Winter is coming

[NeuroTypical]

So, with each month bringing some new status-quo-changing news stories, curious things happening with the global supply chain, Psaki's (and others') recent comments about how some things just won't be findable this winter, it's a good time to give a few minutes thought to our individual and family preparedness. 

My ward's preparedness specialist is pretty on point - here's his simple list of considerations:

Quote

Emergency Preparedness Considerations

*  The Rule of Threes: an easy way to remember your priorities for an emergency.  As a general rule, a person can survive austere conditions in the following order of importance:

3 Seconds without Thinking
3 Minutes without Breathing
3 Hours without Shelter
3 Days without Water
3 Weeks without Food
3 Months without Hope

*  Stop and think!  Get situationally aware and determine your priorities, then focus on the most efficient way to realize those priorities.

*  Remember to Breathe!  Oxygenate your body to help avoid shock

*  What are you doing about shelter?
o    Seasonally appropriate clothing (Summer: Cotton, Winter: Wool/Synthetics)
o    Tarps/plastic sheeting for emergency home repairs
o    Tent for inside or outside home
o    Sleeping bags or quilts in case heating is compromised
o    What are your plans for heating?
    ▪    Fuel storage – safety, space
    ▪    Ventilation of stored fuels and exhaust
    ▪    Multiple fuels and backup heating options
o    What can happen to your house that can cause you to no longer have shelter?
o    What happens if your car is wrecked, broken down, or stuck in snow, etc?

*  What are you doing about water?
o    Treatments (Filtering vs purifying) 
o    Sewage (septic system, trench latrine, kitty litter, etc)
o    Personal hygiene (solar shower, sponge baths, baby wipes, etc)
o    Dishwashing
o    First aid (avoiding cholera, dysentery, sepsis, etc)

*  What are you doing about food?
o    Cooking devices – quantity of people, prep time, ambient temperature
o    Have you tried preparing your emergency food?  Do you have all necessary elements? 
o    Fuel storage – safety, space
o    Appropriate cookware for appliance
o    Trash disposal

*  What are your power plans?
o    Lighting (LED lanterns, candle lanterns, flashlights, etc)
o    Be aware that meal prep takes longer and typically occurs earlier with reduced lighting
o    Appliances (electric stoves, furnace blowers, well pumps, etc)
o    Communications (phones, etc)

*  How will you maintain hope?
o    DO NOT DISMISS THIS PRIORITY!  Though it may not seem like an imperative in comparison to other physical needs, ignoring this will inevitably lead to your failure
o    Focus on “The Mission”, spiritual purpose, whatever it is that matters to you
o    Maintain a schedule, try to maintain normalcy especially for children
o    Be vigilant of psychological well-being (especially for children)
o    Incorporate physical activity and outdoor time into schedule to reduce depression

Every person/family is different and needs to determine the plan that works for them.  
 

 

[mirkwood]

Easy Preparedness: Why Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness? (preppercop.blogspot.com)

[NeuroTypical]

Here’s a fun TikTok, a young mother in Galveston becomes a pepper:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8FtoYVL/

[NeuroTypical]

Goodbye, 20 year old food storage.  We had high hopes for using you last year, but you were not toilet paper.

 

 

[Ironhold]

I got a news update this morning saying that ERCOT, the Texas government authority in charge of the power grid, is already starting to look at energy consumption across the state as we slowly head into winter. 

My guess is that ERCOT never made any sort of credible effort to winterize the power grid, and so we'll likely need to start stockpiling water and such for another blizzard in case the power goes out. 

[NeuroTypical]

Remember folks, the power goes out in freezing weather, you gotta shut off the water and open all the faucets.  Frozen burst pipes can get dang expensive and messy to fix.

[clwnuke]

2 hours ago, Ironhold said:

I got a news update this morning saying that ERCOT, the Texas government authority in charge of the power grid, is already starting to look at energy consumption across the state as we slowly head into winter. 

My guess is that ERCOT never made any sort of credible effort to winterize the power grid, and so we'll likely need to start stockpiling water and such for another blizzard in case the power goes out. 

You can't "winterize" a transmission grid and the associated generation in a short time. It's a multi-year proposal. It's a bit like hoping that Texas builds enough highways and roads in a year to relieve all traffic jams. Infrastructure isn't something that can be changed quickly. Your state PUC is the entity that controls how much investment is made in the grid, not the power companies. The PUC holds the purse strings by limiting the ROI for utilities. No utility builds anything unless they know that they can recover the costs.

[Ironhold]

27 minutes ago, clwnuke said:

You can't "winterize" a transmission grid and the associated generation in a short time. It's a multi-year proposal. It's a bit like hoping that Texas builds enough highways and roads in a year to relieve all traffic jams. Infrastructure isn't something that can be changed quickly. Your state PUC is the entity that controls how much investment is made in the grid, not the power companies. The PUC holds the purse strings by limiting the ROI for utilities. No utility builds anything unless they know that they can recover the costs.

Trying to tell my parents that we need to start stocking up on water and that, once we know whether or not we'll have family coming up for the holidays, getting the military rations we have in the storage shed back into the house. I'm slowly trying to get them to stock up on AAA batteries as well since I have flashlights that run on them.