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Water – like most of the folks in our area, we rely on well water.  That means an electric pump gets the water into the house.  No electricity, no water.  But unlike our neighbors we get to skip the rush to buy every gallon jug of bottled water in sight because our house has an old fashioned hand pump.  So we fill a ten gallon container which is adequate for drinking, some washing, and flushing toilets.

Heat -  the generator isn’t big enough to power our furnace, so we’ll have to rely on the one fireplace insert.  It’s not much, but the forecast is not for very cold temperatures.

Staying connected – if the power goes out, my phone services (supplied by the cable company) as well as my Internet will go down.  Our cell phones are charged, and we’ll stay Internet connected using a mobile hotspot (yes, it’s slow, but it’s a connection).  We have a handful of backup battery devices from Innergie, and Duracell Powermat that are fully charged.  We also have some solar powered devices from Goal Zero, Accessory Power, and Solio that will help power smartphones and even tablet computers.  To keep at least one or two laptop computers going we have several alternatives including a tap from the generator, a large solar panel and backup storage battery from Brunton, and, in a pinch  an inverter from Black & Decker that hooks directly to a car battery.  Last time around we used tried several of those little inverters that plug into your car’s 12 volt receptacle.  We burned out three of them, and eventually fried the car fuse as well.  This time will be different.

Light – To make sure we can see what we’re doing, we have flashlights at the ready.  We also have handfuls of rechargeable AA batteries that can be charged with small solar devices from PowerFilm and Goal Zero.  We have a solar powered lantern and a hand-cranked flashlight as well.  And yes we also have some big candles.

Storm Survival Kit

So Sandy, we’re about as prepared as we can be for your arrival.  Only one more thing to buy:  the Mallomars.

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