INTRODUCTION
This is not a survival article. It isn’t even advice. It’s just what happened to us, and what we did. And most importantly, what I’ll do next time, or at least try.
I’m not a survivalist. Some would disagree, I suppose. I prefer terminology such as ‘victim avoidance’. Growing up under Ike, Kennedy, and Johnson, I had already been brainwashed by everything from nuclear attack drills at school, to Civil Defense shelter locations and supplies to bring.
As a child, my passion was the cosmos. By the late sixties, I was reading Von Daniken and Sitchin. The seventies and eighties brought Sagan and Hawking. And it continues today with Kaku and Tyson. I have understood the dangers from solar and cosmic anomalies since childhood. I just understand a whole lot more now.
Consequently, I happened to have slowly accumulated supplies in case of loss of power, or whatever.
The circumstances presented here are merely a loss of electricity. This has happened to me for 9 days in 1994, 5 days in 1999, 7 days in 2001, and 10 days in 2009. Nothing earth shattering. But long enough to get the ‘hang’ of it.
The experiences have reinforced my recognition of how vulnerable our power grid really is. Our society is internet and computer dependent. Since about 1980, ‘we’ have become very complacent. Just search ‘transformer production and supply’, and ‘electromagnetic pulse causes and effects’. You’ll get the picture real quick. We could be down for a couple years.
From first hand experience, I can attest to the impact that the loss of electricity does to a community. Hopefully, your ‘major disaster’ will be nothing more than electrical failure. Things could be much worse.
WHAT TO EXPECT
When power is lost, everyone seems to be 'happy go lucky' for a few days. Nobody has to go to work, schools out, it’s just a veritable holiday.
Folks start to turn ugly soon enough, though. After one week, you can tell exactly which people are faring just fine, and which ones are struggling to 'survive'. The former appears well groomed, optimistic, well fed, and friendly. The latter has a constant scorn on their face, and they appear lost and dazed at the same time. Bewildered, sort of. They are usually unkempt, frustrated, non verbal, and a little smelly.
You can already surmise the ATM's won't function, and the banks are closed. I hope you have some cash, or at least a check book. Your credit card will not work anywhere. Anything you want will be for cash or 'local' check. Actually, checks may be worthless, too. You might be able to do some trading I suppose, but I never tried or needed to. So far.
We pay a few bills online, and had to call them and pay with a debit card. Otherwise, we would have incurred late fees and no telling what all else. One of them charged ten bucks for a 'convenience' charge. I have since quit signing up for paperless billing. I've got one switched back to paper bills, and will get the others done. The mail ran every day, by the way. Except for a couple of 'impassable' days only.
Don’t expect the phones to work. Even our cell phones were intermittent. If the towers were down, there would be no phones at all. And if there are enough users in your area, the cell towers capacity may be overwhelmed. Being a part of ‘emergency services’, the authorities will work feverishly to keep the towers functioning.
Television stations will broadcast, but without power you won’t see any of it. I happen to have a battery operated little television set now, so we could watch the local news. Those are rather inexpensive, and I found it to be a great asset. But keep a few sets of batteries on hand for it, they eat ‘em up. And don’t watch ‘just’ TV. ‘Just’ watch the news.
Expect all emergency generated electrical power as being completely depleted by hospitals, senior homes, emergency services, and law enforcement. If you have a generator, good luck obtaining fuel. And those things take a lot of fuel.
Only one gas station will be open for miles. They are ‘inside connected’ enough to get allotted a big generator for ‘emergency service purposes’. He get’s free electricity, a ‘captive’ market, and all the fuel he can pump through those hoses 24 hours a day. And that station will have a mile of vehicles lined up, literally. The radios in their cars tell the people where to go for fuel, so he even gets free advertising to ‘line up right here’. When you get to the fuel, you are rationed to ten gallons. Not enough to run a small generator even one day. Let alone use a vehicle much.
The last outage we had was ten days in January of 2009, it was an ice storm. I’ve been in a couple before, but this one took down every power pole, tree top, weak limb, dead and even live trees with it. It was two days before city ‘bucket tractors’ came through pushing the debris off the streets so that they were passable for emergency services.
Fortunately, we live in a small farming community of about 2000 persons, and had power back in 10 days. The folks in the country waited a month, or two in some cases.
Highways were blocked, too. Debris. Nobody was going anywhere for 3 days. Many telephone poles had to be removed from the highways.
The stores are not open during this time. Unless they already had a generator with some fuel. And they’ll probably run out before he gets any more. The big mart wasn’t even open. But that’s 10 miles from here, so impossible to get there, anyway.
The trash service probably won’t be around for a while. So I hope you can construct a burn pile. Having a good supply of trash bags is a good idea, too.
You get the picture, I suppose. But what if it’s most of the western world. And will last for 6 months, maybe a year. As might be from some cosmologic, solar, or manmade electro-magnetic pulses.
I’m not going in to all those reasons. Could be an earthquake, who knows. The bottom line is, are you ready for the loss of electricity for several months?
