Disaster! flashlight

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Shelter at home without heat and power is inconvenient, evacuation is a disaster. Plan like your backpacking, with a few twists.
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True, all preppers should do a little backpack style or car camping style camping, to see what gear and equipment they need, and want.

With that kind of gear, camping in one room of your own home or condo can be relatively comfortable, even in the case of a New York winter period of no power or heat.

This also applies to a Californian who may want to move into his garden shed or a tent in the back yard after a bad earthquake, it also fits evacuating.
 
MatthewSB said:
What if you only had to choose one light?
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Energizer-Eveready 03882 - 3 LED Flashlight (Batteries Included) (EVLL25S)

Link removed as per the banner at the top of the page - Norm


Not waterproof and with brittle plastic, but it's the one I carry in the trunk of my car. In the box are adapters for C, AA, and AAA cells. With two AAAs from an old remote it produced good light for over 5 hours!

I had a much longer post, but forgot the forum software always logs me out and eats my composition, so that's all.

Oh, solar chargers are a very good idea given their low cost.
 
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Another good thing is to make a plan and write it down. List everything you plan to do starting 3 days out. Doesn't have to bee super detailed, just enough to remember. Things like:

3 days out:
Recharge all batteries
fill up generator and ensure it is running
gather paperwork
Do laundry

2 days before:
Gather important papers
Get cash from ATM
Fill cars with gas
pack a bag

Day before
Check everything

During:
Watch the house
Check on family

After:
cleanup

I found that making one helps things stay organized and you can refine it after each disaster.
 
I found the blog/site 'Listening to Katrina' to be quite comprehensive for disaster prep. It's a guy recounting his experiences and his shoulda-dones after Katrina.
 
Poppy said:
I'd rather have a knife and fire-starter.
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I've got that covered :D

For example... Bark River Bravo 1 in 3V and ESEE FireTool (3/8" Ferro rod with waxed cotton balls inside the water tight compartment) works well for me for day hikes and overnighters, I'm sure it would serve well for longer periods out.

After spending hours learning to make an ember with a bowdrill, I go way out of my way to make sure that I never have to do that again ;)

Bravo1Sheath_zps0d01eacb.png
 
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Jimson said:
In the box are adapters for C, AA, and AAA cells. With two AAAs from an old remote it produced good light for over 5 hours!
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There is a product called "Battery Family" that's basically a series of nesting battery adapters for AAA-D size. This isn't a new idea or concept and I have no endorsement for a particular product. I'm just giving an example of an off-the-shelf product that should work in most lights, assuming the light doesn't draw more than AAA can feed.

Jimson said:
I had a much longer post, but forgot the forum software always logs me out and eats my composition, so that's all.
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I've gotten in the habit of hitting CTRL-A and CTRL-C before I hit submit in case I get logged out. I just login, refresh, and paste my post back into the box. You're not the only one! :)

itguy07 said:
Another good thing is to make a plan and write it down. List everything you plan to do starting 3 days out. Doesn't have to bee super detailed, just enough to remember.
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You're describing an "Emergency Action Plan." It's not a bad idea to have them written down simply on index cards in an "Emergency Planning" file box. It can be nice to have differently labeled cards with phone numbers and such on them, especially if you must react with little time.
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Hey Matthew, I have that exact same starter, but I got it back when it was "Rat Cutlery." Mine has a compass under the cap and it fits some dryer lint, half a birthday candle, and a chunk of "wetfire tinder" perfectly. I love that thing, it lives strapped to my BOB. What's the green thing on the lanyard? Is this something they've added since I got mine?
 
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argleargle said:
Hey Matthew, I have that exact same starter, but I got it back when it was "Rat Cutlery." Mine has a compass under the cap and it fits some dryer lint, half a birthday candle, and a chunk of "wetfire tinder" perfectly. I love that thing, it lives strapped to my BOB. What's the green thing on the lanyard? Is this something they've added since I got mine?
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You can sell the original "RAT" ones for a lot of money at jungletraining.com/forums to the collectors there.

The green thing on mine is a pocket knife sharpener I got from a local outdoors store.
 
MatthewSB said:
You can sell the original "RAT" ones for a lot of money at jungletraining.com/forums to the collectors there.
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That's cool to know, thanks. Too bad mine is so heavily used. :)

MatthewSB said:
The green thing on mine is a pocket knife sharpener I got from a local outdoors store.
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We have done something similar. I keep a photon light and a broken-off piece of one end of an old hacksaw blade on my lanyard (so I don't need to sharpen my knife so much!) :)
 
If your going to get a crank or shake light, make sure it's a capacitor stile so that it doesn't need maintenance monthly. Capacitors can sit uncharged for over 20 years, if left in a cool place less than 10celcius 60 years is possible
lightstorm or nightstar are the two I know of that'd be prefect for non battery light. I'm thinking of getting a couple.


i love my 9 volt safelight PaLights. One year in glow mode and still going
 
argleargle said:
I've gotten in the habit of hitting CTRL-A and CTRL-C before I hit submit in case I get logged out. I just login, refresh, and paste my post back into the box. You're not the only one! :)
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I forgot to do that, and was really put out. Wonder why they don't fix this issue?

Anyhow, I'm a big fan of run time vs brightness. In some of the more extreme emergencies a person might go for many months - or even years - without getting a resupply of batteries of any kind. So 'making do' and conserving has been part of my planning from the gitgo.

During the Cold War lighting in shelters was a definite issue. Back in 1976 Cresson Kearny wrote a government booklet about the construction of an expedient shelter.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35738762/Expedient-Shelter-Construction

Going a step further than most, he took his entire family out into the country, built one of his designs, and occupied it for more than 72 hours. On page 64 of the linked file he tells how the failure of his lighting system caused the major crisis of the experiment. Some people just don't handle extended periods of total darkness very well.

