Firstly, I thank God that my family and I are safe and our homes were not destroyed. I pray for those who are not so fortunate. In an extreme catastrophe, you cannot depend on others to bail you out as resources are stretched too thin. You have to help yourself and eachother. Here are a few of my observations after 11 days without power. I am not no expert, these are just observations or what I have read.

1 ) Safety- if they say evacuate, do it. If you decide not to evacuate, fine, just don't call 911 in the middle of the night when your house is swept away. This happened numerous times and is not fair to the resuers, many are volunteers in the suburbs.

Don't wait til the last minute- the stores are empty, buy a little bit at a time and build up your inventory.

2) Water- bottled water is cheap, either buy bottled water and store it or use the empty gallon jugs to store tap water (16 drops beach per gallon). At least one gallon per day per adult, 3 day minimum.

3) Food- pasta, sauce, dried food, canned food etc. Comfort food- some crackers, cheese, turkey spam, candy etc is helpful.

Paper plates, cups, mess kit, matches, can opener, plastic knives forks etc. Electric stoves don't work in outages.

4) Light- buy some emergency candles that burn a long time or tea candles and have glasses etc to set them in to avoid a fire. Have a few rechargeable LED flashlights. Have a couple of LED battery lights too for when the rechargeable lights go dead. LED lights don't use as much power as other lights.

5) Radio- I bought an ETON Red Cross AM/FM/Weather solar/hand crank radio for 30 bucks a few years ago. I wasn't impressed... until it became my main source of information for 11 days. Get yourself some type of emergency radio. Cell phone and some way to charge it very important to keep in touch w loved ones etc.

6) Cash- with no power, food and gas stations were cash only. Medicine- weeks supply to be safe. Eyeglasses, important papers in fireproof box for evacuation. Fire extinguisher, Paper and pen/pencil.

6) Sleeping bags, blankets, warm change of clothes, rain coats, personal hygiene etc. Also books, games etc

7) Generator- if you can afford one, do the research and buy one. They are hard to find after the power goes out.

Plenty more on the web but this is a start. Good luck

John,

Excellent advice!
If I can add peanut butter. When I was on the road I always kept peanut butter around during the Winter months.
Candles are life savers when or if the truck ever broke down and need a bit of heat.

I carried just about everything on your list.

Always good to have these things around in an event you ever need them.

Take Johns advice and don't learn the hard way.

John, glad to hear you've got power back and that your house wasn't destroyed. Thankfully we were spared the flooding from Sandy up in my neck of the woods this year, though last year we got hit hard by Hurricane Lee, and lots of folks' homes here were flooded then.  From my experience with that, I'd reinforce the points you made and add maybe one.
  
Water - as you said, you need a LOT.  Let me repeat that:  you need a LOT of water.  I'd add two points to your mention of water:  
          a) if you're storing it in advance of an emergency, remember to replace it as it gets old.  (I know you mentioned bleach, but it's also important to replace it as it gets old).  
          b) having a half-micron filter (with a hand pump) is very handy.  They're small and not real expensive (I think you can still get them for around $30, or at least that's what they were back when I bought one).  I had one for backpacking, and when the floods hit here, many neighbors shared its use... it allowed us to extend water supplies.

Dried Foods  -  you mentioned these.  Though it sounds like "comfort", candy serves an essential use, especially when calories are needed quickly for staying warm.  Hard candies store well (put them in water-tight bags).  Choose foods that don't need cooking to be consumed.  And toward that end:  Keep dried figs on the list!

Again, I'm glad you and your family are OK.  Stay warm.

Mike
 

Rafed,

lol okay peanut butter and a First Aid Kit.

All others please feel free to contribute your helpful advice.

To say that this was an eye opener is an understatement- some planning now can make things much easier in an emergency.

We get the same advice and the same list for Earthquake preparedness, but really, do we ever listen?  Well, not exactly.  After all these years, it hasn't happened yet..........  See?

Problem with the earthquakes is there never is any warning........

So happy that your situation turned out so well!

Suzi

Suzi,

I hear ya, and we are all complacent, but besides the generator, is anything on my (incomplete) list really very expensive? Not really. If you spent $10 per week, you would probably be in good shape in a year.
I was standing on Ocean Avenue, where the boardwalk at the beach used to be (before it was washed away), when the News 12 (New Jersey News) reporter looked at me and said "This is something you see on tv that happened somewhere else"

After a week of no power, I met friends and my turkey spam on ritz crackers went like hotcakes lol.
And hurricanes never hit New Jersey, except for H. Irene, 2011,where we lost power for 4 days and I had to dry my parents flooded basement by hand with a mop and bucket, the day after my father's funeral,
and of course H. Sandy where we had no power for 11 days, many many houses destroyed, drinking water contaminated, gasoline shortages, food shortages.
I'm no expert of any sort, Just some food for thought.

John G.  Wow!  So last night nobody could sleep because of the wind.  Big gusts, but we are used to it!  Happens a lot monthly!!  We just did our stuff today, ate Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and I potted a few rooted cuttings (which are adorable, by the way), and JD leaves after dinner to go to the grocery for ice cream.  It's his fav, and he's out.  I'm on the computer, responding to your post and..

He walks in, and says "Suz!  Did you know the tree between us and our neighbor blew down?"  OMG!  NO!  So I go out in the dark, and sure enough!  It's gone!!  Nobody was hurt, but that was a HUGE tree!!  It was a California Pepper Tree.  Wind is usual here, but it has never blown down a tree close to me before.  Wow!  Wish I knew to take a picture.  The tree is gone!

