On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 17:55:48 EDT, Lesley wrote:
We don't have a real plan, mostly case by case planning. Our
emergencies tend to run to power outages, the longest so far being 3
days at the time of Hurricane Fran. Not bad considering lots of people
were out the better part of two weeks with that one! Our winter weather
runs to ice storms with ensuing power outages; since we're on a well, no
electricity means no water. We've considered getting a generator, but
haven't made that leap yet. I just don't forsee this area have a kind
of natural disaster that would wipe out infrastructure and make
stockpiling food and water a good idea.


We've got a generator, and about 7 days worth of gasoline
( assuming the generator runs about 4 hours a day - enough to
keep the house warm, and the food cold ). As for water, we
have 15 gallons, some of which are kept in the deep-freeze
as thermal mass. At least 2 weeks worth of dried food -
canned veggies & fruits, pasta, cheeses, and so on. The
one thing we have left to get is a small chainsaw, since
we have a heavily wooded property, and being able to
remove a tree from the roof would be a good idea. ;-)

We're in Rochester, NY, so while the worst we've had to
deal with is the occasional ice storm and blizzard,
they've still caused enough disruption that we've dipped
into our supplies in the past. I see it as a basic
function of a family to prepare for these sorts of things,
since when something bad really does happen, you're
not going to have time to go shopping.

- Rich