You may or may not have heard about a little storm called Hurricane Sandy smashing up the Caribbean and up the East Coast lately, but she is. I’m in Ohio, worried about my East Coast friends and family and also worrying about myself — we are expected to get strong winds and gusts, and it’s already started flooding roads after a couple days of pretty constant raining. Yikes.
FEMA suggests that people have enough food, water, and supplies for three days in a stockpile for storms. I’m not anticipating serious casualties of the utilities over in Ohio, but I may be looking at a power outage for a while at the very least.
I will be making sure I have the following stored up in case of emergency:
- Water — Just in case there is damage to the water utilities, I’ll be keeping a few gallons of bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth, etc. If the water goes out, my heat is also out (since I have radiators), so I will also need…
- Blankets and warm clothes — I’m going to have to bundle up to keep warm if I have no water/heat.
- Food — I don’t keep many canned goods, so I’ll need to grab a few items from the store just in case the power is out and my refrigerator fails. I have plenty of stuff in the freezer… here’s hoping the power doesn’t go out for so long that it gets ruined. I will also be buying some more bread, and perhaps hard-boiling a couple of my eggs for a quick protein fix if I can’t cook them. Also – if stocking canned goods, be sure to keep a manual can-opener (the only kind I have!)
- Gasoline in my car — I’m going to be filling up my tank as often as possible (keeping it above half) to make sure I don’t get stranded in traffic and I have a way to charge my phone in case the power goes out. I don’t have a battery-powered radio so I’ll be using my phone to receive weather updates and communicate with family.
- Flashlight and batteries. I may need to get new batteries depending on the type my flashlight takes.
- Cash – in the event banks lose power, or stores lose connection to their card-readers, I’ll be able to buy groceries.
I am really not anticipating emergency status from the storm, but sometimes “just in case” is okay. I can also pack up my cat and stay at my mom’s house for the duration if I so desire, but I think I’ll be okay at home. To anyone in the path of the storm, stay safe!
Caitlin Liz Fisher 
I was also thinking I need to spruce up my emergency kit. “Just in case” is turning into “more than likely” in recent times. Even in areas that normally don’t get these types of natural disasters. I recently bought a hybrid AM/FM radio/flashlight. It works both with a rechargeable battery or by hand cranking. Living with my sister, we definitely have everything else we need, but once I’m on my own, I’ll need to get some essentials.
Oh and STAY SAFE!!! Parts of Canada are also effected, but I’m okay in my area.
I LOST MY INTERWEBS. But everything else was fine, no power loss, and I was able to cook food and stay warm with no problems. Boyfriend lost power for a little bit. Got a surprise day off work because the entire town where the office is had no power. Brother in Miami is fine. Cousins in NC and Washington DC are fine. Aunt who was in DC with cousins is fine. Yay! 🙂
I’m trying to become a minimalist but have recently been wanting to put together an emergency backpack. Miss Minimalist had a post with supplies you might need in an emergency. http://www.missminimalist.com/2011/05/decluttering-and-emergency-kits/
I do live in a very tornado prone area and earlier this year some towns nearby were devastated by tornadoes. I want something I can grab and take into my shelter. It’s hard for me to reconcile acquiring things for an emergency kit when I’ve been actively trying to pare down, but I think having one emergency backpack would be worth it- just in case.
Oh, and I saw you mention canned goods- here is a good list of which cans are BPA-free, if you’re interested: http://inspirationgreen.com/bpa-lined-cans.html
Thanks for the BPA-free link!! And it is totally okay to have an emergency kit, especially if it’s just in a backpack! That makes a lot of sense. I might put together a bag of “all in one place” emergency stuff. Thanks for reading and commenting!
I too prepared for the storm which didn’t damage more than a few branches and really soak things. How did you make out? It’s funny how we forget the simple things until something like this happens.
I lost internet but nothing else! 🙂 glad you got through it okay.