No? I didn’t think so.
Guess what? Neither is your local, county, city, state, nor federal government.
FOOD
Obviously your most valuable asset right now is food. So don’t waste any. Don’t open any fridge, freezer, or cooler. Because you want to use up your perishables first, you see. Leave the frozen food in there, don’t open it, and it will still be frozen 3 days from now. But you’ll have to open the fridge tomorrow to eat and cook all of it you can.
The main point is to consume what is going to perish first.
You should be able to stretch a regularly stocked fridge and freezer for at least a week or two. Saving all your canned goods and non perishables for later down the road.
I got lucky last time, it was winter. If it’s a very hot climate, you may not have the time frames I just laid out. Having a giant freezer outside the back door was a great ‘comfort’ to me.
Your going to have to cook some of it, maybe a lot of it. I have a natural gas cook stove in my house, so a simple match and I’m in business. I have a wood stove for winter cooking and heating, but I could also set it up outside for a cookstove in the summer. And yes, I keep a full winter supply of wood on hand, so I’ve got fuel.
If necessary, you can secure some bricks and form up a square stove with a metal grid (fridge shelf) sitting on top. Hopefully you can find plenty of kindling for it. I have to admit that eggs, bacon and toast are outstanding when cooked on an open pit fire. Until you run out of them.
Having a stocked refrigerator was a blessing. I got lucky this time. We started cooking the next morning. Make sure you save the grease from cooking, you’ll need it soon enough. Cooking the fresh meat, eggs, and perishables first, I left the entire freezer untouched for three days. And we had plenty to eat. We gave food away throughout the entirety of the power outage, simply due to having to ‘cook it all up’ before it spoiled. So the first couple days we had plenty to ‘give’.
After the third day we had another bounty of food from the freezer. We stored what was still frozen solid by putting it in a plastic container, setting it in a shaded area, and cover it with ice. The giant freezer outside my back door had finally broken down. The sun came out and the temperature was 60 degrees. So another 24 hours before cooking was about all the time I had left for the food still partially frozen.
There’s no way my wife and I were going to eat that much of any one particular item without getting burned out on it. I mean, a five pound bag of chicken strips will ruin you on chicken. We had way too much grilled pork chops, fried chicken strips, hamburger and sausage, chili, and much more. So by all means, feed your neighbors.
It’s quite surprising how much food you actually have, provided you actually have a few people living there, and consuming there. But just about every one should get one to two weeks from the fridge and freezer.
Keep in mind, all the stores within miles were closed. The few that did operate with generators were pretty bare within 24 hours or less. One local quick-mart owner was resourceful enough to make daily runs over hundred miles to where supplies were available, bring it back, and take off with a new list the next day. They made some money and provided a great service to their community.
After a few days, a Wal-Mart opened about 10 miles from here, but all the fresh meats were removed, because they might be spoiled already. But we needed nothing and only ventured out to see the sights. It was sad to hear the reports on the radio that some station had run out of fuel, and there were hundreds of people there waiting for it to arrive. The same stupid radio had sent them there, just hours earlier. Just keep your tank at least half full, all the time.
WATER
Water is your most valuable asset. Wait a minute, I said food is your most valuable asset. I’ll have to think about that again. But it always seems to come down to the ‘chicken or egg first’ debate. Now, I’m in the ‘egg camp, on this one. You see, even if the first chicken was an anomaly, it had to have come ‘in the egg’, so the egg had to be first. Even if a turtle laid the thing. But I digress.
If you lost water, you are now reduced to a port-a-potty, an outside 'cat' hole, or carrying water to the commode. You'll find the latter most desirable. You really need a couple of 5 gallon plastic jugs, bladders, or containers. I only have one, but we have always kept water service.
I suspect water service will be available to all who are currently on a system. But earthquakes and floods will disrupt even the most sophisticated systems' capabilities and infrastructure. So I stay prepared for loss of, or contamination of, the water supply.
Make sure you secure the water stored in your water heater first. Like immediately, ya’ know. Kind of like turning off the natural gas immediately after an earthquake or during a fire. Just needs to be done. This water, once cooled, will provide clean drinking water. Don’t waste it.
I have a 40 gallon natural gas tank. It works without electricity, so I always have hot water. I also always have water. The community water tower keeps a generator on the pump to keep it full. It’s actually quite wonderful the way older designed systems work without electricity. Fill the tank, the community has water pressure. Light the pilot, and gas appliances work. So that’s what I use.
I have some water purification tablets from a mart. And I bought a hand operated water pump purifier. The filter on that will be clogged in about 1000 gallons, but that’s a start. After that, it’s the ‘boiling and bleach’ method.
You can filter water with clean cloths, boil the water 15 minutes, and when it cools, add 8 drops of regular chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Make sure the bleach has no additives, like scenting and stuff. You just want plain bleach. The directions are on the bottle, too. Makes it potable, sort of.
I don’t store any water, really. It’s too easy to get it here. Your situation may be entirely different, and you need to expend effort and resources to insure a water supply.
