If you live on the East Coast, you’ve probably heard of Frankenstorm. It’s hard to predict the course of Hurricane Sandy, and the weather reports are changing by the hour. Our biggest threats are rain and strong winds, and there’s a chance that snow could mix in in our area as well. The problem is, we won’t know what’s going to happen until it’s going to happen!
A few years ago, the weather reported we might get a few inches of snow. We ended up getting 22″ of snow and we were snowed in for days. We’re fortunate that our power didn’t go out, but thousands were without power for days! Knowing that the weather is always unpredictable in Pittsburgh, and that a storm of some sort is heading our way, we decided to put an emergency plan into action.
So, what’s our plan?
1. A weeks’ worth of food/water supplies
– We have three cases of drinking water
– Dry food supplies — cereal, canned goods, snacks
– Extra formula for Baby Jumper
2. Emergency Supplies
– A generator, to run our furnace and heat our house in case of a power outage
– Extra cans of gas, to run the generator and to fill our cars
– A chainsaw, to cut down trees/branches that fall into our yard
– Both cars have been filled with gas. If the power goes out, the pumps won’t work!
– Cash
– Our personal documents (birth certificates, SS cards, passports) have been put into zip-lock bags. We moved our safe into a higher level, in case we have flooding in our basement.
Household Preparations
– Papa Jumper cleared all the leaves out of our yard and driveway over the weekend. There’s concern that leaves can clog storm drains, which would cause flooding
– Cleaned our gutters, to prevent leaking
– Did all of our laundry. In case our generator doesn’t work, we’ll need lots of warm blankets and our winter clothes!
– Babyproofed our game room. If the winds are super forceful, we’ll go downstairs where it’s safer
– All outdoor furniture has been taken down and put into storage
A tiny part of me thinks we might be overreacting, but the other part of me thinks you can never be too prepared… especially now that we have a child to think about. Preparing for this storm has made us think about other possible scenarios, like a fire escape plan and other natural disaster plans. We’ve updated our emergency contact lists, as well.
Do you have a family emergency plan?
blogger / pear / 1964 posts
No, but we need one! We were scurrying around yesterday filling the grill propane tank, buying batteries and water, making ice, and moving cars and the grill into the garage. I’m sure it’s even more stressful once you add babies into the mix. Luckily, as of this morning, just lots of wind, but no power outages or flooding in my part of upstate New York.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
We learned a lot with Hurricane Irene last year so we did the same things this year plus we had purchased a generator after Irene. Good thing because we are using it right now!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
The amount of snow in that picture is crazy!
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
Yup, your list is pretty much what we do. Along with that once fall hits there’s a emergency duffel bag in both cars at all times. There’s dry clothes, blankets, gloves, water, non perishables for us and the dog. Along with a first aid kit and car emergency kit. We need to update it for the baby now. Biggest plus for us is the fireplace at the new house so there’s never a fear of us getting cold if the power goes out.
We also make sure the house is stocked with candles and flashlights with fresh batteries. Cell phones charged and a plan of what to do with our families and close friends if we can’t communicate. Before it was go to my ILs bc they had the gas fireplace but now that we do it will be at our house.
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
No, but we really should.
The only natural disaster we really need to be prepared for are earthquakes, as we don’t really experience weather-related catastrophes in Southern California.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
we filled the bathtub with water in case they stopped water. no one wants to have nonflushing toilets.
honeydew / 7504 posts
Friday night we picked up 2 cases of bottled water and some non-perishable food. We spent Saturday cleaning out our gutters and putting away our patio furniture. We lost power around 9:30 last night, so we cleaned some stuff out of the fridge and put it into a cooler with ice.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
Glad you guys are safe!! We live in CA, so no hurricanes but plenty of earthquakes. It’s been really scary because we’ve been having a lot of “mini” quakes, which some think will lead to “the big one”… so we have a LARGE earthquake kit in our house, then mini earthquake kits for each of our cars. We also have a first aid kit for the house, as well as for each of our cars.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
We just cleaned up the yard and did our grocery shopping since I knew the stores would be closed on Monday. I also filled every space in the freezer with tupperwares filled with water so that we’d have lots of ice to keep my milk frozen. Then on Monday in what seemed like the very first big gust of wind a huge, 100+ year old tree two houses down snapped like it was a match stick, taking out power lines with it. We were without power for a couple days, but thankfully neighbors across the street had power so we ran an extension cord across the street to power my freezer and preserve breast milk stash! It became pretty clear that it wasn’t a “falling limb” kind of storm, so we all slept in the basement, lest one of our large trees fall on our house. There are crushed houses all around us. We were without power for almost 48 hours. I think I’d like a generator to at least run a space heater next time; we didn’t get much sleep with a cold baby here.