Hi Jim.
I have been a long time reader of your blog and have spent quite a bit of money with many of your terrific advertisers. I am writing to tell you about the serenity of my day in the midst of the hard hitting ice storm up here in New England. Thanks to the information you present in your blog and the preparation that I have taken over the last few years, all I had to do to prepare for this storm the day before was two things – fill the fire wood box and fill the bath tub for toilet flushing water.
I already had food stocked up. I had drinking water available. I had heat via a wood stove. I had a generator. I had plenty of fuel for the generator. (I was even able to loan a spare generator and fuel out to a friend.) I had fresh batteries for the flashlight and radios. I had a scanner to listen to all the emergency calls in the area. (You will realize how under-prepared your neighbors are by all the assistance calls.) I had plenty of alternative lighting (candles and LED lights). I had sufficient quantities of ice melt and sand on hand.
The great thing was that I wasn’t stressed out before, during or after the storm. My family mentioned over and over how terrific it was to be prepped. I was fortunate that they were on the “let’s get prepped” band wagon with me over the last few years. I got to enjoy the ice sculptures of the day and was able to help out someone else, too. The simple fact of all this is that by being prepared you get to relax a bit during a potentially stressful time. This wasn’t an end of the world scenario but nonetheless the preparation was almost the same. Being prepped for any emergency isn’t that hard to do and the resources you collect over time are useful in nearly any condition. It was actually a bit fun to see all this preparation fall nicely into place. Thanks for all you do! – Relaxed in New England