The 14-day prepping goal

It's common advice for newbies to first prepare for a weekend with no outside services, then aim for a 2-week time frame of no power, water, etc.

The logic is that almost all disasters are local, and within 14 days of the disaster, the power is restored, the ice melts, water is turned back on, the gas is functional, help comes from the outside, etc.

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The recent Derecho that hit Cedar Rapids is a case in point. My wife has a friend who lives in CR who has been without power ever since the storm hit on 8/10. She heard from him today that power has been restored, 12 days after the storm.

It was a pretty serious blast that pummeled the Cedar Rapids area; one estimate of peak winds is 140 mph, which is serious hurricane territory, i.e., Cat 4. Other areas only had to deal with Cat 2 or Cat 3 winds.

Despite all that, my wife's friend had power restored within 12 days. In what was a fairly serious event for our area of the country, the 14-day prepping plan would have worked. And most people in fact had power restored relatively quickly, compared to our friend.

The 14-day prepping goal--it's a good target for newbies. And everybody else.

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The 14-day prepping goal