After the Storm-How Prepared Were You?

Storm damage on Warren Glen Road

In the aftermath of yesterday's late afternoon  storm which unleashed a torrent of rain, sudden high winds, and even hail upon shocked residents the damage was evident everywhere you looked in Pohatcong and surrounding townships.  From flattened cornfields to a panoply of twisted tree limbs, trunks and downed power lines there was an eerie end of the days feeling if you took a drive around last night.  Many neighborhoods were without power for varying amounts of time and what struck me was how few households were providing their own back-up power mainly via generators. I only saw one in fact excluding our own.  Mostly a lot of candles and flashlights.  So the question to ask is how prepared is your family  for these kinds of emergencies?  Without back-up power it would only be hours before you are without water ( assuming you have a well and well pump) and the food in your refrigerator would suffer a full scale bacterial assault.  And this is only for starters as a full host of other knock-on effects would soon be upon you and yours.

The key word to keep in mind when calculating your preparedness (or lack thereof ) is FEW-Food, Energy and Water. How are your FEW resources? Are you stocked up or can you provide your own survival for 1 day, 3 days, 3 weeks, 3months or a year or more?  Interesting questions to ask in times when weather may become more unpredictable and when due to deteriorating infrastructure, the electrical grid may not be the reliable presence it once was.