No one thinks they’ll be in a natural disaster until it happens to them.
Climate change is bringing more frequent and powerful storms, forest fires, flooding, hurricanes, storm surge and other natural disasters to more areas of the country. Be prepared!
With hurricane Ian laying waste to Florida and the Southeast I’m refining what is in my emergency preparedness kit. The best way to prepare for an emergency of course is to evacuate but if you can’t evacuate, you need to be self-sufficient to survive the aftermath of a major storm.
Don’t be a burden to overstress first responders, be prepared for the worst situations!
Food, water, shelter, electrical power for your cell phone – if and when service returns.
Weather Information
You need to know what is going on – get a weather radio so you can hear weather reports.
A 𝐄𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐨 will broadcast the latest emergency weather alerts from 7 NOAA stations such as hurricanes, wildfires, winter storms, and so on. Moreover, compared with the other emergency radio, the Weather Alert function has been added, allowing monitoring weather alerts 24 hours a day to protect you and your family even if you are sleeping.
Some radios include built-in flashlights and extra battery storage for charging your cell phone.
Food
You can’t rely on UberEats during a disaster. Be prepared for the worse with a survival pack of emergency food.
Water
Clean fresh water is vital in an emergency. Store water from your taps before an emergency with storage containers. These don’t take up much space.
Lighting
Light makes a dreary situation more tolerable and safe. You need to have emergency lighting in your emergency kit. Candles can be used but be careful with them. You don’t want to start a fire especially when the fire department might not be able to get to you.
I keep a dozen of these efficient, bright LED lanterns on hand as we tend to lose power often in our heavily forested area.
Power
Power goes down in snowstorms, tornados, hurricanes and even strong thunderstorms. Branches come down, poles fall over, power lines freeze up in an ice storm – you need to have some backup power for your cellphone or even to power your Internet router which often still works even when the electricity goes out.
A large backup battery pack such as this can be recharged via a solar panel or your car.
A powerful solar panel such as this will allow you to charge up all of your batteries during the day. This 100 watt panel is serious power.
This unit is a good size for emergencies and includes an inverter for electronics with a regular plug like a laptop. And it includes a light. Match it with a solar panel for serious emergencies.
At a minimum, you should have a large capacity backup power “brick” with the capacity of charging via solar. Get one with several fold-out solar panels as it might take a few days of sun to fully charge the unit but you can charge a cell phone in 30 minutes of full sun with one of these but fully charge these before you need them. Solar is a good backup but will take a long time to re-charge i.e. don’t rely on it, but it’s there in an emergency.
Bathroom
Here in New Hampshire, we have a gravity-feed septic system and we live near a pond. So we can flush toilets even if the public water is shut off. We’ll just fill buckets with pond water and flush the toilets.
My mom lives in Fort Myers and Ian flooded and knocked out the public water supply and sewer system. Flat areas like Florida require electricity to power pumping stations to move sewer water. Treatment plants get flooded and knocked out for days or weeks. What to do?
These toilet liners allow one to turn their existing toilet into a camping toilet by collecting the waste into a sealable bag.
Keep Cool
Those in hot areas often suffer life-threatening heat after the storm passes. A battery-powered fan can help keep you cool.
Often people succumb to the heat after a storm especially if they live in hot areas.
Stay Warm
People often die during emergencies because of improper use of heaters. Be aware of deadly fumes like carbon monoxide from burning fuels.
Propane heaters will be safer.
Generators
Backup generators burning propane or gas can provide your home with essential power to run a furnace or keep your refrigerator running.
A small generator like this can be used to run a few appliances. Perhaps not all at once but you can run your fridge for a few hours, then switch to another appliance and then switch back. You won’t run your entire house but for an emergency, such a generator can be a lifesaver and these small generators are very quiet, don’t take much space to store and are very efficient on gas. Heed all warnings about how to operate – i.e. never use indoors.
Cooking
Emergencies require boiling water for sanitizing, washing and for freeze-dried meals. Plus some instant coffee for a pick-me-up.
This little stove easily fits into an emergency “bug out” bag.
For the next level of cooking, perhaps frying an egg or flipping a pancake, a small economical gas burner like this one could be used.
Keep plenty of butane in stock for running the stove.
And don’t forget a camping cookset.