Disaster preparedness kit

[Smallsteps]

I guess it is all what people see as a disaster.
i have experienced at least a few times of losing electricity for most of a week or more. We were fine because we were resourceful and semi prepared, we had candles and camp stove as well as food and water.
The crazy part is people stop thinking that if there is no power in the area, neighborhood stores/ restaurants do not have it either. As I drove by i could watch as people one after another kept tugging on locked doors even with NOTE on door saying "closed no power". The disconnect is fun to watch. People who said things that it was all i could do not to laugh out loud.

Many around us in a large metro area lose their minds and act like they barely survived. Same thing happens when we get a wisp of snow they act like the world is ending, terrified they could not get to a store. I honestly think the biggest problem if a major event is those around us.
It will be a zombie apocalypse with those who are not prepared wanting those of us whom are to take care of them too if a major item happens.

As James map shows there always could be chances of an major event but how much time or resources are put into a what if. So the map shows a huge area if only a section has an event who knows where it might be.
Every time my area gets even a small seismic blip the sky is falling people keep in a state of drama for a week.

[kork13]

A while back I had a job doing risk assessment for the Coast Guard, and most of the subject matter experts I spoke about the chances of a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest look the risk very seriously. In a worst case scenario all the infrastructure from the Oregon Coast to Interstate 5 would be completely wiped out, resting in a 50% loss of economic output for up to a decade. The probability of it happening in any given year is pretty low (I think it was 1 in 600), but its enough to make one want to have a plan.

As much as I am absolutely one to plan for the worst & be ready for it.... I'm forced to take such "worst case scenarios" with a heavy grain of salt. Here in Alaska, we had a 7.0 earthquake last year, a roughly 1-in-100 year event. But in spite of the power and destructiveness of that earthquake, the impact was honestly quite low. The airport & seaport were back up and running within an hour, power & other utilities were either uninterrupted or back up within a few hours, most buildings and homes were inspected for safety/damage within a week, and even the extensive damage to certain roads & buildings were mostly repaired within a month or so (to the extent that some of them could be repaired). Perhaps it's simply because of the "frontier" mindset of Alaskans, but it really didn't phase the city very much at all, and any "economic impact" was basically negated within weeks. The biggest thing that helped us was the fact that as a result of the 1964 earthquake (9.2, I think? It was the second strongest in the global historical record), building codes were dramatically strengthened, as well as city planners establishing areas of "where NOT to build."

I guess my point is that risk assessments and scenarios can probably estimate extents of damage decently, but recovery depends on the people. How prepared are you, how quickly and cohesively do you react to the emergency, and so on. If people freak out, yeah...it's gonna suck. But if the collective populace makes a gut-check and gets to work, alot can happen in a crisis. I saw the same dynamic growing up in Guam, where we experienced typhoons 10+ times every year. It's about the people.

[bjl584]

Last winter we had a wind storm. Where I was the power stayed on, but a few miles away people lost power for 4 days. Some of my friends had to go live with relatives and friends due to no heat in their house.
I decided to never let that happen to me.
Definitely getting a generator before the snow starts falling.
At least I'll be able to heat the house, have a few lights on, and keep the fridge going should something happen.

[disneysteve]

i have experienced at least a few times of losing electricity for most of a week or more. We were fine because we were resourceful and semi prepared, we had candles and camp stove as well as food and water.
The crazy part is people stop thinking that if there is no power in the area, neighborhood stores/ restaurants do not have it either.

I guess we're just fortunate to live in an area where this kind of thing doesn't happen. One neighborhood might be without power but never the whole town. Heck, on our block, the power lines supplying our house run from the corner to the house past us. Two houses down starts a different line. So we can be without power and 2 houses away they'll be just fine, or vice versa.

With Hurricane Sandy, we did have friends in town who were without power for a week. Ours never even went out. But if we were ever out for any extended time (more than a few hours), we wouldn't hunker down in the basement with candles and a camp stove. We'd go somewhere that had power. Isn't that one of the kinds of things that your emergency fund is for? I don't hesitate to call a local hotel, check that they have power, and book a room. We've done it several times over the years. Sometimes it was just for a night; other times it ended up being for 3 or 4 days.

[riverwed070707]

I guess we're just fortunate to live in an area where this kind of thing doesn't happen. One neighborhood might be without power but never the whole town. Heck, on our block, the power lines supplying our house run from the corner to the house past us. Two houses down starts a different line. So we can be without power and 2 houses away they'll be just fine, or vice versa.

With Hurricane Sandy, we did have friends in town who were without power for a week. Ours never even went out. But if we were ever out for any extended time (more than a few hours), we wouldn't hunker down in the basement with candles and a camp stove. We'd go somewhere that had power. Isn't that one of the kinds of things that your emergency fund is for? I don't hesitate to call a local hotel, check that they have power, and book a room. We've done it several times over the years. Sometimes it was just for a night; other times it ended up being for 3 or 4 days.

I think its situational. Sounds like it doesn't really happen in your area but if there are widespread outages, everyone can't go to a hotel - there simply aren't enough hotels, and further. Hotels in my city sell out when there's a high school wrestling tournament in town... can't imagine how far I'd have to drive (presumably in a storm) if 1/4 of the locals needed shelter outside their home also. Additionally, we have 4 pets - no hotel is letting us stay and I'm not leaving my animals to freeze or potentially getting stuck in an area away from them.

