Archive for the ‘Ice/Snow Storms’ Category
Practical Steps to Preparing a Family for TEOTWAWKI, by Mitch D.
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
I didn’t know it at the time, but my introduction to preparedness came in 1999 when I sat at a large table with about 15 other men in a small town café for our weekly bible study. A small portion of these men were worried about Y2K and urged others to prepare. I thought they were “nuts.” I did respect them as Christian men, however, and prayed for guidance. Looking back, I was a squared away 24 year-old but was still spiritually immature. At that time in my life, I felt no urging by the Lord to prepare for Y2K.
About ten years later in the middle of a bitterly cold 2009 winter night, the power went out in my newly-built home. My home, at the time, ran completely on electricity with no form of back-up heat. I was lucky to have in-floor heat on both levels of my home, but the wind was howling that night, as the temperatures outside kept dropping and eventually hit 30 below zero. With the wind chill effect, it was probably near 60 to 70 below. My kids didn’t like how dark the house was, even though we had flashlights on hand for each of them. I put my four children to sleep early and piled on some extra blankets. At 7:00 p.m. it was 60 in the house and I wasn’t worried as my new home was well-insulated and built tight. I went to call my parents, who own the 20 acres bordering the western boundary of our place. Our phones in the house, however, all depended on electricity so I decided that my call could wait until the morning. When I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. it was now 50 in the house and I just assumed the power company guys were having a hard time in the wind and cold. I woke up in the early morning and noticed that it was about 40 degrees in the house and still no electricity. I was now a little uneasy as I didn’t need pipes freezing up on me. At 7:00 a.m. I bundled up the kids and took them next door where I knew my dad had a gas fireplace. To my surprise, his electricity was up and running. To make a long story short, it was just my place without power as the wires from the transformer came loose when my box moved from winter heaving. I called the power company and they had my box fixed within the hour. Nothing bad had happened, but it did get me thinking about a few questions:
Read the remainder of Practical Steps to Preparing a Family for TEOTWAWKI.
Amazing Survival Story or Need for Preparedness?
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/yhx6ufw
It is always difficult to criticize as an armchair quarterback but the only way others learn sometimes is by example.
This story on Fox News 2-18-10 about a fellow named Jason Pede on a business trip stranded 73 hours on a snowpacked Colorado road because of a wrong turn or bad directions is a good example. We are relieved he made it out alive....let us use his example to help others.
Read the remainder of Amazing Survival Story or Need for Preparedness. Lessons Learned From an Ice Storm, by G. in the Zarks
Friday, February 5th, 2010
While watching the local weather over the last few days, it has become apparent that a winter storm is heading for our part of the world, bringing with it the distinct possibility of not just snow, but significant amounts of ice. As I pondered this, it brought to mind our recent experiences with ice storms over the last few years, most notably in January 2007. I thought some of our “lessons learned” were worth sharing with others.
We had been blessed with several years of reasonably mild winters leading up to the 2007 storm. Unfortunately, the good times often seem to lull people into a state of complacency, characterized by an artificial sense of well-being and overall lack of awareness. This is, of course, what the late Colonel Cooper referred to as Condition White.
Read the remainder of Lessons Learned From an Ice Storm.
Preparing Your Organization for Disasters, by N.C.L.
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Where will you be when the earthquake happens? The tornado? The riot? The terrorist strike? The (fill in the blank). If you work or go to school, you spend about 40 hours every week in a non-home environment. Probably more if you count commute time, shopping, recreation, library time, extra-curricular activity time, and so forth. Even if you are a serious prepper, that means about 25% or more of your time each week is spent in environments away from your primary support systems. That also means that there is about 1 chance in four that a disaster will happen while you are in one of these other environments. You will have access to what you have with you and what someone (employer, school, etc.) has put in place for you in such emergencies. Having been employed for 40 years and a student for 20+ years before that I can tell you these other environments have virtually nothing in place to provide for the survival, let alone comfort, of those on premises. Read the remainder of preparing your organization for Disasters.
Winter Survival! 10 Essentials You Should Never Leave Home Without.
Monday, January 11th, 2010
As I sit down to write this short article, it is 23 degrees outside in Austin, Texas, with an overnight low forecasted to hit a record-breaking 15 degrees; the television is humming in the background with non-stop chatter about the winter blast that is sweeping the central and eastern United States and trapping hundreds of motorists in white-out conditions, and there are reports of unseasonably cold weather from around the globe. So far more than a dozen deaths have been attributed to the harsh cold of what will no doubt go down as one of the most frigid winters in record. And we are only two weeks into the official winter of 2010…
Read the remainder of Winter Survival!
