Two weeks ago
tornadoes touched down in the Ottawa area. A total of six touched down in the
region. We were lucky in that the only thing was we lost hydro for
over fifty-five hours, but, others were not as lucky and lost everything. We did lose the contents of the fridge and
freezer as we couldn’t eat all we had fast enough, but, that is the
only thing we lost.
Governments are
asking us to be prepared for seventy-two hours and for the most part
we were prepared for that other than fresh water. I have to find the
other refillable jugs and have them in a spot that is easier for me
to find. I always keep containers in the basement ready for using to
flush the toilet, but, drinking water (which we didn’t need this
time) was not ready.
What we had and
worked:
Batteries – two
dozen AA rechargeable and eight triple A rechargeable. We also had
twelve disposable AA and the same number of AAA. The number was OK,
but, I am in the process of adding more AAA batteries that are
rechargeable. I am also looking at a solar charging system so that
during the day I can recharge a few of the batteries. I am also
looking at rechargeable D batteries as one of the LED lamps uses
those and I had no rechargeables for that.
Radios – I have
several battery (and solar) radios so we were good there. The solar
ones are overdue to be replaced as the batteries are built-in and
cannot be replaced.
Lights – We have a
lot of battery powered lamps and the house has five lamps that are on
a remote control or sensors that turn on with movement so we could
light the way to the bathroom or bedroom and not run down the
batteries. We also have a lot of solar lamps in the back yard that I
turned off so that we could use them when needed, again, saving our
batteries.
BBQ – We have a
propane BBQ and were able to cook meals and prepare hot coffee. I
had always kept a spare tank so when one ran out I could replace it
and continue on. With the hydro outage it showed me that it worked,
but, if we had an extended outage that measured in the days it may
not be enough. I bought a third tank so that we should be able to
handle a seven day outage and still have hot food three meals a day
if needed.
Perishables - We always have enough canned and dried goods to last a minimum of one week. We also have two manual can openers and several can punches.
Electronics – The
first thing we did was to turn off EVERY tablet, laptop and phone to
preserve power. I did that so I would have a large reserve of
power to charge the cell phone for at least a week. I also turned
off the power bars so that if there was a surge when hydro came back
there would be a good chance the bars would also survive. When the
hydro came back on we waited thirty minutes and slowly started
turning on the power bars. TV was the first thing to go back on so
we could get updates. Next up were the power bars for the phone,
laptop and battery charges to get them topped up in case the power
went out again.
Phone – This is
the weak spot for all too many people. While I had an old school
copper line phone too many people do not have that. The first thing
we did when we lost power and knew it was a tornado I called a family
member outside the area and let her know we were OK and to put up a
note on social media that all was well for us, but, we didn’t have
network. Others were not so lucky as the towers here were running
for a while, but, on reduced power. They also were slowly dying as I
suspect the batteries for those were not enough to run for days.
Medicines – We did
good there. I always keeps our medicines in a box and that is always
ready to pack up if we need to leave. All of our prescriptions are
in electronic and hardcopy format so we know what we have.
Heat – We caught a
break here that it was warm.
Auto - We normally keep the gas tank in the vehicle filled and try not to let it go below three quarter of a tank.
Things that needs to
be improved.
Phones – This
showed everyone that the cellular system is dependant on power and
for extended power outages it will slowly die out and no one can be
contacted. The CRTC needs to look at this and mandate an absolute
minimum that ALL providers must have. The general public is asked to
be prepared for seventy-two hours and that should be a minimum that
telcos should live up to also. It may not be feasible for every
tower to have that (to start with), but, review their tower coverage
and then ensure that critical towers that can serve most of the area
has enough backup power to operate. People also need to look hard at
the fact that if they don’t have a copper wire telephone then they
are dependant on their cell phones for long term outages and those
phones may not be able to connect to the towers.
Perishables – We
had enough canned and dried goods to last over a week, but, drinking
water was not enough if we lost
water. Time to find all of the small collapsible jugs and have them
in an emergency.
Communications –
With three radios we were able to have different channels for news
updates. The problem is that most of the radio stations in the area
were running normal operations and there was almost no information on
what happened and what to do. Family outside the region had better
information on what happened. It may be an inconvenience, but, the
stations licenses need to be modified so that in the event of an
emergency they should have broadcast regular updates so that the
public affected is aware of what happened and what we need to do.
Heat – It was the
summer so we didn’t need wood for the fireplace. We will need to
buy wood so that we can have the fireplace with a small fire to keep
the place warm.
