New England runs SHTF drills....

[SSN Vet]

Big ice storms are just that....

And my family has faired well, as this is what we prepare for.

My wife and I brain stormed in the candle light about what weeknesses were in our plans. Fortunately, there were few.

Need for more fuel storage is one (going to work on that next summer, as there are few gaurantees that fuel will be obtainable in a wide spread and prolonged power outage).

Need to wire up the one remaining unused circuit on our Gen-Tran box. But this is really a convenience issue.

Need a safe place to shelter vehicles (hope to put pole barn up next summer....can't spring for a 'proper' garage at this juncture.

Need to take down more branches near house (a branch through the sky light in Jan. would be a big problem) and continue to thin woods near house to decrease the fire load. Fortunately, all this type of work provides more storable fuel (wood).

Need to encourage my wife to train more, as she's still not where she needs to be to hold down the fort if I had to make an extended trip to find supplies.

A back up generator would be very useful. Going to be hard to pull that one off financially though.

Would like to set up storage for a decent food cache.

Any of you guys come up with some good "lessons learned" as a result of this recent ice storm.

 

[innerpiece]

Big Truck with plow... Furnace fuel, gas powerd generator (just enuff to keep yer house warm and lit), Storable food, get the game 'risk' or something like it for adults, its a longer game for a board game, and keeps yer mind workin (reduces cabin fever), as well as games for the kids (if any).. Water, Lighters, Fireplace, lots of plastic and duct tape..
Dont know where you are, but Im in Rural MN, we just got dug out a couple hrs ago after being stuck for 3 days....

Oh, if you smoke, be shure too keep some back up trust me! lol

ip.

 

[JayL]

Lessons from the NE Ice Storm

It's about how your house is set up. If your heating with wood or coal, one big problem solved if you have plenty of wood on hand. If not, you can run your furnace on a small portable generator pretty easily. If you want heat, some lights and an operating refrigerator, your getting into a bigger generator. I got a 5000 watt generator for around $650. If I had the materials on hand (another issue) I could have hooked this into the water pump as it has a 220 line on the generator. The best prep you can do is have your house set up to easily hook in a decent generator. At the least, know how to hook a generator directly into your furnace. Have enough gas to run the generator a minimum of 3 days in case the roads are blocked. We were lucky, the roads were only blocked for a day.
If heat is taken care of, after a couple days the biggest issue is WATER for running the toilets, and the more people in your house the quicker that becomes an issue.
And own and know how to operate a chainsaw! Safely!!
Own multiple flashlights and keep batteries for them. Obvious, but a lot of people didn't have any - makes it hard to get around a dark house.
We live near a rather crummy, crime-ridden city. I'll tell you, I felt a whole lot better having my 38s and my S&W M&P 9mm as well as a Mossberg 835. We had no issues ourselves, bu there was looting occuring in the area as "opportunists" checked out the situations. At the same time, we also had neighbors walking around looking out for others in our fairly rural neighborhood, so one has to have a proper mind set regarding what is a threat and what is not.
We were without power for a week. Others are going longer. What you learn is a day or two is easy, and each day after gets harder. Heat > Water >food >light and overall think about security.
I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of stuff. Hope you came through the storm OK!

 

[wrs840]

Ice storms are a good reason to heat water and the house with Gas or LP.

A 1500 watt generator will run a fridge, a freezer, a TV, a couple of lights, and still start the blower on the furnace. If you have a well pump, better go with a 5000 watt generator. That's my situation, and the stove, furnace burners and generator are fueled by a 500 gallon underground LP tank. That's enough for three or four weeks "off the grid".

Les

 

[Titan6]

I have yet to hear of an increase in crime related to excessive snow or ice. Not saying it won't ever happen but the bad guys tend to hate the cold. IME everything points to a big down turn in most crime. On the negative side police response time which can already be bad in rural areas becomes hopeless.

 

[SSN Vet]

I have yet to hear of an increase in crime related to excessive snow or ice.

our local paper ran a story about people stealing generators.

we came through with flying colors.....5K generator, gen-tran panel to run 5 circuits (the pump and the kitchen appliances being most important), 6 cords of firewood laid up, LPG appliances that don't require electricity, etc..

So a couple days without power is no biggie for us....

but it is a great opportunity to identify what would be needed if you had to go several weeks.

I keep coming back to fuel storage. If I had it all to do again, I would have invested in a diesel generator and one diesel vehicle.

Storing significant quantities of gas is dicey and can get you into trouble with the code guys/fire chief.

But storing upwards of 500 gal of diesel is a no brainer and relatively cheap.

 

[Bellevance]

Most of rural New England has ample local sources of good hardwood. Anyone who doesn't heat with wood now should consider installing a wood furnace or a couple of efficient stoves. You can cook and heat water on a woodstove. It's a must.

Then make sure you keep a year ahead (at least) on split and dried wood under cover. Build a spacious wood shed. Be sure to shelter your vehicles, power tools (chainsaw, tiller, tractor) with extra gas to run them. And plenty of kerosene for lamps. A generator is useful but noisy and greedy; don't depend on one.

