We're in day 3 of the worst ice storm to hit Southwest Missouri in 20 years. I actually think locally it is the worst in 50 years based on the fact that even the giant hardwoods like Oaks & Hickories are being destroyed like I've never seen before. Some of the oaks on & around our land are 50 & 60 feet high & really old. They have been snapping off all weekend - at times sounded like a war zone.

We lost power 10:00 pm on Friday. Moved all refrigerator items to boxes & put in van & put all freezer items in cooler on front porch. We were initially afraid that the power would be out a week plus and that it would warm up & spoil the food so we have been cooking microwave meals in a frying pan on the BBQ.

Been using this flashlight all weekend:

http://www.amazon.com/MasterVision-308ww-Cap-Light/dp/B0006515C6

And I love it!

Both hand free at all times! It was only $11 at WallyWorld. After using it cave crawling this summer I got both of my boys the same ones for Christmas. It doesn't light up the world, but works great for navigating the house when there is no power. Very, very comfortable as I can't tell it's even on the hat. And always with me.

The biggest problem with our house is we don't have a woodstove and the fireplace is in the great room so any heat goes up to the top & with no electricity to run the fan it is worthless as far as heating the house.

The good thing is it's an earthberm so we camped out in the Masterbedroom & bath which is along the berm. With 7 candles & 4 bodies heating the 12 X 15 bedroomroom it stayed in the upper 60's even though the temps outside hovered 28-32 all weekend as the rain kept coming down & freezing.

The best part of this weekend is my wife will be very open to future "preparation" expenditures.

Another question: What were your thoughts on saving the contents of your fridge when it became apparent that this event was going to around for a bit?
I have read other widely varying opinions about what to do about the contents of your fridge, freezer and maybe deep freeze chest.
One school of thought is to not open the door at all, keeping the cold as long as you can, but also cutting into your ability to use up whats inside.
Another expert I read said start unloading your most valuable food and pack it into a cooler with your remaining ice, as from a food safety point of view, 6 hours without power means your food in the fridge will have already moved into the dicey status- you may not want to consume even if the power comes back on now anyway. And you don't wan toruin your appliance by having that mess to clean up.
I have heard freezers may hold for 2 days, but the contents will pretty much be on the thaw, and you may have to consume 12000 calories of Market Day enchiladas anyway in the next 24 hours if you want to save them!
Anyone have a strategy they feel is a bit more foolproof?

Personally, I think moving stuff to a cooler is the best approach. I've had coolers packed with ice last many days before the last of ice had melted.

Also, a chest won't spill the cold are out as much when you open it.

-john

Power. I went cheap and bought a deep cycle marine battery to go with a 300 watt inverter. In a pinch it'll charge with jumper cables from a car. So far we've mostly used it to charge and run laptops and run our neighbor's coffee maker. They bought a nice smaller Honda generator though.

Light. Target's Rock River LED Lantern is now our main backup light. At $20 I was tempted to buy them as Christmas gifts for others. I still want to pick up another one or two for our house. It's just so handy and perfectly safe. It meant the end of candles and other fire-based lights for us, though we still have some for backup. Cheap LED headlamps were another winner. Hand-crank LED flashlights or momentary-on keychain lights keep the kids happy without wasting batteries.

Food. I was surprised how badly we crave a hot meal after a day or two of no-cook food. We have backpacking stoves (white gas and alcohol) and use them, but I'd like something safer and more idiot-proof, especially around kids. That "something will go wrong" bit keeps me worried about cooking with containers full of flammable liquids.

Radios. I'm swamped with radios, being a ham, scanner listener, and shortwave buff. But our neighbors didn't have a single battery-powered radio (except their car), so we loaned them one.

Gas. Keeping the cars topped off is still a problem for us. At least we get some warning of when storms are coming, but there are still things that could pop up without warning. Driving on fumes is just a bad idea all-around.

I was always told as long as there are ice crystals at the center of any meat, then it would be "safe" to re-freeze, so I guess that would mean just a little after that and you should start cooking it.

Duquesne Light says the same thing on their Power Outage Tips webpage.

"When it doubt, through the food out"

Now you just need to throw a "ice block" party.

Aloha Swedish Chef,

I have never used a generator so have no experience with them.

For lights, I really like my Petzl Tikka XP. I have used it nightly on three camping trips so far and haven't had to change batteries. Very useful. I will probably change out the batteries soon and burn the old ones up in my kids flashlights or something. I am going to buy a Fenix P1D CE. It is a keychain size light but throws 135 lumens for one hour on high and 12 lumens for 21 hours on low.

A Coleman propane lantern is also plenty bright and runs a long time. Coleman claims 7 hours on high and 14 hours on low. I am not sure how long the propane really lasts as I almost never use it on high.

I use one of these



for home power outage back up cooking along with an outdoor grill. I even use the portable stove for family camping. It's like bringing your kitchen stove with you.

During our last extended power outage, I used a Grundig radio to listen to the only station that was online for news and updates. It runs on batteries or a built in crank generator.

Good luck to you in your preparations efforts.

Our food consumption strategy has been to eat the stuff in the fridge first (with minimal opening and closing), freezer second and can and dry stuff last.

What do the experts say on this?

Aloha,
What's the brand and model # of the stove you have pictured? Looks like a nice set-up.

An amusing footnote to the WA power outage.

Both Lowes and HD have had to put up signs that the generators they bought during the power outage WERE NOT returnable.

Some people have been fussing about that. Apparently, they think they just RENTED the generators.

A lot of the people here have incredibly short memories.

Sue

After spending some time on eGullet, a food forum, I suspect there is even more leeway than that, although I suppose as a rule of thumb it is probably safe advice.

The main factors are time and tempature. If you keep them in an ice chest with ice and they stay at, say, 34F, they may be totally defrosted, yet as safe as in your refrigerator.

Perhaps it would be good to get an old mechanical thermometer to throw in there with the food.

Also, it depends on what kind of food. If I understand correctly, steaks are fairly free of critters on the inside. It's the outside that starts to grow stuff. This is why it's fairly safe to have a fairly rare steak -- the outside is cooked, killing anything there.

But if you take hamburger as an alternate example, it is ground, so the inside is the outside and thus undercooked hamburger is much less safe, reference all the e. coli associations with hamburger, esp. undercooked.

I won't go into it, but chicken should always be well cooked.

Our nose knows when meat is past due. Use it.

And of course, consider you are going to cook that puppy. 160F will kill e. coli.

Make sure you maintain proper sanitation so you don't contaminate your work surfaces and other food with the raw meats. This may take a little more attention without hot water and possibly less light.

While not exactly on topic, I asked a similar question over on eGullet that might be of interest: eGullet: Stupid question: Meat, how long in the fridge?

And getting a bit farther off topic, here is some more discussion about food safety and sanitation:

eGullet: food safety, keep the bugs away
eGullet: Washing Your Sponges, Do you do this?
eGullet: Disinfecting kitchen, Nice-smelling bleach doesn't work

-john