A fairly recent book I believe many people on this forum would find interesting is titled "At Day's Close: Night In Times Past" by Roger Ekirch. In the old days, the combination of superstition, general poverty and low levels of lighting technology made the night a very grim time indeed! The dimmest light I own - the 1.5 ma "low" setting of the Pak Lite Ultra would be vastly better than anything a backwoods peasant could afford. And in terms of safety, there could be no reasonable comparison.

Getting back to the thread's subject, I'm reconsidering the "one flashlight" which will reside in my car. A new 4D Xenon Maglite may get the nod if an ongoing runtime experiment goes as expected. Tossing the original bulb, and letting 4 large batteries power a low-draw aftermarket LED could give me light for a long time. And with a larger bulb tucked away in the base, I'd effectively have two lights without breaking the stipulation of the thread-starter.

If somebody like Pak Lite were to manufacture a special version of one of their models based on the old PR bulb, I could put it in my 6C or 6D Maglite. With a respectably bright bulb in the front for regular use, my backup 'disaster' bulb would be unstoppable. :)
 
A lot of good information in this thread. One thing I have not put much thought into is a solar charger. After reading this thread, I may have to take a serious look into them. Having a plan is probably going to be the most important part after deciding what type of disaster your planning for. I like the simple plan posted by itguy07 in post 43. Very simple and easy to follow, just enough to help you remember.

My personal choice for lights is to have some that have a high output and can throw light to check things out during or after an emergency or disaster happens. Afterwards, the lower output lights are useful for their long run times and providing just enough light to get things done. Of course, have lights that can take a variety of battery types AAA, AA, C, D, CR123 as has been mentioned. Let’s not forget the non-flashlight things such as battery powered radios, TVs, cell phones, and ham radios if you have one.

Living in Michigan, I usually don’t see much larger scale events happen. The biggest thing I see is a severe storm that takes out the power for a day or two. The last power outage I had was 16 hours. We used a combination of a SF 6P, a 3 D-cell Maglite, and believe it or not, a black and decker storm light that runs off versapack batteries to check things out after the storm. Too bad they stopped making the versapacks. Those lights are surprisingly good, though not necessarily durable. Once it was determined there was no damage and it was just a power failure, the two light that got the most use were a MiniAA and a Zebra H51Fc AA on their lower output settings. I bought the headlamp relatively recently and I should have bought one much sooner, very useful. On their lowest settings, both lights ran for several hours and didn’t hardly touch the batteries.
 
When helping to supply lighting for an elderly couple suffering a sustained power outage a while back, I ended up sticking a bunch of regular flashlights in drinking glasses to provide some area lighting. Not really optimium, especially for folks with little knowledge or interest in lighting gizmos. Plus, the higher output lights (Malkoff MD2 with M61, for example) got pretty warm with continuous run-time.

Since then, I have invested in a bunch of lanterns for myself and to "rescue" affected family members.

There are some very nice options these days, and the runtime, tints, and output efficiency are just getting better and better. Pluse, there is nothing quite as easy or familiar to people as a lantern. Along with a good headlamp or three, I consider dedicated lanterns a critical piece of disaster lighting prep.

Head on over to the lantern forum to see what's up with lanterns these days.
 
dss_777 said:
When helping to supply lighting for an elderly couple suffering a sustained power outage a while back, I ended up sticking a bunch of regular flashlights in drinking glasses to provide some area lighting. Not really optimium, especially for folks with little knowledge or interest in lighting gizmos. Plus, the higher output lights (Malkoff MD2 with M61, for example) got pretty warm with continuous run-time.
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I've done that with my Preon 2 on low for a nightlight if I think the power will go out. Makes it a lot easier to find things, and I think it runs for 20 or so hours so 8-10 at night is nothing. And with rechargeable AAA's it's a great nightlight.
 
Jimson said:
....If somebody like Pak Lite were to manufacture a special version of one of their models based on the old PR bulb, I could put it in my 6C or 6D Maglite. With a respectably bright bulb in the front for regular use, my backup 'disaster' bulb would be unstoppable. :)
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IIRC the Sandwich Shoppe still carries the SMJLED which would be close to what I think you want, except for two cell lights. The SMJLED is a 5mm LED ground around the sides to throw light out the sides, towards a reflector. The altered LED is then sealed into a PR2 base with a driver so it can be put into any two cell light that takes a PR2 bulb. Last time I checked they were $10 each at the Shoppe with twofer and fourfer deals.

They don't burn out like incan PR2s. They take drops and vibration. After Katrina someone was giving out a really odd light called the Energizer Quick Switch. It had a highly columnated beam, took a PR2 bulb and was set up to run on three different sizes of batteries: 2xAA, 2xC, 2xD. (Actually with the stock PR2 bulb the light is designed to quickly go through all of your cells in an emergency, whatever size you have left. It's made by Emergizer, after all.)

Anyway, the Quick Switch makes a great emergency light for non-flashaholics when it is equipped with an SMJLED. I converted four of them for friends and I still keep one around for a loaner during outages. There are quite a few common cheap lights out there that make good emergency lights with the addition of an SMJLED.

Check out the SMJLED as a swap for any stock PR2 bulb in any light with a decent reflector. Not real bright by our standards but very rugged with a nice white light and it runs forever.
 
Great Thread.

I'm glad that AA, AAA batteries still get a huge margin of recognition.
I like to point out battery adapters which they work great, disaster or not.
Battery Adapter - Size Converter Kits - Convert from AAA to AA and from C to D size..ect. not costly at all & they can save the day.




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