Second, establish a substantial garden, a coldframe, and a root cellar. A smart, dedicated gardener can feed himself and his family and put up a winter's worth of excellent food in New England.

Third, consider keeping hens and/or pigs, if you eat meat.

Fourth, consider solar and wind options, if you can afford to invest in them.

Fifth, learn how to hunt and forage, just the basics, if you don't how already.

 

[mbt2001]

www.mrfunnel.com

That should take some of the edge of storing gas. If you do store gas for more than 60 or 90 days make sure you use stabilizer. That funnel in the link above takes out water and other debris.

Rotate your stocks every 3 - 6 months and you are square.

 

[Claude Clay]

my split level was built as an All-American All Electric Home back when the government promised us that nuclear power would be so inexpensive that the electric meters would practically run backwards.
i long ago converted to gas/forced hot air but in a pinch i have 100 gal of fuel [plus 3 cars kept near full in the winter] for a 5kw gen. can heat the finished basement and ele hot water, a full bath and cook for a few weeks. i also have short-wave & cb.

honestly, any outage past 3 days would be tantamount to social failure and i would expect the inner-cities to go exploring. could get interesting.....[define interesting]

 

[Jaybird78]

I live in a large town that butts up against a few other large towns. Our power grid in our neighborhood has been problematic since we moved in 4 years ago. Longest without power before "strait line winds" past summer was maybe like 4 to 8 hrs. My wife goes into "panic" mode anytime the power goes down. I was fortunate to be working 50 miles away when the winds hit and I bought a Generator (gas powered, 8000 watts).

We were without power for 5 days (neighbors across the street had power back on in 3 days). We survived, I had a hefty fuel bill, but it was cheaper then staying in a hotel. Roads were drivable so food was not a problem by driving two towns over. If you wish to stay in your home during such times then BUY A GENERATOR OR HAVE OTHER MEANS TO HEAT YOUR HOME.

I am trying to talk the wife into getting a small wood burner for heat and then the generator would be used to cycle the fridge when needed. If you know the storm is coming then get out to stock up on some fuel and food. (Again my wife was in "panic" that the gas stations and stores had no power also )

Pray for the best and plan for the worst

 

[SSN Vet]

round 2

well, here we go again....

6" of snow on Friday and 14" and still coming down today!

I made a dump run and filled my 2nd diesel can on Sat. as I use a diesel tractor with a 5ft snow blower on the back to clear our Loooooooong driveway (private road actually).

Went out to bring in more wood for the fire a half hour ago and the drifts are up to my thighs. So I tramped down to the shed and broke out the roof rake and cleared off the Cover-it (storage tent) where the tractor lives and hit the low part of the house roof out back.

We're in good shape and have invested quite a bit in preparing for this kind of "fun", but I must admit, it still freeks me out a little bit.

No power lost this time around (light fluffy stuff), but I'm keeping the fire hot, just in case.

My biggest concern is that I'll head up to work on Monday after clearing the drive and then we'll get dumped on again, and I won't be able to get back home.

Darn, I miss my Suburban.

That sucker was invincible in the snow!

 

[Macmac]

It all depends on how you consider quality of life to be. This past storm ran south of Tamworth where I am. But the one in 98 was it? sure didn't and it didn't change my life much. I had wood as a main heating source, a clear stream where my water came from anyway, but I needed a bucket.

No power for 11 days was cake since i spent better than 3 years living in a tee pee.

I rent where I am now and refuse to turn on the gas bottle propane for heat.

What I do instead is heat just the room I use most, a larger bed room, with tv, 2 computers, and heated with up to 4 alladin lamps.
Just now is is 15 out, and I have just 2 running lamps lit.

These create apx 60 watts light each, and all 4 feel like a camp fire.

They hold apx 12 hours capacity of K-1, and I find if I run 4 to knock off the chill I can hardly burn any K-1 in the 2 I turn off. Then I fill the other 2, the next day with about a liter of K-1.

I can reach 75 degrees in this room but to me that is too hot. We don't mind waking up in the low 50's or high 40's either. My wife also lived in that tee pee, and we saw -50 at mid night for a month, with the highs at -20 at noon, so were not afraid of a little chill.

I also work out doors most of the time and you can get used to it.

That year we saw -50 for a month, when +15 came on I was in just jeans and a light wool shirt.

This place has a 1/2 mile long drive way, with narrow sections and curves. You can bet I use fuel to plow. If you ever like, drop me a pm and come visit..

 

[mpmarty]

Well, we lose electric power several times a year but usually not for more than a day. We heat with wood. We have 15,000 gallons of above ground water storage a ten thousand gallon tank and two twenty-five hundred gallon tanks. Our house water is run by a 120 volt jet pump and pressure tank system. The storage tanks are filled by a submersible deep well pump that takes 220 volts but if the outage lasts less than a year we're good to go. Kitchen stove and both hot water heaters run on propane and we keep the 500 gallon tank filled. Got a 5kw gasoline generator and store fifty gallons of unleaded gas treated with Stabil at the recommended rate for one year storage. We pour it into the tractor, suburban, dodge pickup and John Deere Gator or Polaris four wheeler regularly to "rotate stock". We live in a 3600 sq ft single story home so the wife and I can go days without even seeing each other (well almost) we seem to meet in the kitchen around mealtimes. The dogs love romping in the drifts but the wife and I seem to be satisfied to watch them out the window.

