When Prepping becomes reality.......

I dont want to make this another Hurricane Irma threat but wanted to share my experiences with what failed in my methods and preps when put through the test.

I have always called myself prepared but came up way short on this emergency. In the aftermath of the storm we have no water, no gas, no internet, no cel phones, no internet data of any type.

My experiences are in no particualr order.

1. Fail: Rechargeable batteries......I have purchased some budget NI-MH AA batteries on ebay several years ago.....they ran fine for for about a year and are now 3 years old....when I pulled out to top them off I discovered that the batteries had lost their capacity and would only run an LeD lantern for about 12 minutes before crapping out...... I have to use every single alkaline batttery I have to power these lanterns up. Solution.....buy Ni-MH batteries that are much better qualtiy and have what is called a low discharge rate. On top of that buy the lithium powered energizer batteries. Lastly recharge in 90 day increments.

2. Total Fail: Communications: I neglected the crank AM/FM/ SW radioin my preps for about 5 years.....the alkaline batteries exploded causing minor corrosion on the terminals...the radio on/off knob corroded...I got it working but only at full volume. Solution: Buy multiple layers of radios the are QUALITY....this would be for both transmitting and receiving...being cut off from information ws pretty darn uncomfortable.

3. 50/50 Gas Preps: Local gas stations have been sold out for about 5 days now...I did ok on keeping the vehicles topped off....but only had 8 gallons of stored fuel......had the outage gone longer.....I would have run out.....Solution: I decided on the highest rated 35 gallon fuel caddy with a pump.....I'll leave it empty for storage purposes but fill it up when anticipated emergencies come up....I'll still keep the 8 gallons of normally stored fuel,

4. 50/50 Generator preps......I had two generators for the event. A Honda 2000i and a Harbor Freight 850 watt budget special.....IMO it's my opinion that you need a good quality low fuel consumption generator.......The Honda ran flawlessly the Harbor Freight unit not so much. I also ran extension cords instead of tying in which caused a number of issues....mainly......I could not shut the doors and windows to active the alarm system. A lot of people that ran whole house generators ran out of fuel in 24 hours. Solutions: Add a way to electrically tie in to run minimal stuff but at least I can lock up the house. Buy a second Honda and ditch the Harbor Freight unit.

5. Overall Organization FAIL: My hard drive backup was incomplete....and was completed 3 hours before the power went out for the final time. My preps were not well organized as an example.....my camp stove, lighter and schnozzle were all in different places. I was not prepared to leave the house at a moments notice. No real pan for leaving with my pets.

6. Backup power: Fail...Although I have a small solar array......APC computer backups are not meant to be power banks......they went dead withing 3-4 hours of the power outage; Solutions: rethink the entire battery system many have suggested going to a 12V DC system and now I see why. More to follow on this

Lastly......I think it's important that everybody have a secondary bug out location that is close by......in the event you cannot evacuate a city and you are facing a catastrophic event like a total loss on your property you need somehwere to go quickly....for me that location was a multi level parking garage where I could have rode ut the storm with out issue.

I hope this post helps with your preps.

Thoughts?

HK

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When Prepping becomes reality.......