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A humbling Situation(home survival)

all of my battery flashlights, radios, ham HTs, have options for AA batteries. I have a section of my desk where I keep the battery charger and run them all through a 90 day recharge cycle. easy, sharpie a 1,2,3,4 on them. if they are being cycled out to be used in a device, the drained batteries I pull out of the device go into the charger - then back in their section of the pile. Easy. I just bulk ordered 60 AA batteries a year ago. When I need to, I'll order more.
 
Keep one flashlight in each bathroom. It is the one room most men can find in the dark.
No joke intended. I keep one in the drawer of each bathroom sink cabinet as well as the one in the kitchen, garage etc. Change your batteries with the change of Daylight Savings, the same time you change your Smoke Detector Batteries. Good Luck.
 
I have at least 2 of the countycomm $1 led lights on me at all times. One on my phone case and one on my keyring. Sometimes more since I have the $4 clippy version on my hats and all carrying bags.
 
This is a fantastic post. No matter how much we prepare, there's always something you are unprepared for, a certain amount of futility in our preparations. The saying goes, generals always fight the last war, which is typically how not to fight the current one. Similarly, we're always prepared for what we know, the last emergency. Yet real survival situations occur when faced with what we don't know or anticipate. An emergency you have experienced before and are prepared for isn't as much of an emergency as the one you never imagined could happen.
 
I have two totes in the corner of our basement den. One has paper products - TP, paper towels, feminine articles, shampoo, bar soap, dishwashing liquid, dish & clothes washing detergents, cat food, etc. The other has food - canned, packaged, instant milk, more cat food, etc. I have enough for my wife and I - and our seven indoor cats for two-four weeks. Four 27# pails of cat litter, too. This is designed for delivery problems.

I cycle my food products through the pantry, always having emergency food well in date. It's also handy for donations to folks in real need. Sadly, when a lady presented at our church, where my wife and I are door greeters, I went home and got her my totes of food, etc, asking that she return the totes - which she did. After church, we went to our local grocery store and saw their house branded instant milk I had just given away - and lots of cans - on the customer service counter - guess they needed something else. I'm an easy mark.

I also have a bug-out attache case - the one I carried tests, lab reports, etc, home to grade in a former 'life'. It now has legal papers, insurance papers, car titles, protection, etc, and is under the bed by my head. A proper bug out bag has other items, including a windup radio, Katadyn 'Hiker', bottles, survival kit, white gas hiking stove & gas, First Aid kit, back up OTC meds, etc. My sons - and wife - think I am a nut bag.

When my next retirement check arrives, I'll likely pickup a battery backup/starter kit - they run $40-$70 at WallyWorld and include a 7-14 A-Hr gel cell, AC charger, charge indicator, 12V outlets, and jumper cables. I want it for the 12V outlets - to run my desk top short wave radios. I have a 12V 7 A-Hr battery for that now - and a pair of 1.5 W solar 12V panels ($10 at H-F) to keep it charged. Recharging in our current monsoon season will require the AC battery charger. Still, many of the 'kits' I mention even have a light.

Stainz
 
Another thing to consider is fall back locations. My wife and I have a plan to go to our fall back locations if something happens. Our primary is 20 miles away, at her mom's. If the same issue exists there (i.e. a power outage cause by a winter storm), we head to her brother's 30 miles away, and if we need to go further into the country, we head to my family farm 65 miles away.

Last time the power went out at my place, it was about -15°F, and the temperature was dropping 2° per hour in my house. We stayed the night, the power was only out 6 hours. But if it had been off when I got home from work that afternoon, I would've shut off the water, bundled up the little guys and headed for grandma's.
 
It is a good idea to always have a working mini LED light on or next to your person. I have had the lights go out on me where it was dangerous to move anywhere without being able to see where you were going.
 
I keep AAA battery powered LED flashlights (got them for next to nothing on clearance at Walmart so switched from AA to AAA lights) stashed by each exit, in each bathroom and by each bed and on each level of the house is a rechargeable flashlight that stays plugged into the wall and also serves as a nightlight every day.

I have BOBs in the car, office and for each family member in the house, and ridiculous amounts of camping gear, but I don't want these things broken out for a 5 hour power outage so I have an easily accessible small plastic bin with glow-in-the-dark tape on it that contains: 2 crank powered flashlight/radios (for the kids because they want a light on all the time and kill a ton of batteries), larger crank powered Eton radio, AAA LED flashlight, AAA LED headlamp, spare lithium AAA batteries (for flashlights), spare D batteries (for camping LED lantern), long lighters for all of the glass bottle-type scented candles my wife has all over the house, matches, disposable bowls, utensils and cups, coloring books and card games to keep the kids busy (we only play these games during emergencies so the kids get excited), and a special treat for the kids.

This has gotten me through numerous hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and power outages without having to touch my more serious gear. The kids have some special games and treats, they build forts and light it up with the LED lantern, listen to music/emergency announcements on the radios and have a great time "camping" indoors. These are important lessons to them in preparedness and are great bonding times for us as a family.

Don't forget to fill up the tubs, sinks and containers with water to supplement your family water supply (15-gal. per person minimum), have crescent wrenches or dedicated earthquake wrenches for the water and gas, plenty of food on hand and comfort items for the wife and kids. A generator is nice to have. If you don't have one and a major storm is coming consider buying solid blocks of ice and throwing them in a cooler for now so that you can throw them in the fridge and freezer later to keep food cool if you lose electricity.

Oh and by the way and I'm writing this while waiting out the biggest storm of the year in Northern California with intermittent power outages and trees and tree branches falling all around. I anticipate a call out for the CERT team and I also do emergency prep at the county, city and church levels so I'll get a chance to help others while knowing my family is safe at home. I have the tools and the knowledge so I'm not worried and more importantly neither is my family.

Prepare now or be sorry later.
 
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CKE2 said:
I am embarrassed to say...NONE of my flashlights had any juice left in them but one. My ARC-P that I had just got that day in the mail and happened to be in my pocket was the only working flashlight in the house.
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I have the opposite problem. We are always tripping over the few thousand lights I have sitting around. :o
 
koyote said:
all of my battery flashlights, radios, ham HTs, have options for AA batteries. I have a section of my desk where I keep the battery charger and run them all through a 90 day recharge cycle. easy, sharpie a 1,2,3,4 on them. if they are being cycled out to be used in a device, the drained batteries I pull out of the device go into the charger - then back in their section of the pile. Easy. I just bulk ordered 60 AA batteries a year ago. When I need to, I'll order more.
Click to expand...

You might want to look into LSD (low self discharge) batteries such as Sanyo Eneloops. They still have 85% of their charge after a year and are only slightly more expensive than regular NiMh batteries. Plus, they can provide a relatively high current which gets you quite a few lumens out of AA lights.
 
storl said:
You might want to look into LSD (low self discharge) batteries such as Sanyo Eneloops. They still have 85% of their charge after a year and are only slightly more expensive than regular NiMh batteries. Plus, they can provide a relatively high current which gets you quite a few lumens out of AA lights.
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the're a lot more expensive in quantities- I looked hard at them before making the choice to rotate. Thing is, you have a charger, you have batteries, you store them near the charger, it's less than 20 minutes a month to rotate stuff. and you KNOW no leaks have occured in battery compartments and stuff.


I thought hard about it before going with the 2200mAH NiMHs
 
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