[SkyPilot]

Kudos to you for taking care of your Dad in that situation.

And yes, after Ivan, it was muggy and hot as hell. I made it Georgia (where Ivan hit me as powerful Tropical Storm, lol). It was hot and muggy there as well, but we had power.

After Sandy, people in NJ and NY lost power for over a week. Sandy hit in mid-autum, and right after wards, the temperatures went into the mid 30s at night.

For those without power or a generator, it didn't become a quality of life situation not to have power. It became almost life threatening.

For this with generators, some people (like my cousin) quickly discovered that he never thought about how much gasoline he would need. He had some lawnmower gas on hand in 1 or 2 gallon cans, and that was about it. He went out looking for gasoline, and ran into lines that took 6 or 7 hours in order to get fuel. All of the approved gas canisters were sold out in a 200 mile radius.

His "plan" was to siphon out gas from his automobiles, but he found out the siphon would not work on modern cars. He said there was a bend in the line that made it impossible.

When you little kids are freezing, and all the hotels are booked, and you have no power, no hot water, or in the case of well systems - no water at all - things can get bad quickly.

If you do keep gas on hand, store it away from your house, and use fuel preservative.

[yarddog]

Daddy was better set up than I was.

We both lived in a rural area but he had a 220 Volt generator already hooked up to his water pump. You can get by with surprisingly little water and in our case there was a nice creek flowing only 50 yards behind his house.

We got all the water for washing and flushing from the creek and that water was pretty clean.

Of course we had to cook using the grill. Could have switched to using wood if we had to but never did. No one in the community suffered at all. They were all rural people who sort of knew how to get by.

[dynachrome]

“found out the siphon would not work on modern cars.”

The modern solution is to poke a sharp screwdriver thru the gas tank and drain into a container. Not terribly safe

[Lurker]

I altered my gen set to run on natural gas. It’s by far the most reliable utility around here, other than water. I can go for days as long as NiGas keeps things flowing.

L

[servantboy777]

After Hurricane Ike, the wife and I decided to move out of Houston suburbs to the country. It WAS UGLY.

We now live in the country, have a way to grow food (although I suck at it), propane for the house, fireplace, propane generator w/7K watt capacity and 208v pig tail for the well...waters good, a way to get it out of the ground...even better.

We have chickens that lay eggs daily, horses and surrounded by forest on all sides. Lights out...it is difficult, but survival kicks in but quick. Food stored, ammo/arms to protect it.

All major arteries during hurricane Rita were blocked outta Houston. Thousands of people competing for the same stuff. Folks looting, fighting over gas, food, ice...you name it. Local grocery stores were stripped bare within hours. Folks were going in the Kroger buying birthday cakes and crap to eat because all can goods were gone. No water, no batteries, no nothing.

Trust me on this y'all...be prepared well in advance. When tragedy strikes....it's too damn late.

[editor-surveyor]

To siphon gas from modern cars, you need a much smaller hose than you probably are accustomed to.

Another thing about gas:

If you are using the new-fangled “spill-proof” plastic jugs, you must store them with the spout above the jug, not inside of it.

If the spout is inside, and the temp rises much, the pressure will force the gas slowly up and out of the lid of the jug, until it is down to the level of the lower tip of the spout.
.