So yesterday evening yet another drunk fella hit yet another power pole in our street. That is one thing that is bound to always happen around wine nation: When you live in a zone that produces something alcoholic as its essential yield, you will pull in individuals who jump at the chance to devour liquor as their essential nourishing product. With expected outcomes: Knock down a power pole, flee the scene and yet, repeat this process again.
Be that as it may, these few hours of total blackouts give an incredible chance to see how our relief skills function, particularly when I am all alone. My friend went on a business trip to Oregon 2 days ago, so when the drunk fella did it last night, it was around 7:30 pm and I was all alone in the house.
So thinking back on the few hours with no electricity, I got a few things right and of course, a few things needed upgrading and improvement.
To begin with, props to me for:
1) Having enough oil in the backup lights, and having them in an easily locatable space, in addition to knowing precisely where the battery-operated candles were kept.
2) I had kept all the wax candles in a single zone.
3) I effortlessly found the pipe lighters.
4) I knew enough about the generator that I could easily use it when it was daylight
5) I successfully brought in some solar oriented lights from outside as well as tea lights, to illuminate the less critical areas of the home.
So every one of that was great but gave myself a few thumbs down for:
1) not being sufficiently comfortable with the generator to start in the dark.
2) not knowing how to re-anchor the automated garage entryway in the wake of opening it physically.
3) not having oil, lamps, lighters and candles together in one place, so I would have had to go to just one place to pick up everything. Another thumbs down for not having plasma lighters with the hurricane lamps as well as the candles.
4) not having a clue as to where the extra gas for the generator was kept (fortunately it was filled with fuel so there was no need for more).
5) not charging all my gadgets. A 100 percent charge on my kindle and my phone would have been ideal for messages and emergency calls, and also would have kept me busy while I wait for the power to be fixed. I owned a portable charger, which was incredible, however, as opposed to using it on 50 percent charged gadgets it would have saved me some power to completely charge up everything
6) not having all the tools I would have required if there were a real emergency strategically placed and easy to reach. A real emergency would not have given me the time to head to the basement to look for a wrench to put out the burning gas.
Clearly, if the disaster happens during the day, you ideally have a few hours before its nighttime. However, I’ve come to notice that disasters such as this one tend to happen at night so it would be lovely to always be prepared.
I took in a great deal from this little preliminary drill and will make a few enhancements in the days to come.
How prepared would you say you are for a genuine catastrophe?