Having lived on the Gulf Coast all my life, we always started stocking food in January (plus candles / batteries, and when they became available battery operated fans), that way we didn’t have to “bust the budget”. We checked the dates on food we’d previously bought, what was good stayed - bad, well you get the idea.
Water the same way, looked for weekly sales, bought at least one pack also bought a water Bob.
Have a generator that needs repair, but seriously looking into a Generac as I’m getting to darn old to keep it filled up (5 gallons runs about 10 to 12 hours, depending on the load)
Gasoline, during Hurricane Season do NOT let the tank get below half, and when the local news starts “looking at something” fill up the gas cans for the generator, which if we don’t need it, goes into the Lawn Tractor.
Preparing for a storm, especially on the Gulf Coast is a way of life, or it should be. Family recently moved down from North Carolina, and pushing them to “prepare” but you know how the younglings are, they had snow, days without power so they know it all.
“...seriously looking into a Generac...”
A word on Generac generators. First, a correction. The one in my office is 20 KW, not 22. Now, one thing we found out was, that even if it is obvious that these machines are not designed for prolonged use (I’d say over a few days), one thing we assumed it was doing, it wasn’t. The Generator battery recharges only with utility power, not with its own power. One morning about a week after the storm and loss of utility power, it didn’t start. We had to jump start it. Our maintenance guy realized it wasn’t charging from its own power, so he had to jury rig a trickle charger to the set so it would charge itself. Not sure if this was just a defect with ours, but that’s what happened to us.