 

[Thin Black Line]

If you're new to deep snow and ice storms:

Hi, I'm from the upper midwest where we regularly have a few feet of snow
and the temps will be in single digits WITHOUT the wind chill. Snow, even
if your power goes out for a few days (mine has and friends have for a week
or two at times), is not SHTF. We call this just another snowstorm where
I'm from. If you have a week's worth of firewood for a woodstove (NOT an
external electric powered woodburner) and/or enough kero for a kerosene
heater and enough no-cook food for a week, you're fine. If your town/work/schools
shut down for a few days or a week (of course, we'll still be working and the
kids will still be going to school in twice as much "bad" weather that the
northeast seems to get), enjoy your quiet time at home. I always find it
amusing when some talking head in a skyscraper in NYC has an omigod-we
-got-6"-of-snow-and-the-east-coast-just-shut-down moment on the news.
Just to be fair, the southerners in TX and GA get that way over 1/2".

You can survive without electricity for the TV and the fridge. Read a book,
play board games, and put the food from your fridge in a secure container
OUTSIDE on a porch or deck. It cold out there, it won't spoil.

When it's dark out and you're bored, even if it's 7pm, just go to bed. Yes,
you'll wake up at 4 or 5 am, but you can re-start the fire in your woodstove.
Your house will be nice and warm by the time the rest of the family rolls
out of bed.

As far as water goes. Either have some storage barrels put aside in advance
or a few gallons of fuel for a gen that's just big enough to run your wellpump.
Only kick on the gen when you need to run well pumps and recharge your pressure
tank. You do not need 1000 gallons of fuel (or even 100) and a 10k gal
water cistern to meet your water needs. My compound in Iraq had less
storage on hand than this. Keep in mind we used portajohns. The modern
convenience of indoor pooping will be a major draw on your water and energy.
If you can deal with this efficiently, you will save 30% or more on this alone.

Only use the water pumpped in from your gen usage for drinking and cooking.
Save "left-over" gray water from washing hands, strained from cooking, or
from washing cooking ware. You can save a LOT of water and fuel for
generator use if you use gray water or melted snow for flushing your toilets.

You do not need to shower or bath every day when it's cold outside and
you're mostly sitting around waiting for power to be restored. If you must,
disposable wipes work fine. Wives and teens tend to b*tch the most about
feeling "grungy". Remind them they're not a big sweaty man who's been
lugging the wood and buckets of snow for the toilet inside the house. Tell
them the wipes aren't just for their faces, but their behinds as well. Remind
them to get their shower(s) in while the generator is running for the 1 hr
that day rather than watching TV or doing something else electric. The
internet is not life-essential.

After about 72 hrs w/o power, give in to their complaints and run the gen
for 1 extra hr for a longer shower. However, by that time, life will have likely
returned to normal after people have adapted and overcome.

No. I did not work supply in the military.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

It was a typical ice storm for interior Maine. Amazingly, I did not lose power. But I do lose power frequently, and it's no big deal.

Oil lamps take the place of electric lights rather nicely, even romantically.

I grew up in a colder home, so loss of oil heat doesn't bother me much. I have lots of blankets, warm clothes and small rooms with alternate sources of heat, including alcohol burners.

One thing about the ice storms up here, they really play havoc with regular mail delivery. The postal delivery people see any ice on your walk, and it's no mail for three days or more. This is not a great thing when your business deals with time sensitive matters involving people's liberty and property. Even regular banking and bill-paying gets disrupted. And they wonder why we get so annoyed at them.

 

[Gary Frost]

I have a swithc mounted below the meter on the pole. In the up direction we are on the grid, switched down we are on the gen. I have a 5k gen that can run the whole house with no extension cords all over the place.

Our heat is wood only, the gen can run all the lights,(that are necessary) burners on the elect stove, tv, pc.

At a load like this 1 gal of gas lasts 1 hr. Fuel is definitly a problem as far as long term storage is concerned. I'm thinking about sending the carb off to be modified to run gas and propane.

 

[SSN Vet]

Lots of good ideas out there....

We're set up to handle a week or more without power. But I think this kind of weather event is a great chance to think through a more prolonged scenario.

I'm very glad we got ahead with our fire wood this past summer. Keeping a year ahead is the way to go.

Something to think about is that the availability of fuel and food is very much Dependant on two things. 1.) Whether the local gas station and grocery store have power and 2.) Whether you can travel to an area that does have it.

Our Suburban blew a head gasket last year and we replaced it with a mini-van, but kept the 'burb'. After some consideration, we are more inclined to repair the 'burb' so we can have a sturdy FWD available.

The ability to get back and forth to work is another issue to consider. Losing income at a time when you may need some extra $ is not too comforting a thought.

The biggest concern I have though is that I would get stuck at work. As my wife doesn't know how to run the tractor/implements and has had trouble with the generator in the past.

She acknowledges that she needs to take some time to allow me to teach her how to do these things, but she already has multiple irons in the fire on a daily basis.