What are some of the items you didn’t have but will now keep for the future just incase.

I keep water around but now I plan to keep more.
I also need to replace my battery powered lantern.  
I also need to be more diligent about replacing the chem lights.  The ones I have aren’t as bright as they used to be.

What are items you didn’t have on hand that would be nice have now?

Kind of unconventional, but one of the things I always try to keep on hand is some form of electrolyte supplementation, in quite a few different forms.

I'll have a decent stash of things like Pedialyte, various packets with various flavors and levels of electrolytes, as well as basic salt, potassium chloride, etc.

Having gone extremely long periods without food and water, generally speaking the one thing I know that I actually need to function is electrolytes. Water is obvious, but a lot of people forget that second part of hydration.

On that note, caffeine that doesn’t require power is smart.  

I saw huge lines at the Starbucks in Kroger.

Going to have heat tape on hand for specific pipes in the future.  Didn’t even know what this was until people posted about it in GD.

I have summer post hurricane preps.  This winter prep is all new to me, I’ve never had to deal with frozen pipes before.

Food and water preps from COVID paid off. I'm running low on milk, but aside from that I've been fortunate to not lose power. I guess I paid my dues after Hurricane Katrina where we had no power for 47 days.

My biggest gap is a generator. I will be rectifying that soon.

Some extra propane would be nice to keep on hand.

I'm using this as a learning lesson.

Power has been on so no acute lessons really.  Wife asked about generator options, she's in a prepper mood after the election and now this.

Thinking about alternates, generator and kero heater are in the attic.  Will set up a seasonal rotation to bring useful things down.  Plus I would use my shop more if it was heated.  Planning on buying a portable A/C so we'd be covered in the summer too.

Probably going to sell my dozen+ medium-to-crappy gas cans (some MFC, some jerry cans style) and buy 4 or 6 good ones.  Just tired of messing with them to save a buck.

Weight to put in the bed of my truck for traction. Had to drive my wife to the ER tonight about midnight. 5 miles, 30 minutes. Slid a lot.

Hopefully we figure out what she’s got going on soon. But man it makes you think about being prepared for the worst and this is pretty bad.

Hope she's OK

Thanks. 4.5 hours in the ER so far. Being admitted for gall bladder issue. Getting it removed today.

I need a chainsaw.  Something that's been on the list a while.  Currently listening to rain come down and an oak limb that should be 2' above my house is dragging the roof.  I just hope nothing breaks and takes out my fence.

Our house is electric and propane.  I haven’t lost power but finally lost water last night.  The rest of town was out of power well over a day.  

Shortfalls at my house-  

pool equipment: The prev owners didn’t take care of it and the freeze protection seems to be broke.  I was able to tarp/heat it and get it running.  

Backup Gen:  I have 2 gens one of which is in the back of my wife’s truck who is currently stuck in San Antonio.  Since my power hasn’t gone out I loaned the other one to some peeps in need.  I am looking into a propane fed backup genset.  

House heat:  going to call my HVAC guy out to see if we can split the house into zones somehow and get it where I’m not uselessly heating 2500sf.  

Chickens: I’ve brought my 3 chickens in and held them in the shower.  Need to work on a heated coop for them.

Emergency candles
Some form of de-icer for my driveway
A shovel more suited to snow removal

I may never use any of the above, but they’d have gotten used this week and won’t cost me much money.

heat tape?  googling found the tape you wrap pipes with, but also what looks like a cord you plugin to keep them warm?  

do you happen to have a link to the stuff in GD, couldn't find anything, and would like to  know more.

@Dino

its the kind you wrap the pipe and plug in to keep it warm

Heat tape

Heat tape only works if you have electricity.

Freeze proof faucets are now at the top of my list that are recessed into walls.

Other than that I feel that I was pretty prepared for these winter storms. Learned watching my Dad during the 1978-1979 ice storm and the prolonged 1983 icy weather here in Dallas.

I am pretty confident that this house could be off the grid in freezing weather for a week to ten days.

So far, so good but a modern open fireplace is so inferior to a wood stove. It literally burns 3 times the wood for half the heating as the insert in my old place. I'm thinking of getting a Guide Hear camp wood stove for emergency use. If I need it I can put it in the fireplace and run the stove pipe up the chimney a bit. I want a proper insert but it is not in the budget right now.

