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I keep a weeks worth of freeze dried food rations/MREs, a couple of charged USB powerbricks, flashlights and batteries, body wash wipes, a basic bathroom kit. A
by swozey 10y ago
I keep a weeks worth of freeze dried food rations/MREs, a couple of charged USB powerbricks, flashlights and batteries, body wash wipes, a basic bathroom kit. As I'm writing this I realized I don't have any water. I need to buy water and gas and put some stuff in my car.
Anyway, in 2008 I lost power for 15 days during hurricane Ike. It was an interesting scenario I'd never been in or considered. I still had to go to work 30 minutes away (Houston) which consumed gas, having to go to work during this might sound bad; but it was the ONLY place in miserably hot September in Houston where I could charge my phone and sit in an air conditioner because we had power. To buy gas I had to find a gas station and they all had insane lines (hours) if you could even find a gas station that was open AND had gas. All of those gas stations were 30+ minutes away from my house. Nothing in my part of the city (Heights, which is nearby downtown) was open at all. This might not have been an issue for some, but I had lived in the city for about a month and knew nothing but my neighborhood and now I couldn't use GPS or look up anything unless I was at work.
I had never really considered that some emergency like that would happen and that there still had to remain some normalcy of life (like waking up and going to work). I actually had to have my friend mail me food/items a few times because I was still able to get packages, I just had no idea when power in my area would be restored.
It was definitely an eye opener. Also property theft was incredibly rampant. There were times I had to sit on my balcony and watch my neighbors places because so many people left town and looters were looking for places with no people present. If you saw the popular "You loot I shoot :(" picture of the destroyed house from Houston during Ike, that was a block from my house.
I remember after about a 10 days the CVS down the block from me opened up as I was driving by. I ran in and left with about 10 boxes of Gushers and other random fruit chew type foods because all of their perishables were bad and candy was all that was left. But at least I had something to eat.
edit: TC Jester/Washington you loot I shoot image; https://xnomad.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/17-09-08_1931.jpg?w=980&h=980&crop=1 https://xnomad.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/17-09-08_1931.jpg...
- gremlinsinc 10y agoThe funny thing is..we lost power during Hurricane IKE too.... the jetstream went straight north then dropped down into cincy/dayton Ohio... we were without power for two weeks.. it's the only time I ever remember being touched by a Hurricane in land-locked Ohio. The nearest ocean is 15 hours away.
- swozey 10y agoOuch. I moved from Florida to Houston, so I was used to hurricanes and didn't even care. I remember watching the news and that guy in the bear costume dancing on Galveston beach before my power went out for the 2-3 weeks. The power went out and I just hopped on my phone and used it until the battery died. No concern at all for power conservation or anything. Little did I know the entire TX power infrastructure is above ground and just ready to be decimated by wind. https://youtu.be/JLykQrCLKE8 https://youtu.be/JLykQrCLKE8
- elevensies 10y agoYour mention of GPS just reminded me, there is an app "maps.me" which allows (requires I think) you to preload the maps on a state by state basis. It can do turn by turn navigation on a smartphone without a network connection. It can also do a search for i.e. gas stations nearby.
- oakwhiz 10y agoThere is also OpenStreetMaps which fits easily on an SD card.