Be Prepared Channel: Winter Time

Well it has been a cold and severe winter in many parts of the country already for the 2009/2010 winter season. Many parts of the country have been blasted a couple of times now with incredibly cold temperatures and lots of snow. Yesterday blizzard conditions hit the midwest. This is a dangerous time of year so it is very important to be prepared for whatever mother nature dishes up.

As we all know climate is constantly changing and you can never be sure of what is going to happen. At times I think we all get lulled into this sense of complacency and then along comes a Katrina to slap us back into reality. The valuable lessons of these major events cannot be understated, nor should they be overlooked as something that happened someplace else. Each of us have to take a personal assessment of our own environment and then plan accordingly. Maybe you live in California and a blizzard is the last thing on your mind, but the preparations for any event transcent location and local geographical issues in most cases. The mentality and preparations are similar. California can take some lessons from Haiti and think about it's own disaster planning along those lines.... But I digress. We can talk about earthquakes and disaster preparations for that scenario in a future installment.

For winter preparations we need to look at some of the likely scenarios.

Risk Assessment:
- Extreame weather (cold, snow, freezing rain, limited visability)
- Down power lines
- Sporadic or non-existent utilities services
- No access to 911 or other emergency services
- Limited travel ability
- Hypothermia

Tips for Winter preparation:

1. Have an alternative source of heat for the extended periods that you might be without power.

Camping Heaters
Kerosene Heaters
Propane Heaters
Fireplace
Woodstove
Stored fuel(propane, kerosene, wood etc)

2. Have alternatives for cooking in an emergency.

Camping stove
Propane stoves
Natural gas stove(usually natural gas stays on even if other utilities fail, but be prepared)
Wood stoves
Fireplace
Stored Fuel(make sure whatever your chosen methods for cooking you have ample fuel available)

3. Make sure you have ample clothing and other ways to keep warm.

Think layers, insulated underwear, thinner socks with thicker wool or insulative type socks over them, sweats, sweaters, jackets.
Outdoors wear again think layers. If you have to go outdoors pay attention to your level of effort and strip layers before you start to sweat. If you sweat, you will get wet and then you will freeze in cold temps. Bundle up appropriately for the weather conditions.

4. Bedding for extreme conditions(ie no power).

Get yourself good sleeping bags rated down to 32 degrees and below. I recommend checking out military surplus for the MSS sleep system used by our folks in uniform, ebay can be your friend.
Wool blankets, again military surplus, or look for the higher quality Italian wool blankets which are larger, heavier, and seem to be much better quality.
Heavy comforters
Again think layers.

5. Water

People can survive approximately 3 days without water, but don't put yourself in that situation. Store some water for emergencies. Approximately 1 gallon per person per day minimum for daily consumption. So you will have to do the math from there based on the number of people you will have.

6. Travel

If it is blizzard conditions do not attempt to go anyplace. Stay home! If you have prepared yourself you should be all set and not have to go out for anything. Don't be one of the crazed lunatics rummaging around in stores looking for anything you can find.
If the weather good enough that you can travel it is a good idea to be prepared for the unexpected, so have an emergency kit in your car(we will go into what to have in your kit in a later installment).
Make sure your car is ready for the job, winterize it, make sure your jack is in the car and in working order, make sure your spare has air in it, check all your fluids before attempting to head out on the road. A breakdown on the side of the road can be dangerous.

7. Food - having items that do require refrigeration and minimal energy use to prepare. Typically your looking for long shelf life items.

Canned foods
Pasta
Rice
Beans
Cereal's
Oatmeal
Most importantly whatever you like to each and know you will eat that can keep without refrigeration!

7. The MISC items that you will need.

First Aid Kit
Batteries
Matches(lighters)
Flashlights(check these to make sure you have fresh batteries, that they work, and you no precisely where they are at even in the dark)
Candles
Oil lamps(and oil for the lamps)
Paper plates (limited water you don't want to be wasting it on dishes)
Plasticware
Bath tissue
You fill in the blanks here, what else might you want to make sure you have on hand if you could not get out to the store for a week? two weeks?