The only thing I thought I was lacking was D cell batteries but Eneloop came to the rescue. My gas log fireplace has a battery backup that uses 2 D cells.

I just have to brag a bit. We have had zero issues with our preps for this. The ONLY thing so far that I discovered is that I needed Aa small heat source to put INSIDE the housing on our whole house natural gas genset. I never thought about what would happen if the battery was too cold to turn the engine over. I settled for a 500 watt construction light that I found for $10 at Walmart yesterday  and it is working well. We'll lose power today due to the broken tree disaster headed my way but I know now that  my battery is warm enough to start the generator. Being retired with no grandkids is a pretty good place for us considering how remote we are. I'm the last person on the power grid and we are forced to be self sufficient. The drive to town yesterday was well times as the road now is CLOSED due to 18 wheelers trying to get "up the hill" and failing miserably. We're in for the long haul now. It looks like by Friday the temps will be much higher and the snow/ice will be gone. I have two chainsaws in the CanAm fueled and ready to cut my way out to get to town if needed. NOT having a way to the emergency room is a bit disturbing but our first aid preps are top notch so we'll see. I'm not expecting any issue as our health is good.

Having 120 acres, a shop, tractor, lake, large home and multiple vehicles is a work in progress always as far as "being ready" is concerned but so far so good.

I just have to brag a bit. We have had zero issues with our preps for this. The ONLY thing so far that I discovered is that I needed a small heat source to put INSIDE the housing on our whole house natural gas genset. I never thought about what would happen if the battery was too cold to turn the engine over. I settled for a 500 watt construction light that I found for $10 at Walmart yesterday  and it is working well. We'll lose power today due to the broken tree disaster headed my way but I know now that  my battery is warm enough to start the generator. Being retired with no grandkids is a pretty good place for us considering how remote we are. I'm the last person on the power grid and we are forced to be self sufficient. The drive to town yesterday was well times as the road now is CLOSED due to 18 wheelers trying to get "up the hill" and failing miserably. We're in for the long haul now. It looks like by Friday the temps will be much higher and the snow/ice will be gone. I have two chainsaws in the CanAm fueled and ready to cut my way out to get to town if needed. NOT having a way to the emergency room is a bit disturbing but our first aid preps are top notch so we'll see. I'm not expecting any issue as our health is good.

Having 120 acres, a shop, tractor, lake, large home and multiple vehicles is a work in progress always as far as "being ready" is concerned but so far so good.

Sounds like most here fared well.
Watching the chaos around me is slightly entertaining.  

People with no food and angry about long waits for fast food makes no sense after all we saw last year with food shortages.  

I guess some never learn.

Thought I’d rely on smartphones for communications and news but within 30 minutes of the power outage, all cell data and text was gone.  About 30% of voice calls on cell failed too.  So radio and word of mouth was main source of news. I still had a signal and battery so I guess it was just overwhelmed.  Occasionally, around 3-5am, I could load a website, send a few texts, or check weather forecasts.

Now that power is back on, smartphone is still spotty (but better); but WiFi works normally.  So my plan is to get an Uninterruptible Power Supply and plug the Wi-Fi router into it so I can still have non-cellular Internet access in an emergency.  By my estimation, $44 will get me 12 hours worth of emergency Wi-Fi, and I can even check TV news if I don’t mind drawing down faster.

Probably look at a whole house generator eventually; but right now it would be like buying ammo.  It’s going to be crazy and hard to find.  So this is a decent, low-cost stopgap.

I inherited some old dietz no 2 kerosine lanterns but sure as shit no kerosine or wick material. The extra light option would have been great. I will also be taking a look at a small solar charging station of some sort.

That's always my biggest take away.  I'm not a prepper by any means, but I don't understand how people don't have at least 4-5 days' worth of food and water on hand.  Especially between Harvey and COVID in just the last few years.

Pretty well prepped here. Most of the stuff for hurricanes passes over to cold weather. Only thing I could use is a small tarp to make a cover for keeping the rain off my generator.

