Prepping 101
A guide to preparing your household for wild weather and extended power outage.
Welcome to Apple & Radish Chronicles: Where Handmade Meets Homegrown. 🌷🌈Creating comfort, joy and meaning with simple, sustainable projects - sent to your inbox weekly - with fun tutorials, recipes and classes! Think of this as your ultimate cottage core homesteading guide - but with a little more spice. 💐 🌼
“Would you rather I stayed home?” I asked my husband the day before I was due to leave for Tasmania for a 6 day girls trip with my oldest friend.
Cyclone Alfred was approaching and about to hit our town. A category two cyclone crossing the coast just east of us was forecast to do some serious damage. Gale force winds, tall trees and houses are not an ideal combination. 😬
While supermarket shelves were being stripped bare we were as ready as we could be. A few last minute tasks - moving the outdoor furniture, a quick yard tidy, a small shop, fill a few extra water containers were all done - and there was nothing more to do.
Ian didn’t hesitate. “No you go. We’ll be fine.”
I went and I’m so glad I did. Had the best time eating fresh oysters and paddling in rockpools on the north east coast of Tassie while texting every hour to check on the family at home.
Alfred took his time and when he finally arrived was quickly downgraded to a tropical low so damage was not as bad as it could have been. One tree came down and narrowly missed our house and we’ve just gotten our power back on after an 8 day outage, but otherwise all is well with us.
I arrived home after all the excitement but in the middle of the power outage. But no biggie.
An 8 day power outage is not the longest we’ve ever experienced. Christmas 2023 brought a tornado and torrential rain accompanied by a 14 day outage. We’re kinda used to it.
In fact I will go so far as to say I enjoy the simplicity of life during a power outage. Don’t hate me but there’s a part of me that feels disappointed when the power finally comes back on.
That’s because we’re prepared for these kinds of situations.
There’s no use pretending it’s crazy to be prepared. Once upon a time anyone talking about prepping was considered slightly unhinged, a conspiracy theorist loony tune. I’ll never understand why. What could be more sane than thinking through and actively taking steps to prepare your home and family for hard times? Not in a fearful frenzied or doom and gloom way but with a calm, methodical, no nonsense approach that gives you and your loved ones the best chance to thrive under difficult circumstances.
These kind of situations will keep happening and they may not be so gentle next time.
Of course, preparedness can’t guarantee your home won’t be carried off by a flood or prevent a fire from destroying everything. The worst can always happen. But even in worst case scenarios a level of preparedness will provide some resilience in the face of dire situations.
Ninety-nine percent of the time we won’t be facing worst case scenarios. Most of the time it will be simply difficult situations that with a bit of pre-planning and preparedness will make the difference between a high stress event and a mere inconvenience.
A few friends have asked me to tell them how we go about this whole idea of preparedness so I thought it might be helpful to outline my general approach here.
Preparedness is a big topic. True preparedness is not just about having extra food in your home. There are a lot of factors and systems to consider in a big weather or disaster situation such as water, power, heating, hygiene, lighting, communications, cooking, refrigeration, evacuation scenarios and of course food supply.
How will you manage each of these when the grid’s down? What’s your backup plan when the power is out, roads are cut or the weather is raging?
Preparedness is something that is thought about and built over time.
It’s not a matter of filling two supermarket trolleys with supplies when the skies darken and that’s that. That may get you through the first few days or week or two, and it’s certainly better than nothing, but if that’s the extent of your preparedness plan you’re in for an uncomfortable time. And if you’re doing that along with the rest of the panicking population, may the force be with you!
I won’t be addressing all aspects of preparedness in detail here as that is way too much to unravel in one sitting. This is more of a general overview to hopefully help get you thinking and moving along the path to a more fortified, resilient home.
It may feel overwhelming but none of this is rocket science. It’s all really common sense. It’s also not all about having expensive gear or gadgets. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Most of preparedness is simply making a plan and getting organised. Do what you can - a little bit often is the best approach to better prepare yourself, your family, your pets and your home.
1. First Thing: Prepare NOW When Times are Good.
Don’t wait until an emergency is bearing down on you to prepare. Get yourself sorted now when the skies are blue and life is easy. Make a plan and work towards it when you’re not stressed or rushed. You don’t have to do everything all at once. It’s too late once an emergency is happening. During an emergency is not the time to prepare. But that is what most people seem to do. Hence the frenzied shopping. Start today and keep working on your preparedness systems over time. Then you may not even need to go near a supermarket when the crisis hits because you’ll already have what you need.
2. Write Down Your Plans.
I suggest you create a Preparedness Notebook or folder and write down your plans and ideas as you go. You could also store important information such as insurance details, copies of ID documents and other information you may not be able to access online if power or internet goes out.
ACTION: Get a physical notebook or folder to keep your preparedness notes. Remember in a power outage you may not be able to access information online or stored on your device if it runs out of charge.
3. What are Your Most Likely Emergencies?
Think about the situations you are most likely to face in your area or home that would require your prepared systems?
