Some disaster preparedness thoughts

Recent events in Japan have re-ignited my interest in self-sufficiency and I am finally enacting a plan that a friend encouraged me to embrace. It involves buying a large quantity of re-chargeable AA batteries, and then buying flashlights and radios that use AA (to get emergency disaster information, and have music), or can use a four-AA-to-D adapter shell. A later addition will be to acquire two solar panels with two AA-chargers.



I lived in southern Utah for 6 years. There is a certain complacency concerning disasters there. A few years ago, sudden and massive flooding took about 40 houses near the river, and yet a couple years later when a lightning-started brush-fire took out the main tranformer station and left the city of St-George without electricity for a couple days, it seemed everyone was still unprepared for any kind of disaster.

It was a hot summer day. I remember because the air-conditioning didn't work for anyone. Well,...we decided to go on a 30-minute drive to Nevada and get some air-conditioned sea-food buffet until the electricity comes back on. Many others didn't have enough gas to make it 30-minutes away, and the gas stations ELECTRIC pumps were not working (we passed long lines of people waiting for the fuel to finally start pumping). With no power to the repeater towers, radio stations from Salt-Lake-City and Las-Vegas were blacked out, and only one local radio station had a back-up generator. They became the lifeline for information.

The cell-phone towers had back-up power (what a relief!) and the police/hospital had adequate back-up power.

Two gas stations borrowed generators and began rationing out fuel to each customer...30 minutes worth to get them to the Nevada border gas stations, and the local radio informed listeners where gas could finally be had. That night almost nobody who stayed in SG had air-conditioning, lights, or a radio (except inside their car).

The oldest houses (over 100-years old) all have wide/shady eaves and stone basements, which stay cooler than the ground level in the summer. The new houses generally do not have shady eaves or a basement (cheaper per square foot), and so they rely on central A/C for cooling (120F in the summer).

Depending on the area you live in, the potential disasters can vary widely, so just start considering what few items might make your misery a little less miserable,m and make your family a little more survivable. I live in Kansas now, and I am surprised to find so many new houses that don't have a basement. The local mood of most seems to be that ,...if a tornado takes your house and you survive, just take the insurance check and move somewhere else.

As a side note, I have an old RV with a large generator, plus I have a propane barbeque (so I can cook whats in the fridge when the electricity is out)

I already have several LED flashlights that use a single AA battery, and I'm ready to buy a big lot of them, and also an AA MP3 player, an AA radio (earphones, no speakers). There are links to cheap AA batteries on EBAY, but I want to avoid buying junk or sending money to a scammer from China. Does anyone have a recommendation as to whether I should use NiMH or NiCD? (different cell voltages), and whats a reasonably affordable battery supplier that is known to be reliable?

Harbor freight (HF) occasionally has small solar panels for sale, what would I need to charge AA's with a solar panel (phase 2)?

I would think Nimh would be better than Nicad. I know the first digital camera I had used nicad and I was lucky to get 20-30 pics. Once I switched to nimh it was no problem to get 50-60 pictures. To charge you could hook the solar panels to an rc charger and use the nimh setting. They have multiple voltages to choose. Just get some cradles that hold 4 or 6-8 batteries, maybe scavenged out of old electronics. eg. junk radios.

Neither NiCd nor NiMH keep their charge long. Typically only a month to a few months. They are excellent to replace regular AA batteries in frequently used appliances where they will be recharged and used regularly. However, keeping a large stash of AA nickel batteries charged just for emergency purposes would be tedious.

A few packs of regular AA cells might make more sense. Most are date stamped with 3+ years shelf life and can last twice.

Sanyo "Eneloop" and Sony have a rechargable nickel battery that keep the charge for at least a year, but they are much pricier.

Many lithium cells from A123 toolpacks to laptop batteries can also keep the charge for years, but again are not cheap to buy just for backup purposes.

W.r.t. emergency preparedness it is the whole that counts: Food, heat, shelter comes before electricity. A tent, sleepingbags, camping stove and a week or so of food goes a long way. Going camping in a non-serviced area is good practice. Then it is just a matter of making sure the camping kit is always ready.

Eneloops for stuff you use, a couple bricks of Costco alkalines for general emergency stock, and a few packs of Energizer lithium AA's for the absolutely necessary last cache.

