POWER OUTAGE PRACTICE - Saturday March 28th

[reppans]

No way I could sell my family on participating for Earth Hour - literally, every other year we seem to have an Earth WEEK to deal with . Anyways, I personally do an Earth Hour every night before going to sleep (reading and phone/tablet surfing in bed) .

 

[Capolini]

I would suspect that many of you can relate to this.

This MAY NOT apply to everywhere[Place of residence]. To an extent I think it probably will.

I always get a KICK out of how everyone PANICS when a Snow storm, possible hurricane/tropical storm,ect is in the forecast.

This is for my area. There is EVERYTHING you need within 1 mile. Gas stations, Grocery stores, restaurants. banks ect. Two miles away rolling hills, creeks and some hiking trails. 4 miles away more of that and plenty of open land.

Getting back to the PANICKING! I would say a majority of the people are flooding the super markets and gas stations,without fail,every time these possible weather scenarios are in the forecast!! I land just :shakehead

I am thinking, "What is the worst that can happen"? You have to walk a mile?! Most of them are so used to modern conveniences that if a REAL survival issue came up they would PERISH!

Here is my point and my mindset. HAVE ANY OF YOU CAMPED? BETTER YET, HIKED THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL OR SOMETHING SIMILAR IN YOUR NECK OF THE WOODS?

As you guys know when doing this you bring the essentials to sustain life[maybe a couple goodies!] with the LEAST amount of weight.

In my younger years[can not back pack anymore because of Disc herniations in cervical and lumbar spine]I hiked Hundreds of miles on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

You learn how to survive and when you get home a shower, a couch, ect. are much appreciated!

I enjoy being out in nature and am most happy and satisfied when I am in the mountains/wilderness.Think about the way our ancestors lived 100/200 years ago.

To end it,that kind of simple and free life is still in my blood but more difficult[the lifestyle] to achieve as most things are revolved around money today.

My Grandmother was born in Italy One of Eight children. Three came to the USA. She was born in Mountains 5000 to 8000 feet that are in a National park,,,,,in other words it has not changed.no building of anything. I have been blessed to have been there 3 times.

They new how to survive! They lived off the land and went once every few weeks to Acquasanta[the village below] which was 10km away to get what they needed,,,,,by foot!

Thanks for letting me ramble and reminisce!

 

[StarHalo]

I need to get hold of a decent radio. In the event of a disaster here it would be quite important. I'll take a look next time I'm at my local electrical store.

We've got 50+ pages of radio discussion/recommendations, but here's a quick cheat sheet.

 

[zipplet]

Thanks for the information StarHalo, that's very helpful. It looks like I can even get some of these models here.

 

[MidnightDistortions]

I have plenty of batteries for my flashlights, weather/AM/FM radio. I got some camping stuff, but i need to work on getting food. I got some canned food in the cabinet i try to keep some stock in case of an extended power outage.

I'm kinda surprised no one has mentioned having a charged cellphone and alerting your power company you have a power outage. I had a power outage and since i get unlimited texting i'm with ComEd which i can text to if there was ever a power outage in my area. When the service crews were out fixing my area i saw them go by my place to make sure no power lines were cut. I didn't see anything but i'm amazed by their speediness. We had some crazy thunderstorms and afterwards some high winds. Most likely a tree fell over some lines but having this ability allows the service crews to pinpoint where the problem is. Plus if you ever do come across some down lines you could possibly let them know about it so they got an exact location to go to.

 

[Str8stroke]

MD, don't forget water. I built some gravity filters that I use whilst camping, but I could easily use them at home. They are simple and cost less than $60 to make. The main cost is the two ceramic candle filters, two food grade 5 gal buckets & two screw on lids. And 15 min of your time. They can make rain or pond water taste better than store bought. Pretty amazing.

 

[MidnightDistortions]

Yeah, definitely . I usually use a filter, tap water and i got several containers that have been left in the freezer so for hot summers they'd be good to have for the first couple of days.