Maddie here! This past December Buffalo, NY was hit with a “once in a lifetime” storm and watching the news coverage while pregnant was a good wake up call to how underprepared we were if that kind of emergency were to hit NJ. The hubz and I decided that we needed to get ourselves better prepared in the event of an emergency, specifically one where we might not have power for several days.
Here is what we have done to get ourselves ready for an emergency: Generator: We purchased this generator which serves as the centerpiece of our emergency prep. It has several outlets and could be recharged by our car in a pinch. The generator is pretty pricey at $700, but we originally tried to purchase a $300 generator that didn’t have enough power for the room heater below, so ended up getting a more expensive and powerful model.
Heater: We bought this room heater which we believe would be able to effectively heat our upstairs (around 900 square feet total).
Food Prep: Living in a small house with no real pantry, we keep a minimal back stock of pantry items in our cupboards. While I could probably stretch the pantry items in our kitchen right now for a week or mayyyyybeeee two if I really needed to, I wanted to have a dedicated stock of items that we would be able to use with our instant pot and electric hot water kettle, which could be plugged into the generator. We settled on four days of dinners/breakfasts and I figured that I would be able to supplement with the items we have on hand (like bread) for lunch. We also got some baby food for Wiggler and have a dedicated can of formula for her in the stock. You can check out the food that I purchased below! I didn’t make note of the cost for everything, but I think it was probably around $40 shopping at Lidl. I stored all of this in a large reusable bag by our basement garage door so if we had to leave our house quickly, we could grab it without too much thought. I also set a reminder on my phone to check the expiration dates every six months and rotate the stock.
FEMA Checklist: FEMA has a recommended emergency kit on their website which has excellent ideas! We have most of this stuff around the house, but I printed the checklist and stored it with our emergency food bag so I would be able to easily collect these items in the event of an emergency. We purchased a case of bottled water, but after looking at their water recommendations I am going to pick up a few additional gallons of bottled water to make sure we have enough for us and the pets. There were a few items that we do not have and I will be working on procuring those in the coming weeks!
Sister Hack 