Be Prepared Already

This quote appeared in last Sunday's paper in an article about the snow storm that hit Tulsa that week

Marnie Fernandez had four children and a sick husband at home Friday but almost no milk or toilet paper. The blizzard that dumped 20 inches of snow, sleet and ice on Tulsa on Tuesday still had the area paralyzed, and while Fernandez had her driveway shoveled, several inches of snow and higher drifts blocked the streets of her neighborhood.

She had only a few granola bars and fruit snacks for the kids and worried that a new storm would collapse her roof.

I was incredulous. You are home for only 4 days, and you are almost completely about a food and TP? Do you keep nothing in your house at all?

There is of course the other extreme. It's captured really well in a commercial I saw the other night for Dodge's vehicles with all wheel drive. In the ad, snowflakes start to fall, and people starting making a mad dash for the store. That's what people do here. The stereotypical items people "must" have are bread, milk, eggs, and occasionally TP. Beer and cigarettes are optional cart additions.

My college student brother got to see the "snow panic" shopping in action himself recently. He was out of food, so he went to the store. He noticed when he got there that the parking lot seemed more full than usual. Just before he got out of his truck, he heard on the radio that snow was predicted for the area. He told me he said "oh no". When he got in the store, the bread aisle, which is an entire aisle, had about 15 loaves of bread remaining. Classic snow panic buying in action.

There is a happy middle ground. It's called being prepared. My dad was big on "winter survival mode". This included common sense things like having gloves with every coat, not letting your gas tank get too low in winter, making sure we had plenty of firewood (we heated with wood), and things of that nature. He and my mom also always had plenty of food on hand (though maybe not what we kids would have preferred to eat!) and of course, TP.

You too can take some simple steps to make your household ready for emergencies.
- Keep some non perishable, easy to prepare food on hand. Next time soup, pasta, tuna, etc, is on sale, buy a few extra containers.
- Think about how you'd prepare food if you had no power. If your stove is electric like mine, options are limited. This is why when I buy a house, it needs to have gas so I can still cook if the power is out. For those who really want to be prepared, consider buying a generator. A couple years ago our area had 2 events in less than 6 months that caused power outages in the 5+ day range. My aunt and uncle bought each other a generator for Christmas after the first outage. They were really thankful to have it for the 2nd one. My parents bought a generator over 10 years ago, and I know it's been used several times since then.
- Be mindful of other items needed by your family (such as the aforementioned TP). I doubt my sister and brother-in-law want to be stuck at home for 4 days with only a 2 day supply of diapers for my 19 month old niece. Eww!


Summary: Life happens. Odds are there will be times when you either can't get to the store for an extended period of time and/or the stores will be low on supplies. Make it easy on yourself and make some preparations now so you can be ready.