A post by someone who lived through Hurricane Sandy

http://ldsemergencyprep.org/2012/12/16/things-learned-from-hurricane-sandy/

I love the things this guy wrote.  Here are some of my favorite parts:


16. The electrical grid is way more fragile than I thought.

17. Think of the things that are your comfort, your escape, a cup of hot chocolate, a glass of milk and a ding dong before bed, tequila, etc. Stock up on those too. You will need that comfort after day 3.

30. All of the expensive clothes in the closet mean nothing if they don’t keep you warm.

45. Things that disappeared are never to be seen again for a very long time.

8. 1. Fuel, of all kinds
   2. Matches, lighters of any kind, etc.
   3. Toilet paper
   4. Paper plates, plastic forks and knives
   5. Batteries, didn’t really see a need for them. (flashlights??? I guess)
   6. Milk
   7. Charcoal
   8. Spark plugs (generators)
   9. 2 stroke motor oil, (chainsaws)
   10. Anything that could be used to wire a generator to the house.
   11. Extension cords
   12. Medicines (Tylenol, advil, cold medicine, etc)

Suggested Amounts of Food for one adult

Suggested Amounts of Basic Foods for Home Storage Per adult for one year
(From Letter from First Presidency, Jan. 20, 2002)


Grains            400 lbs

Legumes        60 lbs

Powdered Milk    16 lbs

Cooking Oil        10 quarts

Sugar or Honey    60 lbs

Salt            8 lbs

Water (2 weeks)    14 gallons

This provides 2200 calories per day and 45 grams of protein daily.

Kimball said "Acquire a year's supply of food"

WHY CALL YE ME LORD, LORD, AND DO NOT WHAT I SAY?

“…We reaffirm the previous counsel the Church has always given, to acquire and maintain a year’s supply---a year’s supply of the basic commodities for us….

We encourage families to have on hand this year’s supply; and we say it over and over and over and repeat over and over the scripture of the Lord where He says, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”  How empty it is as they put their spirituality, so called, into action and call him by his important names, but fail to do the things which he says.” 

Spencer W. Kimball, “Family Preparedness,”
Ensign, May 1976, Conference Report May 1976

Changes to our Greensboro Food Storage source

 Here is the article that came out from the Church today.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/concern-over-changes-to-home-storage-centers-unnecessary

They have announced that only 12 food storage facilities will still have self-canning.  The other 89 (including our Greensboro Home Storage Center) will discontinue all self-canning, and will only provide pre-canned food.

The nickname for the Greensboro Home Storage Center has always been "the cannery".  I guess we are going to have to stop calling it that now.

20-hour Experience without electricity last week

Our power was out for 20 hours on Thursday and Friday, because of a big storm that came through Thursday evening.  It was an awful feeling without my phone and computer, plus I couldn’t use water because the electric pump for our well wasn’t working. 

Luckily I had a few bottles of water so I didn’t have to filter any from the cistern, or go out to the manual pump.  I cooked a microwave dinner in the solar oven, it only took about 10 minutes to warm up.  We used solar yard lights inside that night and had quite a bit of light.

When I came home late Thursday night after working at the temple, my husband was in the house.  He said he was so bored because of nothing to do, he had fallen asleep.  Then we thought of our little  5” battery powered TV that we have for emergencies, and we laughed because he hadn’t even remembered we had a TV that didn’t need electricity.

Some things to think about before a hurricane

Prepare now for what could be an active hurricane season.  If we had a direct hit, we could be without power and without grocery stores for 7 days or longer.  (Think worst case scenario like Katrina.) 

Ask yourselves:

Do we have alternative lighting, and batteries?

Do we have alternative ways to cook food?

Do we have enough water stored or ways to purify water?

Do we have cash on hand if there are no ATMs?

Do we keep at least a 1/2 tank of gas in our cars at all times?

Do we have easily prepared meals which do not need refrigeration? (These are called "shelf stable" meals.)

Do we have a non-electric can opener?

Do we own several weeks worth of baby formula, diapers, food, toiletries, and prescriptions?

Do we have a battery powered radio?


Can we save some clean sodapop and juice bottles to store more water in the back of closets?  This could be used to flush toilets.

Can we fit more canned goods under the bed?

Can we buy some solar powered yard lights? (These work great as indoor lighting when the power is off.)

Can we get another 20 lb. propane tank to use with our grill?

Can we buy an alternative recharger for our cell phones?

Do we have a paper copy of the phone numbers of friends and family, if our cell phone is dead?

If the GPS is dead, do we have a paper map to help us evacuate?

Can we buy a generator, or at the minimum, a small solar battery charger and rechargeable batteries?

Biggest Food Storage Challenges

I love the blog "FoodStorageMadeEasy.net".  They asked their readers for their biggest challenges in doing food storage.  Here are the answers.


http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2013/04/25/how-to-overcome-food-storage-challenges/

Northeast States are in a rerun disaster again

Here is an article about the problems people in the Northeast are having, trying to stock up on food and water and supplies just before this big blizzard is supposed to hit.

The title is "What did the northeast learn from Sandy?  Apparently not much."

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/what-did-the-northeast-learn-from-sandy-apparently-not-much_02082013

I guess the message we can all learn from this is to realize that you should be prepared all the time, not just when a big disaster is predicted by the weather man.  The author says it is as if these people didn't learn anything the first time around.

Four Things You Need When Disaster Strikes

This is a great article by Creek Stewart, I really think the pictures are useful, so if it takes awhile to load, have patience.  I like the picture of the firestarters the best.

These four categories are what you need to include in your "bug-out bag", also known as a "B.O.B." or a 72-hour-kit.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/4-things-youll-need-when-disaster-strikes/

Morrisville's emergency notification system

I got this information off of the Town of Morrisville's newsletter.

"Morrisville recently changed its emergency notification system to ReadyWake!  Make sure you register your number at https://wakecounty.onthealert.com/ to be notified in the event of an emergency.  The system will only be used for emergency purposes such as:  drinking water contamination, utility outage, evacuation notice and route, missing person, fires or floods, bomb threat, hostage situation, chemical spill or gas leak or other emergency incidents where rapid and accurate notification is essential for life safety."

You may wonder if any of these scenarios could ever happen here, and if you would need to be notified.  I was interested to see that a train derailment caused 300 people to be evacuated because of possible hazardous chemicals in eastern North Carolina just a couple of days ago:

http://www2.wnct.com/news/2013/feb/04/clean-continues-after-eastern-nc-train-derailment-ar-2995710/

Write down phone numbers

I had a dream the other night, I was lost and I did not have my cell phone and couldn't call anyone because I didn't know anyone's phone number.

I woke up and realized this is really a problem in real life, not just in dreams. My brother lost his cell phone and he was in real trouble, he didn't know any of the phone numbers he needed.

I want to encourage you all to write down all your most important numbers and put a hard copy of them into your glove compartment in your car, in your purse, in your wallet, at your workplace, etc.

There may come a time when your cell phone is lost or stolen or out of power, and you will be very thankful you have phone numbers so you can make a phone call on someone else's phone.

Where to begin

January challenge:

One of the hardest things is "where to begin". I have found a great checklist of "Baby Steps" from FoodStorageMadeEasy.net http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ which will help you as you start out your food storage/emergency preparedness journey.

Go to this web page http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/babystep-checklists/ and register, and they will email one checklist to you every other week for one year.

The checklists cover 72 hour kits, water storage, 3 month supply of normal foods, and your entire one year supply of long-term foods as well as some critical non-food items. Each list includes to-do tasks, items to purchase, recipes and more!

I think this is a great way to learn how to do food storage, with very little effort on your part.