Good Idea

I know good advice when I see it.  The latest issue of the Costco magazine actually had some GREAT advice.  And that is: to do a bit of emergency preparedness.

Now this is something I’ve been wanting to get around to for a while.  In North Texas we have to worry about tornadoes.  They are scary.

If a tornado decides to descend on me and my house (a la Wicked Witch of the West!), then I have nothing to worry about.  Because then I will end up squished into nothingness along with my house, under those circumstances.

But most likely if I suffer from the effects of a tornado it will be in the form of downed utilities and maybe some degree of damage to my home.  That is what I need to be prepared for.

So I went and found my big Sony boom box that my husband gave me for a Christmas present in 1990 (we were dating then).  That sucker still works great.  Then I made sure I had some batteries for it, but not stored in the radio.  Check.

Then I looked around my house for a good hidey-hole to ride out the festivities.   Unfortunately I don’t have a basement.  So that leaves the coat closet under the stairs.  It meets all the general requirements of a good (non-basement) tornado hidey-hole: more-or-less in the middle of the house, no windows, four solid walls.  Plus it’s a pretty big closet so me, my hubby, four pooches, and one kitty will all fit in there.  Actually, I’m a little bit worried I won’t be able to find and catch the cat if we need to take cover.  She can be darned elusive when she wants to be.

This closet doesn’t have a lot of junk in it so that is good.  I just put a bunch of blankets in there to store them now that the hot weather has come, but that is good because you can cover yourself up with them to protect yourself from falling debris.

Next, I need to turn my attention to the tornado aftermath.  That means food and water for a few days, just in case utilities are down.  I think I will shoot for seven days just to be on the safe side.

And that is kind of where I am now, and this is the part that requires money.  But of course I’m going to be cheap about it.

So right now I’m working on the water part.  I’m doing this by saving juice and soda containers, washing them out, then filling them with tap water.  I’m tough, so I’m not afraid to drink tap water.  I’m storing these out on some shelves in the garage.  I sure hope my garage doesn’t get squished.

I don’t drink a lot of juice and I hardly ever buy soda.  Even so, these things seem to find their way into my life.  For instance when my husband was recently out of commission with a virus, I bought two gallons of orange juice to help him out.  Also, my husband recently had a poker game and some of his guests brought 2-liter bottles of soda to drink.  They left them here, and when they get used up (more likely I will pour the soda down the sink) I’ll fill those with water, too.

We have seven water-drinking creatures in this house.  Wow! A week’s worth of water would be a lot.  Maybe I’d better shoot for 20 gallons.  However, for simple washing, I do have filled-up rain barrels, over 200 gallons worth.

Now I need to think about food.  My pantry is pretty well stocked, so I’m not too worried.  Though I do think I need to stock up more on foods that don’t need to be cooked - tuna, beans, veggies.

I need to gather up miscellaneous items, like a change of clothes, flashlight, extra batteries, candles, matches, can opener….hmmmm, what else?  I need to make a list. I have all these things, but they are here, there, and everywhere.  Time to gather them together in one place.

So I will work on this project little-by-little.  It never hurts to be prepared.