TV news calling incoming weather "crippling"

Discussion in 'Back to Basics' started by sniper-66, Dec 10, 2007.


  1. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Two inches of ice coming. The local news is calling for a mad rush to the grocery store to stock up. It must suck to be a unprepared sheeple!
     
  2. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    Best of luck to you all!

    Ice is the winter problem we usually face (because it just won't snow here, doggone it!) and though it looks beautiful, it raises cain on power lines and travel plans. I have 2" spiked "soles" that I've had to wear just to make it to the mail box.

    To have a little fun during the storm; put some cool shapes or statues in your yard and turn on the sprinkler. Not only does it keep the pipes form freezing up, it's a cool ice sculpture that will last past the initial thaw. :)
     
  3. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    I feel for y'all out west - but it does make me appreciate being in sunny Florida. One thing about this - it won't be a "Katrina-fiasco" - those folks out there will wait it out, then buckle down and help each other. We here in the south will help as we can, and hopefully the Goobermint can be kept to a minimum in their involvement.
     
  4. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    [lolol][lolol] Hey sea, I needed a good laugh this morning.


    Seriously though, best of luck to y'all in the thick of it. I've been through an ice storm or two and they are not fun. Take it easy and stay safe.
     
  5. ozarkgoatman

    ozarkgoatman Resident goat herder

    I'm not trying to hijack this thread but, has anyone heard from Monkeyman? Him/Motitmouse, FalconeDance, and I think Annie are all in the area thats been hit pretty hard here in MO. Where I'm at we have only gotten some much needed rain, over 2" yesterday.

    OGM
     
  6. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    They were on my mind this morning, too, after I saw the news. I'm betting that they're all doing okay. Wood heat and storm preparedness will carry them through. They're good monkeys. [winkthumb]
     
  7. ozarkgoatman

    ozarkgoatman Resident goat herder

    I agree but if you have a tree come crashing through your roof that changes things.

    OGM
     
  8. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    Agreed. I wasn't trying to make light of a potentially dangerous storm, just sharing my faith in the ability and preparedness of our monkeys.

    I pray all is well for them and their homes.[angel]
     
  9. ozarkgoatman

    ozarkgoatman Resident goat herder

    The thought never interned my mind Tracy.

    OGM
     
  10. FalconDance

    FalconDance Neighborhood Witch

    Thanks for the good thoughts, guys.

    So far we have lots of cold rain on top of a thin sheet of icy slush, not the horrid stuff they were calling for. BUT when this freezes, it'll more than make up for not coming down as ice to begin with!

    Agreed, woodstoves and being continually prepped, ftw. Did take the paycheck (last one - boss decided to close the business down rather abruptly :shrugs: ) to town yesterday and the traffic was horrendous. Took over 20 minutes just to get TO the off-road to the exit and then another five to the light on the main road (we're talking a usual 2 minutes if there's normal traffic and lights are against you).

    Spooked sheeple in great numbers are very scary, indeed.
     
  11. ozarkgoatman

    ozarkgoatman Resident goat herder

    Glad everythings alright up that way. We have just gotten rain down here, not that I'm complaining mind you because we need it pretty bad. But I do have a whole lot of logs I need to get out of the woods and here to my mill.

    OGM
     
  12. sheen_estevez

    sheen_estevez Monkey+++

    A co-worker sent photo's of the ice storm from Oklahoma pretty nasty, they were out of power and the power company is telling people they could be out of power 5-10 days.
     
  13. gillman7

    gillman7 Monkey+++

    Interesting week, I am here in Tulsa, and the storm has brought some interesting insights to my preps and the attitude of the community. I have limited time and internet access, due to the third day of no electric. I will share more details soon.
     
  14. gillman7

    gillman7 Monkey+++

    Had a great test run with this ice storm this week. No electric for almost 1/2 of the city of Tulsa for about 4 days. There is still about 170,000 without electric even now. Learned some interesting things.

    My preps:
    Need to store more gas for the Gennie. Only had about 10 gallons stored, not enough. People were lined at the gas stations 4 deep at each pump for 3 days. We had convenience stores run out of gas.

    Need to have more propane bottles for lanterns, or other light sources. I did not run out, but cut it closer than I wanted to.

    Plenty of food and water. I currently have about 1 month of continuous food and water stored, I am shooting for 3 months right now.

    My next purchase is a Volcano stove and a Katadyn Gravidyn Filter. I have a gas stove, but my water treatment is a hand held MSR, or when the power is on, we use the treated water from the Fridge. Need to improve that.

    I need to spend more time with my kids and wife at the range. I have a CCL, and carry all the time, but they do not have the comfort level yet with their guns that they need to have. We had a significant rise in home invasions during the blackout.

