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View Full Version : Winter preparedness?



tsitenha
11-20-2008, 10:19 AM
Emergencies, disasters (natural or man made), outages, shortages can come at all times of the year.
Winter is especially brutal when combined with one of the above.
How do you prepare for the various needs that you will have at lower temperatures?
Different climates, physical geography, population density etc...
Would an event, that has Katrina's magnitude cause greater unrest in your area?

Sourdough
11-20-2008, 10:22 AM
................Yep

tsitenha
11-20-2008, 11:33 AM
We stock up a little more than usual, in high caloric food and water, but also have added a few winter specific items:
along with dedicated long term winter clothes and footwear we have
wood to heat the house as a stand alone system
an 8" ice hand powered auger with a 7" dipping pail on a rope to get water containers to hold the water should the system fail,
a filtration system for water that is gravity fed,
made sleds to carry our equipment should we be forced to vacate,
every members of the household has snowshoes and extra long X country ski poles for stability, and their own sled (above),
have several alternate locations and route to evac area,
made a trailer to transport above with 4x4 vehicle if roads are available,
have dedicated winter weight sleeping bags and ground cloths,
"prospector tent" with a stove and pipe jack already sown in,
any add on that I have forgotten to mention?

DOGMAN
11-20-2008, 12:24 PM
Well, we are pretty prepared for winter. My take on winter is every minute is a survival situation...we just live so far from town and other people, and it gets so cold that you've got to be prepared. So, I prepare all fall to get ready. We have multiple ways to heat (which is new this year). A back-up generator. 5 cords of wood and scrambling to get more. Each vehicle has a winter survival kit in it. SLed dogs have new houses and a ton of hay under tarps ready to be passed out.
4x4's are in good shape...we're just about ready.

It should be interesting though with a newborn baby this winter. My wife is not so sure about running dogs or a snowmachine to get in and out of our place with an infant. She is a little scared and wants to spend the winter with her parents. Strife on the homefront only makes it all more difficult to prepare

Stony
11-20-2008, 12:27 PM
no special prep here.
we got firewood, meat in the freezer, a 4x4, a ski-doo, heating oil.........
if the roads are not plowed bec. it snowed 3 feet overnight, we stay home.
no big deal.

Dave Johns
11-20-2008, 12:49 PM
Winter weather can be a big problem here in the South - simply because almost nobody is prepared for it. If a massive weathersystem comes thru and dumps lots of snow, we are all pretty much isolated for the duration. Local authorities barely have the resources to keep major bridges open in the winter, much less clearing a few roads.

A really bad winter storm is pretty high on my shtf list, to be honest. I am pretty well stocked up now on food and water for at least a week (I am assuming i will be feeding others in my apartment building before it is over) but I am still a little worried about heating. Most houses around here don't have fireplaces or woodburning stoves, mine included. I will probably go get a good kerosene heater next week,which should be good enough for keeping one or two rooms comfy for a short term bug-in.

tsitenha
11-20-2008, 12:58 PM
When we were in Japan, the used kerosene heaters only in the room that they used at the moment (most don't have central heating). They moved that heater from room to room as they worked cooked and such, they also drank a lot of tea to keep their inards warm.
We wore a lot of wool products and layered for sleep (heater is off at night), most places are not really cold -6c maybe cooler at night but very high humidity.
Modern Kero heaters are a good way to keep an apartment or specific room warm.

Dave Johns
11-21-2008, 04:18 AM
Yup. I went by the local big-box improvement store, they had a number of good kerosene and propane heaters. I was pretty sure kero was the way to go, but now I am considering buying a propane heater instead. For a short term (up to a week) situation, the propane would be easier and cleaner. But any longer-term crisis, kerosenes' ease of storage and overall safety (not to mention the lower price) may come into play.

Any recommendations?

