I ce storm power outage, what do you do?

psy-ops

psy-ops

Joined
Sep 27, 1999
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What would you do if the propane, gas and electric went out in your area for 2 weeks? (You do not have a wood burning stove and it is too icy to evacuate)

Would you build a temporary shelter outside and burn firewood there or huddle in your house?
 
have u been watching "the day after tommorow"?? :D

is the situation based on the assumption that we had enough food and water to survive the situation right? just not propane gas and electricity?
 
Move into the fifth wheel for a few weeks.:D

All kidding aside. I think I would try to make it work in the house.

Paul
 
Well it depends how long I would be stuck in this situation. I have a small camping stove that I use when I go car camping that I can use in the house if needed. I have a small stock pile of propane cylinders that would last me a week if needed. I would try to heat at least one room in the house to stay in and sleep. We have tons of blankets and plenty of winter clothes. I also have a stock pile of food, since I buy in bulk. Not to mention I have some MRE's laying around too. I'm sure I could last maybe a month or more in my house if the situation permitted.
Man this amkes me want to go out and buy a small generator. Of course, you have to now stock up on fuel for it too, which I will not keep in the house.
 
I would make one room the main stay and hunker down there and wait it out....coleman stove(propane) heats food pretty decent and with proper ventilation would knock the chill off the room as well...
 
Although the survival discussion around here is often centered on the wilderness, the fact is we are all more likley to be caught at home in such a situation and have to figure out how to survive.

I think we all should be prepared fro that kind of thing. Bottled water, non-pershible food, A GENERATOR!!!!! and a electric heatear and a small window air conditioner to plug into it. Believe me it will be the best money you ever spent when it comes tome to use it.

I lived through 3 major hurricanes on the SE coast of Florida and the biggest problem by far was not havivg electricity for 2 weeks.

GET A GENERATOR!!!!!!!
 
This happened to me a few years ago... The snow kept my meat fresh while the kerosene heater i had on hand kept me warm for the 15 days i was without power. You can cook on them too!
 
Definitely stay in the house. The problem with this scenario is that people who live in regions where this is likely to happen already do have the backups. We went 8 days without power in the Ice Storm of 98, we just hunkered down and played cards. The roads were too icy to drive. Being in the country, we had a propane tank to run the oven and stove. We were lucky at that time we had a gravity-feed water supply and coupled with a propane hot water heater, we had hot and cold running water.

But the people who fell into the category you describe ended up in shelters at the church, school or firestation, if they could get there...warmth, hot meals, small rural communities.

Edit: During this event in 98, there was a huge run on generators at the big box stores by those who could get there. Dealers were trucking them up from down south and selling them off the truck. Some people installed them incorrectly and some people died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Most of us did not have generators back then because we just didn't anticipate that kind of an ice storm. Never happened before. Now, almost every home up here has a generator.

Otherwise, given your scenario, I would stay in the house.
 
Well, since I heat the whole house exclusivly with wood (have been doing this for about 4 years), and I have enough split wood stocked to last me at least 4 winters I wouldn't worry that much. I can get water out of my well without electricity too if I have to.
 
jca21 said:
have u been watching "the day after tommorow"?? :D

is the situation based on the assumption that we had enough food and water to survive the situation right? just not propane gas and electricity?
Click to expand...

Actually, I haven't seen that movie. Last night our heating system went out. We hunkered down with a ton of blankets. It wasn't too bad. I always thought it was a bad idea to use a camp stove in the house, FUMES.

Thanks
 
When I lived in NE, I alway kept a couple 5 gallon gas cans in the garage during the winter. Maybe not the safest thing, but the garage wasn't attached to the house. Also in the garage was my Honda EU3000IS.

When winter was over, I put the gas in my truck.

Chad
 
psy-ops said:
What would you do if the propane, gas and electric went out in your area for 2 weeks? (You do not have a wood burning stove and it is too icy to evacuate)

Would you build a temporary shelter outside and burn firewood there or huddle in your house?
Click to expand...


Stay in the house, it has far better insulation. If you have a sleeping bag or thick quilt, and warm clothes, you'll be just fine, even in subzero termperatures outside.

Generators are a great idea, but if the power is out for 2 weeks, you're probably going to run out of fuel long before that. Better to use it intermittently to keep your refrigerator and deep freezer going rather than trying to power your whole house.

A kerosene pressure stove and kerosene heater is also a good idea.

I do have a question about natural gas though, since that is what my house runs on - how frequently does natural gas go out? In the 5+ years I've lived here, I've had my power go out many times - usually for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, a couple times for a whole day, but I have never had my natural gas go out.
 
Been there. Your restrictions aside, I burned wood in the fireplace, closed off that space, and stayed and slept in there with my family and pets. That was when I learned to have a spare tank of propane around. I cooked on my grill until I ran out of propane. Luckily, the power came back on just as we were really running out. Since then I've kept extra tanks of propane around for cooking.

As for wood, we quickly ran out. I kept us in the warmth by burning pallets, etc.
 
psy-ops said:
What would you do if the propane, gas and electric went out in your area for 2 weeks? (You do not have a wood burning stove and it is too icy to evacuate)

Would you build a temporary shelter outside and burn firewood there or huddle in your house?
Click to expand...

Stay in your house. Ice storms cause trees to collapse regularly. Thats dangerous.
 
Rich, being that natural gas pipes are underground, it normally takes more of an upset to knock them out. That having been said, I imagine if they did get knocked out, it would take more work to get them up and running again. I would think that unless a large pipe got whacked, any line break would be fairly isolated (i.e. one town, not a whole region). Of course, any major break would mean immediate emergency work on the part of the pipeline company to repair it... .and they're pretty quick at that.
 
Rich_S said:
Stay in the house, it has far better insulation. If you have a sleeping bag or thick quilt, and warm clothes, you'll be just fine, even in subzero termperatures outside.

Generators are a great idea, but if the power is out for 2 weeks, you're probably going to run out of fuel long before that. Better to use it intermittently to keep your refrigerator and deep freezer going rather than trying to power your whole house.

A kerosene pressure stove and kerosene heater is also a good idea.
Click to expand...


Right, the house is better insulated and it protects you against falling trees and limbs. During the storm, we could go out on the porch and hear trees and limbs cracking and falling like rifle shots.

For frozen food, you could repack it into plastic containers and put it outside where it should be cold enough. If it really starts to thaw, cook it all up and have a feast :D When the power comes back on you can re-freeze the cooked food.

We also used a Kero-San space heater, I hated it because of the fumes. Since then I've installed an old fashioned flat top box wood stove that we could cook on if we run out of gas. Also bought a Big Buddy propane space heater with extra 20# tanks.

The generator is something to run intermittently to save fuel. It can energize the oil furnace for awhile to heat up the house, run water, watch the news, etc.

We also burned a lot of candles, but they don't really illuminate a room, they give you pools of light to navigate by and to read by up close.
 
I looked up generators and they are not cheap. Way out of my price range.

I do have camping stoves gear.

When I lived in Taos NM one winter was in the zero range. I was young and got kicked out of my rental house. I lived on the construction site I was working at. One of the other guys and vietnam vet got kicked out of his girlfriend's house and also lived on the site for a month. He would kick on the propane BTU heater used for heating sites.
 
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