little cooking.  We also have to manual can openers so no problems opening the canned good.  We use them everyday and get continuously replaced so the stock isn't that old.  There is enough to allow us to go over a few weeks without a problem.
  • Water:  I don't keep a stock of water, but, I keep a five gallon and two one gallon collapsible jugs on hand that can be filled.  I also keep old plastic detergent jugs and an old five gallon container in the basement we would fill for water to be used in the toilet.  Several years ago we had to use this when we had a water main break.  Once they were filled we can go several days without worrying about water.
  • Cooking:  In our backyard we have a BBQ.  We do a lot of grilling year round so I bought a second tank that I securely store away from the BBQ.  With the two tanks we can go well over a week cooking two meals a day without a problem.
  • Medicines:  I keep all of our medicines in a plastic container.  It makes it easy for me to keep organized and they are all in one location.  A hard copy of the medicines, when to take them are in the box.  An electronic copy of the medications and doctor list is kept on multiple electronic devices.
  • Papers:  I have a fire resistant safe with all of the important documents in one secure location.
When the power went out I
  • Turned off all of the power bars to our electronic devices.
  • Shut down all the laptop computers, tablet and cell phones (except one cell phone).
  • All lights switches to off.
  • Left the fridge and freezer alone to keep them as cold as possible.
If you want to know more the Government of Canada has a good site for emergency preparedness.  We may not be totally prepared in an emergency, but, we have the basics to last at least a week.