My two generators come in handy every summer when the power goes down. Usually the result of big lightning storms, we'll lose our AC for a 2-4 hours. Last summer was weird, and we didn't use the generators. During this winters mega freeze, those generators came in reeeeaaaal handy. We had to live like much of the world for 3 days, with lots of rolling blackouts. My house is electric heated, so the generators allowed me to run small heaters while the electric rationing was in effect. I had enough gas, since I could go get some whenver the grid was up. But the experience showed I should keep more gas around. The two generators can provide me with 1000 watts for about 24 hours with just the gas in thier tanks, which are always full.

You have a generator, I'd say just get a 5 gallon can for gas and keep it fresh, or stabilized so you have some gas in a pinch. Keeping enough batts in the house to run your flashlights and a radio longer is a very very good idea. Just buy alkaline batts in larger packages, and you tend to always have a few spares when the shit hits the fan. We used our flashlights quite a bit during the blackouts too.

The amusng part of the big freeze came when I went to use my small inverter, and put the wires on the terminals backwards. So when I put the red wire on the battery,,,, pffft. Too funny I keep doing that same mistake over and over. Killed at least two chargers that way a few years ago.

My my, how times have changed.

A couple 3-5 gallon containers of Kerosene and a couple oil lanterns, will make a BUNCH of light. No charging, no burned out bulbs. Hang one in the center of a room and light the area. Portable, so you can use the outdoor Privy.

Do like Grandpa used to do.

Need a basement ?? Dig out under your house. Make a Yankee-Bank basement. Doesn't have to be full size. Start outside the house and dig your way down and under. Lay up a block wall to replace the temp bracing as you go.

You would be surprised at how much dirt you can move with a shovel and wheel barrow. I did this in Arkansas, where rocks and red clay made up the ground. That will keep you cool AND give you a place to go when them Twisters come a callin.

dogman said:

...

The amusng part of the big freeze came when I went to use my small inverter, and put the wires on the terminals backwards. So when I put the red wire on the battery,,,, pffft. Too funny I keep doing that same mistake over and over. Killed at least two chargers that way a few years ago.

Click to expand...

Inverters are generally not protected against reversing the input polarity. Applying power backwards voids the warranty as well as the FETs. Installing some BIG Anderson SB connectors on these is good preparedness practice. You can make up a couple of input power pigtails with red/green LEDs so if they are connected backwards you can tell. Before you plug the inverter in.

Another item that may be useful in an emergency is a Ham Radio license and rig. When all else fails, Ham Radio can usually get through.

You can find more information at www.ARRL.net

Yea it is true about the nimh and storage. Everytime I get some out to use I usually have to charge em. I mainly use them for a dig. camera and a couple led motion sense nightlights and clocks. The 2000 mah will run a clock most of a year.

Water and heat is a bigger issue here too. Last time we lost power in the winter here from an ice storm our town didn't have a generator to pump the wells and our old watertower ran out within hours. We could make it without power but when you can't flush the toilet it really sucks

For heat we would just put everybody and dogs in one room and grab the blankets, maybe a Coleman lantern. Reminds me , I need to replace a regulator on one of my lanterns.

I also agree. Nothing better than primitive tent camping to get you ready. We used to have a basic tentcamper. It had a lead battery for lights only. Used to freeze milk jugs to use in the coolers.

A 10mm LED taped to a recycled toolpack lithium battery makes a great ultra cheap emergency flashlight for around the house. I attach it to one pole and tape it on so the bent over tab forms a momentary switch. That way no one can forget it on. Charge it once and it's good for years.

I've got a generator that gets used a few more times a year than I'd like, but it gets used just enough that I don't have to worry about the gas turning to varnish in it. I have a spare spark plug, and put synthetic oil when I did the post break in oil change. DIY solar panels will be added to the equation very soon. That means transportation, my ebikes, is covered, and we can have lights and some modern conveniences too.

Along with my big inventory of lithium, I also have 130 4.5ah nicads. The nicads are my end of the world battery stash because those puppies can sit on the shelf for decades, and with proper care they can serve for decades too like they do in satellites.

We have a swimming pool, so we're covered in terms of water. Food would be the main concern, but we have a year-round growing season and could make do as long as the sun isn't blocked out.

We're not close enough to the mountains for a rock/mudslide to get us, which are pretty common here during the rains. There's no river within reach, and all of the volcanoes in the area are far enough away too. We're at 1000m altitude and 30 miles as the crow flies from ocean, so it would require an asteroid impact for a tsunami big enough to get here. Even though we have a dry season and it's typically windy, I don't think things dry out enough for wildfires, at least I've never heard of one down here. The big risk is earthquakes, and if one comes we'll deal with it.

