When Hurricane Sandy hit, millions of people found they weren’t prepared for a prolonged power outage the hard way. Instead of waiting for the next power outage, caused by an ice storm, lightning strike, hurricane, or whatever, there are some basic things you can do right now to prepare that will only take a minimal amount of time.
Sure, you can spend a lot of money on some power outage solutions if you want, but you really don’t need to spend a lot to make a big difference. What are three things you can do right now?
1) get bed
Having an old flashlight with half-dead batteries in the kitchen junk drawer isn’t enough. You should get a headlamp for each family member as the first step. They may seem silly, but headlamps give you hands-free capability when looking for things or performing any task that would be next to impossible while holding a flashlight.
In addition to headlamps, get a flashlight as a backup for each person in the household, ideally using the same batteries as the headlamps!
Finally, get some LED table lamps, again with the same type of battery, so you can have one or two in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom.
2) Get food
If there’s a power outage, all the food in your fridge is on a clock. However, the non-perishable items you have in your pantry will be as good as gold. Be sure to stock up on foods like canned soup and also powdered milk so you don’t get sore if store shelves are empty for a week or more.
3) Get water
You need a gallon of water per person per day just for drinking and cooking, so save some bottled water. The best containers to fill yourself are 2-liter soda bottles (worst are gallon milk jugs: they deteriorate and leak surprisingly quickly).
If you want to wash or bathe, you will need even more water. A portable backpacking water filter is a good idea in case you have rainwater that you want to purify!
There you go. Three things to prepare for right away, but this is only good if you’re home when disaster strikes. The other thing to do is prepare a kit for your car in case you can’t get home right away…
