Preparing for the Storm

For the most part, we were prepared for the impending ice storm and loss of power, except for a few things. We live in the county and rely on spring water, meaning we have to have electricity to run the pump. No power, no water. When we heard on tv about the ice storm coming, we made sure we had jugs of water filled. What we forgot this time, was to have enough water to be able to flush the toilet a couple times. We have a ten-gallon jug that we fill with water and can usually get two flushes out of. Unfortunately, we had left it on the porch and it was frozen solid. We improvised and started melting snow on our wood stove. If you've ever melted snow, you know you don't get much water from a bucket of snow.

Once the ice storm passed, my husband went out to start cleaning the cars off. We had two-inches of ice just on the cars. We then started melting the ice that was on the cars. It made much more water. Problem solved.

Luckily, we have a woodstove, so staying warm wasn't too much of a problem. The second floor was plenty warm, but without the ceiling fan working, we could only get the main floor no higher than 55 degrees. It was cold, but livable.

Finally, we had to deal with food. That is where we realized we lacked in planning. While we had plenty of food in the house, but it wasn't the type of food that was easy to prepare without power. I think our best meal was when we heated up a couple cans of navy beans, fried some bacon, and fixed some butter bread. After that, it was cold sandwiches for lunch and supper. Breakfast was our only hot meal with bacon and eggs on the menu. We didn't lose any food from the refrigerator or freezer. We were able to put a few things in an unheated room where the temps was right at 32 degrees.

We now know that we needed more canned goods that we could open and heat on our camping stove. Next time, we'll be more prepared by going ahead and boxing up some canned goods, paper plates, and plastic forks and we'll also rotate the canned goods every couple months to make sure nothing expires.

All and all, I think we did pretty well through this storm and I feel confident that when it happens again, we'll be ready.

Carol