Without power for a week...

M

MG_Saldivar

Joined
Feb 5, 2005
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As many of you have mentioned in past posts, lots of us who frequent these forums are often mocked by family and friends who think survival preparedness is a sign of mental illness.

I wonder if the folks in Buffalo who have been without power for a week feel like preparing for a long 'disaster,' or a at least a serious departure from normalcy, feel that way.

I'm holding this Buffalo thing over all the people I know who pooh-pooh preparation... Thank God it seems infinitely less severe than Katrina, though...
 
MG_Saldivar said:
I wonder if the folks in Buffalo who have been without power for a week feel like preparing for a long 'disaster,' or a at least a serious departure from normalcy, feel that way...
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My prediction: those people who prepared before will be reinforced to prepare again. After all, severe weather is Buffalo's chief import. Those people do it better than anybody!

And those who didn't prepare before will see no need to do so now. After all, grocery stores stock water and food, and many are on generator. We had a prolonged power outage a couple of weeks ago, and the availability of food and water made it a mere annoyance over losing lunchmeat and milk in the refrigerator. My neighbors learned nothing.

What I learned: if you have small kids in the house, you apparently have no D-batteries anywhere. Even the emergency pack in storage.
 
Power out? Then it's Honda time! Sit back and watch the movie, add another stick of wood to the fire, and pour a decent glass of good scotch.

Check out the Honda EZ-2500 its very reliable good for at the camp, home or wherever.
 
Folks who have lived through the winter of 1976 in Buffalo are well familiar with Old Man Winter's power. People were stuck in their homes, with snowdrifts often going up to the second floor of most houses.

Transportation meant using snowmobiles, cross country skis or showshoes.

I think the only surprise this time was a major snowfall came so early in the season. Is this the start of the Day After Tomorrow?
 
I live in the Buffalo area and the damage is pretty amazing as you drive around. Blocks of trees are just destroyed in some areas from the weight of snow, and others areas nearby are untouched. Such is the weirdness of lake effect storms.

Luckily I lost power for only a few hours on Saturday. I'll tell you, what was more concerning for me was the announcement that the water was to be turned off in some areas for an unknown length of time, and those areas where it remained on were told it must be boiled before use until further notice (this is still in affect at the time of this post). Who ever expects the water will get turned off? I had some water on hand but it became obvious immediately it was nowhere near enough. Electric stove + no electricity + water advisory + 2 small children = big problem.

I lucked out this time and can say a major re-think is underway to be better prepared in the future. For starters, a generator running on natural/LP gas and at least 30-40 gallons of safe water storage.

m_calingo: I remember that storm, it was in a class by itself. I've found that when I tell people about it who weren't around then what it was like they often don't believe me.
 
Blue Sky said:
...what was more concerning for me was the announcement that the water was to be turned off in some areas for an unknown length of time, and those areas where it remained on were told it must be boiled before use until further notice (this is still in affect at the time of this post).
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Yikes. Sounds like a water main froze and broke, allowing ground contamination in.
 
Blue Sky said:
Who ever expects the water will get turned off?
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All of California expects the water to go away at any moment. Or, at least those people who are paying attention do.

In CA, which is mostly one big desert, 2 gallons of water per person per day is a good idea (Red Cross says at least 1 gallon per person per day, minimum). How many days you should plan on being without water is driven by debate and paranoia levels, but estimates range from between 2 to 6 weeks.

In CA, the water can get turned off for many reasons, but earthquakes are the main thing people think about. Where I live, we'll also lose water if the levees in the central valley ever fail and flood the aquaducts that bring us fresh water from the Sierra. Most of the southwest has similar concerns, or should, given that people usually get their water from long distances away.

If I was living back east where water is plentiful (especially in the winter with all the snow on the ground(1)) I wouldn't feel the need to keep that much water on hand. Most people have a hot water heater that holds something like 30 - 50 gallons. Figure out how to tap that for water and you'll generally be good.

(1) Of course, you'll need fuel to melt the snow and boil the water!
 
