Has anyone tried a fire drill
I have been reading about how to prepare for the flu. What items I need and what items I might like to have. Y’all have fantastic information and ideas. I started to wonder if anyone has tried to pretend they are shut in and living with just their preparations.
Maybe we all could pick a weekend and run through a practice. Perhaps cut off power to everything but the ice box, but pretend the power is cut off to it also. Turn down the water heater. Pick some random times when the power is on for only 1–2 hours. Maybe even make the power come on at odd hours like 2 AM. I am sure y’all have other ways to simulate the flu hittin the states.
Might provide some good information on how well we have all prepared.
Go easy on me this is my first comment.
ATouring – at 20:57 Hi! Welcome!!!
That’s something several have tried….you’ll find comments here and there about their experiences while they practice SIP (shelter in place). I can’t risk it right now……it’s football season & I need DH on my side with prepping so I can’t take his power away, even in fun right now!!! :-)
ATouring – at 20:57
As mentioned, several have tried “practice runs”, the most enlightening have been when they didn’t really plan for the utilities to be off.
A full mode test can be daunting and discouraging to some family members. What can be done is to practice water conservation or alternative cooking or limited electric power rather than everything at once.
ATouring – at 20:57
We talked this over at my house and decided to wait until the weather got colder so we could see how fast the temps drop. Plus, I now have to track how long a coleman canister will last me cooking so I can estimate how many I’ll need. That’s what I get for discussing prepping with DH. lol
I’m-workin’-on-it – at 21:14
Maybe the power could magically come on for football games… that way we could still have our “weekend” (unless of course DH needs to watch all the college and NFL games)
I will say I thought the fire drill thread was something else. It got me thinking about what we’ve always told our kids about house fires. They need to wait(for the fire department) by their windows if they can’t get out of the second floor, but what if the fire department can’t come during pandemic? I guess I should take my sisters emergency ladder she isn’t using anymore and attach it in the kids room. That would be interesting to test out some weekend!
We’ve had a few unplanned ones because of power outages and I’m glad - we learned a lot. A few older items were broken, we couldn’t find things, burned through batteries much faster than anticipated. Made dh truly realize how hard it would be and he gave me the go ahead for a generator.
silversage – at 21:39 :-)
Might have to try that — this is his birthday week so after this week maybe anything goes!
Silversage…I thought the same thing.
An in that vein of thought, what do you think of using sheet rock as a window covering. Painted to look like wood or burgular bars…faux security. Deters the honest people, blocks out lights and movement, easy to destroy and escape in emergencies, can be cut to correct dimensions of each opening, remove for sunlight and not too much money. I was thinking of using plywood for this purpose but that might be too much.
Working on securing the perimeter…I thought with all these cans from SIP, we can run trip wires across the yard, shrubs, front walk, using cans hung from the wire to make noise.
I’m-workin’-on-it – at 21:49 ---
He gets a whole WEEK for his birthday?!? I’m lucky to get part of a day on mine!! LOL!!
no name, the sheetrock idea is good except for one thing, when sheetrock is cut then the cut edges give off a huge amount of dust. It could get pretty messy unless the cut edges were sealed somehow. I plan on using foam panels… lightweight, easy to cut, and insulating value.
Kim, foam panels are a great idea. We have a double piece on the basement window to keep out the cold. We taped two together and made a handle for it so the kids could pull it in and out easily(since it’s the emergency window for the basement).
Kim @ 22:03
Are you going to paint the foam panels? Only on emergency windows? What about the rest?
Bronco Bill – at 22:02 I’m-workin’-on-it – at 21:49 ---
He gets a whole WEEK for his birthday?!? I’m lucky to get part of a day on mine!! LOL!!
Actually it’s more like 2 weeks that he gets — his dad’s birthday is one week later than his so the whole process usually takes up 2 weekends after it’s all said and done! :-)
You folks thinking about covering your windows, please please remember that even in the best of times, escaping from a burning house can be HARD, but if you’re sick, drugged, weak, sleepy, achey (how do you spell that?) it’ll make it that much harder to escape & having something on the windows that might slow you down in getting out the only exit you may have could mean a death trap for you! Just consider carefully what ever you do.
My family has run many a test of Sipping conditions. I usually call it camping. ;-)
Kim @ 22:03
“when sheetrock is cut then the cut edges give off a huge amount of dust.”
Duct tape is wide enough to place on the edge and fold over. It might not stick to the chalk part of the sheetrock, but it should stick to the paper on the faces pretty well. This will limit the dust liberated during use considerably.
Since my family has done some fairly extensive primitive camping over the years … including with very young children … I’m fairly confident that we can make do in those areas with the plans we now have in place for water.
What I did was schedule an entire month’s menu of “prep” meals using the preps that I had on hand. No running to the store for this that or the other. If I didn’t have it, then I needed to get creative for a substitute.
Bottom line is that we have a handle on it. Real life didn’t stop while we were doing our month-long practice run so I can tell you I really had to stop myself on a couple of occasions from resorting to fastfood or making extra grocery runs … but it all worked out.
There isn’t a lot our family can do about power, so my focus has been on food and water and with addressing possible lack of professional medical care.
“There isn’t a lot our family can do about power, so my focus has been on food and water and with addressing possible lack of professional medical care.”
Really, there isn’t a lot many of us can do about lack of electricity. You have addressed the three most critical areas. If everybody would do that we would all be a lot better off.
Commenting on the need for a fire drill. I think HBB and myself at least, can tell you that until you actually prectice the conditions you expect to have to handle, you really don’t know what you don’t know. I have been through “practice” sessions due to bad weather and loss of power, only to discover the lack of a single hose fitting. I thought I had better stock than a hardware store. but not that one fitting.
