If a blizzard hit - how long could you last at home?

We are good for about 6 months if we stretch. We have a bored well, but live next to a 8000 acre mountain lake for water. It dosnt get too cold, so bundled up, we could survive winter without heat. We are rural enough that in a year long plus dasaster, there are enough palnts that someone with a book on plants could survive well. We feel quite safe here no matter what.

Here in suburbia we could probably last about a month to a month and half *if* the water was still working.

We have enough food for that time.

We have a fireplace and enough wood for warmth, *but* we'd have to all live in the living room. The fireplace is not terribly efficient.

We have two huge full gas tanks in the RV, so we'd have enough there to cook food over the gas stove, or move the tanks to the BBQ unit and cook there.

We have a *huge* stash of candles, so we could use that for lighting at night. We have a coleman gas lamp and plenty of those little propane canisters, but I don't think you can use those inside.

We have the wind-up radio/flashlight.

I didn't see anyone mention what they planned to do for a toilet if there's no running water? I suppose if your property is big enough you won't have a problem there, you can make an alternative. With 7 people, we'd definitely need an alternative!!!

Our big downfall would be water. We don't have a supply, and no means of procuring one like a well or stream, other than storing water in containers. Right now all we have is 1 gallon of water in our storage area. Hm. I guess we could always melt snow and use that.

TP would be another downfall. We don't keep any kind of stockpile of that, so the most we could last without needing more would be about 2 weeks, but in such extreme circumstances TP would be more of a luxury I suppose.

Of course.. surviving the neighbors would be more of a task than just surviving with what we have for a month!

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“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

nodak, you're in Colorado too, right? I know SE Colorado is currently under a blizzard warning. To be honest, we've totally enjoyed the last two blizzards that we had, but we had water and electricity through both, I guess without those it would have been quite different. Didn't enjoy shoveling out *that* much, but it was a memorable experience. We're in a cul-de-sac and the neighbors all banded together during the last blizzard and we got everyone dug out (we also have a mailman in the cul-de-sac!) it was a good way to get to know the neighbors since we had just moved here.

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“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Yep--se Co. Biggest problem we get in storms is that our town's power goes off if the big bad wolf let's out much of a puff. We put in wood heat this summer for just such an occasion. Water isn't something I worry about in a blizzard, since in a blizzard there should be plenty of snow to melt.

Blizzard, Georgia... I'm not really worried about blizzards, but some other events around here do get my attention.
We can probably make it for about 2 months before things start getting desperate. Biggest problem is water. We are currently on city water - wonder if anyone would notice if I drive a well in my back yard...hmmmmm

BLIZZARDS IN GEORGIA. YES......we do have them. In North GA there was one about 20 years ago that was really really bad. And the record low here is something like -19f

Nah.. you'd just have to get real creative about what the drilling equipment was doing in your back yard Blizzards can be fun, you should try one sometime!

nodak - we'll be watching the news and thinking of ya!

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“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Not crazy. Blessed! for have the ability and brains to be prepared.

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"If we ever forget that we're one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under." - R Reagan

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. ~ D D Eisenhower

make sure you have the snow shovel on the porch, we came home from a trip one year and had to wade out to the shed through 2 foot of snow to get the snow shovel. So we could shovel our way back to the house.

We have plenty of food put up the only problem we would have if the power went out is water. I fill up containers of water that I always refill if we are do to have a bad storm. I love it when we have a nice blizzard now since I don't have to go out in the storms. As to how long we could last I would say at least 5-6 months on the food we have stored.

RenieB

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The Will of God will never Lead You where the Grace of God cannot Keep You

We have a septic system and a well. For short term we'd fire up the gen to pump water. For long term we'd fill barrels at the river and set them up to refill the toilet tanks using gravity flow. I think it would work out, but haven't tried it longer than 2 weeks so don't know how it would work out in the long term.

DD came up with an idea to use a water hose in the well with a small electric pump (the pump could be powered much the same as the bicycle powered TV systems.) Once primed, it should be fairly simple to use as the water table is only about 8-10 feet from the surface. Something we will think about and try to find a way to incorporate into our preps.

If none of those ideas work, we can always dig a hole and build an outhouse far away from the well (after witching the water supply to the well).

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Yes, this would be a biggie. When we were without power recently, (along with the entire city of Buffalo, NY) gasoline was a BIG issue because there was no electric to run the pumps. People were driving hours east or south of here to get gas for their generators.

