I’ve received some questions about how we came through Hurricane Sandy here on Long Island, instead of answering them piecemeal I figured I’d consolidate them into a single post.
1) Judy asks- I am just curious how much snow you got in the night?
On the night of the 7th we got about 2″ of snow here in Mid-Suffolk County.
2) Paul n Tami ask – My question is of the private nature… How did you and what did you do for a toilet? No power, no water, no flushing. I would like what was tried and worked. Thanks. -tami
Luckily Tami, we may have been with out power but we never lost water so we always could flush. If it came to it my plan involved a 5 gallon bucket and water out of the neighbors pool. Since I was already supplying him with power he was on board with this. The only place wher sanitation has been a problem on Long Island is the areas that had the worst flooding. The floods helped to overflow the cesspools and from a first hand account the smell is pretty bad along the south shore communities.
3) Damon wants to know – Hindsight is 20/20… My ? to you is what would you have stockpiled more of if the storm or power outage had lasted longer? Lets say 20 more days….
Damon, I felt pretty vulnerable with only 17 gallons of gas on hand. My future plans call for keeping the 17 gallons on hand and rotating it through my Jeep to keep it fresh. I’ll also be buying 3 more 5 gallon gas cans, I’ll only fill them if a storm is imminent. My long term plan is to convert my generator to a Tri-Fuel set up where it can run on Gasoline, Propane, or Natural Gas. I feel that will give me the flexibility to handle my power needs for at least a month. A battery bank is also on the list, so I can handle the overnight with the power off.
4) Linda asks – I would like to know how easily or not you found your emergency supplies, setting up safe lighting by candles or lanterns and anything you feel was missing in your household for getting thru the storm and aftermath.
Linda, we were “lucky” enough to have the power go out during the day so getting to our stuff wasn’t a problem. I had gotten the flashlights out ahead of time since we were pretty sure we were going to lose power. I have these little plug-in LED lights that turn on when the power goes out, they were helpful at night for getting around when the generator was off. They wereuseful during Irene since we lost power during the night for that storm. This is where I think a headlamp is priceless, the ability to have light and have hands free isn’t to be taken lightly (no pun intended).We have candles on hand but didn’t use them since we had the generator running until bedtime. I felt we were pretty well setup for a Hurricane, a few more batteries would have been nice.
5) Brian wants to know – Mike, and anyone else in the storm area, have you seen or heard of FEMA or the Red Cross in the area? Just curious.
Brian I know the Red Cross is very active in my County, especially in the Mastic Beach and Bellport areas, they are helping to run the shelters. FEMA has been on the news a lot dealing with the power situation but I personally haven’t seen any. I do know through work that they have been helping to get fuel to the utility crews and the crews clearing debris.
If anyone has anymore specific questions feel free to e-mail me a mike@thebackyardpioneer.com or IM me on Facebook and I’ll do my best to answer them.
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More from my site
Super Storm Sandy-12 Days Without Power: What Worked and What Didn’t
Hurricane Sandy, Five Days Without Power, Three Weeks Later, and the Gear That Made My Life Easier
The Backyard Pioneer on The Survival Podcast
Incorporating The Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy Into Future Preps
Emergency Heating With A Wood Stove
Would highly recommend Buddy Heaters esp 9000 BTU ones. Will last 2 1/2 days on a 20lb propane tank. Have used them 3 times now in the past 20years. Each time very helpful. Each episode was an ice storm in NC.
Heated one large bedroom, a bathroom and an office with one heater. No sign of carbon monoxide. Large well ventilated rooms. Kept area over 65F while freezing outside. My wife’s elderly mother and a handicapped daughter were all warm for several days thanks to the Buddy Heater. Propane stores well and a Coleman distribution tree is great to use in kitchen for propane stove and light. Whole kit less than $100. Have also used trick of freezing gallon jugs of water before storms and then putting frozen gallons in fridge or cooler to keep food fresh. All simple steps that make a big difference with an outage over 8-10hrs. Also have a 4000 watt generator for helping neighbors. After using it I run it completely out of gas. The ice storm this winter I got it out of crawl space, put in fresh gas and it started after 3 pulls of rope starter. It had been under the house about 4 years. Key- run out gas, use stabilizer in everything, avoid ethanol gas if you can. LED lights are great, Went camping last week with grandchildren. They didn’t want me to turn off the lantern because a bullfrog nearby was really scary. The lantern went all night and still working fine on 3 D. batteries. Lots of light too. Coleman I think. Found also I could run a CPAP machine all night with a 12v car battery and a 300watt inverter.