RVing and Severe Weather - Are You Really Prepared?

[JudyJB]

Karen's hotel story reminded me of something that happened to me about a dozen years ago. I was at a meeting with a group of about 40 other people, staying at a very expensive hotel in Philadelphia, right on the river. My room was at about the 8th floor, but our association president was "lucky" to get a room on one of the highest floors. Anyway, as we checked in, we were all given a sheet of paper explaining that they were going to do maintenance for a couple of hours of their electrical system, so it would be turned off at 11:00 pm and back on at 1:00 am or earlier. Not a problem since we figured we would all be in bed by then since we were having a very long day.

So, after dinner, we got back and went up to our rooms. I got undressed and hit the shower so I could crawl into bed early. Unfortunately, they decided to shut the power off early, at just after 9:00 pm, so in the middle of my shower, it became pitch black! I managed to rinse off and turn the shower off. Luckily, I had left my drapes open so the lights of the city helped me find things and get into bed. However, our president, had chatted in the lobby with a couple of others and found the lights out. There was emergency power in the stairwells and hallways, so she ended up climbing up something like 25 flights of stairs to get to her room on the executive level!! The next day, they apologized and said they would be turning the lights off again, but this time at midnight. I went out and bought two flashlights and a candle in a jar that would not tip over. I also got matches from the hotel.

I also was at the Disney Contemporary Hotel in about 1990 and the power went out not only in the hotel, but at the entire Magic Kingdom. My mother, niece and nephew, and a young second cousin were in the room when I went out for groceries. I came back and had to carry stuff up four flights of stairs, but at least they had good emergency power.

I used to do a lot of traveling for work, but after my two experiences, I never went anywhere without a couple of small flashlights and candles in my suitcase! It also does not hurt to keep a very small flashlight in your purse and a couple in your car.

[snowball]

I remember when DH and I would travel wondering about the counties as well.... today there was a
tornado warning even here in Idaho but I know what county I am in and generally have a good idea where the counties were that had the warnings..
there is an app for everything wonder if there is one telling you what county you are in???
sheila

[JudyJB]

I was just talking to a lady here in Napa, CA, about keeping a couple of hundred dollars of cash in case of a tornado or hurricane. She was here in Napa in 2014 during the earthquake that damaged a lot of buildings in downtown.

She mentioned that you should NOT just keep a stack of $50s or $20a, but should stash away a lot of smaller bills, such as $1s and $5s. She said she went to a local store during the power outage and most people could not buy anything because they had only big bills and the store had run out of cash.

She said she had several hundred dollars in small bills that she had saved by periodically tossing whatever small bills she had into a drawer. She ended up selling her small bills to the store owner so he could give change to people buying things.

[Bethers]

Because I stay at a lot of NFS, city, etc cg's I learned I needed exact change for campsites to put in envelopes. So I've always carried a stash, not gigantic, of ones and fives. I never thought about how they could have worth in emergency times, but that makes sense.

[BarbaraRose]

If you plan to travel thru the midwest, get a NOAA weather radio. The Nat'l Weather Service comes on when there are watches and warnings in your area and not only tells you the counties affected but also the towns and cities in the path of the storm and when to expect the storm to hit those areas. I had one in MN and it was awesome! They only cost about $20 to $30.

[Shirlv]

Scary Anne, be safe

[JudyJB]

Several of you have been talking about getting a new backpack and turning it into a Go-bag in case of an emergency. I think that is an excellent idea, and I am going to do that as well. But what to put in it?

-- My passport and some money, some blank checks, extra credit card
-- Computer backup in a portable hard drive
-- A full weekly pill case, plus some things like eyedrops, baby powder, that I do not consider daily pills. Aleve, aspirin, etc.
-- A nightgown and change of clothing
-- Maybe an old sweatshirt?
-- Space blanket
-- Small first aid kit and stretch bandage wrap
-- Couple bottles of water
-- Protein bars and PB crackers
-- Packet of wipes
-- an extra cell phone charger
-- A couple of pieces of jewelry I carry with me that are meaningful.

??? Any other suggestions?

[JudyJB]

Just found this interesting article in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... tools.html.

I finally added a space blanket and some garbage bags to my shopping list.