Should you Stock Up Before a Storm?
Before every storm, the TV news shows people running to the grocery store to empty the shelves. Should you go, too?
When I was living with my parents right after college, the power went out for three days. The good news is that their house had a fireplace. The bad news: being hoarders, my parents had too much junk around the fireplace to use it. Being a child of hoarders, I was well-conditioned to leave the hoard alone. We shivered.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If your household is well-prepared, you shouldn't need run out and get supplies or suffer in a house that only feels like a meat locker. Since an emergency like a power outage can happen anytime, so it pays to be prepared. Here's what I keep at home:
Depending on where you live, you may need more, or different, supplies. You might need a special communications app, water purification tablets, waders (there were people who died from infections they got from the water during the last set of hurricanes; others were bitten by fire ants in the water) or even a boat. You might need a bugout bag if your area is prone to floods, fires or earthquakes.
The time to round up emergency supplies is not during an emergency. Amazon won't deliver to a house that's under water, and the stores will be out of more than bread and milk. Don't be surprised if they gouge you.
So yes: it's a good idea to run out and buy supplies...well before a storm or other emergency.
*This is another reason not to tear out the kitchen wall. A large open area is harder to heat than a small one. The heater linked to should heat even a large kitchen (which probably has a fan to the outside) as long as it's not part of a big, open area.
When I was living with my parents right after college, the power went out for three days. The good news is that their house had a fireplace. The bad news: being hoarders, my parents had too much junk around the fireplace to use it. Being a child of hoarders, I was well-conditioned to leave the hoard alone. We shivered.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If your household is well-prepared, you shouldn't need run out and get supplies or suffer in a house that only feels like a meat locker. Since an emergency like a power outage can happen anytime, so it pays to be prepared. Here's what I keep at home:
- Meat in the freezer. (Much more filling and nutritious than the bread and milk everyone runs out to buy.) I stack the packages vertically, like books on a shelf, making it easier to get them out.
- Canned goods (and hand-operated can openers).
- A kerosene heater you can operate indoors and cook on. It did a good job heating most of the small house I used to live in when the furnace went out.*
- Kerosene.
- A carbon monoxide detector.
- A lighter.
- A flashlight.
- A crank radio with a phone charger.
- First aid supplies.
- A road atlas of the US and another one for the city where I live.
- If I took medications, I'd have at least a few days' supply.
- I have a basement (good to have here in Tornado Alley).
Depending on where you live, you may need more, or different, supplies. You might need a special communications app, water purification tablets, waders (there were people who died from infections they got from the water during the last set of hurricanes; others were bitten by fire ants in the water) or even a boat. You might need a bugout bag if your area is prone to floods, fires or earthquakes.
The time to round up emergency supplies is not during an emergency. Amazon won't deliver to a house that's under water, and the stores will be out of more than bread and milk. Don't be surprised if they gouge you.
So yes: it's a good idea to run out and buy supplies...well before a storm or other emergency.
*This is another reason not to tear out the kitchen wall. A large open area is harder to heat than a small one. The heater linked to should heat even a large kitchen (which probably has a fan to the outside) as long as it's not part of a big, open area.
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