Disaster Plreparedness

[Marilyn R]

I live in the deep south and it's hurricane season.

What would you stock up on to ride out the aftermath of a storm or disaster? I went through 11 days without electricity 8 years ago, all of the grocery stores, restaurants and gas stations were closed. (They didn't have power.) I wasn't gluten-free then, but I had a gas grill with a side burner and we cooked up everything I had in my kitchen cupboards, plus everything I had in the refrigerator and freezer.

I knew the hurricanes were coming and froze blocks of ice. They last 3-4 days at the most. Without refrigeration or ice, everything becomes more challenging.

So do you have any hints for gluten-free Disaster Preparedness?

[FooGirlsMom]

Hi there,

We're done some disaster preparedness also. We started it about 5 years ago and of course we bought...get this...buckets of wheat! AHHH. And now we know that me and our 2 kids have to be gluten free. Oh well. They are there for somebody, along with all those soups etc.

There are some things you can stock up on, even gluten free. I highly recommend you purchase Ener-g bread. It's a rice/tapioca loaf (there are varying types) that will keep a year, shelf-stable in it's packaging. We buy ours in bulk from Vitacost online.

You can also stock up on canned foods -- meats, fruits, vegetables, etc. We found a supplier online to purchase ground hamburger. You can purchase freeze dried items too like potatoes, eggs, etc. that keep 10 years at least. Lots of online suppliers for that as well. You can store juices, candy, etc.

One aspect people often do not consider is their water needs. You can store water in 1-50 gallon containers or barrels but water is heavy & takes up a lot of space and it's not always practical to store more than a couple of weeks worth of it. You can, however, buy water purifiers - pocket type like Katydyne (Check that spelling -I'm sure it's wrong). We personally use a Berkey and use it for our water filtration all the time & have extra filters in case of an emergency. Since you live in hurricane country and often have warning, a WaterBob is a great item to have for as many bathtubs as you own in your home. They are a bladder that sits in your tub and you fill it with the bathtub spout and holds a LOT of water.

For disaster prepardeness, another item to consider is a 72 hour pack you make up yourself with water, food, medical supplies, medications, clothing etc. We purchased rolling backpacks in case it was a grab-n-go situation and we didn't have the ability to shelter-in-place and use our stored up items.

Hope that helps,

FooGirlsMom

[GlutenFreeManna]

I'm also in the South and close to the coast so we get a lot of hurricanes. I keep a stash in the closet that's just for hurricane season. I need to update it and add to it since last year but currently I have:

A first aid kit

lanterns

batteries

Several gallons of drink water

Progresso Soup

rice cakes

peanut butter

jam

I need to add more....

Some other things I just happen to have for my emergency food bag all the time are Lara Bars, Enjoy Life bars, banana chips, craisins, almonds, cashews. I have a deep freezer that I will fill with ice if I hear of a bad storm coming.

I have lived through some bad ice storms that cut out power for up to 10 days. I wasn't gluten-free at that time but I remember the hardest thing was trying to stay warm and not having hot water to wash with. Most of the foods that sell out in a hurricane are things I can't eat anyway--bread and milk. No one seems to think to buy stuff like apples and oranges. Going to a shelter or a food bank would probably be hard though.

[heatherjane]

Spam is gluten free too...i have some in my emergency stash. (I also *think* vienna sausages are...I haven't checked on them in a while.) You can also stock up on tuna, canned beans, peanut butter, canned vegetables, Dinty Moore stew, applesauce, fruit cups, gluten free beef jerky, etc.

Some of it may not be so good cold (if cooking isn't an option/no power), and some of those things are definitely not what I'd eat normally, but they're fairly cheap and would suffice in a desperate situation.

Your post is a good reminder for me to stock up!

[mushroom]

You can always survive a few days without food, but as we have recently found out the thing you need the most is water, and this essential supply is often the first to go (we have been having earthquakes which disrupt all underground services. Water purification tablets, some means of boiling water for purification, supplies of water, are an absolute necessity. I always keep a well-stocked pantry and I keep food in different places in the house with the hope I can get to some of it. But we have been without water for a week, and on boil water for months at a time

[Marilyn R]

Hi there,

We're done some disaster preparedness also. We started it about 5 years ago and of course we bought...get this...buckets of wheat! AHHH. And now we know that me and our 2 kids have to be gluten free. Oh well. They are there for somebody, along with all those soups etc.

There are some things you can stock up on, even gluten free. I highly recommend you purchase Ener-g bread. It's a rice/tapioca loaf (there are varying types) that will keep a year, shelf-stable in it's packaging. We buy ours in bulk from Vitacost online.

You can also stock up on canned foods -- meats, fruits, vegetables, etc. We found a supplier online to purchase ground hamburger. You can purchase freeze dried items too like potatoes, eggs, etc. that keep 10 years at least. Lots of online suppliers for that as well. You can store juices, candy, etc.

