Your Survival Blog
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Putting your eggs in one basket
Relatives of mine live in a largely rural town on the edge of a metropolitan area in the Northeastern US. Until their power company upgraded the lines (after years of blaming squirrels) their power would go out frequently, in probably a half-dozen significant outages a year. Once, during an ice storm years ago, they lost electricity for four days; they fled to a motel. During the ice storm of December 2008, they were out from early morning till nearly midnight.
So what failed during their power outages? Electric lights and appliances, of course. Heat: they have an oil furnace, but the ignition is electric. And water: their well pump is also ... electric. None of these basic needs has built-in battery backup.
They’d bought a generator after an earlier experience, figuring they could run at least some of the items that were important to them. But they learned the hard way just how important it is to test-start a generator at least once a month: a clogged fuel line kept them in the dark during the ice storm.
Fortunately they’re experienced cold-weather campers, and the electric company in their area promised quick restoration, so they figured they could tough it out until the power returned, and did. (And the ice storm only knocked power out to some towns in the region, so if they got too cold or hungry they could have driven to a warm motel or restaurant and get fed/sheltered/washed that way. Not something you want to count on, though.)
Does your plan for emergencies (the most likely emergencies in your area) have a similar Achilles heel?
Are you expecting your town water supply to work no matter what happens to other utilities, figuring you can shelter in place as long as you have access to a water supply? Water mains do break, especially in earthquakes, and town water-treatment plants depend on access to power.
Is your tornado plan basically “drop everything, grab the kids, get to a basement?” What if you’re all eating dinner or seeing a movie in a building built on slab?
Do you figure it doesn’t really matter what happens to your coastal town in a hurricane, because you can always throw your evac bags in the back of the truck and go? What happens if you forget to fill up the gas tank on the truck? Or the battery’s dead when you turn on the key? Or there’s so much broken glass or windblown debris on the highway that you lose a couple of tires?
And remember that Murphy is not only out to get you, he’s creative. Not only can anything go wrong and will — interesting combinations of “anything” might bite you when you don’t expect them. I know someone who planned a huge “rain or shine” yard sale for her new rural home, figuring that the combination of (a) an indoor setting for sale items and (b) excellent signage to her hard-to-find driveway would bring out the buyers. What she didn’t plan on was heavy rain on the morning of the sale, disintegrating all the signs she’d carefully hung.
The lesson here is: examine your assumptions. What am I relying on in this plan? What can go wrong? What else could go wrong? And what might I do about that combination?
If you have other examples, please share them in the comments!
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