For example, we commonly experience fierce storms and there is the potential for bushfire. Our home is very unlikely to be flooded because we’re almost on the highest point of the mountain but roads off the mountain could be closed due to flooding, restricting our ability to get supplies. We need to think about those scenarios particularly when setting up our preparedness systems. For example we have an evacuation plan but that is our absolute last resort.
You may live somewhere very flood prone or in an earthquake zone. So your systems may look different to mine. Evacuation may be your plan A. Or if flooding is likely, you may need a plan to lift anything important to higher ground or an upper storey of your home. Or a more secure room in the case of earthquake.
This is not to scare you. Just thinking these things through while you’re calm is much better than trying to make a decision and get your family to safety in the middle of a frightening or chaotic event.
Other situations to include here might not be weather related, but life related, such as a death in the family, illness, job loss, unexpected visitors or car breakdown. These can also come out of the blue and throw life into chaos. A little preparedness can go a long way to smoothing out the stress of these events.
ACTION: Write down the most likely disaster scenarios - weather or life related - you could likely face in your home/neighbourhood and a few ideas about what you might need to have or do in those situations.
4. The Three Most Important Preps!
These three things make the biggest difference in how well you cope in an emergency even if you have no other preparedness system in place. And those things are your health, your finances and your community.
Work on improving these areas as a priority. Reduce your debt, build an emergency fund, look after your physical and mental health and work on your relationships to build a strong, connected community around you. These are probably the most difficult of all but will see you through hard times better than anything else.
ACTION: Write down one thing you can focus on to improve your health (you know what you need to do), plus one realistic goal to improve your finances (eg. pay off credit card by end of 2025, get ahead on mortgage or rent payments or save emergency fund of $** by __/__/__). Also write down at least 3 friends, neighbours or family members (and their phone numbers!) you could call on in an emergency.
5. Build a Two Week Household Supply.
Building in resiliency in your household supplies can be done over time. The first step is to build a two week supply of everything you use. This includes food items, pet food, laundry and dish detergent, toothpaste, dental floss, body products, household items like toilet paper, paper towel etc. Most emergency situations will not last more than two weeks. So having this step completed will see you through most scenarios. But you can build on this if you wish once you have this set up.
The easiest way to do this is when you go shopping, buy an extra item or two of the things you already buy. Over time you’ll build your two week supply without a big shock to your budget or storage capabilities. Of course, you can go out and buy everything all at once if you’re in a position to do so.
ACTION: Write a list of all the things you use in your home and how many of each you’ll need for a two week supply. Gather that supply over time or all at once. Keep your supply topped up so you always have a two week buffer.
Consider adding extra shelf stable foods if you don’t have a means to power your fridge or freezer during an extended power outage.
6. Think About Water!
We have our own tank water, not town water. You may rely on town water supplied by the city by mains to your home. Both have good news and bad news in disaster situations.
Good news: We have a good supply of water that we control and that we can usually access however it’s run by a pump that requires power. Bad news: No power means no running water for us. We have to plan for that.
If you are on town water, the good news is you’ll usually still have running water even in a power outage. But not always! Bad news: If the town water supply is contaminated you may not be able to drink it. You may also lose running water during a power outage.
My parents recently lost water to their home during Cyclone Alfred even though they are in an area with town water and their road was blocked by fallen trees so they couldn’t get to the shops to buy any and when they could get to the shops there was none on the shelves anyway! Luckily they had drinking water stored and they bucketed water from their pool to flush the toilet so they were ok.
I make it a habit to always have my kettle filled with water and we have a gravity fed ceramic water filter on the bench that is kept filled plus a spare jug of water next to it. Too many times when the kids were small the power went out suddenly and I found myself without a drop of water to even wash my hands.
Moral of the Story: It’s a very good idea to have water stored for emergencies, no matter your situation. The rule of thumb is 5 litres per person per day. But in reality this is not very much water for drinking and hygiene including dish washing etc. Try to store more if you can.
ACTION: If a wild weather event is approaching or a power outage is likely, fill your bath tub with water. You can boil this to drink or use a bucket to flush the toilet if your water supply fails.
Gather a supply of drinkable water or at least large containers to fill in an emergency. Keep your kettle filled with water at all times so you’re not caught out with no water.
7. Keep Your Car Fueled Up
Keeping your car with plenty of fuel in the tank can make the difference between life and death in an emergency evacuation. Our town has one fuel station and during both long power outages it was either closed, operated on cash only or ran out of fuel. This would be a big problem for us if we didn’t keep our car full of fuel (plus extra fuel stored at home and cash on hand) as the nearest station is a long drive off the mountain on roads which could be blocked by trees or flooding.
ACTION: Make the half way mark on your fuel gauge your new ‘empty’. Fill your car with fuel whenever it gets half empty, don’t let it go below that and you’ll never be running on empty in an emergency.
Advanced Prep: Keep extra fuel stored in jerry cans at home too.