    Need more bar oil and 2 stroke mix for the chain saw. Did not plan on using it like we did. I am adding it to my prep list.

    Observations:
    Sams Club memberships are well worth the money in these situations. Sheep flock to the convenience stores first, then the Grocery stores, but do not go to the warehouse stores because they are not members. I went in when all of the other stores were swamped, bought supplies, water, extra batteries for a neighbor, and was out of the store within 15 minutes. Another perk was the gas station in the parking lot that was only open to members. It had 16 pumps, and only 2 cars there. Not to mention, you get an additional .03/gallon price reduction than at the regular stations.

    I have a friend that is a regional manager for QT, a major conveniece store chain here. They told me their biggest sales were in Fountain Drinks, Microwave Sandwiches that were eaten at the store, and beer. It just goes to show the mindset of the majority of the people. The comments that I heard was they were drinking because of the stress?!?! Now we have to worry about hungry drunk sheep.....

    I have 2 families that I have known for years, and we discuss current events, and have discussed preps. Needless to say both of them were totally unprepared. After a day and 1/2 of the storm, I called them and asked how they were doing. We talked and I found some specific needs, and went over and took them some things to relieve their immediate needs. Both of the families now have their electric back on, and have since contacted me about sitting down with them to figure out a budget and plan on how to better prepare. We will be talking this weekend, time will tell if they are serious.

    All in all a great test. My kids were impressed with how little it affected us. They are more confident in dealing with emergencies, and I may be helping to develop some sheep into fellow preppers, only time will tell. Not to bad for what the Government has declared as a disaster area.
     
  15. annie

    annie Monkey+++

    thanks for sharing. I'm in KC area & holding my breath. Went out in car today, first time since the messy ice arrived. I saw 1/2 to 1" ice everywhere in 12 mile radius, good news is that streets were clear & dry. Was amazed at the number of large tree limbs down and three complete trees, made me wish for a pick up truck. If I should lose power, the biggest inconvenience will be cooking on the coleman camp stove (coffee is a biggie). Been thru this before and with gas furnace house will hold heat tolerably well for 12 hours prox, depending on wind speed & direction.. Tv news says thousands are in the dark. Possible more snow on the way & if it gets here will turn scanner on to monitor activities. annie
     
  16. FalconDance

    FalconDance Neighborhood Witch

    We didn't lose electric because of the storm at all - although we did last week for a few hours due to morons out on county line road taking potshots at the transformers (for fun) starting a fire in the lines. Guess the shorts trickled into all three transformers that power the town because next thing you knew, we were all in the dark. No problem - out came a few candles and we contentedly ate supper and read and visited.

    Need to lay in more firewood before the next round (tomorrow), though. We're desperately low if another bout of severely cold weather hits us right now. We won't discuss why we're so low (some of it weather related, a huge part of it the 'deal' we made to borrow a truck and trailer didn't pan out), but suffice it to say I am not pleased. Old adage holds: if you want something done, ya gotta do it yourself!
     
  17. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I'll write more later, I just came back up, we lost power and all I can say is that the term survivalist means something now!
    Just got back from flying state emergency missions today, very interesting out there. I will write about my observations like gillman soon, got some interesting insight out of this.

    More to follow....

    Oh, by the way, JP-8 does burn in a Kerosene heater!!
     