I feel small ones quite regularly, so hopefully that relieves enough pressure to avoid a big one. I've tried to train the family to get outside quick at the first sign of a quake, since they can start small and increase in intensity. Only myself and the youngest seem to get it. At least the other will have someone to dig them out of the rubble. 8)

Got one of these a while back (Coleman "packaway"), and it worked well during a short power outage. For size comparison it uses four AA batts, so its small when deployed, and when compessed for storage its very tiny. Uses LED's, so batts work a long time. It has a bright setting and also a low-light/long life setting (5 times longer that bright setting):

http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Expon...64089224&sr=8-1&keywords=4aa+coleman+packaway



I have a dozen different flashlights for different jobs. I have a four-"C" Maglight for hitting muggers with, and a 12V with a magnet for my car, etc.

At work I have two of these flashlights (I was so happy with the first, I bought a second one right away). It uses a single AA (so its the size of my thumb), has LED for long life. The clip allows it to be attached onto the brim of a ballcap or hardhat. Water-resistant on-off button on the heel covered by a rubber cap. Theres a dozen affordable Chinese copies to choose from.



Been reading a lot lately about generators. For ultra-cold locations, paying extra for a propane engine sounded wise, starts easy in sub-zero temps. The web shows how to convert a gasoline to DIY propane if thats desired.

For warmer climates, lots of guys over at otherpower.com like the $500 Lister engine (India copy of a 1930's British farm-engine?). Its a big slow one-cylinder diesel with a heavy flywheel. Once its started on diesel or bio-diesel, it will run fine on pure vegetable oil (restaurant waste) after the oil is thinned by a heat exchanger using the engines hot radiator coolant.

I have a brushless PM servo-motor from a large copier and instructions to make an AA-batt charger from a DIY windmill. I haven't done that yet, so I need to get into gear and get it running.

After I saw that the police were not responding for a week after Hurricane Andrew (and a week during the LA riots, when I lived there), I bought a .357, a 12-ga, and an SKS for the looters.

For a cheap tornado shelter, I just read about a guy who had a friend with a back-hoe dig the proper sized pit in his backyard, then he had a flatbed deliver a 20-foot section of 10-foot diameter steel culvert-tube. They just rolled the tube off into the hole. After capping one end and adding a door & stairs to the other end, they re-buried it.

Southern Utah had some health issues related to the atomic testing of decades past. A lot of my family came from that area.

Water and food are essential to store, of course, but also consider soap and cigarettes. If you have a huge supply of soap and cigarettes you'll be the richest guy around after the apocolypse.

Harbor Freight (Chinese products importer), is having a sale on their 45W 12V solar-PV panel. Get a magazine with their ad (Popular Mechanics, Hot Rod, etc) and cut out the coupon to save $40 for a final price of around $150. I got the $35 "in store" return warrantee. If it malfunctions in less than a year, I bring it back for a complete kit swap. The panels are shoulder-height, and I like that they fold up so I can easily carry them indoors at night.

I lived through the "brown outs" in California that got Schwartzenegger elected, I experienced a power outage for a few days in Utah when a lightning-started brushfire took out a transformer station. My son in Alabama had a two-week power outage when a tornado did damage nearby to him.

The panel will charge a 12V deep cycle battery (or lithium?), and that will charge my cell-phone, laptop, storm-radio, and rechargeable batteries for lanterns and flashlights...



http://www.harborfreight.com/Solar-...iMTQ5Ljk5IiwicHJvZHVjdF9p ZCI6Ijg1MjcifQ==

This is OT with respect to your battery question, but germane to disaster preparedness...

I picked up a SP181 Sawyer All-in-One Water Filter Kit a few months ago to have on hand. Figure the neighbors pond will carry us for quite a while. I got the kit at http://www.highwaterfilters.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=SP181+Sawyer+All-in-One+Water+Filter+Kit for $49

spinningmagnets said:

For warmer climates, lots of guys over at otherpower.com like the $500 Lister engine (India copy of a 1930's British farm-engine?). Its a big slow one-cylinder diesel with a heavy flywheel. Once its started on diesel or bio-diesel, it will run fine on pure vegetable oil (restaurant waste) after the oil is thinned by a heat exchanger using the engines hot radiator

Click to expand...