Been lucky here with no power outages.  I do have a generator and interlock installed so I can power up some stuff in the house if needed.  I've been well stocked on food and supplies since covid started.

Things I need to work on-
- better electric heaters/back up propane heater if main ac/heat pump is out
-battery bank for phone
-radio
-snow camo

Cheap radio as well.
More chem lights
Propane heater or alternative
Camp coffee maker
More plastic cutlery
New air mattresses. We camped in the living room where the fire place is.
Wood, thought I had enough but it’s going quick

We have been fine but we did not get the worst of it like some did. Thinking of what some have gone through, I will be adding a kerosene heater or two. I have relied on propane heaters to keep a room warm but I now feel that is much more temporary and not good for 0F like the kero would have been. Further research is needed in that area.

My pipes froze before breaking.  One of the things I really would of liked from a comfort stand point is a foot pump powered hand washing station.  Trying to wash hands with bottle water is inefficient and wasteful.  Also, keep spare piping around the house, plumbers around here are running out of supplies to fix leaks.

Prep

A bigger generator and a chainsaw

I haven’t needed either but having recently moved here and never having an all electric house my needs have increased significantly over keeping a fridge running or window ac unit.

Chainsaw just because

I’ll bet I can find them returned at the store in the next couple weeks for a heavy discount.

I need to use my fireplace. We've lived in this house almost 20 years and never used it, and I have a big stack of wood that I keep on hand for the smoker. I just didn't think that striking it up for the first time in the midst of a weather emergency was the best idea. We were lucky to not lose power so I didn't really need it but I need to be familiar with operating it.

I need to keep more gas on hand too. I could have lasted a couple of days with the generator with what I have but would have been rationing it pretty tightly. I also need to figure out how to run my furnace with it. I had always focused on the generator as a backup to keep my freezers running in the summer and some light household power usage. This event changes that a bit.

I also need to keep more plumbing repair parts on hand. Had a pipe burst this morning and was quick to shut off water to the house, but my lack of parts meant I had to run to Lowes to get it fixed. A little 4wd action, and the broken pipe was capped and the water restored in about 2 hours from being alerted to the leak. I'll save the final repair and sheetrock work for a better day.

So far we have fared pretty well with power, food, water, comms (over the air TV, reliable internet and charged cells) and transportation. We were even able to take in my MIL after her power had been out for over a day. The drive to her house took like three times longer than normal but we never had an issue. It was mostly just avoiding other people who shouldn't have been on the road. I've also loaned tools and shared wifi with my neighbor on one side, and will get out the chainsaw to clean up the yard of the guy on the other side when it warms up.

I keep on hand a little butane stove with spare cartridges, blue 5 gallon water storage cubes to fill (before the bad weather arrives) for reserve drinking/cooking water, 18 or so bags of charcoal, one 1,500 and one 7,500 watt generator, 10 of the green propane fat body torch tanks, 4 or more 5 gallon gas cans filled (rotated through lawn mower and my boat), 2 months worth of TP, several hundred paper plates, a camping toilet seat for use on a 5 gallon pail (with white garbage bags), about 2 months worth of paper towels, both vehicles and tractor filled with fuel before the weather arrives, UPS backups charged for use to charge cell phones (also double/charge to protect my computers), 20 cans of coffee, and enough food for about 2 months (freeze dried/canned/frozen).  I have several small solar panels with adapters for charging USB/Apple lightning connectors and cigarette socket 120 volt adaptors.

Yesterday I wired my 7,500 watt generator into my breaker box so that I could power up the well to refill the tub and etc.

Something I did do/ordered the day prior to the power going out, was a 10,000 watt PTO generator for behind my 23hp MF diesel tractor.  It will arrive on March 5th and I will be installing a generator connector and a manual transfer switch to hook the PTO generator to.  The house only got down to 50f ish but it was cool.

Last evening, I started the 1,500 watt generator so the kid could watch movies from his iPad on the television while I charged his iPad and some cell phones.

A plastic grain shovel works and can use it for  mulch or dirt.

Get an electric chainsaw that uses the same batteries as your tools.

Propane boot dryer

Our several day of relying on a generator have got me thinking....