My son complained he didn’t have the money to keep his car fueled up. I told him that whenever he got paid (from his part time job) to fill his car up before he spent on anything else. He’s done that ever since.
8. Keep Some Cash for Emergencies
There was no power or internet for days up here. All shops were shut and the fuel station could only accept cash. This was a big problem for those who had no cash and needed fuel to get off the mountain for supplies.
ACTION: Keep some cash on hand just for emergencies. Only you can decide how much is right for you. $50, $100, $300 or $1000 whatever you can afford and you feel comfortable with. You could save this up over time too.
9. Heating and Cooling
We live in a mild climate. The temperature gets cool in winter but not life threateningly low. It does get hot and muggy in summer when the storms and power outages are likely. We don’t have air conditioning at home anyway so it’s no different for us. But if you live somewhere hot that requires aircon have a think about how you would manage with no power. Draw the blinds, wet compress around your neck, hand fan etc. If you live somewhere very cold a wood burner or wood cooker is your best bet to stay warm.
ACTION: Make a plan for how you’ll stay cool or warm during an extended power outage.
10. Backup Power Supply: Using a Generator
We have a generator to run our fridges, water pump and a couple of lights during a power outage. This makes all the difference to our quality of life. But generators can be noisy and dangerous. Never run a generator inside your home as they emit dangerous gasses. They have different strengths and you get what you pay for in quality. Not all generators are created equal. Make sure you learn how to operate your generator safely. Turn it off at night time to give it a break. If the noise bothers you (it does me) run it for an hour or two several times a day instead of constantly. While it’s running, fill your water containers, charge your devices and have a shower or whatever you need to do that requires power. Don’t open your fridge or freezer while they are not running or you’ll let out all the cold.
We also have a portable power station also known as a battery block that can be charged with its own solar panel or by generator. We use this to charge all our devices, laptops and camping lights. This is a pricey item (ours cost around $3000) but has been totally worth it as once charged, runs independently of the generator.
ACTION: Consider getting yourself a good generator and/or a solar powered battery block. Remember to store extra fuel to run the generator.
11. Lighting
Lighting can be provided by candles, kerosene lanterns, torches, solar powered fairy lights and led camping lights. We have several camping led lanterns which are great as they last a long time when charged up, are safe and can be easily moved around our home. Ian loves collecting torches and lights so we have plenty!
ACTION: Collect some candles (plus matches!) or led lanterns and keep them in an easily accessible place.
12. Cooking and Boiling Water
How will you heat or cook food during a power outage? Some options are a gas cooktop, BBQ, portable gas camping cooker, woodstove or outdoor fire. We have a gas cooktop and we keep our gas bottles topped up at all times. We use this to boil water and cook all our food. Our oven is electric so we can’t use that in a power outage but my plan is to replace our old wood burner in time with one with an inbuilt oven so we’ll be able to cook in that too.
ACTION: Make a plan for heating water and cooking food in a power outage. If you have nothing else get yourself an inexpensive portable gas cooker. I saw some at Bunnings for $26 the other day.
13. Plan for Your Pets
Your pets need an emergency plan too. Do you have enough shelf stable food for them in a power outage? Are you ready to take them if you need to evacuate? Cages, leashes, toys in one place? What about your chickens or farm animals?
In the recent storm I saw many people moving their chickens indoors in cages or in the laundry. We have 13 chickens and a small house so that was not an option for us. Before I left for my holiday I laid down extra straw in their cage to absorb the rain I knew was coming and secured the doors with heavy rocks so they wouldn’t fly open. They were safe and snug and survived the wind and rain like champions.
ACTION: Create an evacuation bag for your pets with their food, toys and cages in one place for easy grabbing. Have extra shelf stable food and bedding on hand.
Other Things I Did To Help My Family Prepare for the Cyclone
I made a pile of old towels and blankets ready for them to grab as I knew there’d be a LOT of rain. Some would potentially come through door and window cracks with the cyclonic wind. Also to help with the inevitable wet and muddy floors. They said having that pile of towels helped a lot.
I advised them to keep the dishes under control and the house as clean and tidy as possible. They did it too! Maintaining as much order and normalcy as possible helps reduce frayed nerves and keeps things running smoothly.
I told them to keep their phones and devices charged. Just in case the generator fails or you need to make an emergency evacuation, you don’t want a dead phone in a crisis!
Fill an insulated drink dispenser with warm water and placed next to the sink for power free hot ‘running’ water. Great for hand washing and dish rinsing.
I kept their spirits up by sending them lots of pictures of me drinking champagne and enjoying a floating sauna on a lake. I think it worked. 😁
The Floating Sauna at Derby Tasmania is not to be missed! A magical experience.
Thanks for being here! If you enjoy the Apple & Radish Chronicles I would so love it if you could click the heart at the top or bottom of this post or leave a comment or forward to a friend (or all three!😍 ). Doing any of those things helps my newsletter get found by more people. Thanks so much for your support!
xxx Katrina