Who stocks up for storms?

[twentynine]

Virtual Hurricane alley here.

Stock up on canned food, batteries, propane, and fuel for generator.

Paid off three times in the last five years. Out of pier for 7 days with Katrina, 4 days for Rita, and 5 days for Gustavo, overnight for Ike.

 

[sourland]

I maintain a minimum 1 month supply of non perishable items. No need to stock up for a storm. I was a boyscout. The Princess still calls me that upon occassion.

 

[Stacykins]

I always find it silly that people have to 'stock up' for storms. What if there is an unexpected disaster? Will you have nothing?

We have a supply of basic nonperishables that I like to call our WWIII supplies. We do rotate them, but there is never less than we started. Essentials, like toilet paper, non perishable foods (canned, dried, peanut butter, etc. stuff we'll eat), OTC medicines, WATER (55 gallon barrel of water), and other things. If we take something from the supplies, it is replaced the next shopping trip. We do try and use things to keep them fresh, even if they are non perishables. But our WWIII supplies =/= a pantry. We also have ample coal and wood for our furnace, which in the event of a power outage, still heats the house through simple convection. Where I live, an ice storm can knock out power for days. We have a generator and fuel on hand, but would rather not run it constantly if not needed.

When we lived in Japan, the typhoon and earthquake central, we had at least a week's supply of food, water, and essentials on hand (we were required to have at least 72 hours on hand, but we were overachievers). Space was limited in military housing, but hey, we needed to depend on ourselves as opposed to mobbing the commissary a day before a storm strikes. And for the unexpected disasters, it means you have supplies on hand. We never really needed it all, but better safe than sorry. A few super typhoons made their passes, but they weren't disastrous because of construction meant to handle powerful tropical cyclones.

 

[EweSheep]

We are CW reenactors and we can rough it out for a weekend and more for basic necessities. We have most of the camping supplies, canned goods, stove fuel and water storage tanks and coolers, bed stuff, we can camp out or in for the most majority. In the winter, we are not prepared since we only have two propane heaters so we can shut off rooms we don't use however a real dilema would be the water lines. If it is going to freeze with no heat (have gas but need electric to use blower), I am not sure if it is a good idea to drain the water lines ahead of time. We sure can get hot water from our gas heater, so no problem LOL unless it is freezing down there. The furnace and water heater is in the same place for our water lines except for the kitchen. If we block it off, it stays above freezing temps with the furnance running. Too bad our house does not have a fireplace, it would have been very useful in cooking and keeping warm.

In the summer, not a problem. We got checkers, dominoes, game boards of all sorts and plenty of books to read. We have flashlights and candle laterns to read or see our way around.

Hope everyone weathered Irene quite well and this morning it was downgraded as tropical storm.

 

[goobhen]

We have oil lamps, flash lights, powdered milk, bread, eggs (of course). We are thinking about getting a generator, we were without power for eight hours in zero weather. It only got down to 55 to 60 degrees at night time, covers kept us warm.... We would need one if it power was out for more than 12 hours. Here if the weatherman says 4 inches of snow, everyone buys all the bread, eggs & milk....

 

[maclady]

We generally don't stock up. We did go and get a generator though after tornados went through and we were without power for the freezer & refrig for over a day. It is to only run those two items though. I have battery lanterns & candles for light. Keep bottle water on hand along with canned goods & pet foods. We own a chainsaw, hand saws and both of us can pretty much do a variety of things to take care of our family in a pinch. I do think I may go renew my first aid cert & cpr cert with red cross though. Never hurts to be prepared.

 

[Kudzu]

We always have a stocked freezer (love to garden and visit the local Farmers Market), plenty of venison and a pantry full of canned goods and plenty of bottled water. We also have plenty of fresh eggs. We have two generators and plenty of fuel on hand. We cook with propane, so basically, nothing really changes at our house, just a little inconvenience is all.

 

[geoff40]

I maintain a certain amount of provisions at all times. Food, water and water purification, fire making, Coleman stove with several gallons of white gas, several lights, oil lamps, and lanterns, basic medicines, and chocolate.

 

[Two Creeks Farm]

Quote:
Ditto. We try and always stay stocked up, it allows us a small bit of securty and allows us to buy on sale for most items as we are never "in need" or "need to buy"

We have used the snow and or just put outside in winter storms where we have lost power for over 2 weeks...summer time was harder, lots of dry ice and coolers to save the freezer contents.

I have over 75 chcikens & turkeys and there are always 15 to 25 cows across the street....we wont go hungry LOL!

 

[BarefootMom]

We don't do a lot, if it is in the winter we will stock up on kerosene, candles, gas- in the tractors and cars, matches, de-icer, fill the woodbox etc. BUT I am usually ALWAYS stocked up. Realistically we could eat for at least 6 months now without going to the store. We burn wood to heat our house in a big cast iron stove that I can cook on. We have a natural spring fed well in our front yard with well bucket that we can get water out of to use. The main thing is making sure we have plenty of hay and food for the animals. I can a lot of ready-made soups and beans that you could eat straight out of the jar. Back in 2007 we had a really bad ice storm and were without power for 17 days. We made it work and I never complained because I know many other people had it worse. I try to have laundry done up and plenty of blankets ready.

In the summer we haven't really had any storms that caused major damages- had a tornado in 2009 but all it took out were a few trees and the haybarn. Which was a big loss, but we weren't hurt and we had ZERO warning.