Frankenstorm Surviviors Noticeboard

I live in the far south, so this is an innocent question: Do you folks in snow country generally keep some auxiliary way of staying warm? Such as fireplace, kerosene heater, generator+electric heater? I realize that none of those alternatives may work for apartment dwellers.

Commiserations to those who have lost something. Events like this remind us our apparently invincible civilisation is vulnerable.

I was interested by flowerchild's enquiry. Living in the UK and being fairly old, I've seen a change in attitudes from nearly every home keeping emergency items such as candles, matches and an oil heater in case of. for example, winter power cuts, to only a few mostly remote rural dwellings being so stocked. I think this is a response to generally quicker restoration of electricity when there's been a cut and more awareness of the health and safety drawbacks of some of the backup items, plus the fading of the Second World War experience.

We of course get hardly any hurricanes, but a fair number of floods, not helped by a lot of recent building being in flood plains and by the vogue for concreting over front gardens, thus reducing the soil surface available for excess water to seep into.

A little known fact is that my approach to the United States generates hurricanes. This is demonstrated by the fact that every time I've gone to the States, a hurricane has hit just in front of me. OK I've only been to the States once, but that's still a 100% hit rate.

At least last time it helped me to see that the Old South had changed: the Fire Service was out in Savannah in force clearing fallen trees and so on, and I saw it was about half and half between Black and White.

We do have a fireplace with a stove inserted into it. It burns either wood pellets, soy beans, dried corn or biomass, whatever that is. We burn dried corn in ours as it is cheaper, burns hotter, and it easily available. We pick it up by the pick up truck load, about a ton at a time which is stored in a large wooden bin attached to the side of the garage.

I have natural gas for cooking so that is no problem. We also have a generator to run major appliances, the well pump, and whatever else is needed. And plenty of candles in the pantry, so I guess you could say we are pretty well prepa

That's impressive! Yes, you folks do seem to be prepared.

We did dump all of our fire lighting, (candles, oil & gasoline lanterns) in favor of battery lanterns and solar power. We just feel safer, plus the heat from flames is seldom welcome in our tropical climate.

Surprisingly, I still have both Perfection and Aladdin kerosene heaters stored downstairs, I used them many decades ago in my tiny bachelor pad in a time when we had colder winters. The Perfection (with its big glass chimney) was inefficient compared to the newer Aladdin, but it gave me heat & light, plus you could heat a pot of soup on it! What with warmer winters, a cuddly wife, a heated waterbed, and even occasional central heating, those are now just clutter.

My intention is always to have a hot woman on standby in bed, but I keep forgetting to stock up in advance of a storm.

Just find the right one and marry her! That plan worked for me.