I am still without power as are thousands of others around the area. It could be much worse though, I am lucky enough to have water.

Anyhoo, this whole incident has got me thinking about being prepared for disasters.

People come up with inventive ways to 'survive' when they have to. Guess it just goes to prove that necessity truly is the mother of invention.

If anyone has suggestions or tips on what you can do in times of power and water outages please post them here. You never know when they might come in handy

Here's some I picked up this week:

* If you have a swimming pool and it still has water in it, bottle that water and use it for flushing toilets and any other "non-sanitary" uses.

* Emergency cash
Credit cards won't work in a power outage, so it's common sense to carry some cash with you at all times.

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Food Safety in a Power Outage

Perishable foods should not be held above 40 degrees for more than 2 hours. If a power outage is 2 hours or less, you need not be concerned, but how do you save your food when the refrigerator is out for longer times? Being prepared can help. By planning ahead, you can save your perishables.

What do you need?
•One or more coolers. Inexpensive styrofoam coolers can do an excellent job as well.

•Shelf-stable foods, such as canned goods and powdered or boxed milk. These can be eaten cold or heated on the grill.

•A digital quick-response thermometer. A digital thermometer should be a necessity in your kitchen anyway. With these thermometers you can quickly check the internal temperatures of food for doneness and safety.

What to do...
•Do not open the refrigerator or freezer. Tell your little ones not to open the door. An unopened refrigerator will keep foods cold enough for a couple of hours at least. A freezer that is half full will hold for up to 24 hours and a full freezer for 48 hours.

•If it looks like the power outage will be for more than 2-4 hours, pack refrigerated milk, dairy products, meats, fish, poultry, eggs, gravy, stuffing and left-overs into your cooler surrounded by ice.

•If it looks like the power outage will be prolonged, prepare a cooler with ice for your freezer items.


*As soon as the power returns, check temperatures. If the food in the freezer has ice crystals and is not above 40 degrees you can refreeze. Perishable foods in the refrigerator should not be above 40 degrees F. for more than two hours.

I was out of power for five days a few summer's ago, but did have water and gas still (and since my stove is gas I could cook on that which was great!) but still had to come up with some creative ways to cook.

I found the 'Complete Meals' by Betty Crocker were excellent. They are usually in with the Hamburger Helper in the grocery store and have everything, including meat, in the package and it's all canned so it doesn't need refridgeration and can either be cooked in the over or on a stove top... or alternatively over a fire in a cast iron pan (which I've done on camping trips before).

Which brings me to my plug for cast iron pots and pans... great for cooking on a daily basis but if you ever need to cook over a fire they work great!


Other than that my biggest advice for situations like that is to be nice to whoever it is that is in the area trying to make things better. When we had the big power outages a few years ago, it got nasty for alot of the guys... police actually had to be called in to escort the power company employees into certain areas because people were so upset and actually violent with them. But then other people were bringing them cool drinks and saying thank you... which is what we all should be doing, if we aren't out there helping out in some way ourselves.

M.