Watchful: the official word was that a main pumping station had lost all power, but they didn't explain how exactly that would contaminate the supply line. Loss of pressure leading to groundwater intrusion? I don't know, it seems to me there must be more to the story.
 
bulgron said:
All of California expects the water to go away at any moment. Or, at least those people who are paying attention do.

In CA, which is mostly one big desert, 2 gallons of water per person per day is a good idea (Red Cross says at least 1 gallon per person per day, minimum). How many days you should plan on being without water is driven by debate and paranoia levels, but estimates range from between 2 to 6 weeks.

In CA, the water can get turned off for many reasons, but earthquakes are the main thing people think about. Where I live, we'll also lose water if the levees in the central valley ever fail and flood the aquaducts that bring us fresh water from the Sierra. Most of the southwest has similar concerns, or should, given that people usually get their water from long distances away.

If I was living back east where water is plentiful (especially in the winter with all the snow on the ground(1)) I wouldn't feel the need to keep that much water on hand. Most people have a hot water heater that holds something like 30 - 50 gallons. Figure out how to tap that for water and you'll generally be good.

(1) Of course, you'll need fuel to melt the snow and boil the water!
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A supply for 2-6 weeks?? That's would take something like a small swimming pool. I guess living in the east made me a bit oblivious to your situation, but I can see now how it's not so unusual for you. I must say, the threat of losing the water supply, even though it didn't fully happen, has shaken me a little bit. In my single days, I'm joining the other guys with a scotch at the fire, but with a family of little ones it's a whole different ball game.

MG_Saldivar: thanks for the good wishes, were doing fine now.:) Compared to some, better than fine.
 
Blue Sky said:
I must say, the threat of losing the water supply, even though it didn't fully happen, has shaken me a little bit. In my single days, I'm joining the other guys with a scotch at the fire, but with a family of little ones it's a whole different ball game.
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Well said, on both counts. Funny how spoiled I am about fresh water and food! And I barely thought about preparing a grocery list, much less 2 weeks' food and water, before I had a woman and kids who depend on me... gotta tell ya though, I'm still gonna be at that fire with a drink as soon as the kids are fed and in a warm bed.

On a lighter note, as soon as I perfect my plan to package and market dehydrated water (for ease of storage, of course), I'll be a wealthy, wealthy man!
 
When the water pump station goes down, the pressure goes down. No pressure and the lines begin siphoning. Fresh water fill lines to pools, garden hoses left on, dishwashers, fire hydrants, broken pipes. Contamination.

We had this in hurricane Andrew, Opal, and Erin. When you get a warning they will turn the water off, fill your bathtub and sinks then turn your own meter off. Got meter wrench? There is a drain faucet on most tank type hot water heaters you can used to get drinkable water. During the first part of a water outage, you can still obtain some water from your outside faucets which are lower than your home's interior plumbing. You can boil the tub water to drink if need be, or use it to flush the toilet. A working toilet is a good thing to have. You have to let it get nasty in between flushes though. A tub of water will not last a week for a family if you flush after every tinkle and poopoo.

Bottled water comes six gallons to a case. It isn't hard to fit eight cases under a bed. That, friends, is nearly fifty gallons.

We loose power here on the farm for at least a few days every winter. I grew up with this as a fact of life, so preparation is a no-brainer here. The trick is to buy your supplies a wee bit at a time during the year, not with storm clouds gathering over your head. My friends in NY reported that their Wal-Mart had large generators running so they could still buy food. But they had not a single D-cell in the place, nor propane or Coleman fuel. During the hurricanes I mentioned, huge dumpsters were delivered to our Wal-Mart and other grocers, and all refridgerated and frozen foods went to the landfill.

Codger
 
D cells ? D CELLS? When we had a five day outage here (over two weeks in some places) a local hardware store was selling some type of super dooper kodak camera batteries for about five bucks a pop . It was all he could get and people were buying them . They didn,t even have that much of a charge in them .

Thats when the coleman stove and lanterns come in handy .