The last two homes have been natural gas fired central heat.  It does not take much of a generator to power the blower and control board...so I have never really considered a whole house backup generator.
Fuel for several days for the generators, and a few gas grill sized cylinders for catalytic backup heaters, has left me feeling pretty good.   We also have a  window unit stored in the garage for use in the bedroom, so we can sleep in the summer if there is a power failure.

We are moving into a new home in April.  I'm thinking whole-house generator...It will be in an all-electric home, with a wood burring fireplace.  Powering a heat pump's backup resistance heat, during extreme cold, takes power requirements to an entirely different level.   I'm struggling with this.  The home is rural, with no natural gas service, so installing a standby generator means installing buried propane tank... just for the standby generator and maybe an outdoor grill\fire pit.  IF I want to run the resistance heat, it means a MUCH larger generator and larger propane tank.

I've never tried to really heat a home with a wood burning fireplace.  In a very well insulated home, with a centrally placed fireplace, is that fireplace a reasonable plan for keeping things livable and pipes from freezing? With the resistance heat locked out, the blower could still be used to circulate air through the house when the heat pump can no longer extract enough warmth to be of benefit.   The fireplace has its own combustion air intake.  The house is foam insulated, so all the pipes are in the attic, which is effectively a heated space.


Anyone care to share thoughts on this?

I think a wood burning stove insert in the fireplace is way more useful than a fireplace. More heat and less wood. If they have a flat top it can be used for cooking, heating hot water etc. You can also use a small fan to circulate the heat in the room.

I needed a larger battery charger bank for our home's cell phones... not that I used the one I had charged, but having power for your families cells is high priority.

Also ordered more D-sized battery spacers so I can use my rechargeable AAA's in D-cell emergency lanterns.  Again, I didn't use up the D-cell's I had, but might have.

Should probably make sure my wife has grid-style thermals.  I was toasty in my thermals, but she wouldn't wear my extra's because they were too large.  

I think I might need to winterize my house a bit more with regards to plumbing.  Not that there was damage... but I sweated that a little.

Been wanting solar power... will pull the trigger on it one of these days.

ETA... I purchased an ice-scraper/brush for the cars years ago... during the summertime... my wife was like "why do we need that? Its summer and it hardly ever snows here in the winter"  I responded... because if it ever does get bad they will be gone from the stores... so the time to buy it is now.  And sure enough the ice-scraper/brush got a workout this week!

This...  My dad put in a fireplace insert in one of our Memphis homes.  It put out an immense amount of heat.   He had a free standing stove at the farm.  Ditto on the heat.  Get one of those heat powered fans to help move the air around.  

Be aware - you need access several inches inside the wall to retrofit a freeze proof hose bib.  It's not a simple replacement.

+1 to this.


My inclination would be to keep the electric heat pump, and use small heaters for common areas.  But...  just depends on the amount of money i guess.


FWIW - every rural house in my family (except the one i'm in) uses delivered propane for heat.  It's not an issue, really.  Depending on the service they can own the tank and the fuel and meter it, or you can rent the tank and own the fuel, buying it when you have it delivered.  Or you can own the tank and the fuel.

Also.  DO NOT BURY THE TANK.  I don't think companies will bury them now anyway.  

Burning fuel in an engine to turn a generator to then turn it back in to heat is a hugely wasteful way to heat a house.  You're much better off rigging some way to use the propane to directly create heat.

Said another way, you'll be able to run your generator much longer if you don't load your generator down producing electricity to heat your house.


Also, pay attention to fuel burn rates for generators.  A two pole generator turns at 1800 RPM vs 3600.  And thus, will use much less fuel, particularly when lightly loaded.  And some additional benefits.  More expensive though.

I've done pretty well despite having no power or water at house for LONG time.

Gas remained on, so I had gas logs burning to keep interior from freezing up.

Slept in front of them in sleeping bag with a Space Blanket set up behind as a reflector - slept well & warm.

Had MREs & Self Heaters, plus lots of canned food & a USGI Gasoline Powered Camp Stove to heat food.

Had a LOT of Hurricane / COVID / Boogaloo Water Supply.