SHELTER
The mere term ‘shelter’ implies so many things. Heat, light, comfort, sanctity, and possibly sanity. So maintaining a sense of normalcy helps everyone. And keeping everyone active provides normalcy. Especially in the endeavors of providing for the good of all involved, in this type situation.
Normalcy requires light. You’ll need candles and matches. Flashlights and batteries. Oil lamps and fuel. Even a dome light from a car with a 12 volt battery hooked up will light a full room. So don’t be in the dark. I have a 12V to 110V converter that can be used with vehicle lighter plugs. But it will run down your battery soon. So that’s a trade off. But at least it’s an emergency electricity source.
We go to the Marts and other stores after Christmas every year. Candles are 50 to 75 percent off, and we stock up on them. There seems to be a lot of them after Halloween, too. I have a couple of antique oil lamps, and plenty of wicks. Oil is relatively cheap, and I keep 6 bottles on hand. We burn about a half bottle per week.
I hope you already know that you can not build an open fire inside any building. Just don’t do it. Not gas grills, or wood fires, nor charcoal fires. You’ll kill yourself and everybody there. Either from carbon dioxide/monoxide poisoning, or you’ll burn the place down. So no inside fires. I guess a fireplace is ok for cooking, though.
'Sealing' off a room will contain heat in the room. The oil lamps put off a lot of heat, as well as candles. The room should slowly warm up. Wear additional layered clothing and snuggle. We have a couple of the 'camping' heaters that run off of a small propane bottle. We got those at the Marts, too. We haven't used them, though, because our wood and natural gas heat never stopped.
COMMUNICATION
If you're lucky, the cell phones are working. But don't expect them to, nor continue to. Having a vehicle charger for your phone is a must. If the lines are jammed, wait until late night to call, or early morning. Odd hours will be the best time to attempt to get through.
It will be difficult to even get through to 911 dispatchers. It was for a day or two, then all the cell phones started working. It was a full week before the 'authorities' ( a deputy) knocked on our door to ask if we were alright.
The important piece of communication you need is a radio and television. We watched and listened to the news with baited breath. It's like a window outside your neighborhood. This is where the good information is. Unfortunately, you can still be mislead by the announcers. Their information gets old, and situations change rapidly.
It is imperative to obtain reliable information, otherwise intelligent decisions cannot be accomplished. It just so happens that this is probably one of the few times in your life that you cannot afford mistakes.
My suggestion is to get a radio that has a hand crank generator on it. I got one. Learned my lesson about those batteries. They get real scarce, real quick. Get more than just an AM/FM radio. Mine picks up all frequencies, period. I can listen to the space shuttle. The shortwave and police bands are worth listening to in order to find out the real situation.
TRANSPORTATION
I've already talked about the problems you may encounter trying to navigate the roads. And we already know that fuel will be scarce and expensive. So the main question involves 'where will you need to go'.
We have 3 vehicles, and I never let any of them get below half of a tank. My hand pump siphon hose cost 2 dollars, or you can do it the old fashioned way. I also keep a couple five gallon cans of fuel with 'Stabil' in it. Stabil' keeps the fuel octane high for long periods, like a year or so. You can get it at bigmart or auto parts stores.
So this gives me about 50 gallons of gasoline on hand at all times. That will get me out of here if I have to go. And one of our vehicles is a 10 year old 4 wheel drive. That should get us there, if we have to go. The ability to go is the only requirement, for planning purposes.
We spent most fuel that was consumed just sight seeing. Charging the battery would be a fuel consumer. The power converter will suck the battery dry, so I usually have the engine running when using that. I think we'll purchase one or two deep cycle marine batteries for future outages. I can bring one in the house, and have the other on the vehicle charging as we drive it. Sightseeing, I guess.
The ideal situation would be that you don't have to go search and purchase anything. However, important needs require attention, such as medicine, food, or water. If you're going, please ask the neighbors if you can bring them anything. They will reciprocate, and you’ll need a ‘community’ if the situation persists.
I would suspect the only reason to actually need transportation is to leave the area. Even earthquake destruction is no reason for me to leave. I'll just stay right here, thank you. I have already relocated just to be right here. Your situation may be entirely different.
COMMUNITY
Don't underestimate the generosity and cooperation from neighbors during a time like this. It's quite remarkable. I can only speak from US centric experiences, but I'm sure people aren't very different under these circumstances, no matter where you are.
You must be willing to state what you need. No matter what that is. The people near you will attempt to assist, I assure you. Allow your community the opportunity to 'serve'. Everyone enjoys helping.
With no school, no stores, and only a few jobs functioning, there's nothing else to do but help out. There's a lot of good quality family time available during an outage, too. An optimistic attitude is contagious.
CONCLUSION
Prior planning and accumulation of supplies is essential. It’s too late to look for essentials after the event. That must be done before. It’s that simple. If I were only taking care of myself, it would be easy to entertain complacency.
Steve Pace
15 May 2010
sfcpace@yahoo.com
A LOST GRID
by Steve Pace
