Texas got hit with a polar vortex, plunging this southern state into a winter nightmare. Hundreds of thousands were affected, and most were unprepared. Here are the key lessons we can learn from the lone star state.
Food Storage
People are running out of food and they aren’t able to buy more, either because they don’t have cash on hand, or the stores are out of food. It’s not hard to start a food storage. You can get 1 months worth of food for less than $100, and I wrote about how to do it HERE.
Many people are daunted by the idea of starting their food storage. You can get about 1 month of food and some water storage for less than $100. It’s really easy, and the peace of mind it gives you is incredible… READ MORE
Cash Emergency Fund
You need more cash on hand than you think. I saw one person posting that stores were only taking cash. If the grid is down, their card system won’t work. You’ll need a cash emergency fund for this. If all your emergency fund is in an account, you’re hoping stores will take your IOU, or you’re not buying anything. In our digital age, banks and ATMs require electricity as well. If you don’t have cash, you’re out of luck. We have a 3 month emergency fund in cash, 3 month emergency fund in the bank, and the remainder of our emergency fund invested in easy to liquidate bonds in our Robin Hood investment account- low risk, but some ROI, and it can be pulled out in 7 days. However you decide to apportion yours, you NEED cash on hand.
Insulation
A person with a 100 year old home posted in a Facebook group about how cold they were because of the poor insulation. Invest in insulation. Get energy efficient windows. You can generally get insulation blown into your walls if you don’t have it there for relatively inexpensive and not very invasive. Prepare now. Another really simple thing you can and should do regularly is to check the weather stripping around your doors. It’s a good idea both from a maintenance and survival standpoint to keep extra weather stripping on hand.
If you’re in the moment, and you lose your heat, insulation is still going to be your friend. Your windows are one of the hardest areas to insulate and should be your main focus. Get a window shrink wrap kit. One article claimed that it cut their heating bill by 80%. Everyone in Texas without heat is wishing they had this. The kit is small, light, and cheap. If you don’t want it up all year long, or if you live in a place where it is rarely necessary (like Texas), its easy to put into storage as a just-in-case item.
Another option you can do is to make sure every window in your house has curtains. Good curtains retain heat much better than blinds do (though you can do both for added insulation). The more air pockets you’ve got between you and the outside, the more insulation you’ve got and the warmer you’ll be. If it got really cold, I would shrink wrap my windows, close the blinds, then I would hang a blanket or sheet over it as well, then I would pull the curtains over all of that. We actually did this to our theater room in our house to block out light and sound. We noticed the insulation efficiency in our utility bill the next month.
Electricity
I prep for both comfort and survival. I have plans for how I would live with absolutely no electricity, from tools to cooking. I’m ready. I thoroughly enjoy having electricity though. I like lights, music, and other visual media. Electricity may be necessary for life for some people on life saving equipment. Because of this, I have several plans for keeping myself in power. The easiest is, with the use of an inverter, you can turn your car into a generator. Your car can idle for a long time, providing you a lot of electricity.
On that note, we recommend that you have deep cycle batteries. The same inverter that you use to generate power from your car can be used to give you power from deep cycle batteries. Have these charging when your generator runs, or when you get power back on. Also, if you plan on using solar or wind- the energy generated from that is usually stored in deep cycle batteries.
I have a couple deep cycle batteries that I keep on a trickle charger at all times. My trickle charger can sense if the battery is low. If this is the case it gives it full juice. If the battery is full, it works as a batter tender which extends the life of my battery. I did research on energy usage and running it in tender mode uses an extremely small amount of electricity per month (it was less than 5 cents). Having a backup energy source is extremely handy. Deep cycle batteries are also great for camping, boating, or other recreational activities because they can provide sustained energy for a good amount of time.