THINGS FOR IMPROVEMENT

My Phone Service (Boost) SUCKED DONKEY DICKS!!!    Relatives with AT&T never had interruptions or lack of service.  Changing Service This Week.

Put Kitty Litter on Driveway & Side Walks.  Was my worst move.   It was an Ultra Fine Clay (some special& expensive designer Kitty Litter for Grandma's Cats) and it wasn't really large or grainy enough for good traction, but it immediately coated the bottom of our feet with WET CLAY leaving marks all over the house.

One of my two camp stoves didn't work.  Son put it away and screwed down the filler / Pump HARD, which destroyed the O-Ring so no pressure in the tank.  Gonna have to talk to my son about his Gorilla Grip and need to go lightly & not too tightly

BIGGER_HAMMER

Honestly, the only thing I really regretted not having was some sort of very large power bank to power / charge all the little electronic devices. Ended up running an extension cable to the built in 400w AC point in my truck.  No big deal, but letting the truck run all day just for that is hugely wasteful.

Didn’t even try to keep the house warm.  Just turned off the water and drained everything once inside temps got below 40.  

The smaller sized Buddy heater is doing an excellent job keeping the bedroom heated to a comfortable temp. It’s been running for several days straight on one 30 lb propane tank. I’m kinda curious when it’s going to quit. It will be another couple days before I have power so, the experiment is ongoing.

Other stuff would be a propane burner inside the house to heat water / make coffee. But that’s a convenience thing.


All the above is only a matter of convenience / quality of life. If it had come down to it, I’d have simply worn more clothing / rigged up a warmer sleeping arrangement with more blankets / sleeping bags. Etc.


...  but, I am single, no kids, and am content eating dry cereal.  I’m sure those with kids (especially small ones) have a different perspective on the convenience / necessity thing.


Little things I was glad to have:

Mr buddy heater and tank adapter kit
Headlamp (seriously, this thing has come in super handy)
Small power banks for electronics. I seem to have collected them randomly.
“Rubber band” style ice cleats for walking around.
A way to make coffee over fire. (For me this is a camp coffee style pot)
A compact LED lantern.

One thing I will change is the aforementioned headlamp and lantern. Each uses aaa batteries, but rechargeable cells are - I think - a better long term solution, if prepped for it.

After fighting to get my generator started outside for 45 minutes tonight I need to find some warmer clothing, gloves, and hand/pocket warmers for if I have to be out in this kind of cold for extended time.  

I have a "cold weather bag" with carhart overalls, sweatshirt, head cap, and what I thought were thick gloves that are fine for the few times a year it gets to 32 or so, but my hands were killing me tonight in the cold and ice.

I realized I need actual lanterns. I was using my Surefire lights, thank god I have a lot of cr123’s.  

Also, going to buy another Honda Eu2000i. Running 1 only allows me to run 1 space heater, I could run 2 but I can tell it was drawing too much for the little one by itself. So if you’re getting a generator get at a minimum 5k watts.  Also, I’m going to get the propane and natural gas conversion for my Honda. It will give me 3 options for sources of power for the generator.

Oh and I have a stupid fireplace that requires a 3v battery backup to run if I have no power. So I need to get that box for the 2 D cells. Going to go on Amazon and order the box and crimp the connectors myself.

Tons of extra weather seal. Never know where air is leaking.

And more 5 gallons jugs. Used to have a lot for my aquarium but not anymore.

@kaotic504

get one of these https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

Plug your heater into this to check the wattage draw to give you an idea.  It's what I used when running both of our oil radiator heaters into our eu3000.

All in all, very happy with my preps; out of power for 40hrs, kept everyone warm and happy, electronics/TV/cable powered and functional. Deployed a digital TV antenna to get local news and it worked great. Could pick up lots of news & music on my Baofengs/Tecsun as a secondary mechanism. Made some great food on a variety of stoves, made heat and light in a variety of ways, so loads of redundancy there and different set ups and fuel types.

