[RevDWW]

Originally Posted by Theresa

I've always wondered why people buy bread, water and milk when they predict an ice storm. water I can understand b/c you need water if pipes burst etc....

but I'm talking about getting milk and bread that you probably wont use. Its just the first things gone off the shelves....

I wonder how many gallons of milk go bad b/c folks hoard it?

If they set it outside its just going to freeze should they lose power.

as will anything you purchase to make sandwiches.

what are you going to do?

Speaking of....

What do you do?

i'd like to hear what preparations folks make for ice storms or other weather related outages

We bought a table top grill, charcoal, matches, unscented candles, batteries for flashlights, those big jugs of water to sit by the sink for brushing our teeth should we not have water also....filled up the bathtubs to use to flush the toilets - wet wipes - When the power was out, we put heavy quilts and blankets over the windows and door openings, lit our candles in the one room we all congregated in and were actually quite cozy and warm.

games - to keep the kids entertained - they LOVED playing games when the power was out.

We kept food in the cooler outside on the patio - if it was during the winter we were ok, we had outages in the spring and I'd been keeping large bowls of ice in the fridge and filled up the cooler as soon as the lights went out -

I had a manual can opener and canned goods I warmed in their cans on the grill and was able to prepare food just fine. Grilled hot dogs - kids thought it was great.

*note* take the candles OUT OF THE ROOM to blow them out - excessive smoke is smothering LOL

When it looked like a hurricane was headed our direction I bought a Marine Battery(Deep cycle) and a 750 watt inverter. You attach the inverter to the battery and you can run a fan all night. You could run a lamp or other things as well. When the battery gets low you can charge it with your car or a sloar panel if you have one. I know a guy that runs a small household on four, forty-five watt solar pannels and a bank of 14 batteries. He doesn't have central aire but he does have two window units.