Sourdough
11-21-2008, 07:57 AM
One thing I do is set a ladder to the roof of each building and connex. Last year the roof of one connex caved in from snow load. It is rare but we can get 9' to 12' of snow in a weekend. Digging out ladders under 6' of snow is wasted time. I take extension ladders apart so as to have twice as many. I also lash them to buildings and connex's.

wareagle69
11-21-2008, 09:38 AM
winter is my favorite time of the year,
as far as a natural disaster well in the winter that would be a major snow storm nothing that would be worth evacuating for, so sit tight and enjoy (me personally i would love to see a storm like the 78 one) i heat with wood and no chance of running out, i have a natural spring near by that never freezes lots of feed for the critters gas tanks always full plenty of propane for the trailor ifn needed and just picked up allot more deer and moose meat last night and me and little brown dawg just awaiting for a storm to shoe in

Ole WV Coot
11-21-2008, 10:31 AM
One thing I do is set a ladder to the roof of each building and connex. Last year the roof of one connex caved in from snow load. It is rare but we can get 9' to 12' of snow in a weekend. Digging out ladders under 6' of snow is wasted time. I take extension ladders apart so as to have twice as many. I also lash them to buildings and connex's.

We ain't had a real bad snow in 30yrs but I do keep a ladder under cover for that reason. Generator checked, plenty of firewood, kerosene and the 4X4 truck & ATV ready. Probably laugh about snow around here but I don't like to be stuck inside. If it ain't too bad I like to run a brush down the chimney once a month or so and rock salt on burning wood seems to help with the buildup.:)

trax
11-21-2008, 10:40 AM
Hey Dad, potato peelings help reduce buildup in the chimney too, just throw them in on the fire.

My thinking's like WarEagle's, basically if I wind up stuck indoors because a winter storm or snow buildup is bad enough, I'm prepared to hibernate.

crashdive123
11-21-2008, 02:02 PM
Winter preparedness? Let's see.... Aside from the normal stuff - food, water, fuel, many other supples....... Oh yeah. I moved the shorts to the bottom drawer and put the jeans a bit closer to the front of the closet.

trax
11-21-2008, 03:45 PM
Man, crash it must be a struggle down there...I feel for ya

crashdive123
11-21-2008, 04:01 PM
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Socks. Flip flops are for the warmer days now.

wareagle69
11-21-2008, 04:38 PM
Man, crash it must be a struggle down there...I feel for ya

well i will tell ya what trax i started in canada then went to ohio then gergia then texas then arizona (nothern and central) but the years i spent in pheonix were really odd when you are used to fall and snow at christmas it just doesn't sit right with ya same as right now i know thanksgiving is next thursday and to me that is right not like october here, so when it snow like a mother up here and people wish for being where crash is i feel sorry for him as he does not get to experience what we do, and i have lived both lives and i much prefer here

crashdive123
11-21-2008, 06:11 PM
Sure I do. It's not that long a drive to get into mountains and snow.......besides, these "harsh" winters are a lot cooler than my years in Guam.:D

old soldier
11-21-2008, 07:07 PM
nothing special here,just mount the plow and the wheels with chains on the tires, chains work better if there's ice under the snow, less spinning and chewing. Actually we're ready for anything except a medical emergency, then i'd make the trip to the hospital myself rather than wait for the ambulance to get here if it was storming, ice or snow. heat is no problem,we have plenty of oil and even wood if needed, a generator and plenty of gas. over a ton of food. playing cards

trax
11-21-2008, 07:08 PM
The only climate other than this that I've ever been in for an extended period of time was the west coast, I lived in Vancouver from when I was 17 to 21. Ten months of rain and two of sunshine. I hated it by my second year. I'd rather put up with the winters and the cold.

Rick
11-21-2008, 07:31 PM
To your question on a Katrina sized event. You bet. I think it would no matter where you live.

To get prepared I change the oil in the snowblower, make sure the propane tanks are full for the propane heater. Top off the kerosne if need be for the kerosine heater. Toss some hotties (chemical heaters, not girls) in the glove compartment of the vehicles. Safety check the vehicles and I'm pretty much good to go. I put up wood all summer so I always have last year's wood to use and this years wood seasoning.