Gas Shortages
Don’t run your generator all the time. If gas is in a shortage, and its cold outside, you don’t want to run out of gas. You’ll need to assess your situation and do what is necessary. This may mean making uncomfortable decisions, like turning the generator or lights off at 8, or turning it on only when the heat drops below 55 degrees, or whatever your situation requires.
Have some gas in storage. Cycle it out regularly. Gas is used in transportation and for running a generator. Ration your gas like you’ll need it to last twice as long as you think you’ll need it. You may need to reassess and adjust your use as you get more information. How much gas you should have on hand depends on your needs and on your space. The picture below is what one prepper has on hand.
Additional Heat Sources
Before I get into other heat sources, all of these options have an increased liklihood of carbon monoxide poisoning. Get a carbon monoxide detector. Have a carbon monoxide detector with a battery back up. The model below has a 10 year battery and runs independent of your electrical grid.
A Propane Heater
We strongly recommend that you get a propane heater. We love the Mr Buddy heater. Its a great option for if the power goes out, and has built in safety features. Its also great for camping and ice fishing. It runs on the small propane bottles, but you can use an adapter to connect it to a large propane tank if you want.
A Wood Burning Stove
If you don’t have a big cast iron stove already installed in your house, I’d go for a smaller one. I like the compact camping versions. It’s good in a bug out situation as well and its easier to store, which is key if you don’t live in a place where you’ll use it very often. Unless you have one built into your home, or even if you do, this is a good secondary option. You’ll also need a good wood pile. Be sure to run the chimney out the window and to place it on a hard surface that won’t burn or melt, like tile or cement.
You also have the added benefit that you can cook on top of a wood burnign stove, which is nice. On that note, you should Get a gas stove if you can. Electric ovens and stoves use a ton of electricity, and that’ll eat up a lot of your generator output. Gas is generally less likely to go out than electricity. On top of this, you can light all your burners and turn on your oven and have another heat source.
A Camp Stove
If your electric stove won’t start, having a camp stove is nice. Plus, like a natural gas kitchen stove, it’s another heat source in a pinch. Having hot food or a hot drink when you’re cold is a game changer. These run on propane. We love both the small Coleman stoves, and these larger double burners as well.
Survival Candles
Most think of candles for either light or scents, but candles, because of their flame, can also be a source of heat. It doesn’t put off a lot of heat, but people in Texas have been using candles for cooking food, and huddle around them for heat. This candle has 3 wicks, so 3x the heat, and it also lasts for 36 hours
Don’t Let your Pipes Freeze
If the temperature drops, and you lose heating, your pipes are at risk of freezing. If it doesn’t happen often where you live, its something you may not realize, and you may want to warn your neighbors in this situation. This can be prevented by dripping your pipes and flushing your toilet periodically. If you are dripping your pipes, save that water, even if you don’t live in a desert like I do. We recommend filling up bottles and filling up your tub. If its extremely cold, you can fill buckets and freeze those. You can then make an igloo with the ice blocks and use that as extra insulation and make a wall around the exterior of your house. If igloos didn’t provide insulation or warmth, eskimos would stop making them.
Because Texas had so many people dripping their pipes, a lot of water was being used- more than their infrastructure was prepared for, and they had to ask people to stop dripping their pipes to make sure people had water to drink. At this point, people without heat should have turned off the water at the main to keep their pipes from breaking. You should know where your water main shutoff is. After you shut it off, insulate it to the best of your ability. You can actually buy pipe insulation as well which will help mitigate freezing.
#TexasStrong
For those still recovering in Texas, we pray for you. We don’t envy you, but we have seen your ingenuity and we appreciate the lessons you have taught the rest of us. One of the important lessons we have learned from the storm in Texas is determination and grit. That sort of tenacity is exactly what you need to get through a situation like the Texas polar vortex.
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It wasn’t pleasant to get hit with bird shot, but I was wearing my old Carhartt and I didn’t have welts, and the coat didn’t take any damage. Everyone else had welts from the incident. I had that same coat for 10 years before… READ MORE
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