Some observations;

The good;
- Running Aladdin mantle lamps vs Coleman lamps - Aladdin won all way round; silent, sipped kero/OMS, no adjustment or attention needed after they had warmed up. Gave out LOADS of heat and light. I have three of these, going to buy a couple more and set up a way to cook over them.
- For light only, solar rechargeable lights worked great and were something everyone could use safely (LuminAID brand)
- Meat that I had previously Sous Vide'd and then frozen was a breeze to cook; just reheat in water over a minimal flame to a temp just below the Sous Vide temp (eg 135F for steak) then torch and serve
- My Hawkins pressure cookers were brilliant... big fan of these, used them to cook baked potatoes as well as rice/beans/quinoa etc fast and with minimal fuel
- BioLite gassifier was excellent, I have used this now and again but this time used one for a day to really test it out, really neat and works great with a Hawkins
- Buy some bucket spigots; I converted a couple of 5gal buckets to allow running water for ourselves and a couple of neighbours, also used one to set up a gravity feed filter with a Sawyer mini to save boiling/treating water (not needed in the end, at least so far)
- Have lots of lighters, nobody seemed to have one (or a box of matches) and these were the most given-out item, translucent clippers are great, don't expect them back though.
- Pancake mix seemed to be a universal food ration for the unprepared; kids like it, easy to cook, can have it along with other stuff, a box of that and jar of jelly was a good hand-out and preferred over even ramen.

The bad;
- Any equipment lent came back damaged or unused as folks just couldn't figure it out despite me demonstrating it prior. Except a single burner propane stove w/ 1lb canister; the guy had to come back to help get the cap off the canister, then again to get a lighter though. But any kind of coleman stove, alcohol stove, wood gassifier stove - too complex for most, it seems.
- I live in an upper/middle class burb; yet 90% of people had no provisions to last even a couple of days.
- The levels of inability to deal with outside-of-norm events was staggering; I watched the local facebook/nextdoor groups and both had a continual stream of questions/requests for advice over the most mundane and easily solved things

For me and my family some minor tweaks, but overall very happy with the prep tryout, the provisions we have, and our ability to do what we need to do without being a burden on others.

Setting up a UPS for your WiFi may not help. There is limited cell service in my area. Without WiFi calling it’s almost unusable. I have a UPS on my wireless gateway. When the power goes out my WiFi stays on but I lose internet connection until my generator kicks in. Apparently there are components other than the wireless gateway that need power.

I have a whole home generator so have had power and thought we’d be good. There’s also a hotspot in our area so if there were damage to the lines to our home we’d still be good.  Wrong! Internet/cable went out about 12 hours after the area lost power. Xfinity sent out a text saying service would not be restored until the power to the area was restored. Apparently their local node (is that the correct term?) only has limited back up power. Once it’s gone service is out until power is restored.

Fellas - burning fuel to spin an engine to turn a generator only to transform that electricity back to heat is hugely wasteful.

If you have fuel to spare, so be it.  But if you’re trying to conserve it is much much more efficient to burn propane / diesel / kerosene directly to make heat, if that is the goal.


Said another way, for a given amount of propane you get a given amount of heat. You can recover 90% of it, as heat, by burning it directly. Or 10% of the heat by spinning a generator to make electricity, to then transform back to heat.

Said yet another way, you may get 30 hours of runtime to spin a gen to power everything including a heater. But you’ll get 60 hours of runtime spinning a gen to power everything BUT a heater, while still burning a propane heater - for the same net result over the same fuel consumption. Those are made up numbers but you get the idea.

Not to mention more load / runtime / wear and tear / oil changes on your generator.


ETA with maths:  

1 gallon of gasoline is 125,000 btu.
1 gallon of liquid propane is 95,000 btu.

1 kW hour is 3500 btu

A space heater is usually around 1500 watts. So one hour you get 5250 btu of heat. (Assuming 100% conversion efficiency from electricity to heat)

How many gallons of gas does it take to run a 2 kw generator at full chooch for an hour?

According to Google, the Honda eu2000i generator has a .95 gallon tank that will run it at full load for 3.5 hours. That is a burn rate of 0.27 gallons per hour.

So you’re burning 33,750 btu worth of gasoline to get 5250 btu worth of heat out of your electric space heater.  1/6th of the heat you’d get by burning the gasoline directly.

The numbers get even worse with propane, as propane gens are even less efficient. But I don’t feel like converting gallons to scfm and all that.