Community Chat

[Mominohio]

Weather in the news made me think, what do you do, that is somewhat unusual, to prepare when a storm is called for?

We all hear about the store runs, or filling the gas tank, but do you do something most people don't or that you have never heard of other's doing prior to a big storm coming?

I catch up the laundry in case of power outage or for us, too much water and the septic is taxed and can't be used heavily.

I also run the recyclables and get them cleared out. We don't have pickup service for this, and have to take them into the nearest little town. When it rains a lot it is muddy where they park the dumpster, and when it snows, they don't plow it out right away, so I get my stuff out prior to a storm, so I can have space for awhile.

I heard on the news today that someone salts their sidewalks before the storm hits.

What unusual things can you think of?

[scotttie]

sometimes fill the bathtub so there is water to flush the toilet. When we don't have power we don't have water.

[traveler]

When we were on a well I would also fill the bathtub. I would also check the camping supplies, propane level on grill.

[circles]

I, too, fill the tub....

[JeanLouiseFinch]

I clean and refill the bathtubs, too.

[RedTop]

When we had well water, I also filled the bathtub, and several 5 gallon buckets for bathing and toilet flushing. I filled all water pitchers and made gallons of koolaid for the kids to drink. I froze water and used freezer paks to put inside our cooler to keep the things we used most often, cold, so as not to be opening the refrigerator door any more than absolutely necessary. I always made a big pot of soup, along with a cake or cookies for snacking. All of our emergency lights were set out for easy access, and my girls were given flashlights to set beside their beds. We always made sure we had plenty of dry wood in the basement for the stove, and built a fire as soon as the storm hit, so that the house was never cold, if and when the power went off. I also taught my girls to dress warmer than usual when we were without power.

[Stella Dallas]

Bring in firewood and do my laundry. One year we had a snow storm with a power outage so I ran back and forth in the snow to bring in wood (I was home alone with just my little boy because my husband was stuck at work; it was much too dangerous for him to drive). My clothes got wet and filthy and I realized that most everything I could wear was wet and my supply of clean, dry clothes was diminishing rapidly. So I learned my lesson: bring in firewood before the storm hits and so I won't have to get dirty and wet during a power failure.

[brewhaha]

Head to my wine cellar.

[151949]

When we are going to have a bad storm it is a hurricane - we have to hang up storm shutters over the windows and get in water plus make certain we have kerosene for the generator. We also occasionally get tornadoes and when there is one of those nearby we have to go into the master BR to wait it out because we don't have windows in there. There was a tornado just about 5 miles from here on Fri night. It cut through the woods where many homeless people live and also a campground. By some miracle no one was injured.

[10sluvr]

like many of you, i fill jugs, tub and pails of water. we have one of those little portable power units that you can plug something into. i keep that charged up. fill oil lamp, candles, batteries, old battery radio, get out fondue pot that heats with sterno. i also do some cooking, even made extra coffe and put in thermos-it won't stay hot, but we can reheat. we have gas fireplace so we would always have heat.

this can also be a year round drill. we have severe storms in the spring, possible tornados in summer and fall.

if i have time, i'd go to library for a few books, too. take a shower and wash my hair. make sure animals have water, too.