Money Matters
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: How Much Do you have saved in case of Emergencies?
To share, a couple of things we have found helpful are:
The recommendation for water is 1 gallon per person per day. So if you have 2 people and you plan on a 7 day water outage, then you need 14 gallons. This is for meals, and water intake, but probably also hygiene and toilet needs. Obviously, a person may not use a full gallon every day, but then you can reserve it and if needed, stretch it out for a longer period. Also, water drops or tablets, expire and actually become unsafe for use past their expiration, so some sort of filter is probably best if boiling isn't an option.
For blankets in the car, you can actually use "real ones" but those are so bulky, which can be a problem in smaller vehicles. So you can buy those emergency Mylar ones on Amazon fairly cheap. Just remember to insulate UNDERNEATH yourself. If you sit on a cold car seat or the cold ground, you will not stay warm. Another car idea is to have a collapsible shovel. You can buy pricey ones or just those military entrenching tools that fold down and go into something like 8"x8"2".
We only store up foods we already eat and just rotate them out using a first in, first out inventory method. Someone mentioned those tuna packets...I think those are awesome. Super healthy, lots of good calories, and small!
Having an emergency radio can be helpful too - one that can be charged in a variety of ways, like solar and hand-crank.
I'm also a big fan of having a folding knife and/or a multi-tool in each vehicle and detailed street maps of the local area.
DH and I have a list of items to take if we had to leave our home quickly a lot like what @hoffse mentioned previously. Our lists are two-fold. One is a very quick-grab if we had to leave basically immediately. The other is the list of items to get if we have a few hours. With the list, we don't have to stop and think, we can just go grab. We also have a list to do in the home like pulling blinds, turning off water, etc.. I think back to times I have been in emergencies and the LAST thing I want to do is to try and recall the basics when I'm already amped up. It's also why pilots have check-lists to go through for every emergency in the flight deck. If you can write a list when you are calm and able to evaluate everything, then you can rely on it rather than memory when the stress is up.
I appreciate what you're saying. I think it is good to have this discussions. But, in reality, many/most people do not take the care to prepare for even disasters in their own areas/regions. My parents just moved to a town 20 minutes from us. I've mentioned it before, we're in MN. Mom basically laughed at me when I advised her to put water and food in their cars (oh, how I try). Most people get side-tracked with busy aspects of life and "think" it's a great concept, but sadly it never amounts to any hard and fast action.
This one of the many reasons I like TN. We can have real, honest convos about the realities of life, especially here on MM.
@hoffse, I'm so glad to hear Belmont University really went out of its way for students displaced by Katrina. I know you all come to NOLA when you get a chance but, until these posts, I hadn't realized your H had his undergrad at Loyola. I also didn't realize the two of you have been together since you were teenagers. Pretty neat!
Katrina and other natural disasters really show us the best and worst of our human sides. I mean, the news reports focused on the ugly half, "Lord of the Flies" aspect of human nature...with the lootings and the chaos. But my experience was there was a whole lot more kind and helpful people and organizations who outpoured their support in small and big ways.
It's just not as sexy to focus on the Red Cross trucks giving out free hot meals. The National Guard regularly driving around the neighborhoods giving out MREs. Paul Prudhomme...god rest his soul, he died yesterday...cooking up like crazy for weeks after the storm to give out free food from his 4-star restaurant to whoever needed a hot meal. And the GIANT uptick in freecycle ads and Craigs List free stuff postings, as local people who didn't flood...weeded out all the stuff in their home they didn't need to give it away to anyone who did. A million stories of neighbors helping each other rebuild and supporting local stores. This is the type of community and banding together that is seen after the disaster is over and the news crews have left.
Okay, I promise, no more Katrina posts from me, lol.
@MommyLiberty5013, thanks for including the helpful info about 1 gallon of water per person, per day. That's why I keep a ridiculous 36 gallons in my storage shed during hurricane season. It will hold the two of us over (plus our dog and cat) for two weeks. There was a bad tropical storm a few years ago that knocked out the power in NOLA for one week. No evacuation ordered, but without power for that long, there is always a boil water order issued. It was much more convenient to have so much water stashed.
And don't forget pets! You need 1 gallon of water per person per day PLUS whatever amount of water your pets drink per day.
My H has a RWD car and drives country roads for 50 miles each way too and from work, every single day. We live in Rural northern Illinois. He drives that thing better in the snow than a FWD vehicle, and I'm the same way. That's what we learned on, so we know how to react to it. Put me in a FWD car, and I'm a mess.
ETA: I just realized that I really need to revise my list now that we have a baby. Need to make sure we have plenty in the car for her as well now.
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
I was just thinking about this and discussing it with DH. He thought I was crazy to want to stock up on some water. Now that we have a baby I have been adamant about making sure we are responsible, thinking about her safety, and provide for her in any and all situations. That is really what a parent is for during times of stress/disaster/need or really all the time. We live in the northwest so our weather isn't horrible but every few years we get a whammy of a storm.
I remember in 2006 I had to walk the 4.5 miles home in the snow from my job at Macy's. Luckily I was able to buy the last pair of "snow boots" in my size before my manager shut down the store. I had chosen to leave my car at work that night as I was not confident in my skills or others skills to keep my car in one piece and me safe. The buses stopped running and people were abandoning their cars everywhere. I lived with my brother at the time. The police weren't letting anyone with 4WD down his street at a certain point. He wasn't even allowed to come get me. There were many of us walking that night. Then we were without power for a week. He left to stay somewhere else but I still had to work. Luckily, his house had gas for water and stove. I was able to use his big Rottweiler, pepper, as a source of heat as well. I remember wrapping Christmas presents by firelight. Now I always wear athletic shoes and have a jacket/sweatshirt even in the summer.
We need to stock up our car for winter, just in case one or all three of us gets stranded or has to walk to a safe place. Then we need to work on something for our apartment.
That is absolutely true. It doesn't necessarily have to be ice, just make sure the freezer is totally filled in the event of a long power outage. We did this when our power ended up being out for a week. Once the power was back on, our freezer was still the temperature of a refrigerator and we were able to keep most of the items. We also did not open the freezer for that entire time.
We have a diesel generator now. It's good sized and was $600. If you have a membership or know someone who does, Costco/Sam's are usually your best bet for a good quality but still low cost generator. I live in a duplex and it will run both refrigerators and at least one A/C window unit per unit, plus small stuff like fans and radios. Every year before hurr. season starts, my H fires it up to make sure it is working properly. We safely dispose of all the diesel from the year before and go refill our containers with new diesel. We keep (I think) 10 gallons of diesel on hand.