What did you do when small "S" HTF?

[TiminMishawaka]

Warning - long post. For me, prepping is both about the big things that might happen and the things that happen every year without fail. I layer my "WWIII" (or fill in huge disaster) preps to be useful in daily life (i.e. as much as I wanted it, I bought canned food instead of the belt fed Browning) and I have had situations come up where I needed to use them.

How did your "normal" life run into a circumstance where your prepping helped you get through a rough patch? I'll admit a couple motivations with this thread. First I hope that "normal" people who run across this may just see how common sense prepping is. Second - I'm hoping for is that some stories here of what happens in "normal" life may get some folks off the fence and into prepping so we don't have to carry their bum arses if something does happen.

1. After my divorce wiped me out, I moved to Indiana to take a job that I was let go from after 5 weeks (no notice). I had about $1,000.00 in the bank. After being let go, I found out I didn't qualify for unemployment because I wasn't a resident of Indiana long enough to qualify and was literally out of any income for 6 months after being let go. Luckily I had brought my food prep stash with me to Indiana and survived on that while looking for income. I sold all but 2 of my collection of guns to pay electrical bills and the part of the rent I could. I kept the .22 rifle and the 12 gauge shotgun but got rid of everything noncritical. I also sold off a ton of personal property, eliminating everything that wasn't critical to survival. Survival really puts your priorities into perspective. Anyway, I've since restocked the food stash to replenish what I took out but that was so key. Lucky for me I was single at the time with no kids. But if I had kids I would have multiplied the food stash to feed them as well. Also since then I busted some tail and bought a cheap house in Mishawaka for cash (12.5k). No matter how much I make or how cool I think I am, I'm going to always have a house that I own outright so I have a place to do. You wouldn't believe how much of a difference that makes. If there's a way for you to get into a cheap house in your neighborhood (even a fixer upper) I highly recommend it. It's a lot easier now since the out of state investors defaulted on half the houses in the state. You can always rent it out when times are good. If everything else falls down and you lose your primary home, you have a place to live.

2. I do contract seasonal work that pays big bucks in the summer and very little in the winter. I still break into the SHTF supply in winter months to stretch between bills. That pantry is a beautiful thing.

3. About a year or so ago I walked into the utilities office to pay a bill and lo and behold my debit card didn't work. Went to the bank to find out my accounts were completely cleaned out by some Russian outfit that hit the FirstBank's atm system in Mishawaka (some of you may remember this). So here I am suddenly penniless. Sure I filed a claim for the money stolen from my account and in 30 days I would be told how that would pan out. Terrific... Luckily I owned some rental property at that point and would be getting a couple rent checks in 2 weeks. To last that 2 weeks I sold a portion of my SHTF silver stash. Silver's not only good for the fall of civilization. It's good for the regular, day to day B.S. you encounter. After that I learned my lesson and kept money in multiple bank accounts. I held off on replenishing the silver stash until prices went down a little. Glad I did.

What have you experienced where your normal, day to day life has been in need of your SHTF preparations? I know I'm not the only one.

Tim

 

[LawDog76]

It was December of 08 when the ice storm came through. Not only did it take out the power sub stations but it also caused a very large and heavy branch to fall from the tree in the side yard and ripped the power line to my house from the pole. I had five of the 20# propane tanks filled out in the garage and about 25 gallons of kero in there as well. I also have 4 deep cycle yacht batteries kept on a trickle charge (2 solar 2 ran off the house 110)with 110 inverters connected to them.

We still had running water so I lit the kero heater in the basement to keep the pipes from freezing. I also had two of the Buddy heaters which I placed one on each end of the house and connected a 20# tank to it. The house stayed about 72 while the sun was out and dropped to about 65 at night. Those buddy heaters will run aprox 4 days on low on one 20# tank. Next I hooked some lights (florescent) to one battery. Using the lights only when needed and making sure they were turned off when not needed (having a 4 and 2 year old at the time to keep an eye on with this) that battery lasted the entire week. Now keeping the kids entertained was a different story. Their TV used 85 watts and the dvd player using 25 watts used up a battery in about 8 - 10 hours. Those batteries were easy to recharge. Just hooked them up to one of the three cars for about 10 - 15 min.