[disneysteve]

I think its situational. Sounds like it doesn't really happen in your area but if there are widespread outages, everyone can't go to a hotel - there simply aren't enough hotels, and further. Hotels in my city sell out when there's a high school wrestling tournament in town... can't imagine how far I'd have to drive (presumably in a storm) if 1/4 of the locals needed shelter outside their home also. Additionally, we have 4 pets - no hotel is letting us stay and I'm not leaving my animals to freeze or potentially getting stuck in an area away from them.

That certainly makes sense, and it is very much situational. If we lived in an area prone to natural disasters, my mindset would be completely different. We just live in a very stable area where "widespread outages" aren't a thing. And hotels are plentiful.

If and when we ever move to Florida, we will do all of the normal stuff folks do to be prepared for hurricanes. Even then, though, if a major storm really looked to be heading right for us, I'd probably lock down the house and buy a couple of plane tickets to somewhere out of harms way or pack up the car and drive out of town before the storm got to us. We have friends in Florida who did just that recently when Dorian was heading their way. We also have a number of friends down there who booked rooms at Disney World to ride out the storm as Disney is safe and fantastic at dealing with that stuff.

[MonkeyMama]

We don't have a designated emergency stock of anything.

If something more serious were to happen, we'd load up the car and go somewhere safe.

Same. We don't even have *weather* so prolonged electricity loss isn't much of an emergency.

Our most likely disasters would be fire or (catastrophic) flood. In both cases, there really isn't anything to do but flee.
If we stockpiled anything it would probably just end up expired. I am sure some sort of unforeseeable disaster could happen, but if you don't know what it is, and it's a "once in a lifetime" event (er, even more rare than that), it's just a lot less practical to prepare for.

My co-worker just brought this up because her family moved to Texas and disaster preparedness is more a part of every day life. She was just telling me it's a very different lifestyle. I understand, I have family in the midwest and Florida. Those are totally different situations that you have to prepare for. When you've lived through no electricity/water in more extreme temperatures, many times, obviously you need more of a plan.

[greenskeeper]

Do you work for the DoD?

Nope.

[scfr]

For those whose plan is to "get out of town" … it sounds like the number one tool in your emergency preparedness kit is a tank of gas that's always full enough to get you as far enough as you would need to get outside of the affected area … right?

[disneysteve]

For those whose plan is to "get out of town" … it sounds like the number one tool in your emergency preparedness kit is a tank of gas that's always full enough to get you as far enough as you would need to get outside of the affected area … right?

Absolutely! It is something so often overlooked. My cousin lives on the southern east coast of Florida and he always tells us stories of the gas stations being backed up for blocks or out of gas entirely hours before the storm is due to hit even though the forecast has been in place for days. People wait until the last minute rather than being prepared. When you know a storm is coming, fill all the tanks. Depending on where you are and what you drive, you may even want to buy some extra gas containers and fill those too. It's a simple thing to do to be ready to get out of town as soon as that becomes necessary.

[scfr]

I'm resuscitating this thread to talk about another essential: AIR.
After a couple days of "beyond the AQI" (AQI = Air Quality Index) our area is back down to "merely" Hazardous. Today is day 6 of Unhealthy air quality or worse.
You can check your local air quality at AirNow.gov

Please think about whether you are at risk for widespread, long-lasting, poor air quality and how you would deal with it. This may become a more common occurrence.
What has helped us tremendously are the tower HEPA air purifier + spare filter that I bought when COVID19 hit (filter is supposed to last for a year under normal circumstances but I've already changed it and ordered another replacement), and a couple old (2004 purchase) N95 respirator valve masks that still work well enough for smoke. The KN95 masks we bought when COVID hit have also been helpful, and I'm really glad that DH recently changed the filters in our car. We wear the N95s when we must go outside (we have a dog so can't stay inside 100%) and the KN95s inside from time to time. We're taking all the other precautions as recommended by local authorities, but the filters and masks were advance purchases.

If you have a box fan, watch this and think about adding some filters to your emergency stash. People are doing this and sharing the results on social media and it works.

[rennigade]

For those whose plan is to "get out of town" … it sounds like the number one tool in your emergency preparedness kit is a tank of gas that's always full enough to get you as far enough as you would need to get outside of the affected area … right?

Pretty much this. Have enough full to get as far away as possible from the threat. Threat could be anything, including people. If everyone from Florida decides to head to the mountains of north carolina, that place is going to be overwhelmed and will not be able to handle that many. You'll want to drive much much further to avoid that sort of mess.

Never run your vehicle down too low. And, if you have multiple vehicles at home, you can always siphon from one vehicle and fill yours and hopefully a spare can you can take with. Other than a way to get out, some water, snacks, and guns/ammo. Especially now with all these nut bags rioting.

[disneysteve]

I'm resuscitating this thread to talk about another essential: AIR.
After a couple days of "beyond the AQI" (AQI = Air Quality Index) our area is back down to "merely" Hazardous. Today is day 6 of Unhealthy air quality or worse.
You can check your local air quality at AirNow.gov

It was super hazy here this morning. I didn't think much of it but I was listening to the news on my way to work and they said that it is actually due to smoke from the west coast fires. I live in NJ 3,000 miles away from the fires, but it is even impacting us to some degree. It looks like our air quality is still okay though.

[james.hendrickson]

Here is the smoke from the fires on the east side of Portland. Photograph was taken this morning (Tuesday the 15th).

This is better than two days ago.

[bjl584]

it's hazy here in Pittsburgh from the smoke