I promised to share the experiences in my life that have taught me to "Be Prepared" throughout the month of September. Here is part four:
So far in this series, I've covered water, bugging out, and food emergencies. Today I'm going to focus on electricity.
Where we live now has opened my eyes to the shakiness of the rural grid. There's been too many times to count when the power has been off for hours at a time. A vehicle accident involving a pole, a thunderstorm, a layer of ice, even a mischievous squirrel can cause a failure. Fortunately our linemen are quick to start repairs and a few hours later we're back in business. This particular memory reminds me that even quick repairs aren't always fast.
It was springtime 10 years ago and my daughter and I headed off to a bigger town an hour away to catch a musical and do some shopping. There was a storm forecast but nothing out of the ordinary for our area. The trip home was a grand display of nature's fury that was anything but ordinary, though. When we finally made it home, after dark, the power was out. I still wasn't really concerned and went to bed as usual.
When I got up the next day there was still no electricity. I still was thinking it was no big deal and would be fixed sooner than later. I had no idea how widespread the outage was. At that time, we didn't have kids at home, farm animals or a deep freezer. I didn't even have to be concerned with pipes bursting or overheating because the outside temperatures were perfect for opening the windows.
But the second full day without power was perturbing. Two days of going to work after a baby wipe bath was enough. By then, I knew the food in my fridge was going to be rotting, not to mention the fact that I couldn't flush the toilets but I COULDN'T FLUSH THE TOILETS. On the plus side, I had mastered charging up my Kindle and cell phone at work and metering their usage to make it to the next day.
Days three through five are a blur in my memory. I was driving to town after work every day to borrow a shower and living on peanut butter sandwiches. I do, however, vividly recall the hour I spent filling up trash bags with all the food that went bad. That foolish expense was all because of my bad judgement of how long our power would be off. If I had only been open to the possibility of a longer outage, I could have borrowed some refrigerator space from a friend.
Except for a planned outage for tree trimming, that's the longest I ever had to go without electricity. But now, with animals and freezers, I stay totally prepared for it to happen again.