Do have a link for these engines? I'd like to check them out.

Thanks for the water-filter info, BigMoose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2NkcF2wV8&feature=player_embedded
[youtube]nQ2NkcF2wV8[/youtube]

If you are serious about buying one, look for "Lister Petter diesel", If you have a choice, I recommend the one-cylinder water-cooled one, because you can make a simple heat exchanger that allows you to warm up (and thin) the incoming fuel with the hot engine coolant. Once everything is warm, you can switch over to running pure, untreated, filtered, vegetable oil (not bio-diesel made from vegetable oil).

On the right is a small pulley at the end of the shaft, just a few inches to the left is a big and heavy iron foywheel, needed for a 4-stroke diesel to work. A 3-cylinder (or more) would be smoother, but also more expensive)

Here is a charger that can take inputs from 120V AC house current, or 12V DC car systems. Also can charge 18650's, and has data-readout on the mAh used to fill the charge up.

Soshine SC-S7, $15 on Ebay

http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review Charger Soshine SC-S7 UK.html

This is my favorite charger, a common 120VAC-to-12VDC adapter ($5) allows it to charge from my home, but if you only have a charger with 120VAC prongs, you cant charge it from your car/solar-PV + 12V battery.

Zeikos ZE-QC4000, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Zeikos-ZE-Q...68425?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item53f622e869

I bought a flashlight that holds a single 18650 cell, and I was very happy with the size and performance (good brightness and long run-time). Recently I saw a new model like it that has an integral charging control chip, and is fed by a standard mini-USB port. I bought one to sample and I ma so happy with it that I bought a handful for all my relatives. Now, I no longer have to remove the 18650 to charge it up.

The two things I most want in a disaster is a flashlight and my smart-phone. Both charge from 12V or 120V AC (with the respective adapter), and...chargers can be bought or borrowed almost anywhere. The model I bought also has a full-sized USB output to act as a power-bank, which means if the phones battery gets low, the flashlight can power it up.



Search ebay for "LED flashlight 18650 USB"

Yeah at this point in time a pile of charged 18650s seems like a pretty good backup plan. Maybe a few cell holders that you can wire together if you need say 12V for something. Low self discharge, good energy density and lots of useful things they can fit in, or at least connect to. The last couple of USB power banks I've bought have been 18650 based, one 6Ah and one 20Ah. Little cans everywhere.

Wow,.... I've seen no mention of refrigeration, it's one of my primary concerns as is water, warmth and dry comfort. And I suppose an operational radio has always been a necessity in the past, usually with a supply of basic alkaline cells too. Of course, modern living has seen some big changes since my younger years of country living.

Currently,... I live year around in a 34' motorhome. I'm usually the last to know that power is out in the neighborhood,... many of my systems are DC powered. But I have a standard household refrigerator that relies on AC power, and I really hate it. I have a small LED "night light" plugged into an outlet near the fridge that's on continually,... a visual indicator of present AC power necessary for my fridge. If it goes out, I find out why and immediately switch on my inverter backup.

There's a certain vulnerability with my lifestyle, and I've had my share of near misses from fallen trees and such. Heavy winds are akin to being on a boat or having a constant trembling earthquake under foot. Hailstorms have been pretty scary too. But being immediately mobile does have some advantages. Since this is my home,... it carries all I own and need. This includes 100gal of fuel, generator, 100lb of propane and one or two 20lb tanks as reserve, 100gal of drinking water, an assortment of batteries and chargers, AND refrigeration, AC if needed, warmth, and dry comfort. My "garage" also includes mechanic tools, power tools, assorted HD extension cords, and even a tig/arc welder. And of course having wheels, means I can relocate to better cover or protection if needed, or jus evacuate to a distant safer location.

Last winter found me in a giant shrink-wrapped tent, that covered my entire RV, during a season of winter storms in N Michigan. I stayed warm, dry and comfortable. But missed the sunny warmth of my usual winter location.

On more than a few occasions, I've supplied AC power to others when needed,... again, mostly for maintaining refrigeration and heat in their homes. I've considered updating my gen set to include 220V,... handy for heavier welding, and many folks often need 220V for their water supply, or well pumps. I also have a couple smaller inverters,... useful to folks who have used them for a few days with their auto batteries for home electronics during power outages. And several flashlights and a battery supply to share with others when needed.

