If you were able to stay at your location during an emergency, the thing to have prepared for is sustainability. The basics will have to be covered for an indefinite time. For a short-term duration, a generator might be useful for running small items. Remember that motors in things like a washing machine or well pump will require three times the juice to start up than to run. Some washers cycle back and forth all the time. You could still run things like a microwave, TV, radio, VCR, etc. Diesel will last longer than gas. With a gas conditioner, gas might last two years. It should be used before it expires so you don’t have to dispose of it as toxic waste.
A battery bank and inverter might be a good option for low power items. You can still get information from radio and TV.
Do you have septic, or are you on city sewage that will be backed up? Do you have a well, or are you on city water that will not be there? Will your pipes freeze? Can you heat and cook without electric? Can you live without a refrigerator?
Just how good is your insulation? Do you have to leave home to go to a shelter because you don’t have non-electric heat? You might want to move into a more central room to minimize heating needs. That would leave heating the water serviced rooms like bath and kitchen. Pipes underground might not freeze, but the ones above ground could. Can you run a dribble of water to prevent that? Your drain pipe can be cold enough to cause the dribbles of water to freeze in it and back your drain up. You might move plants and such into the main room and set up a cot or air mattress, or drag your mattress in there for the duration.
Let’s look at the basics.
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It may be surprising how fragile your infrastructure is when the lights go out. Probably nothing you won’t survive, but it’s easier to take some common sense steps now to make it insignificant.
