Best Hurricane Tip I can give...

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Gazrok

A True Doomsday Prepper
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I mentioned this in another thread or two, but basically, there is ONE easy thing we did, that really saved our bacon in the post Irma power outage from hell. This is not a second hand account, it's something I personally experienced. (and was a bit surprised at).

This works best if you have a separate freezer, but you can do it with one too.

BEFORE the storm hits and knocks out power, FREEZE all that bottled water you bought (in the single bottle sizes).

The moment the power goes out, take as many as you can out of the freezer, and stuff any remaining space in your fridge with them. Leave some in the freezer if you can, but the more you can have in there, the better (hence it's best if you freeze them in another freezer, then transport them).

Just have ONE fridge/freezer you try and keep cold.

Look, 4 days after the storm, no generator, etc., I had to take chicken out of the freezer to THAW so I could cook it! I always had cold soda handy too!

Trick is, you have to LIMIT how often you open it up too. Keep to just a few times a day. (and really great if you can keep feeding frozen water bottles to the fridge).

Thanks to this trick, even being out of power for 4 days, I didn't have to trash any groceries...and always had cold drinks and good food to cook. While I had PB&J and other survival stuff, never needed to USE it!

Hope this helps someone for the next storm. It sure helped a lot of my Facebook friends, I know as they thanked me each day without power!
 
Going to add a couple more tips that aren't on your standard lists.

TUBS AND SINKS - While most lists mention to fill the tub (this is for washing water, or water to use to flush, if you lose water, not for potable water necessarily)...they fail to mention that many tubs and sinks are designed to SLOWLY EMPTY (over the course of hours) even with the drain stop engaged. So, you may want to use duct tape to make a seal over the drain prior to filling it.

GET A SOLAR CELL PHONE CHARGER - For $25, you can negate one of the biggest problems we had during the post-Irma power outage. Car chargers are great too, but when you have no idea when you'll find more gas, you don't want to kill your car battery charging phones (I did this...)

RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES (and plenty of them, with a charger) - Prior to the storm, charge 'em up, and that way, no need to rush out and try to find them. (and if you have a generator, you can stay in stock of freshly charged batteries).

A/C IN THE SOUTH - Is not a luxury, it's a NEED. If you live somewhere with 95 degree weather and 90% humidity, you need to get a wall A/C unit and a generator, for if you lose power. Or you can forget about sleeping.

CANDLES - While these are on most lists, I can't stress enough how much easier this is as a lighting solution. If you have these up on the wall (for decor too) ahead of the time, even better (especially if you have pets). This was a GREAT way to light the house at night, and didn't use precious batteries we had for other uses. Another tip with this, mirrors can greatly magnify the light effect for them. We could easily move about the house at night without a flashlight all due to candles.(full disclaimer, I MAY have gone a bit overboard with the candles, but the house looked damn cool....)
 
Also another good spot to store water is your washing machine. This would be used for flushing, there is all kinds of bacteria left in there so it would need to be purified if you are going to drink it, but on the good side, it won't drain out.
 
I have 6 old school oil lamps (hurricane lanterns, 2 of which are wall-mounted versions), but they aren't the handled kind. I generally prefer to use the LED lanterns if I need a lot of light, like for a board game or something. It's nice to have them as a backup though. Any tricks for keeping one from smoking a lot? I have one that tends to, and I have no idea why it over any other one.
 
Any tricks for keeping one from smoking a lot? I have one that tends to, and I have no idea why it over any other one.

Generally I trim the wick to prevent the smoking (or lowering it). Another problem I found was the wick has been used for both kerosene and paraffin, smokey oils citronella oil or paraffin (if mixed with kerosene) or red dye kerosene.
 
Is it mainly when you first light it? Light then turn wick up till it starts smoking then down till it quits. If it starts smoking again then turn down again. Normal when the lamp is first lite and not warmed up yet, it should stop. Also make sure the wick is trimmed straight across. I use the old glass kind and the cheap kerosene oil you get from Walmart. I have read where you can use any kind of oil including kitchen oils in a pinch. I have not had to do that though.
 
Yeah, I've tried turning it down. I think the wick was used with different kinds of oil, and that's causing it. Maybe just replace out the wick, and see if it does the trick. Thanks for the tips!

I would just replace the whole thing, but it's one of the wall mount ones in the den, so kind of hard to find the same size, etc. (it's a little smaller than standard ones, and fits into a carved niche for it, in the holder). They look great on either side of the fireplace though.

2 of them are more modern style (and don't match our decor). So I just keep those in storage if needed, but otherwise, not out. Just because you are in survival mode, doesn't mean you can't have style!
 

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