A question? Preppers in the Sandy area. What worked and what didn't?

Nobody in affected area on line?

What worked... my pantry stocked full of beef jerky and cool whip.
What didn't work... my lack of preparations.

I'm sorry. Here is a more serious answer. We froze bags of water ahead of time and used them to keep things cold. Just be careful you have them stowed away safely as to not drop a giant block of ice on your foot when opening the door.

Guess ur gonna have to wait till they get their electricity back... and find a warm dry place to plug their laptop into.

Woodstove, candles, canned food, battery-operated radio, coleman stove.

The people living in places that still don't have electricity also don't have any internet.

My power was out for two days.

Two days doesn't seem like much, but when it gets cold at night, and you have to turn off the lantern so the batteries don't go dead, and you have no idea when, or IF, the power is going to come back on, it really sucks.

Those people in the city, or in the town 5 miles north from me, that don't have electricity, my heart goes out to them. It really does.

Try turning off your computer, turning off the lights, and the heat, and just hang out for awhile.

In the dark.

Just try that for a few hours.

It's very educational.

What preps, Doesn't look to me like many were.

Heres one!!!!


"Hi ______
I live between Trenton, N.J. and Phila, Pa. along the Delaware River. I lost power on Monday night @ 6:00 pm. Power came back on, Wednesday evening @7:30 pm. We had a lot of high winds, but, surprisingly little rain, @ 3".
I went to the store on Sunday, in the morning and again in the evening. Nether store had any selection of bread but everything else was available. I have enough for food a few weeks, but I suddenly had to have grapes, which was the reason for the trips to the store.
I was fortunate enough to own a 4000 watt generator, which I used the whole time the grid was down, to run the refrigerators and the TV.
So what did I learn?
I, and a whole lot of people, are not prepared for life with no grid. Sorry to say "I though I was ready", but, I clearly failed this test run! I wish everyone the "Best Of Luck" in the future, Not too many people will make it. The first weeks will be very difficult. That is very clear to me.
The shock of not having the 24/7 luxuries, will be overwhelming for most of us.
Something as simple as not having access to a cup of store made coffee was a shock to me. (Wawa is the local franchise in the area for gas and coffee.) Wow, what an eye opener! "

You can buy a "WaterBOB" for $30. Holds 100 gallons and fits in your bath tub. Even comes with a pump dispenser.

And another one!!!!!


A few things learned during Sandy from a central NJ farm.

1) The structure integrity of a tubular steel Hoop House is not adequate to withstand hurricane force winds. While vertical load bearing design was good, diagonal shear load design was extremely poor. Recommended to strongly re-enforce the cross members of a standard design unit for horizontal forces.

2) Having a lot of extra rope is a good prepping item. It can come in quite useful when securing up things like Hoop Houses from collapsing like an accordion.

3) Having a tractor (named Georgette after a famous Texas blogger) is also a good item to help support the butt end wall of a Hoop House.

4) Remember that we forget the incredible force of mother nature when she is pissed off.

5) Move those things most valuable to “ultra” strong secure areas. A few thousand pound trailer housing 150 chickens was flipped on its side killing 30% of the birds.

6) Having extra tarps and roof patch sitting around is a good idea. Remember extra rope to tie down the tarps. We are missing 100 sq ft of roofing shingles over one of the bedrooms.

7) While you may be a good prepper, your prepped position can decrease quickly and dramatically in one night. 50% of our deer fence dropped, 30% of our birds died, our main entrance allowing emergency vehicle access (unneeded this time) was blocked by a 150 year old fallen oak, a few trees missed the house, electricity supply is out for a week (generator was started within 10 minutes).

8) We are lucky as all this damage can be replaced within a few weeks in the existing economy. If it was truly a long term grid down situation we could have been in a very difficult position to rebuild from. "

I can imagine. All sorts of brain functions must have started returning to you.

add solar and handcranked LED lantern to your list of must haves.
some of them have NOAA weather, radio, lights, and cell phone chargers.

Excellent thread, I am very curious about this.

Filled empty milk and soda bottles with water and froze them in advance. We used them in fridge, coolers and when melted used them for toilet water. Didn't leak like the few ziplocks we tried this with.

I am N. of NYC, in the affected area (still without power with downed trees all around) but not the worst affected area.

Generator, installed with switch to run the circuits in the house, with gas cans, and filled the gas cans in the week before the storm.

Saved our asses.

Oh yeah.

Those people who lived in caves way back when?

They were thinking ALL the time.

So true.

Sounds great. Thank you!

In long outages those generators suck a hell of a lot of gas. Best to run them for short times to make the gas last. 24/7 running you will need to own a gas station.

What worked:

1. Having a generator and luckily we had a power transfer switch installed less than 2 weeks ago (what timing). Fortunately our power came back on Tuesday. On Sunday, we got the generator out to test it and it was leaking gas. My husband ran to Lowes and luckily got another one.
2. My food storage on hand (Did not have to run around like a nut last minute except to pick up extra milk and bread).


What didn't work:

1. Not having enough gas. Right now my husband is driving around looking for gas. I waited on line for an hour and had to leave the line because it was not moving. We have our own business and he drives a van so he needs gas to get around tomorrow. Yes, we did fill up before the storm but he also drives all day long.
2. The fact that the generator was leaking I need to test/check on some kind of schedule..maybe every 6 months to make sure things are working.

Suffolk County, Long Island

I think his point was that by freezing the water ahead of time, he could extend the life of things in the refrigerator/freezer even when the power was out.

But the WaterBOB is a good idea. I've got one on standby myself.

Yes we find out what works and what doesn't. I am so thankful for the responders of this thread. We learn from experience. My heart hurts for those that have to deal with this calamity. Yet this gives us an opportunity to learn how to survive.

What a great idea for a post. 5*

I agree ! My husband has never been big on prepping but after watching all this unfold he asked me to get a list. Really everyone needs to be ready if not for blizzards and ice storms then for tornado season.

Yo check this out, I'm in Belmar,NJ right now on an iPhone. This shit is so fucked up. I have to show the National Guard ID to get to my house. They just flashlight searched my neighborhood for looters. Gas is impossible to get. Canned food sucks. Cigs are scarce. Alcohol is plentiful. If you dont own a generator, get one. I'm lucky to still have a house right now.

^ this ^

I look forward to coming back to this thread.

Thread added to Favorites...


Keep it coming guys! I have learned things on this thread tonight, nothing is too small to add to this important list!

Good thread. I need to know what to stock in case I get hit by a hurricane here in Utah.