As far as cooking, it was done on a propane camping stove that ran off a 1# cylinder. Refrigerated goods were kept in a basket on our enclosed back porch and the frozen ones were kept outside in a rubbermaid container with snap on lids.

Kids and I made it through no problem but the wife became a royal pain about the 2nd day. Not even grateful I had the stuff I did to get us through this. I did how ever check on a few of the surrounding neighbors and opened up our home to them. Two of them took me up on the offer and they were kind enough to bring some canned food to show their thanks. Couple of the other had some what prepped but only had a kero heater for in the house and a grill to cook on outside.

 

[johncarbaugh]

Ice storm is also what got me into prepping. Had no power for 4 days and was not at all prepared. I just buy a few extra things every time I go to the store that are for preps. I have been using some of my supplies to fix meals just to make sure I didn't forget something. A good Idea is to kill the power some weekend and live off of you preps. Don't want to find out when it is to late that you forgot about something. Also all the supples in the world will not help you if you do not know how to use them.

 

[WETSU]

We get boil water advisories every other year it seems when an old water main breaks. I just haul out a few gallons of water from storage and we never boil a drop.

Short term power outages hit, often (lots of overhead lines). LED lanterns, oil lamps, and chemlights are fun for the whole family.

When the ice storm wiped out power last winter for a week, we still had juice. But we also took in family. So extra bedding, sleeping bags etc were useful. I also loaned out my Heater Buddy.

Whenever we have tornados or severe weather, I fire up the scanner. Its old school since our city went digital, but still useful. If I hear every tow truck company dispatching hooks to one part of the city, at the same time as the street, light and parks departments are heading there. I know a twister hit that area. Storm chasers also help confirm that.

 

[irishfan]

I remember when the ice storm hit and I was at BSU. I dealt with the SHTF by going to stay at moms house until the power came back. Yes I am a pioneer.

 

[DanO]

Ice storm back in the 1990's. No power for 4 days. I had gas heat, and had put a ventless gas heater in the garge with a piezo ignition system. It was sunny and 15 degrees in the days after the storm; the house would be in the 60's so long as the sun shone, but at sundown it was freezing. The ventless heated my bilevel just fine at night. The subdivision we were in had it;s own water supply, which they chose to turn off, to keep pipes from bursting. I had a good amount of water to drink already stashed and the pantry was full. I put the fridge items in coolers on my porch. I got buckets of snow and melted them in the garge to flush toilets. I used my small generator to run the blower for a few hours after sunset and to give the kids some movie time.

This storm also gave us the opportunity to do something for our neighbors. The next door neighobrs had no fireplace or alternate heat. They slept in our den each night. WHile walking my Rotty, I saw a single mom and her kids pullling branches off of a tree in their yard. After inquiring, I found out they had a woodstove they never used and no wood. My rotty pulled a few sledloads of wood to their house over the next few days and I showed them how to run the stove. Hopefully both families learned something.

 

[TiminMishawaka]

Man....this thread has me realizing I'm grossly under-prepared for an ice storm. I had backup heat sources this past winter but only fuel for like 2 days. My heat is electric and I have a 10hp generator and a kero heater but not enough in the way of fuel. Really appreciate your guys' input here.

 

[irishfan]

Man....this thread has me realizing I'm grossly under-prepared for an ice storm. I had backup heat sources this past winter but only fuel for like 2 days. My heat is electric and I have a 10hp generator and a kero heater but not enough in the way of fuel. Really appreciate your guys' input here.

I have a small house so one kerosene heater takes care of things. Really if you ration your kerosene you can get a long way with 10-15 gallons. I filled mine up when it started getting cold and used it up a little at a time through the winter. If you buy new when the weather is starting to get bad you can have it if neccesary and use it up some while its still cold but severe weather isn't an issue.

