Well here we go again with a weather warning! Honestly, this looks like a winter that’s going to have its challenges! Whenever we get weather warning around here I always seem to find myself running around checking on this and that. It can get frustrating to try to think of everything to get battened down before mother nature has her little tantrum.
I’ve decided to make lists. Different lists for different scenarios. This time it’s a weather warning that could end up with a power failure. Rather than trying to remember everything I need to do and the things I should do, I will be making a list of all the preparations that I want to get done when these warning occur.
Of course everyone’s list will be different, but there will also be some similarities. Keeping the rules of 3 in mind, I go through the most important items first. Let’s take a look in order of importance…
1 – Air – not much to deal with here. A weather warning is not likely to require a gas mask, but an air quality warning might get you thinking about N95 masks so get them handy if you think you might need them.
2 – Shelter – lots to think about here. Personally I need to bring in an ample supply of fire wood for heating. In addition, I plan to use propane heaters in my crawlspace to keep the pipes from freezing up. So testing the propane heater and topping up propane supplies goes on the list.
3 – Water – I draw water from a well, so no power=no water. This adds a few items to the checklist such as making sure potable water is on hand and possibly filling the bathtub. In addition to that, I can run my well pump from the generator. Add a test run and topping off fuel to the list.
4 – Food – well we will need to cook without the electric stove during an outage. We use a combination of a wood stove and propane camp stove. Let’s add refilling 1lb propane cans and testing the stove to the list. Wood was covered in number 2, so good to go.
5 – Safety – Lighting could be important so we’ll be adding that to the list by making sure all rechargeable lights and batteries are charged and working. Exterior safety can also be an issue for this type of scenario, so we’ll also make sure we have enough ice salt and anti skid material on hand.
6 – general day to day stuff – I’ve been made fun of for suggesting this before, but I think it counts. Get your daily crap like dishes and laundry done. You don’t need to head into a multiday power outage with dirty dishes in the sink and your favorite woolies in the hamper.
Organize your lists in a first needed basis. Obviously if you need to charge up batteries, get this going first. They can charge on their own while you do other things. Don’t forget to check the TO DO list also. There may be minor projects on there that if completed could help you through.
THink of different scenarios, both advertised such as weather related issues, and not advertised such as EMP or other such event. What can you do in the first minutes, hours and days? Writing it down and creating a physical paper copy checklist can help you keep calm, cool, and organized when you need to be at the top of your game.