And while camping gives you practive for living in primitive conditions for a few days away from home, and usually near your car, that isn’t really practice for a dead house (no utilities) and you aren’t going to get resupplied if anything is missing. When you pack up to go on a trip, you make sure to bring everything with you. When you are prepping a house, people sometimes grab stuff and don’t replace it. (The famous disappearing chocloate spoken of in several threads, for example).
You should also then start throwing in scenarios of what happens if the one and only XXXX that you own, that you were depending on, breaks down, runs out of supplies or just isn’t there when you need it. How many generator spark plugs do you stock?
We are planning a no power weekend this weekend. We’ve done it before but that time we kept the power to the fridge and freezer going. This time we have a tempurature alarm on the freezer so we are gonna unplug it as well to find out how often we would have to run the genny to keep the food frozen. The kids arn’t looking forward to cleaning thier bedroom (told them I need more room for my 2liter bottles of water LOL) but they really like cooking over the fire in the bbq for supper. I’m looking forward to trying out my new coleman camp oven. whoohooo. Gonna try biscuits and bread. Also hubby has built and “oven” out of fire bricks at the bbq so I’m gonna try that too.
a’Akova – at 01:14 --- Another option for the edges of cut sheetrock is to paint the edges. Duct tape will eventually fail on sheetrock and peel right off (it’s one of the few things that Duct tape doesn’t like). Two heavy coats of latex paint will seal the dust in the “chalk”, and make it cleaner to handle.
Carrey in VA – at 16:25
Please report back and let us know how it goes, what you learn, etc.
Aside from the sheetrock dust, have any of you tried to actually lift a sheet of sheetrock? Our windows are of average size, but I wouldn’t want to be wrestling sheets of brittle sheetrock in and out of the windows. I think the foam idea is preferrable. It also (I suspect) has a higher R value and will keep what heat in or out (depending on your location) better than sheetrock.
The one thing that you cannot simulate is the emotional impact of knowing that thousands of people, including perhaps your family and neighbors, are suffering and dying outside your door.
And knowing that when the Test Run is over you can run out and get the stuff you didnt have or forgot about is a bit different from realizing that you cannot, possibly EVER, get those things again.
On one of the other sites, a writer posted a poignant note: “Treat Each Bean, Bullet and Band-Aid as if it is your last.”
Try to get your head around this now. Work on the kids, too.
SaddleTramp – at 17:44
And knowing that when the Test Run is over you can run out and get the stuff you didnt have or forgot about is a bit different from realizing that you cannot, possibly EVER, get those things again.
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to me that is the whole point in doing a test run.
silversage – at 22:22 Out here near Death Valley, that afternoon sun beating down on the windows is very daunting. I have used the 2 inch panels of foam in the windows on the west side (as well as putting 80% sun screen also there), but on the inside of the window, tapped to the foam, I placed aluminum foil to help reflect any light back out. That addition really helped keep the temperature down on that side of the house.
Gary Near Death Valley – at 18:16
We put foam up on the huge patio doors on our western wall. I have thought of putting foil up also, but didn’t know if it would do any good. I’m glad I’m not the only one to have thought of it, and I’m glad you have accually tried it and it worked.
Adding 2 boxes of aluminum foil to my Sams shopping list.
I got black out drapes this summer for our west side of the house with two ideas in mind. I wanted to ensure we could keep the house cool in hot weather and I hope we can keep it warmer in the winter. I am counting on the west sun to warm the house as we get a tremendous amount of sunny days throughout the winter. Black out drapes will be for cloudy days in winter, hot days in summer and in the evening to keep privacy.
I haven’t done a test run yet. I finally got out the kerosene heaters I bought 2 years ago and tested them, they worked great. I’m not sure we want to do a full scale test but we are going to test oil lamps, water purifier, coleman stove and oven, dutch oven baking, wood/charcoal outdoor oven, solar charger, fireplace cooking, NG barbecue cooking and baking, coleman butane stove, magic heat stove. I’ve tried the charcoal oven outdoors and so far not happy but did get about 10 bags of charcoal. Need firewood. We’ve got our generator setup to start with an power failure and it works fine. We need work done on our auxillary well but so far haven’t been willing to spend the money. Need to introduce more and more preps into our meals; right now we eat lots of salads, fresh fruit and fresh veges but with fall coming early I want to work on that. So much to do.
Could you please tell me where you bought the foam? Sounds like a great idea.
Jersey Girl – at 18:26
Ours is insulated sheathing left over from when we got new siding put on. Probably any big box hardware store would have it. It’s easy to cut to size, light weight, mine doesn’t list a R value but the store would know what it is.
Gary Near Death Valley – at 18:16
You’re keeping out the heat, we’re keeping out the cold!! Works either way :-) I had friends that put some up in the sky lights to keep their bedroom from turning into an oven during the summer. I also think it works good for “black out” conditions, if we don’t want others to see our lights on.
YOu can get it from any building supply store, ACE HARDWARE, Home Depot etc and also I place a foam on TOP of the lid on my chest freezer and on its sides (as long as it is NOT a self defrosting one). Self defrosting freezers need the all sides open, but if not a self defrosting freezer you can duct tape the foam to the freezer and it keeps the cold in longer also.
Yes it works great for keeping out the heat but also out here in the high desert it helps keep the warmth inside during the winter months.
Thanks for the tips!I really appreciate it!
I buy this green accordian folded insulation at the building supply. I think its supposta go up under siding. very cheap and works great.