I'm sure some people can't afford to prepare as well as others. Money definitely makes a difference in situations like this.

But there are a lot of people waiting in the various lines with nice clothes and nice cars. Those people don't have much of an excuse. Days before Frances hit, my car already had a full tank of gas. I mean, come on... if you learned nothing else from Charley, you learned this. Fill up your car! Go buy some groceries. Stock the fridge. Get some cash. None of this requires special equipment or spending money you wouldn't have anyway.

Arrrg.

Panzerboy:

I'll try to get to Menard's tomorrow and see if they have any left and what the dimensions are.

I don't know if you would save any money by having me ship you the units, so find out the bottom line for what you need and see if the total price you pay down there would be close to cost and shipping from here.

Like I said earlier, the price was low a while ago and they may have sold out. If not I'll let you know.

Bountyhunter

While we have heard and discussed all of the hurricane prep that can be done. There is one thing that i have not seen mentioned, laundry. Didn't do it before charlie and a couple of days after i am looking for someone with power to do the wash. Waiting a couple of hours for the wash to get done in the AC was a terrible thing. And yes i have a generator but it will not run the washing machine and the pump at the same time.

I thought of this before but I didn't think to mention it. I guess since I'm still new to survival/preparedness I figure you guys have allready come up with anything I think of. I usually do my laundry about 1-2 days before the storm hits. However I have been lucky here in the panhandle and not gotten much bad weather so far.

Back to the topic at hand. I found this at the Lehman's site.

Robert

Heheheh. Nice. A little paracord for a clothes line, and yer set. :-)

I know it's snivelware, but anyone ever use one of those solar shower things? Black plastic bag you hang in sunlight for a while, then take a shower with the warm(er) water?

RE: Solar Shower.
Yep, use one all the time. We live in a RV and solar heating of water is a common practice. Be aware that the water can get VERY hot. Much too hot for a shower.

There are several brands, some better than others. Look for thicker plastic and a built in temperature indicator.

Otherwise works great and we use it a lot.

Ditto - I haven't been camping in several years, but the last time I went I took one along (1 liter, maybe 1.5-liter size?) and it worked really well...when you're camping and sweaty, just a bit of warm water really feels like luxury, and as long as you take care to leave in reserve enough to rinse out well after using the soap.
Dave

Take a look at one of these:

http://www.cyberbrands.com/pub/powerwashanddry.html

There are a number of comapnies that carry the product, just run a search. We have used ours for small loads and find it does the job. Pete

RayW:

If you know anyone that plays exotic instruments, you could always borrow their washboard.

One other highly overlooked device is a clean toilet plunger. Put your clothes in a large tub with water and detergent and plunge away. You end up with a double stroke if you go all the way to the bottom and force compression of the plunger so that on the way up, it pulls water and clothes up as the bellows snaps back.

If you wash by hand, a good way to use less rinse water is to hang your detergent laden clothes up to dry. After the clothes dry, beat them on something or with a rug beater to knock off a lot of the dried up detergent. You can then put them in rinse water to remove more detergent, and you will use less rinse water.

Bountyhunter

Groo:

Save your hard earned money and buy a large inner tube.

You can use it for swimming and as a solar shower with very small modifications.

Bountyhunter