 

[longbow]

we get out the water and just keep going without power......

 

[thompbarn]

It's hard to predict what all we need to be prepared for. It can drive you a little batty contemplating it all.

 

[SavageEagle]

we get out the water and just keep going without power......

This.

Back in the 90's (can't remember the year) we got a bad snow storm. We lived in the middle of nowhere off well water. We didn't have a lot of "preps" back then, but we had enough to sustain ourselves. We had wood burning fireplaces upstairs and in the basement and a large propane tank ( what size) that ran our central air and water heater and stove. No power generator though.

During the snow storm we were snowed in for 4-5 days. We managed just fine, as did all our neighbors. However, one day there were two unfortunate travelers that somehow got their Jeep and Minivan stuck in each of the two 12ft snow drifts on the road on either side of the house. One lady even had her 3 kids with her. They had some family come get them, but they had to walk an 1/8th of a mile in the thick snow to get to the truck down the road.

It was another 2 days before the plows made it to our street to fish out the vehicles.

Point is, wood burning fireplaces and propane-powered houses WILL save your life and your personal finances.

I remember being outside every day building snow tunnels and snow castles.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

In 1983, I was living in an apartment in Houston when Hurricane Alicia came through. We filled up the bathtub for water and huddled in the hallway for 18 scary hours. Lost power about 6 hours into it; power was out for 36 hours in our area. We had canned food to eat and a local friend invited us to her Ice Cream shop to eat all the stuff that was going to melt anyway.

All-in-all we came out OK. When we finally bought a house in Indy, we looked for a house with a basement (couldn't find one to fit our budget), but I insisted that we have a fireplace. So far, we haven't _had_ to use the fireplace, because we've miraculously avoided extended power failures. But I won't ever have another house without a secondary heat source.

 

[Eddie]

We've had two summer storms in the past ten years that resulted in periods of more than twenty four hours without power. In each of those it was nice to just start up the generator and be able to run the refrigerators, some lights and small appliances.

When there is a tornado watch/warning that merits us going to the basement, sometimes the power is out for short periods. Its nice to be able to treat it as no big deal and light some candles and hand out hand crank flashlights to the boys.

Our town went to a sewer system in 2002. There were numerous days when the water was out as they were building it or else we were under a boil order. It was nice to be able to bring up supplies from the basement and shave, cook, wash etc. without interruption.

Its nice having a backup supply of canned food, instant coffee, powdered milk, canned fruit, soup and different canned meats just for those days when we are out of something and don't feel like going to the store. Just last night my wife made a bowl of fresh salsa and promptly dropped it on the floor. She was ticked because she had made it to go with a meal. After she cleaned up the mess she went downstairs and got a can of tomatoes and made a batch from that in time for dinner. I've mixed up powdered milk for the kids when were out and they didn't know the difference.

 

[Dr Falken]

Underscores the ability to stay in place during some events. Often times a SHTF is a time thing, if you can stay in a place with safety and stores, when it's over, your good to go. Snow, floods, and icestorms come to mind.

This.

Back in the 90's (can't remember the year) we got a bad snow storm. We lived in the middle of nowhere off well water. We didn't have a lot of "preps" back then, but we had enough to sustain ourselves. We had wood burning fireplaces upstairs and in the basement and a large propane tank ( what size) that ran our central air and water heater and stove. No power generator though.

During the snow storm we were snowed in for 4-5 days. We managed just fine, as did all our neighbors. However, one day there were two unfortunate travelers that somehow got their Jeep and Minivan stuck in each of the two 12ft snow drifts on the road on either side of the house. One lady even had her 3 kids with her. They had some family come get them, but they had to walk an 1/8th of a mile in the thick snow to get to the truck down the road.

It was another 2 days before the plows made it to our street to fish out the vehicles.

Point is, wood burning fireplaces and propane-powered houses WILL save your life and your personal finances.

I remember being outside every day building snow tunnels and snow castles.