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Charleen in Western NY www.harperhillfarm.com

A bite of butter greases your track. ~ Gramma Sarah

The ice storms are the worst!!!In Ga if something like this hits it is a disaster because most people are not prepared!!(I still don't get the loaf of bread and gallon of milk )My mother was from a small town in Wy. and so she taught us to be prepared.I have lived in Ga most of my life and Have only been snowed /Iced in twice once was in the 70's then once in the 90's.About 2 weeks give or take both times before the power was restored.Here it only takes a forcast of snow or ice to panic the locals and there in lies the problem..You better not have to go to the grocery store cause it is like wal-mart at christmas...definately don't try to drive anywhere ...you'll get wiped off the road by someone who thinks the icier it is the faster you drive.
Chris

I could last a pretty good while, but remember, a blizzard here is 1/2" of snow.

We would get bored with our selection, but we would be alive when it was over however long that was.

I keep enough basics for several months, I would run out of vegetables, fruit, bread (couldn't bake any) & other perishables. We would just eat a lot of beans, rice, stew, pancakes, oatmeal, etc.

Use a generator only once a week to draw water, so the gas to run it would last a long time...many, many months, depending on how much gas you store (use sta-bil or some other product to keep the gas "fresh"). Assuming you had alternate heat, you could boil the water if you felt it was contaminated, and/or keep it outside (in a blizzard) to prevent growth of undesireables. You could also melt snow in this scenario. Assuming you have the generator and can use it to pump water, then your only storage (besides gas) would be fuel for heat and food. Most other things can be overcome. Oh, of course, you need a safe way (for you and those working on the lines) to have the generator hook up with the well-pump.

We get an inch once in a while

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I'm in the city, so I worry most about heat, water, sewage, and neighbors (in that order!) if a really profoundly bad blizzard hit. We've got enough food to last us (DH & I) for about 4 months even without power. We've got a wood stove that could be hooked up, but no firewood save the backyard trees! The water is questionably potable on a normal day, so I've got purifying tablets stored and I have the book learning for a purification system. If the city sewage system goes belly up, I suppose we'd be digging a privy in the yard, there's really no other option. The neighbors, well, most of them go grocery shopping every day and I seriously doubt 90% of them have *any* kind of food/water storage. Most of them don't know about ours though, so I think we'd be mostly okay. The house is like a fortress anyway, not too difficult to defend if need be, and we're armed. That's living in the city for you!

I'd say we'd be good for a year. We have the same set up as Queen Bee with our 3 freezers, plus cases and cases of canned veggies, fruits, etc. etc., dehydrated foods, beans, rice, cornmeal, sugar, etc. Lots of medicinal things including Rx's, aspirin, vitamins, Benedryl, toothpaste, cough syrup & cold remedies.

We'd probably kill each other within 1 week or more after running out of cigarettes, however! I imagine we'd run out of some things I've overlooked or not kept close enough track of - can you ever have enough coffee? Or sugar? Or chocolate?

We have well water, and you can always melt snow if you need to. We're on septic. When using water for personal washing, washing dishes, etc., be sure to keep extra buckets around to dump that water into which can then be dumped into your toilet to flush with. Of course in the city, I'm not sure how long that would work with the sewer lines.

Our diesel generator would help with whatever we'd need and we have 400 gallons of diesel stored. Looking to get another farm fuel tank for gasoline to handle our needs for chainsaws and other equipment.

We have a propane stove/oven if the power's out and a 1,000 gallon propane tank, BBQ grills, fireplace for cooking needs - and I've cooked in the middle of the winter outside on the BBQ grill many times.

We have what we need to hunt with, and have plenty of game around. Plus we have our chickens for eggs and additional meat if we were to ever use up the meat in our freezers. I'm pretty sure we'd manage fairly good... as would our nearest neighbors.

Our skylights provide a tremendous amount of light and a lot of passive solar heat. For entertainment - like Queen Bee and many others, we have board games, cards, puzzles, reading material, sewing/quilting supplies, craft supplies, wood projects - you name it.

Hey Cignet - I too live in AZ and had 33 inches of that white stuff in my front drive last winter.

Back on track: enough food & wood for me for 3 months. Not enough for the equine & the dogs & I would have to eat the chilckens.