  18. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Day 1: Monday was prep day, so I went through the stocks and stores and started getting everything ready. Not a whole lot to do, enough food, water, lighting, everything was pretty much in order. I did need to go get a can of kerosene as I never did get any JP-8 and I decided to get a new fuel tank for my generator as it had a steel tank and it had a fair amount of rust in it from 18 months of neglect.
    I headed into Walmart to get a few things for the wife to do some baking as she was already told to stay home for Tuesday. It was amazing, the sheer frantic look on peoples faces as they were racing around trying to gather things up. Then to stand back and watch what people were getting. If the news says the power is going to be out for a week, why would you buy a electric heater. You could tell people that have never had to prepare for something like this. There were some really well dressed people buying store bought fire wood for that fire place that has never seen a flame in it. One guy had four cartons of cigarettes, a case of donuts, and a gallon of water.
    I got my things and headed home and went to put the tank on the generator and that is when the coil gave up the ghost, It was a 15 year Generac that had never failed me, but it did this time, so no generator. We still had power, so things were going well. The next morning, I had to head into work to get our aircraft ready if and when needed. We had everything out and ready to go. We cleaned every bit of clothing the night before and and got the Kerosene heater PMCS'd and ready to go with a test run. About 1100, the wife called and said that our power had just went out, so when we got the aircraft run up and ready to go, I headed home at 1500. She had the Kerosene heater running in the basement and the temp in the house was where the heater was normally set, so good so far. Tap lights and a kerosene lamp gave enough light to do what we needed, just could hav used more, so going to look into a battery powered LED lamp. We bought a gas stove for the house when we built it and that saved our bacon, literally. I boiled a pot of water to wash dishes, but when the wife ran the water, the hot water heater had enough hot water still in it that she could do the dishes with that hot water. We decided to take showers with the last of the hot water, that made the night for us. About 1900, the power came back on and that was a relief. The ligts out was spooking the daughter, she was constantly crying, but when the lights come on, she instantly stopped.
    Internet just came back up tonight, so life is back to normal. A few things learned. If you don't stock it, you are taking chances that you won't get it, I was amazed at how fast things flew off the shelves. Carry your gun CCW, lots of tempers and saw a few "almost" fights. Do PMCS on your equipment, testing my generator a few days earlier would have probably solved the problem as I would have had time and resources to fix it. Pre-position stuff if you think the power is going to go out, it was a bitch trying to find things, even though I knew where they were. Have a cell phone charger in your vehicle. Check your propane tank often (house) to make sure the propane company is keeping you well supplied, I checked it the day our power was out and found us at %35, unacceptable and I let them know that in no uncertain terms. I got the usual excuses and I wouldn't take them, I told the guy that I didn't want to hear it and I want my propane tank filled by the weekend, we will see, it hasn't happened yet. If family knows you are a prepper, they will invite themselves over in bad times, better put up more than you need for yourselves. Rotate batteries more often than you think you should, old batteries wear down faster than you may want. JP-8 does burn in a Kerosene heater, but is cooler and dirtier than regular kerosene. A nip of schnapps befre bed really does make you feel warm. Have a plan to beat the boredom. When the sun goes down, it is hard to keep the family entertained around a flashlight. Headlamps are a necessity, the LED kind for $12 at Wal-mart is perfect.
    Gillman, I had 40 gallons of gas, I would have split it for some genny time! Well,time to go, need to start prepping for the next storm tomorrow, talking about 7" of snow now.
     
  19. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    Glad you guys and gals made it through the storm. I bet a warm shower was welcomed once the power came back on.
     
  20. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    It's runs like these that really show your weak spots. I am SOOOO glad that I am one of "those" survivalist types.

    I had to leave for work Sunday morning just ahead of the big ice storm. I started getting everything ready for the wife and daughter if the power went out. I got the big kerosene heater and brought it in the house. went to get the kerosene and only had a half of a 5 gallon can.Never restocked after the last use. Got the propane heater out and went to get the propane bottle from the garage. Forgot I had been using it with the weed burner last summer, felt pretty light. Crap!

    Off to town to Lowes. Same story, bunch of panicked morons (course I wasn't one of them) buying up everything in the store. I got the last two 5 gallon cans of kerosene and two 5 gallons bottles of propane. I was lucky, found out later that they were sold out of everything by that afternoon. Also bought another smaller kerosene heater. Almost bought a gas powered generator but opted not to, figured the power wouldn't be out too long.

    I have a 5kw diesel gen set but I have never hooked it up to the new house. We are going to build a house and I didn't see the need to hard wire the gen into the temporary one. Wifes chewing a little backside over that decision.It's buried in the garage somewhere and to heavy to move without the tractor.

    Also I put a lot of stuff into storage when we moved and haven't got a storage building built yet to put it in.So doesn't do any good to have all the survival gear if it's miles away.

    So I get them set up and I head off to S. Texas. I get a call at 8pm that the lights just went off. They light the heaters and we have a couple of the D battery powered Coleman lanterns.

    It was fun the first night but by the second the tone of the conversations were getting more strained.
    One thing I forgot. Fill the bathtub with water for flushing toilets. Doh!!!
    My wife had cooked up a huge pot of stew and I had the propane cookstove set up to heat food with.We had cases of bottled water so they were fine there.

    The power just came back on last night. 5 days off grid. But I am proud of my daughter. She kept the heaters filled and lit and put a small propane heater in the well house. They checked everything out and no frozen pipes.

    Lessons learned: Make sure to replace things as you use them ie; kerosene and propane etc.
    Rule of thumb; enough is NEVER enough
    Make a checklist so you don't forget things, like water to flush the tiolets.

    And most importantly, if you have to leave just before a major ice/snow storm, and your wife is stuck in a house with no electricity in the middle of winter, don't, and I repeat, DON't tell her that it is 85 degrees where you are at!! I didn't know she knew language like that!!!

    I have been informed that when I get home I WILL have the generator wired in. And I WILL have a 500 gallon propane tank with wet line brought out. And to expect to pay for several dinners at expensive restaraunts and a lot of jewlery. Think I'll try to get in some overtime.

    Hope everyone fared well during this. Even with a few hiccups we monkeys are far ahead of the rest of the crowd in these situations.
     
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