While I'm now in N Michigan and not scheduled for my Emerald Coast return till late Oct,... I'm currently considering with others, a slight change in the next day or two. There may be a need to immediately assist some elderly and handicapped I know, that may quickly need some evacuation assistance for bit. May stock up a bit and head south in the next day or two,... still a contingency.

You'd think I'd be more reliant on newer battery and solar tech,..... perhaps I should considerate such a bit more.

Refrigeration is one of those things where I plan to just write-off anything that thaws out and I can't eat it fast enough. A useful addition in areas where power might be cut in a disaster is a propane barbecue and two full bottles. When flooding, cans of food can get wet on the outside, and as long as it doesn't rust through to the inside, the food is still safe to eat. I believe a top-lid chest freezer will keep frozen food safe the longest, since cold air will sink. Every time you open a cabinet-style kitchen freezer, the cold air drops out and warm room-air fills it.

I am reminded of the roadside café owner in New Orleans when Katrina hit. He thought he was evacuating soon enough, but the roads were crawling at a walking pace, and he knew that he would run out of gas getting to high-ground if he joined the shuffle.

The power had gone out, but...he had a propane grill. He went back and broke open the freezer, then opened his doors to provide free coffee, steaks, and soup to anyone who showed up, since the food would rot anyways. Even with many of the residents gone, there were still many rescue workers nearby who were searching homes for the elderly that were too frail to walk, and didn't have a car.

for your empee-free player (iffn yoos still gotzit.)
sum old skool sage advice yor grannie would want you to know.

As I have been getting back into the hobby of car camping, my disaster preparedness equipment has taken a serendipitous augmentation.

Living in a small apartment in coastal So. California, I do not have a glut of space to store items. So my items have to be of dual purpose to earn a place in my limited storage. Reusable items certainly move to the top.

The act of camping itself is a great first step to self sufficiency and preparedness. You really get a sense of what it will take for you to be safe and comfortable during tough times. Shelter, water, food, fire are the basics. But in our world today, you also need to add other things like power, tools, transport, communication, first-aid and defense.

As I have been building my arsenal, my bulk of lithium batteries needs to be incorporated into the plan. I am looking into getting a 24V inverter and running it off my 6S lipos in ammo cans. This would give me the benefit of AC power while camping AND in case of disaster.

In addition to that, I now have a 20 lb. tank of propane that I use to refill my green 1 lb. bottles that can run space heater, stove, BBQ, and lantern.

Walkie talkies on the FRS and GMRS bands have been recently added to the mix with NiMH batteries. I also have alkalines on hand for back up. I should look to add a couple solar panels for back up as well.

Reading this thread has added refrigeration to the list of things I would like to have. I doubt that I will be able to run the fridge, but it is packed to the top with ice packs instead of empty space. This allows it to be more efficient in regular use as well as being able to hold some cold capacity in the event of power loss. Lastly, those ice packs are very convenient when decide to lug the cooler along anywhere.

Perhaps too when thinking on this title matter, is a DIY battery heated clothing/blankets and make an option to have it run right off a generator so a 120Vac to Vdc converter.

My reply over in this thread:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=90436#p1318345
probably applies more here, so I've copied it below:

***********************************

I've not yet tested it with motors/freezer/etc, but I still have this inverter
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75149

and a reasonably-easy-to-reconfigure set of ebike batteries to supply the 12VDC it needs to operate.

Around here the power hasn't failed in years, and the worst it's been was maybe a couple hours (usually a few minutes). I think when I was in the apartment it was out for several hours, maybe overnight, because of a vehicle crash into a transformer or something a mile or two down the road (was quite a fireworks show, with fire, etc, as seen from the apartment). Something similar happened more than a couple of decades ago when I lived in a different house a few miles from here, though that was storm-caused, IIRC.


But at least I have it if I have to.

I also have a small deepfreeze, kept full of icepacks filling space between food, plus I have lots of styrofoam I can use to put under and around it should power fail, to keep it colder longer. The refrigerator only holds things defrosting for meals about to be made, and already-cooked things to be eaten for the week, plus again a lot of icepacks and water bottles to fill the airspace to keep it colder for longer, including the two cold-mats for the dog crate when taking them for trips.

I've also got a small solar water heater setup (not presently assembled), if it was long enough outage to need that, too.

I have a few small propane-torch canisters with a little gas in them if I *had* to use fire to cook with.

Only solar I have is three 1-foot-square panels made sometime in the 1970s or '80s, most likely. But I could use them to charge cells slowly if I had to.