This is not serious, but kinda shows you, no matter where you are, anything can happen!

Suzi

Mike is right, a Katadyn water filter, or equivalent can make virtually any water safe and drinkable. Find a blue 55g plastic drum and get a faucet for it. Holds a lot of water in a convenient container.

Coleman stove, or some other form of cooking. Propane burner (cooking and heat) and propane light that use the small bottles of fuel (which keep for ever).

If you are going to have a generator (good idea) you need to have more than a gallon of gas, as well, so that requires some 5g containers, and some fuel preservative/stabilizer as well.

Extension cords to get from the generator to the frig or whatever you want to run with the generator.

Elec heater (1500w) to plug into the generator.

If downed tree are going to be an issue, a cheap chainsaw works wonders - helps you get in and out, and work/emergency crews, also.

There are canned/bottled fruit drinks, as well as canned/bottled soda that can be stored a longer time and are supplement/substitute for some of the water/liquid that you need to survive on, and provide some calories, as well. I know, I know. But this is disaster preparedness, not every day living.

There are breakfast bars and power bars, etc. that are not perishable (almost like MREs).

Diapers. Bleach.

Finally, you can actually practice this to see if you have everything you need. Just turn your power off (or pretend) and try and live for a day and see what you need and don't have. You don't have to do this every month, but doing it once will be an eye-opener.

John,

It may sound funny, but peanut butter is a great and important source of energy. Look at the health food bars, most of them contain peanut butter. Need the carbs. Has nothing to do with the first aid kit.
Which is totally different story.

Thank you

Rafed, I agree with you about peanut butter (and nut butters in general) being excellent foods to keep on hand... they don't require tricky conditions to store, and they pack a lot of energy into small volumes.  One cautionary note though:  for those moments when hypothermia threatens, they're the wrong thing to eat.  They take a certain amount of body energy to digest and unleash their greater stores of energy, so that initial investment of energy that you put into digesting them can pose a threat when hypothermia is imminent.  So for those occasions (i.e. when you're cold and hungry and losing body temperature), that's when you need simple sugars.  THEN eat the peanut butter after you've done the short term boost from sugar/candy.  :-)

To all who may reference this in future:  Did I mention that people need a LOT of water?  Put a half-micron water filter on the list (and get one with a hand pump, not a battery operated pump)... they're not expensive (mine was about $30). Stores that sell camping/backpacking supplies are a good place to find them.  Though it's possible to store enough water for the very short term (a couple of days), you really need a way to replenish drinking water.  Along with a couple of plastic gallon jugs to hold the water, it helped us out a lot.  (I don't mean to overdo it or inappropriately rehash the point... it's just that safe drinking water is right up there in terms of basic human needs, not far behind oxygen and maybe a couple others... it's way ahead of food in terms of how quickly you're in trouble if you don't have it).  Thankfully the disaster relief teams bring in safe water, but if you're in a position of needing to be self-reliant, water filters work. 

OK, I'll stop spamming you guys with repetitious posts.  :-)   I'm glad you're safe John, and my best hopes for all those still in danger.  I know from experience that for many, it'll be years before things are anywhere near being back to "normal"... after the initial shock comes a process of adjusting to a sort of "new normal".  So let's not forget how long-lasting the effects are.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

p.s.  keep dried figs on hand too... they're good for the soul.

Thanks Mike,

I didn't know that. We all have our good intentions and this is a great thread.
Much info we didn't know.

Rafed,

I agree.
if I had peanut butter besides the turkey spam for the ritz crackers, I'd probably be a rock star with my friends.

LOL, I just forgot to include the First Aid kit in my list so PB and F/A kit are added.

I just came across this link to an interactive view of before and after satellite images of the damage.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/hurricane-sandy-before-after-photos/

Those are incredible pix.

If the damage is something like an earthquake and you don't have to evacuate, keep a solar oven on hand (they are fun anyway). On days when the sun doesn't shine, eat cold canned soups, unless you have another heat source. Look up and make and easy 'cat can stove' - that burns denatured alcohol and can cook/heat small amounts. Or buy a small alcohol Trangia camping stove (look on ebay, army surplus, etc)

Peanut butter and chocolate are good, easy stores. You want calories in as efficient form as possible. Rice and beans (lentils) too, if you are stuck for a long time, though you will have to cook them. For flavor, top with a can of soup.

Keep a few things in your car if you are away from home when an earthquake hits - things such as a blanket or sleeping bag, some quick food and water, and comfortable walking shoes and socks.

If your family members are older and tend to be out and about, have an out of state family or friend you all can contact in case you have been separated. Things can happen fast.

Wind-up radio, flashlights and batteries, manual can opener, candles and dry matches if there is no fire danger or leaking gas...

As to water, with today's filters, you can purify almost anything. But they will last longer if you run tainted water through an old t-shirt or sock to remove as many larger impurities as possible first, and then use your good filter.

If you are well prepared, it's best not to brag too much. There are many people who do not prepare at all and might come knocking on your door... and while sharing is good in most circumstances, you can't feed everyone for a week. Your own children come first.

Major catastrophies do happen. Katrina, Sandy, tsunamis, earthquakes.... The guy on the white horse might not be able to come for days. We will be literally on our own.