One aspect people often do not consider is their water needs. You can store water in 1-50 gallon containers or barrels but water is heavy & takes up a lot of space and it's not always practical to store more than a couple of weeks worth of it. You can, however, buy water purifiers - pocket type like Katydyne (Check that spelling -I'm sure it's wrong). We personally use a Berkey and use it for our water filtration all the time & have extra filters in case of an emergency. Since you live in hurricane country and often have warning, a WaterBob is a great item to have for as many bathtubs as you own in your home. They are a bladder that sits in your tub and you fill it with the bathtub spout and holds a LOT of water.

For disaster prepardeness, another item to consider is a 72 hour pack you make up yourself with water, food, medical supplies, medications, clothing etc. We purchased rolling backpacks in case it was a grab-n-go situation and we didn't have the ability to shelter-in-place and use our stored up items.

Hope that helps,

FooGirlsMom

Wow, FooGirlsMom, great suggestions and resources...thank you!

Don't feel bad about buying all of that wheat. I made an even worse purchase a year before going gluten-free. I spent a major amount of money on, of all things, a concession stand mini donut maker. I still have the dang contraption, and about 10 lbs of vegetable oil that contains soy, and about 30 - 40 lbs. of gluten donut mix.

Thank you so much for your great references and suggestions.

[Marilyn R]

Thanks, Glutenfreemanna, Heatherjane and Mushroom for the great reponses and good advice. I appreciate the advice!

Mushroom, so sorry to learn of your water situation and I hope that things get back to normal right away. Hope you have a stash of single malt...

[mushroom]

Mushroom, so sorry to learn of your water situation and I hope that things get back to normal right away. Hope you have a stash of single malt...

I don't want to be under false pretenses here, I am actually as of this week firmly ensconced in Nevada and managed to leave before the latest 6.3 aftershock/new earthquake which took out our water and sewer once again so my housesitter tells me. Poor thing is having to clean up my pantry for me (for the second time - the first was last Sept.). We are on constant earthquake alert since Sept. (thousands of aftershocks) and our downtown has been pretty much devastated with liquefaction and destroyed masonry buildings, cathedral looks like WWII bombing. Is it any wonder I am over here for a rest??? They are now even talking of relocating the CBD as more and more previously unknown faults (so close to the surface) keep firing off And to think we chose to live there because it was not earthquake country!! (at least not that part of it)

And yes, a good stash of single malt in a quake proof cabinet is a must!!!

[Juliebove]

I keep plenty of batteries and water. Several flashlights and a battery operated radio. We can live off of canned food if we have to. And we have. I was in NY when we had that massive power outage. It was summer and it was hot. The heat made us not want to eat much. I had just stocked the fridge and I had just bought things that I could serve straight from it. So our first dinner was fine. By the next day some of the food was still good. I had a lot of blue ice in the freezer so I transferred it to the fridge. We ate what all else we could.

After that we lived off of canned goods. Mainly green beans and other beans like kidney. We also had canned fruit, fruit snacks and nuts. Soup can be eaten straight from the can. It is better when it is heated but when you can't heat it up you have no choice.

My biggest problems were my daughter and husband. They both want everything to be perfect and seem to be unwilling to accept anything that is not. So they whined and whined. The water wasn't cold. The food wasn't hot!

[Marilyn R]

I keep plenty of batteries and water. Several flashlights and a battery operated radio. We can live off of canned food if we have to. And we have. I was in NY when we had that massive power outage. It was summer and it was hot. The heat made us not want to eat much. I had just stocked the fridge and I had just bought things that I could serve straight from it. So our first dinner was fine. By the next day some of the food was still good. I had a lot of blue ice in the freezer so I transferred it to the fridge. We ate what all else we could.

After that we lived off of canned goods. Mainly green beans and other beans like kidney. We also had canned fruit, fruit snacks and nuts. Soup can be eaten straight from the can. It is better when it is heated but when you can't heat it up you have no choice.

My biggest problems were my daughter and husband. They both want everything to be perfect and seem to be unwilling to accept anything that is not. So they whined and whined. The water wasn't cold. The food wasn't hot!

I bought two cases of canned fruit today (without high fructose corn syrup), six cans of Hormel Corned Beef Hash and 4 cans of Spam. (Yuk.) And three big bags of safe nuts.

The best flashlights are the ones you strap on your head. (WalMart sells them in the camping section.) They're lightweight, hands free and take up little space.

We have a rule that there will be no whining about shared experiences, like "It's so hot!" Everyone is hot, everyone gets it, whining about it won't change it. The dog gets to whine, she's the really hot one with her coat on, and she's a dog so she doesn't know how annoying whining is.

There was a girl at work who said every 10 minutes "It's so hot" or "I'm so hot". I never throttled her, verbally or physically, but, it took reserve that I didn't know I had not to.

Sorry you had to endure the aftermath. Thanks for your tips. I really hope nothing like that ever happens again and that episodes from Mother Nature are the only thing we have to be prepared for.

Guess I'll get some bigger Blue Ice tomorrow, and more batteries. Thanks for sharing your story.