Updated Emergency Supplies List
With the February 14, 2021 - February 21, 2021 winter storm problems here in Austin, we were able to benefit from some prior staged prepared supplies. It also revealed a few things that would have been nice to have. I'll cover the current items on hand, and then list out items that I plan on acquiring (some of which had supply issues after the freeze).
Current List
I actually used this to top up the small 10,000 mAh battery pack after we drained it a bit. It wasn't essential, but might have been leaned on more heavily if the outage had gone on longer.
- A few LifeStraws.
Didn't need to break these open.
I'd charged this up (it has its own internal rechargeable battery, and has a small built in solar panel to charge, and has a crank to generate a little bit of power for the USB port as well) months ago, and so it as ready to go to listen to 590 AM to get updates on what was happening while we were without power.
I actually didn't use these, as a separate multi-pack of Duracell LED headlamps purchased at Costco were already scattered around the house. Those were used frequently with the power out. Having several is also useful, as there isn't a need to pass around a single unit. They are so cheap now that it's easy to have a few scattered around the house and garage.
I've had these for ages. They are discontinued, but still work fine. They can take regular AA batteries as well as a rechargeable pack.
No need for them with the freeze, but I had broken into another set of these for pandemic usage. Several of the ones I had were the 3M masks with the 'cool flow' valve, which is actually a drawback in pandemic times: even though it is an N95 mask, airlines won't let you wear it on planes. I didn't realize this and had AA hand me a disposable surgical mask to wear instead of the N95 with the valve.
I didn't break these out either, although they could have proven useful if we were without water for a whole lot longer.
These weren't opened either, but we were able to get to a house that still had electricity to warm up Kelly, Ames, and Vivienne. These would be useful if we had to rough it longer, or not at home.
I used these not for hands, but instead inserted into the insulated faucet socks covering each of the exterior garden hose faucets. Putting these 8 hour warmer packets in the faucet covers overnight may have helped keep those from freezing on the coldest nights (down to 4 degrees at the lowest here, I think).
Packs of AA and also AAA.
- Camp shovel.
- Blastmatch fire starter.
- Tent repair kit.
- Fixed blade knife.
- Portable knife sharpener.
- Emergency Whistle.
- Large USB charger battery.
This isn't kept in the emergency box, but rather with my travel gear or in my office; I have an earlier iteration of this large Anker battery. When I bought it, it was the most compact one Anker sold that had USB-C PD. I tend to keep it charged, but only take it when I have plenty of space or weight. For regular travel, I'm more likely to have a more compact 10000 mAh sized battery. With the power out, we charged off the big battery and experimented with using the solar panel to charge up one of the more compact batteries. Having a faster wall plug in charger (a USB-C PD-capable one for my Pixel 4XL) was key to get as much charging in during the potentially-brief time power was back.
The linked Cascade Mountain Tech LED lights are the most similar to the same brand ones that I purchased in a 3 pack at Costco a few years ago. They were so cheap: all 3 were probably cheaper than the single Black Diamond LED light that I have in roughly the same form factor (and probably actually lower light output) from 10+ years ago. The huge drop in LED pricing has made these dirt cheap. I used all of them (including the BD) throughout the power outage. Having several of them was key, as it let me keep on on each of our nightstands and one out in the kitchen. $20 at Costco for a 3 pack of these!
This was definitely used during the freeze. Using this was the easiest way to turn off our main water supply line at the street. I turned it off before taking the family to another house to get warm; I didn't want a pipe rupture to happen while we were gone, with a still-on water supply then flooding the house.
Items Realized I Needed
Kelly misplaced the last slim USB charger I bought for her, so was dependent on my batteries. Having an updated and very svelte one might be more likely to be used. This better looking and slim Anker is now in her possession.
As we were starting to lose water pressure, we started to fill the master bathroom's tub to use as a potential drinking water source. The pressure fell off quickly enough (and the tub is large enough) that it didn't fill up before we lost water entirely. We did get probably 30-40 gallons. The tub was clean, but a better solution yet is something like the AquaPod or one of its competitors: it is basically a giant plastic bladder that hooks to the tub downspout and allows the filling of the bag in the tub, rather than filling the tub itself. Filling a fresh bag instead of a probably-not-just-scrubbed tub is a plus, and the bag has a dispenser pump port to make it easy to drain out water for use. They were backordered for a while after the freeze, but I was able to order one a few weeks later.
I had two or three HD buckets in the garage already, but they were full of random stuff (like sidewalk chalk!) and one wasn't even usable due to being so firmly stuck in another. I ended up being lent 2 additional buckets by my neighbor to use in carting water from his pool (after breaking the surface ice with a hammer!) over to our house to use for flushing toilets. Adding a few additional cheap buckets seems merited.