Last year in Kentucky, we had a horrendous ice storm that lasted, what seemed like, forever. Overnight as the rain fell and the remperatures plummeted, the ice broke tree limbs, felled entire trees and power lines, crushed roofs,and killed people. Most of Kentucky, SE Missouri, parts of Arkansas and northern Tennessee were without power for weeks. I believe Kentucky took the brunt of the storm. At our homestead we were without power for 11 days in temperatures in the teens. The common things we take for granted; lights, heat, ability to use the stove to cook, refrigeration (unless you took items outside) and even drawing water from the well were not an option. If you didn't plan for it, if you didn't have alternate resources, you did without.
There are quite a few poultry farmers here who were in dire straights. We have tropical birds (11 to be exact) that had to be kept warm.
Since I've had a lot of emergency preparedness training both at work (as a nurse) and having lived in the country for a good portion of my life, we were at a little better advantage than most people here. We had ample food and supply storage, we'd stored water that summer. We had plenty of propane for our camp stoves. We had blankets and sleeping bags and warm clothes. My husband and I were fortunate to work at hospitals that allowed us to bathe and wash our hair at their facilities.
What we did NOT anticipate was the duration of the power outage. We'd lived in Salt Lake City for 6 years and were used to cold, snowy weather. We learned alot from our Mormon friends about having emergency essentials stored away and practiced that in our own household as well. I think it's something that I've done all my adult life...storing food and supplies. My mother used to call me the "Little Red Hen", always busy canning food, buying extra food when I could, keeping things together to care for my 4 children (I was a single mom with no extra means of support for 15 years). Learning those skills is important, not just for weather disasters, but for hard times, for lean times. At some point in our lives, it will happen, in one form or fashion. It's better to be prepared than to be caught without during a crisis. Look at the lessons from Hurricane Katrina, from midwest tornados outbreak in December of 2009, from the tsunami that hit Tunesia on Christmas day in 2004. Be prepared is a Boy Scout motto that is not without it's merits. Even the Bible teaches us with the parable of the 10 maidens in Matthew 25:1-13 about preparedness. What better teaching can that be?
In subsequent articles of Emergency Preparedness on the Homestead, we will learn how to do just that...be prepared!