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Easy Emergency Preparedness On the Cheap

18 Oct

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Hawaii had its biggest earthquake to happen in the last 20 years this past weekend.  If you haven’t click here.  Shortly after the earthquake, the power went out.  Traffic ensued, family bbqs started, and long lines at grocery stores and gas stations followed.  So after this experience, thought I’d share some things I did that helped prepare…I didn’t even realize they would help actually, I just did some of them for some odd reason…

  • Buy Candles on sale!  They last forever.
  • Keep your gas tank filled halfway at all times.  This is not only good just in case, but by keeping your tank filled, it’ll prevent the crap in your gas tank from entering your fuel pump/engine causing possible mechanical problems.
  • Buy a water dispenser…having delivery of water plus a fresh supply will be beneficial everyday anyway.
  • Have a battery powered radio on hand!
  • Keep that old phone with a thing they call “cords” around.  If the power goes out, many cordless phones won’t work, including mobile phones!  So keep that old phone handy.
  • Freeze jugs of water.  Not critical for folks below freezing, but for hotter temperatures, this is a must.  Keeps your fridge colder longer, can be used to various purposes, and when it melts, you’ve got more water!

Hope it never happens to anyone, but if it does, it’s nice to know you’re somewhat prepared.  Being somewhat prepared is better than not being prepared at all!

 
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  1. mapgirl

    October 18, 2006 at 7:17 am

    Hi Freedumb!

    These are great tips, but for the paranoid/serious, your readers should check out posts by me and by Miserly Bastard at Yet Another Blog about Money.

    I wrote one on Go Bag! and another in response to MB’s post. (Because he asked me to comment. Link to his post is in there.)

    I hope your readers find them useful. MB and I had a lot of discussion about it, and we agree that the time to think about this stuff is BEFORE IT HAPPENS.

    I hope you and yours in Hawaii are safe. :-D

     

  2. Maria

    October 18, 2006 at 8:34 am

    These are great suggestions for any climate. I used to live in SLC and the snow storms would knock out power at least once per year. Having a “landline” came in handy.
    Glad to hear that you’re ok and hope Brownie wasnt too upset!

     

  3. udandi

    October 18, 2006 at 9:23 am

    I’m glad mapgirl commented because I remember hers and MB’s posts — very good ones. I think it was Jane Dough who bought or was thinking of the hand-crank radio.

     

  4. freedumb

    October 18, 2006 at 1:55 pm

    I’ll check out those posts!! Funny, I went to Costco the other day, and people were buying batteries and other “essentials” the day AFTER the earthquake…hmmmm.

     

  5. mapgirl

    October 19, 2006 at 4:38 am

    Yeah. There is always a rush AFTER. But really, you have to think of it BEFORE. Just like the scouts say, ‘Be Prepared!’

     

  6. empty spaces

    October 31, 2006 at 2:29 pm

    you forgot 2 more
    1. keep bags of flour around
    2. keep a manual milling machine too!

     

  7. Brendan

    November 20, 2006 at 2:20 pm

    I always keep flashlights around. I love the Surefire ones. They are tiny and super bright. Also they use lithium batteries with a 10 year shelf life. I keep one in the car and one in the apartment.

    Successful Personal Finance