Ideas to Weather Short-Term Infrastructure Disruptions

Why Hurricane Kits, you ask?

Many readers may not know I spent most of my life in a hurricane zone. We took Hurricane Kits seriously. Wherever you live in the US, a Hurricane Kit could be a good short-term tool to have around in the lead-up to the midterms.

Because a Hurricane Kit could be useful to weather blackouts or brownouts, as well as cyberattacks on electrical grids and water infrastructure. Unlike prepping, which is designed to survive without modern conveniences for the long-term, a Hurricane Kit is a tool to ride out short-term disruptions to supply chains, infrastructure, and day-to-day life. You know, like in the event of disruptions aimed at the midterm elections.

My husband and I always assembled enough supplies to live up to a month without power and water. If we weren’t hit with a storm, we used up those items over the course of the year. So if nothing happens around the midterms, focus on things you can use in the coming year.

You don’t need everything I’ve listed. Assemble the supplies that fit your situations and preferences.

Recommended Cooking Tools

• If you cannot afford these items, TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS. Make a community plan to share resources. For example, you could offer to cook for a group in exchange for access to someone else’s grill. A community plan could also avoid waste and duplication, as well as making sure everyone is covered, especially the vulnerable.

• We lived in a multi-family building and could not have a grill, so we invested in a small propane camp stove. We stored enough propane for a month’s worth of cooking.

• If you have a gas grill, enough extra gas to power it for a month.

• If you have a charcoal grill, enough charcoal and lighter to power it for a month.

• If you have a wood grill, enough wood and starter sticks to power it for a month.

• Matches and lighters.

Recommended Food Items

• Dried pastas

• White rice (not brown; it doesn’t keep as long on the shelf)

• Several varieties of beans (canned or dried depending upon your skill and how much prep you want to do)

• Canned vegetables and meats (or produce you’ve canned yourself)

• Canned sauces and/or tube sauces

• Shelf-stable milk and/or powdered milk

• Energy bars

• Ensure or similar for emergency calories if other supplies run low

• Sweeteners (honey/sugar)

• Salt

• Peanut butter and/or nuts (for those not allergic)

• Bouillon cubes to add flavor to dishes

• Manual can opener

Water

• Drinking water - WaterBricks are easy to stack and store. GO HERE to order.

• Water for cooking, bathing, and flushing toilets. In advance of a hurricane, we filled our guest bathtub with water, but given how parched most of the US is, I don’t recommend wasting water. If you have access to a downspout and adequate rain, a rain barrel might also be a good investment. Otherwise, a separate supply of bottled water for cooking, bathing, and flushing.

• WaterBrick also sells water purification kits. Readers with camping experience may also recommend water purification tablets. (We never put them in our kits, but they are handy to purify water from a nearby source.)

• Again if you cannot afford these items, TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS. Wherever possible, make this a collective project.

Survival Supplies

• Working flashlights that you have recently tested.

• Batteries for flashlights, radios, and other emergency devices. (Reader Agent of Chaotic Respite recommends this one: includes 5 possible power sources (including solar and mechanical wind-up): https://www.amazon.com/Raynic-Emergency-Portable-Flashlight-Cellphone/dp/B07TXL4XJP)

• Candles. We went to a chef supplier and bought a box of votive candles for food warmers/chafing dishes (500 candles).

• First-aid kit that you have recently inventoried and restocked, including replacing all expired items like pain relievers.

• An extra month supply of prescriptions (if your doctor will provide and insurance will cover.)

• Solar chargers to charge phones and other electronic devices. Readers can also get Uninterruptible Power Supplies (1-4 hours of charging power), Portable Power Stations (12 - 48 hours of power), DC power cables to charge devices with a car battery, and a phone power bank.

• I believe a generator could be a good neighborhood investment, depending on financial resources and needs.

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Heating and Cooling

• A cooler that can keep things cold for up to a week and enough frozen ice packs to supplement purchased ice. We always used up items in our fridge and freezer first once we lost power. A cooler was a good bridge to preserve more food we could eat instead of toss.

• A battery-powered fan to keep air moving through a space.

• Cordless or gas-powered heater, along with battery packs and/or fuel supplies.

• If you have a fireplace or wood-burning stove, enough fuel to burn for a month’s heat.

• Blankets and warm socks.

• Hand, foot, and body warmers. GO HERE.

Documents and finances

• If an electrical grid goes down, ATMs, credit card machines, and the internet may not work. If you can afford to, take out a supply of cash and keep it on hand in a safe place. (Ideally, a safe.)

• Ask your bank if they can do off-line banking (which means you can still get money from a physical banking location if the internet goes down.) If they say yes, ask them to explain how the process works. (You may find out they have no idea.) Credit unions can usually do this better than bigger banks.

• Make a habit of downloading monthly statements of financial activity and storing them off-line, either on a drive not connected to the internet or printed and placed in a safe.

• Make sure you have physical copies of birth certificates, wills, deeds, marriage certificates, contracts, business formation documents, and similar. Store in a safe or on a drive not connected to the internet.

• Store passwords somewhere safe and offline. (Thanks Kathy in FL for the reminder!)

And finally, SELF CARE

• Many Americans aren’t prepared for a prolonged life without power. It can be maddening to walk around a quiet house without our usual tools to occupy and entertain ourselves.

• Board or card games are very useful when the power goes out. My husband and I keep a set of five dice and self-printed Yahtzee scorecards for emergencies, along with an arsenal of basic card games. Both can be played by candlelight.

• Printed books, back issues of magazines, how-to manuals, crafting supplies: All are good things to have on hand. I even had a book of yoga poses and basic practices I could do on my own.

• Get outside. We walked to local parks for picnics, rode our bicycles to the market, and more.

• Conversation starter books can fill dead air.

• Journal. Write. Doodle. Draw. Paint. Create.

• Work a jigsaw puzzle. (I hesitate to type this one lest there are people here like me who are on their way out the door, see a random puzzle piece that fits, and are late to wherever because they’re still sitting there an hour later.)

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