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Seasonal Prep

With hurricane season fast approaching, I need to start my annual preparations by inventorying our nonperishable food, batteries, pet food, medicines, etc. and have my guy test our generator and get an extra tank of propane for the grill. My new thinking after experiencing the flooding in 2022 is to boost our food stores so we can hunker down for longer periods of time if we have to. All the country roads leading out of our area are prone to flooding out, plus they're getting old now, so there may be times ahead when they become washed out. Since we're in a low-populated rural area the county won't make road repairs here a priority.

I'm thinking in addition to bottled water I might invest in a few five-gallon storage containers. We fill buckets and the bathtubs whenever there's a storm approaching, but if our outside well pump gets wiped out we won't have water for days or weeks, and there's never a guarantee we can drive out to buy some. I'll also have to freeze more bottled water now that we have the chest freezer to keep cold (I freeze the bottles and use them liked bagged ice because there's no mess or leakage.)

Around the house we've installed light bulbs with their own power supply, should the electricity go out for an extended period. They're good for about six hours, but we won't keep them on except when we have to at night. We have a fairly endless supply of flashlights, and little light-switch style LED lights mounted in the bathrooms. I also like to put together a little basket of toiletries for the guest bathroom in case our neighbors who don't have generators need to use it. Sometimes after a storm the cleanup is hot, sweaty work, and just being able to take a shower is really nice.

Last year we got through the two storms that came just fine, and I'm not worried about doing the same this season. I just like to prepared way in advance and then stay that way so I don't have to run around in panic mode when a hurricane tracks in our direction.

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