This is my reply to a thread on Facebook from a ward member. Her friends in Utah wanted to know how we here in Arkansas were faring and what we would do differently.
There are some things I would do differently. We had lots of drinking water and washing/flushing water. We knew it was coming and filled up the bathtubs with water to flush and wash. We conserved all we could flushing the toilets once or twice a day, gross, I know....and using wet wipes for hand washing when we could.
We have two kerosene lanterns we bought about ten years ago and never really needed to use, but, I'm not one to tempt fate and we kept them in a convenient easily accessible place. I would have another one or two of those, plus at least 5 gal extra oil, we only had two, but had we been without power as long as they were predicting(6-8 weeks), we may have needed more than that. We had wind-up flashlights-great for the kids- and some battery powered ones as well. We have a battery powered radio, also. I will be getting extra batteries for flashlights and radio usage.
We have a gas grill with a side burner. That came in handy for cooking the food. We didn't want for food or warmth, as we have wood heat. We also have a generator, if you don't have one, I suggest looking around and trying to find one. You never know when disaster will strike and having one to run the necessities eased some of the tension.
We were without a generator for 6 of the 8 days. We will make sure it is in running condition at all times now! When we did use it, we only used it to run the well pump, hot water heater, fridge, dining light, and bis(our wood stove) fan.
I found that having scented candles to burn in the bathrooms very nice, as the smell could have been pretty bad-never got too bad, but could have! I also had a candle for each bedroom, just enough light to keep from bumping into things. I used 100 hour candles we had purchased years ago and there again, never really used.....
We packed our food in the ice readily available outside and kept moving it to keep it in the coolest place. When the weather got warm on day 3, we packed all the food in the freezer with as much ice as we could fit in there. If this had happened in the summer, we would have lost almost all our food without the use of a generator to keep the fridge going, as I don't think you would be able to buy ice anywhere. We would have cooked it up as we could and shared with neighbors. We would have lived more on our food storage of grains, dehydrated, and canned goods. I'm thankful that we have a couple months worth of that kind of thing. We'll definitely be getting more of that, a years supply is what we've been counseled to have.
It was nice to have a good number of card games and board games for the kids. They thought it was a really fun adventure going with out power. Books, books, books, I read a lot of books. It was like having FHE every day all day. When the weather got warm around day three, we spent a lot of time outside cleaning up and just working off energy. We will probably be having practice times periodically on purpose, just to keep it fresh in our minds so we don't get complacent and forget that trials are good for us!!
The kids learned how to brush their teeth using a glass of water, and flush the toilet with about a gallon of water. They also realized they could do without the TV and computer. We read by flashlight and lantern light. I even used my cap light, the kind that clips to the bill of a baseball cap, to read books to the kids after dark. We all went to bed earlier than normal, which did mean 4 am wakings from the younger kids. Loads of fun!
So that is about the extent of my list and thoughts on the subject. Questions are welcome if you want to know how we weathered in any certain area. I can't think of everything we did at this moment.
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