Mindset! We live in north Texas. Power went out in our location at 0200 Monday, and didn't come back for 36 hours. It got really cold in the house! When my wife and I woke up about 0800, we lazed in bed, trying to stay warm. Didn't really eat anything, and certainly didn't drink enough. When its close to zero, its incredibly dry, making hydration very important. As the temp kept dropping in the house, we determined the two of us and our three dogs needed to find another place to spend the night. We needed to get into action, while we still had daylight, as packing stuff to leave would be much harder after the sun went down.
We hadn't eaten, hadn't hardly hydrated, and were quite cold. After getting dressed and getting going, we warmed up quite a bit, but it was a rather frenetic exercise building go bags for each of us as well as the dogs, especially with no fuel run on.
Another thing, Sunday was Valentines Day. We made a really nice meal, and finished late, So we didn't clean up. "We'll do it tomorrow," was our plan. When we did want to eat something, we didn't have pots and pans to cook in or boil water (we have gas for heat and cooking) in.
All worked out, and we stayed with a (really good) friend that night. But what if we had to shelter in place?
Knowing the forecast called for the coldest temp in our area in possibly 50 years was looming, along with 20 mph winds, and several inches of snow, it was a foregone conclusion there could be power problems. It was just a role of the dice who would be affected. Not that we could easily predict a massive grid failure, but certainly power failures.
We had totally the wrong mindset going into this thing. We are northerners (Montana) who've been in Texas a long time. So snow and cold are not a new thing, just something we haven't dealt with in a while, and we should have held a different mindset going into this.
We did our own AAR of what went right and wrong, and we have some work to do.
These are just some of points we thought about...
***Cleaning ahead after the meal. If its a 75 degree day in May, with no inclement weather predicted, maybe this is ok, but not with an imminent storm of the century less that 8 hours away.
***Get your ass out of bed, eat a substantial meal, drink plenty of water, and start working the problem at hand. Prepare to depart if needed. Prepare to shelter in place if necessary.
***Create a "bug out" and "shelter in place" checklist, so the process isn't chaotic. Some things can be pre-planned, but some may need to occur after the decision to stay or go is made.
***Get things done ahead of time that might be helpful if the worse case happens. Example: Flag the water shut off valve cover in the yard so you easily find it after the snow has fallen.
There's undoubtedly more items and more discussion to be had. A generator is likely in out not so distant future, one that can at least keep a room or two around 60 degrees and run the important appliances in the house, like refrigerator, freezer, oven, and most certainly the coffee maker!
If you got this far, then thank you for reading my ramblings. This storm certainly should be an honorary part of the year 2020.
NC