Since Wed people have been coming in from Kentucky (I'm just on the TN side) last night was almost as busy as christmas.

The most common requests I hear people asking for are
-Water
-Small camp stoves, propane and fuel for them
-C and D cell batteries
-Cell phone chargers
-Pay as you go cell phones
-portable electric heaters / oil heaters
-lamp oil and wicks
-Generators
-Small battery powered radios
-Flashlights

And we're pretty much out of all of the above (except for the prepaid phones and some chargers) in the 4 walmarts in the local area. I've heard of people driving down to nashville and alabama.

One story I read said this is actually worse than Katrina.

fuel types--for lots of information on lamp and stove fuels i once again direct people to Classic Camp Stoves.at spiritburner.com--links to and informantion on anything and everthing thing that will burn--in the UK where Coleman fuel is big bucks--$25 a gallon or more,they use pannel wipe for fuel in gas burning stoves.pannel wipe is used for cleaning auto bodys before painting..

I sense a baby boom a-coming!!!

I live in Lexington KY. The ice here is plenty bad, but not quite as bad as 2003, and we are not as hard hit as the western part of the state. Still, there are plenty of lines down - I think we had 125k without power out of roughly 270k population - trees are down on houses and across streets and roads all over town. Our city streets were treated pretty well prior to the storm, so were clear (of ice anyway) by the second day. Sidewalks, driveways and yards still have 1/2 to 1 inch of ice over snow, and are treacherous.

I lost power at home for about 36 hours - 2 days and 1 night. At the hospital where I work, it was 4 days, and at one point we lost generator power for a couple of hours! It is a rehab, not acute care, but when the generator went out, they started talking about transferring some of the patients out.

Like Blast in the hurricane, I have assessed my preparations, and was generally pleased, but did find some holes. As I have discussed here earlier, heat was a worry for me, in a townhouse. I found heat in the house was retained a surprisingly long time. I had about 10 "Duraflame" logs, but I did not use the fireplace at all. It was fairly comfortable at night, but was pretty chilly the next morning. The water in the hot water heater stayed warm a long time too. I have at 2 other stoves, (Coleman 1 burner and a 2 burner propane) but for this I used a can of sterno over a folding camp stove on top of my regular stove. It was perfectly adequate to heat a can of tomato soup, cook a grilled cheese sandwich, and heat two teakettles of water - one to supplement the warm water to wash dishes, and another for hot drinks the rest of the evening. I probably burned the Sterno for 2 hours and did not use the whole can. I have several kerosene lamps, plenty of food and batteries and did not have to use stored water because the water continued to work. I was well set for the recommended 3 days, and think I would have been OK longer, but it would have been rough with single-digit nighttime temps for the weeks or a month some are looking at and did experience here in '03.

My Coleman mini LED lantern was a tremendous help in walking from room to room, and was fine to read by - more convenient to handle than a flashlight. Overall though, it was a little boring. I may add a battery-powered walkman type CD player. Even better would be one of those little personal DVD players (I don't have a laptop), but I don't know what alternate power sources could be used. I have concentrated so much on long-term planning lately, I think I need a few more short-term food items - stew, hearty soups and the like, to heat and eat.

It was good to have a real test that was fairly short, to get a more subjective look at my emergency prep.

You know, they know what causes that these days.

I have friends in western Kentucky who say this is incredibly bad. Their town just got water back on when a generator was brought in.

I had not considered until their experience this past week that I now only have a cell phone so I need one of those battery operated chargers. Back in '94, when I last experienced a major power outage (rolling blackouts over a few days) I had only a landline.

I do have a car charger for my cell but some of these Kentucky towns are also short on fuel.

Off to Amazon....

Not in Kentucky.............











(Just kidding, half my family is from there)

Thanks to all for the information you have shared on this list. We are in West KY and were able to get thru the ice storm with little trouble thanks to the many suggestions I read here and on other lists.

Our power went off last Tuesday and came back yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. However, since we had multiple heating sources and plenty of food, we were set...unlike some of our neighbors. Some of the adjoining counties may not have power for another 3-4 weeks. The local areas did open "warming centers" but folks were told to bring their own bedding and, at first, food. One of the local radio stations started recommending that some folks consider "evacuating" south to TN. I understand FEMA and the National Guard has finally shown up and are handing out water. For the first few days, the local city govt was handing out one gallon of water per family (that's per family not per individual) Yikes.

On the get list is more led lanterns. Had plenty of led flashlights and oil lanterns, but found that the small led lanterns put out sufficient area lighting to get thru the night and the batteries burn for a long long time. The bright white light is a bit harsh, but for me that is better than having candles lit all over the place. Also on the get list is more led headlamps. The one we had was great when needing to wander around the house with hands free.

Water was a worry for me. Not so much for drinking/cooking, but for flushing the toilet (we're on a septic system)...me and bears might go in the woods, but my ladies informed me in no uncertain terms to figure out how to flush! Luckily, there was enough snow on the ground, so I filled a bunch of rubbermaid containers and set them next the fire. So, for next time I gotta plan for "potty water"...any recommendations on good chemical toilets?

I also didn't have enough batteries. Had enough to get thru, but my supply made me nervous.

Krogers got up and running fairly quickly. They had a generator, so had perishable food...and they would take local checks. Wally world did not have a generator and would only accept cash when the power was out. An emergency cash stash was not something I had yet built up. So, we were very lucky we could find a merchant that would take checks. While we had plenty of "food food", comfort food is nice to have, especially with kids (ok, with moms 'n dads as well.) That ran out quickly.

When you live out in the country with lots of trees, ya gotta have a chain saw. I didn't. Cutting downed limbs with a bow saw so we could get out was entertaining. I now am the proud owner of a Stihl 250, won't be dropping big trees, but it will get me outta the driveway.

I discovered that I CAN cook on a dutch oven, outside in freezing weather. It just wasn't a big deal. It took a bit more coals and a bit longer, but my 12" & 10" cooked fine.

Inventory (with location where stuff is stored!) is important....had an entertaining time finding my coleman fuel as well as some resource materials, both of which had somehow gotten moved from where I thought they were.

All in all, we fared much better than some of our neighbors for which we are very thankful.

--Steve

Gonna lay in a supply of sterno cans -- and use them to cook outside.