The Power Goes Out And You Would Think Hell Froze Over…

Just yesterday we had another power outage. There’s just something about rain, winds, tall trees, and above-ground power lines that don’t mix. 😉 Granted, power outages are relatively common where we live and though it only lasted for a handful of hours, I swear my family freaks out every time.

My kids, of course, have no access to the internet, video games, or YouTube and now they have nothing to do and their life is boring. Have you heard of reading a book? Playing with your brother or your pets? How about playing outside? In fact, the weather actually cleared up and was fairly nice out by the time I suggested that one. I even suggested they do some schooling for the next day (like reading a book) and that it would count towards their schooling time for tomorrow which meant they would get done sooner… that fell on deaf ears.

My wife decided we couldn’t cook tacos and quickly suggested we go out to eat. “Uh, hello! I am PREPARED for this!” I told here. “We can cook our dinner tonight without trouble; it’s just a matter of getting the stoves out.” That fell on deaf ears as well. Fortunately, she didn’t worry about the food in our fridge and freezer going bad like usual… I think I’ve finally got her convinced I can deal with that too if need be. Regardless, it didn’t take much convincing for me to go out to eat as we rarely do so and it sounded like fun. What a mistake.

We wrongly assumed that the power outage was just our neighborhood and surrounding homes. As it turns out, many thousands of folks were without power (much of the peninsula, it seems) and to make matters worse, we went out during rush hour traffic and since none of the stoplights worked, you can guess that it was bumper-to-bumper.

At each turn we made–now attempting to get home after just venturing out–it was a mess. A trip that should have taken us at most ten minutes just to get back home took nearly an hour. Fortunately, my wife does occasionally listen to me and filled up the gas tank earlier so there was no concern of running out of gas. Later that day my niece (who lives with us) called nearly in a panic because she’d spent hours in traffic trying to get home. Yeah, it sucks, I know. At least she didn’t run out of gas either.

While driving around I noticed people becoming impatient, speeding where they could, making illegal u-turns, driving on shoulders where they shouldn’t. I’m not tossing out blame and I can understand their impatience but I couldn’t help but imagine the same scenario where people were trying to bug out for whatever reason and quickly getting nowhere fast. There was literally nowhere to go! Of course, if this were a mass exodus things would have been far more chaotic with folks attempting passage in any way they could making things even worse… the place would have turned into a virtual parking lot in mere minutes.

Sadly, we live in a VERY bad place if we ever really had to bug out. Living on a peninsula has it benefits but easy routes out are not one of them. As such, I’m far more ready and interested in bugging in… that’s my plan for 90% of the disasters I can envision. Bugging out, however, would be a mess. The only solution I see is to simply get out before the vast majority of folks realize what’s going on. That’s it. Well, for somebody who doesn’t boat, anyway.

This is why it’s so critical to be ready and able to go at a moment’s notice!

While everyone else is fumbling around looking for their suitcase and child’s teddy bear, you should have your family already in the car with your gear and on the road in minutes. I’m ready to do that if I had to but it certainly wouldn’t be fun. My suggestions to help you get this done include:

1. Have bug out bags ready to go. This may seem obvious but if you don’t yet have something put together, get them together now. Keeping them in the car works too. That’s what we do and I never have to worry about grabbing them.
2. Have a disaster plan ready. That is, actually put down in writing what it is you plan on doing if “such and such” happens. Your pans may change at a moment’s notice but at least you have a place to start and, more importantly, you’re thinking about it.
3. Plan out routes and alternate routes and alternates for your alternate routes. I usually suggest having at least two separate routes in each cardinal direction (if possible) but now I’m thinking you should really look for those oddball routes, the less traveled roads, even roads that may not be allowed to the public, and so on. If they’re hard for you to find they’ll be hard for most others too.
4. Keep the vehicles at least half-filled with gas. You’re simply not going to get anywhere if the cars don’t have gas. It’s a pain, I know, but doing so could save your life one day. Get it in your mind: half-full is now the empty mark.
5. Have gas cans filled and easy to grab as part of your bug out strategy. Again, you never know how much gas your car will actually have when needed or how much distance or idling you’ll be doing during an actual bug out. A trip that may have taken 50 miles during a normal trip, for example, may take the equivalent of 200 miles after you’re all said and done. Plus, you never know if you’re going to get stranded and need to idle to keep warm (or cool). Extra gas is a must for any bug out plan.
6. Talk about your plans with the family regularly and ensure they know what to do. It’s one thing for YOU to know your plans backwards and forwards but something much more to ensure your spouse and kids do too. At least ensure they’ve heard what you expect of them once or twice a year… maybe when you change the batteries in your smoke alarms.
7. Practice your plans. This is something I haven’t been very good at. Most of the time I just assume my family has heard me tell them what they should do at some point in the past and that they understand what to do but that’s a big assumption on my part and likely a wrong one. Seems I need to schedule some disaster planning time real soon and, oddly, I’m probably the only one who will get excited about it too. 🙂

Ultimately, it really is about acting (and being able to do so) before others realize they need to act as well. If this were a real bug out and we’d waited hours to get on the road we would have been screwed.

Of course, I’d like to think I wouldn’t have waited hours and that I would have recognized the need to bug out but who knows? What I do know is that I can give myself the best shot to be as ready as I can be at all times by taking action now… and so can you. Please, take action now.