I'm a city boy (San Francisco) and I'm definitely staying put. I live in an older house, built in the 1920's, and lucky to have a fireplace. Definitely cozy when it's stormy outside.

Check out Tom Brown's "Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival." It has a lot of practical ideas for making do, with what's available. In particular, his diagrams for building an insulated shelter with furniture and mattresses is great. There are a lot of resources in urban areas. I just hope I don't have to end up hunting and eating pigeons ;-(.

Your local CERT organization is a good place to get started. They have classes/drills for disaster planning/recovering, including emergency HAM communications. There are a lot of good people thinking about urban survival, especially in earthquake country. Get to know your neighbors, so you can rely on each other if the SHTF (including watching out for the bad guys.)

Hope this helps,
Lynn - W6JAE

I live in an apartment and had to go without electricity for 10 days in 2003 due to an ice storm. I still had my gas stove and could heat the apartment. I worked at a shelter. Some people would come to the shelter for part of the day to stay warm and go home at night. At night I slept without any heat on. I have a nice sleeping bag and I am accustomed to camping many days at a time in the winter. My windows are not in excellent shape so I have a roll of 6 mil plastic sheeting in my emergency kit that I can cover the windows with to reduce the draftyness. Without my gas stove I think I could use candle power to add a little heat and light. I have about a bazillion candles from yard sales.

I'll check out Tom Brown's guide, thanks for the reference. Actually I think it really depends on the scenario. During the Ice storm people in the suburbs who didn't want to leave their house had some trouble when the gas stations went empty and all that, many instead of going in a public shelter, they ended up in the hospital for hypothermia or CO poisonning. In this scenario it was more practical to just stuff you're favorite pillow into your BOB along with some ear plugs and personal items and get to a public shelter.

BTW, Buffalo pigeon wings with some tabasco sauce must not be so bad. I'll have to try it out.

I agree ... I live in a newer building, so there aren't too many drafts, but if both the gas and electricity are out then there's not a whole lot one can do to keep really warm.

Anyway, if I had to "bug in" without heating options, I might try to use the bathroom -- it's the smallest space in my 1 BR Manhattan apartment that I can essentially enclose, since the bedroom closet doors don't shut very tightly and there are non-closable louvers on the kitchen door. My Nuwick candle (plus all the sheets, blankets, duvets, coats, etc. at hand, piled into a nest) might be enough to take the edge off a cold winter's day/week if the building's heat went kaput. (Besides, the smoke/CO2 alarm is right outside the bathroom door, so I hope I'd get a warning if the candle was causing problems.) I'd rather have a WBF (wood-burning fireplace, in apartment-ad-shorthand) of course, but one normally only finds them in the more-expensive pre-war apartments that I really can't afford!

Even then, you must make sure in some way that your fireplace can withstand long lasting fires. During the Icestorm of 1998 many houses caught fire because of inadequate use of the fireplaces or obsolete fireplaces. And there was also a risk of the roof collapsing under the weight of ice. It was really messy. So poor apartment dwellers were actually safer because they had no other alternative other then move to a public shelter.

I don't have time right now to read the entire Thread here, -So I don't know if what I'm about to say has already been Answered / Addressed.

But here goes anyway.

In the kind of Push Comes to Shove here as you mention, -with no other Remedies or Options, -One'll just have to Bundle Up under a Good several Blankets / Bedspreads / Comforters, etc. Perhaps with various Sweathers, Sweatshirts, and other commonly available Warm Chlothing thrown into your Mix as well. A Slleping Bag could perhaps be added to the Blankets etc.

For one Unfamiliar with this Remedy, -One could find themself very Pleasantly Relieved and Surprised!

It all comes down to the all round Right Number, Type, and Arrangement of any or all of these.

I know of this only from 2 Winters now of Direct Personal Experience. (I and others I'm in touch with, havn't yet completed a much Better, Wood Stoved / Fireplaced Cabin yet). Every single Cold Winter Day or Nite as we've ever had yet, -I've been as Toasty Warm as a Bunny under such! Really now! Even when I don't take that Nice extra step of building a Fire outside!

So again, -I only Know this all too well, from Direct Personal Experience. (I've also basically mentioned this, in another Post or two as well).

Having Nothing Else!, -and Facing such a Situation as I mention, -It could well come down to what I here mention. And I do Highly Recommend it! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]

We spent this past week caught in our home in the dark (Missouri)...no power at all.. It was a real eye-opener and I found that a lot of things on my mind were considered to be fairly common....an odd sort of trauma!

Going to a shelter presented one huge problem to us...NO PETS ALLOWED!

We stayed in this home for 4 days and it was a nightmare. I thought I was over-reacting, but I've found that my reactions were very typical for most of us.

This has expanded my interests, and I was amazed that there are others like me. We live through these things on different levels, and we will have to decide which level we will work within.

This one is to stay in very familtiar territory, but to behave in a non-typical way. It is sort of like suddenly writing with the other hand! : <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Pets are one of those issues that don't seem to have been given much thought in disaster planning. People with disabilities or mobility issues are another group--but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

I recently read that the American Humane Society estimates that about 2 out of 3 American households has a pet. That's over 350 million pets. Since so many people say that they will not leave their pets behind, or like you, have actually refused going to a shelter rather than leave your pets behind, it's a serious human welfare issue, as well as a pet welfare issue.

At least a number of states are enacting laws to address this situation. Here in California, a law just went into effect requiring disaster planners to consider pets in their contingency planning. However, exactly how pets will be treated is not clear yet and will likely vary by locality. I doubt that pets will be allowed in all shelters, but perhaps certain "pet friendly" shelters will be designated so that those with allergies or fear/dislike of pets can know which shelters to avoid. Or another option I have heard are separate pet-only shelters staffed by animal control staff, vets, volunteers, etc. which are separate from people shelters. Anyway, it's a much more complicated issue than it appears at first glance and is probably a major reason why the blanket "no pets" rules were first put into place.

wouldn't an alcohol stove/burner be a good source of heat indoors? they are extremely easy to make and from what i've read, burning alcohol does not produce carbon monoxide. i use one for camping and i love it. if i remember correctly, DR had a link to a site that gave instructions on how to make an alcohol stove with a coffee can and a roll of toilet paper. i tried it and made one out of a coke can and it worked fine. i've also read you can use just about any small can packed with cotton balls. and the best part is that you can use regular rubbing alcohol or even vodka, scotch, etc. as a fuel source. can someone confirm that burning alcohol does not release carbon monoxide? just wanna make sure thats correct. thanks.

Combustion of anything can and will create varying amounts of carbon monoxide. The difference between creating carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide is the availability of oxygen to the combustion process. If you take a look at some of the specs of backpacking alcohol stoves (such as Vargos), you will see that they disclaim "Use only in well ventilated area / Do not use indoors".

I'm not saying you can't use them indoors. Just open a window and allow ventilation, just like when using a kerosene heater. But, the fact remains that there are better options available, such as devices designed to minimize carbon monoxide and be used indoors, such as said kerosene heater.