Where I live we don't get many hurricanes. Those that do make it this far inland are just a little gusty wind and lots of rain. But ice storms resulting in multiple days without electricity are not rare, and there's always the possibility of a terrorist attack, even here, in a town no-one has heard of.
I don't live in a flood-prone area (and I refuse ever to do so)--a flood is well-nigh impossible at my house--and earthquakes are really really rare.
But we've lived through several days with no power just fine with the supplies we had on hand, or walked across the street to the Dollar Store to procure (BEFORE the storm arrived, people). But I've never really assembled an "emergency survival kit" because I've never seen the need for it. We've never had to leave our home in an emergency, and it has been hard to imagine a likely scenario in which we would (except terrorism).
That's changed after reading these two threads, including comments. (UPDATE: Cold Fury appears to be temporarily down.) You can never have enough duct tape, and if we did have to leave our home (which has never happened) we wouldn't have the necessary supplies in one place that we could pick up easily and quickly on our way out.
Read those two threads for yourself and take action. Don't expect anyone to come and take care of you for at least three days--very possibly more.
And if you do live in an area where evacuation may well be prudent, hold your local officials to account if they don't announce such in a timely manner and plan for the evacuation of those with no transportation, as evacuation plans don't go to the Federal level. And, needless to say, when NOAA or the Weather Channel or someone tells you that a storm could strike in the next couple of days, don't wait. Get out of there however you can. It's way better to have repeatedly evacuated your home needlessly (in hindsight) than to fail to evacuate the one time a storm does strike.
If you didn't know that before, you certainly do now.
Comments