Posted on 09/29/2005 6:51:28 AM PDT by RoseyT
The folks are mostly the wrong color, and even if they are the right color, they aren't the pitiful helpless victim types, they are people who actually work for a living.
They had wood or coal stoves, and kerosene or oil lamps. Don't see many of those around anymore. Unless you happen to have a propane grill, and enough propane to cook 3 meals a day for a week, you're going to have problems. You might not even have utensils suitable for cooking, or even boiling water, on that grill, other than throwing a hunk of cow or some chicken on it.
Y'all seem to forget there is more'n one way for a country boy to get to town!
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam. Hey, it might be "crazy tasty", but in an emergency...you take what you can get.
This is what the great majority of Americans will go through if Al Qaeda ever attacks the US electrical grid.
If you don't have thirty days stored water, (one gallon per person per day) and the same amount of canned or boxed food, you are in for a huge surprise.
If you do have such supplies and you don't lock your doors, keep the lights off (candles and lanterns) after dark, you will be forced to share or else have your supplies taken from you.
Not only do you need to be prepared to survive without electricity, (main issues, no refrigeration and no pumps to move water or gasoline), you need to encourage your neighbors to do the same.
Failure to do so will result in you living through exactly what you are seeing these hurricane survivors doing on tv.
You have that right. I live in Lake Charles and it's going to be a few more weeks before we have enough infrastructure to go back home. The media is trying to make this normal result of a major hurricane into some sinister plot against poor people. It's not working.
Oh, I have no doubt about that! My husband and I take preparedness very seriously and I've been trying to talk to my extended family members about it for a while. Kinda funny...ever since last Friday they have shown a lot more interest in the whole subject.
Anyway, regarding the hurricane survivors, maybe I'm too soft-hearted but it's hard for me to have no sympathy for their situation especially if they did what was suggested on the local news and had supplies for 3 days and after 5 days still haven't received outside help, especially considering the extinuating circumstances of evacuees placing such a strain on gas and food availability.
Cooking utensils, you know, pots and pans and such, not eating utensils. You've got to have a pot of some sort, and it has be compatible with a grill or open wood fire, just to boil water. Sure a big can will do, if you've got a big can. If you can get water to boil that is.
Sure you should have the water in your hot water heater, and it shouldn't need to be boiled, although it wouldn't hurt. And a bit of bleach will probably kill whatever might be in your hot water tank. If the pipes aren't broken, and for the most part I don't see why they would be, you should still have water pressure at least for awhile, since the water in the overhead tanks that are common in most parts of Texas should last quite a while. Nobody's going to be watering lawns or washing cars, nor even washing clothes, except by hand in the bathtub. That's if you are in a town. If you are rural, you probably have your own well, but not much water in storage, if any. In that case you really should have a generator or if your well is reasonably shallow, a hand pump. I've no idea how deed the aquifers are over there.
Mostly wet and/or green. But if you can find a small amount that isn't, you can fix that in sort order.
Some places they are, some they aren't yet. The place is a forrest, you know full of trees. You can't drive over them, and many of them are now down, blocking the roads, and making passage through the big thicket itself very problematic for vehicles. You can walk out I'm sure.
My point was that you'll probably have to eat that stuff cold, unless you've got cooking utensils. (Although canned stuff can be heated in the *opened* can. I recommend removing the label too.
Another point is that if no one comes in to help, it's going to more than just few days. I'm sure it will be more than a few days before they get electricity, except maybe in the larger towns, and even there it depends on how badly the lower levels of the distribution system are damaged.
My folks were out of power for something like a week after an ice storm. And that was reasonably localized, so they were able to bring crews in from nearby areas. This storm was widespread and followed another widespread storm which sucked away the not so nearby crews.
Dad insisted on staying in the house, living the somewhat warmer basement, but Mom went to my brother's house, which since it had underground power lines, got power back quickly if it ever lost it. The ice melted right away, and aside from those stations which still had no power for their pumps, gas was available, so those folks sticking it out could be fed by those in the unaffected or already restored areas.
Ain't that the truth?
With as many states as FEMA has to cover, I think maybe people expect to much out of them.
"especially considering the extinuating circumstances of evacuees placing such a strain on gas and food availability."
You're right about that RoseyT. I was in that evacuation out of the Houston Area up 59S and I was amazed at the number of those that apparently seemed to be unprepared gasoline wise for evacuation. Too many thought they would be able to stop along the way and get gasoline. I on the other hand filled up my vehicle (SUV BTW) when I first heard Rita was moving towards Galveston. It took me 17 hrs to get to Jasper to get my mother and move her out, but my "gas guzzler" still had 3/8 tank when I got there and I never stopped for gas even if I could have found it.
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