Things to do Before the Storm Hits
Kevin Felts 03.29.18
Before we begin, let’s define a storm as any event which disrupts everyday life. For the sake of this article, a storm can be a literal storm, a hurricane, tornado, wildfire, earthquake–whatever affects the reader’s geographical location.
In the following personal example, on the evening of March 28, 2017 a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through southeast Texas. The storms stretched from New England all the way to the Texas-Mexico border.
Knowing severe storms were on the way, there were things I wanted to take care of.
Clothes and Dishes
Because I have a water well and have not taken time to rig up a generator connection for the well, we washed all of our dirty clothes and dishes just in case the power goes out.
The kitchen was also given a sanitary wipe down with a bleach water solution.
This was meant to cover hygiene: clothes, dishes, eating area.
Drinking Water
For convenience, the Royal Berkey water filter was filled up. Being full, the Berkey gave my wife and me around two gallons of water on tap.
When the power stays off for extended periods, I use a bucket, get water out of the creek, then refill the Berkey. Since I knew the storms were coming, the Berkey was filled from the faucet rather than waiting until the power was off.
What about bottled water?
Why should I buy bottled water when I have a clear running stream and these filters?
Just the Sawyer Mini is rated at 100,000 gallons, and I have two of them. The Royal Berkey is rated at around 12,000 gallons, and the Sawyer PointONE is rated at around one million gallons.
Electronics
I made sure everything rechargeable was fully charged. This could have been done using solar power after the power went out, but why wait?
Items recharged:
- Phone
- Flashlights
- LED lanterns
- Battery packs
- Batteries
Final Thoughts
The only thing different between this seasonal store and something like a hurricane was that I did not fuel up the gas cans like I do for hurricanes.
When a storm comes along, it is nice to have the preps organized and ready to go.
When the storms arrived, my current reading material was close at hand, and so was an LED lantern. Sure enough the power went out. I called the power company, reported the outage, turned the lantern on, and started reading.
Things went better than expected and the power was back on in a couple of hours.
Ok reader, have there been any storms which caused you to use your preps? Care to share the story?