Codger ? Do you think stagnation in the main water supply pipes could lead to contamination as well? I know it is treated . Sitting around in a pipe for a week with little circulation can,t do it any good .

What about aquarium water ? As long as it wasn,t treated with chemicals and had a good filtration/waste management system . Would that be safe to drink ?
 
I keep fuel for my Coleman stove as well as extra propane for the outdoor grill. These would be used outdoors for food preparation or boiling water.

I usually have about a month's supply of food in the house excluding bread and milk. If the electricity goes off for very long, the freezer is a big problem as the frozen stuff begins to thaw out.

I currently have a small generator 2600 watt that I use for little work jobs. I want to get something in the 5500 or 6500 range and Honda's rule! Don't forget gasoline for the generator.

Heat; we would probably sleep in the family room where there is a natural gas fireplace. This is not affected by electricity outages and sure beats freezing to death in the winter. Another useful item is to have one of those propane wall units for auxillary heat. You don't have to use it and with a big tank, it lasts quite a while (weeks).

Water: I do what the others have suggested as far as filling the tubs. One tub gets used for toilets. I also routinely buy bottled water, but not nearly enough for the long haul. Anyone know how long water stays pure in those gallon jugs that you buy from the store?

Batteries: I keep a good supply of appropriate sized batteries for flashlights and radios. The shelf life on batteries are so long now that there is little reason not to routinely keep a reasonable supply. Also keep candles.
 
Blue Sky said:
A supply for 2-6 weeks?? That's would take something like a small swimming pool.
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Not really. Let's say you have a family of 4 and you want to get generous on water so you go for 2 gallons per person per day. A two week supply is 112 gallons. Since we have a 50 gallon hot water heater, that means I only need to store another 62 gallons somewhere. This I have split up between bottled water that my wife likes to buy at CostCo and some 5 gallon water jugs that I've stored outside our house. The only thing I have to stay on top of is the water jugs, which I try to rotate every 3 months (even though I treat it with bleach).

Compare this to a couple that I know who live down in the LA area. They lived through the North Ridge earthquake and where they are (fairly isolated up a canyon) they were without water for 5 weeks. As a result, they put a 500 gallon water tank on their house and tied it into their plumbing system just so they never have to go through that again.

Blue Sky said:
I guess living in the east made me a bit oblivious to your situation, but I can see now how it's not so unusual for you. I must say, the threat of losing the water supply, even though it didn't fully happen, has shaken me a little bit. In my single days, I'm joining the other guys with a scotch at the fire, but with a family of little ones it's a whole different ball game.
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Yes, it was the introduction of children to my life that got me to start thinking about this stuff.
 
Twice we have been without power for 2 weeks.

Once was easy because it was winter and all the food we just put outside.

The hardest part was walking thru 2' snow thru our hayfield to our other well with a hand pump on it so we could haul 15 gallons of water to the barn for the goats.

We have gas lighting we can use as well as kerosene and candles and we have a gas well on our property so we had heat. If for some reason we lost our gas we also have a kerosene heater and another cabin on our place(near the well with the hand pump) that has a wood stove.

The second time was warm weather. It was harder. I hauled our frozen meat to a fellow with a big cooler about 5 miles away whose power was on. Then I moved all the stuff in the electric refrigerator in the house to the 2 natural gas refrigerators in my building. That worked.

The hauling water was easier without the snow, but I do need a hand pump on my hand dug well which would make it much easier because it's right behind my kitchen door.
 
We have gas lighting we can use as well as kerosene and candles and we have a gas well on our property so we had heat.

The hauling water was easier without the snow, but I do need a hand pump on my hand dug well which would make it much easier because it's right behind my kitchen door.
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You have a gas well on your property ? Is this owned by you ? How do you access the gas? Forgive the ignorance . I thought gas wells would be maintained by a company leasing the property .
 
Sometimes if the gas is not sour, the company that has the well provides free gas to the house as part of the "royalty". It can be dangerous if there is no odor. Just a thought, but I don't know what your situation is.
 
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