COMensarations
Saturday, February 11, 2006
What! No Back-Up Systems?
What happens when the infra-structure fails you.
Glenn ’InstaPundit‘ Reynolds is linking to good advice on how to operate a gasoline-powered electrical generator in your own home.
The link is full of good advice from Popular Mechanics. They’re fairly reliable. But what strikes me is the question Why is this instruction necessary?
Seriously, people. Have we come so far that we’ve totally forgotten how to live without the blessings of civilization?
If this is the case, we’ve got serious problems in the event of an extended period of time without electricity. Especially in Winter. What would these people do? It would be like Hurricane Katrina on a state-wide level, as opposed to a mere largish city.
Imagine it. Millions and millions of people without power for several days. And the temps outside are ‘frightful’. What will they do?
If they are totally unprepared, physically and/or mentally, they’ll likely flat out ‘die’. There’s not enough emergency services to cover such a situation. So, considering that the government, once again, cannot ‘guarantee’ your protection, as if they ever really could, you’re once more ‘on your own’. And therefore, if you are not prepared to cope, I can ‘guarantee’ that you won’t, short of an act of God.
So, I recommend you prepare for such a contingency. I would recommend having some nice warm clothing. That includes sweaters, jackets, coats, long-legged underwear, thick socks, gloves and head fitting hats. However, it doesn’t stop there. I’d recommend that you also have some nice old-fashioned oil/chimney lamps. They do many things. You can light your house with them. You can heat your house with them. You can roast a hot-dog over them. Not to mention that they can be VERY romantic at times.
We had a major power-failure in Denver during the blizzard of 2003. 30” of snow. Tree limbs crashing down on the house and car. Complete power failure. It took us days to dig out. A fine time was had by all.
Fortunately, the power returned, for us, several hours after it stopped. Others were not quite so fortunate.
What did we do? We started a fire in the fireplace and spent our time before it, sitting close together and reading or knitting. Very homey sort of things. If the power had not returned by nightfall, we had several oil lamps as back-up lighting. They come in handy, as we do have the ocassional thunderstorm on a Summer’s evening that knocks out power for hours too.
I recommend that people along the East Coast who survive THIS Winter storm should seriously consider the implications and prepare for future storms.
An electric generator will keep you going for a day or so, but what about a week?
Got gas?
Maybe a 5-gallon can. But that won’t last a week.
There are other ways to keep from freezing to death. Get a solar or wind-up powered radio. Get candles. Get oil lamps. Get warm clothing and good camping blankets. They’ll take up less room than a generator and gasoline, and serve you better, in an emergency.