I always have canned soup and veggies. Bread in the freezer which won't spoil when it is not working. I also have packaged stuff like easy mac and riceroni. Crackers and cheese. I don't save for days like that, I just never run out of all of those things at the same time. My problem would be the heat.

Before we got our generator, I 'd stock up on little cans of pre-mixed tuna. They came with crackers, but I spread the tuna on bread. And we also kept single serving containers of spagetios and stew and the like. Not very tasty, but it'll keep you fed. Oh, and single serving cups of fruit. Granola bars, oatmeal bars, oreo cookies and the like. And if there was some warning, real fruits - apples, bananas, grapes, etc. And lots and lots of bottled water!

Also, keep charcoal and/or propane on hand so you can do some cooking. It's amazing what you can whip up on a grill - and rescue some of your cold stuff before it spoils.

Egads, this brought back memories of last year's seven days with no power. My heart goes out to the folks who are suffering so much now....

I always have Bonefish, Ihop,Carrabras, etc. LOL

Seriously, the one big time we were without power was many years ago Christmas Eve. I defrosted a frozen soup container in a pot in the fireplace, all the time being thankful I wasn't born in Colonial times. We now have a generator. Problem solved.

We too have a generator, but don't leave it run all the time. If it is cool weather when the power goes off I cook on my wood burning fireplace insert and have baked inside of it too. We do have a gas grill now that we could use. I would probably just use whatever I have on hand to heat up or cook, not something that would take a long time. Soups, pork and beans, hot dogs, smoked sausage, eggs, toast, pancakes, just whatever. Summer time would be a really bad time to not have electricity.

Sue

Don't forget to have a manual can opener!

Unless we have no gas we can do fine since our range is gas.

I have plenty of canned foods in the pantry most time. Fruit, beans,soups and chili. We have peanut butter, preserves and honey. I always have breads on hand. Even without power things could be used from the freezer like breads and other baked goods. I have a box of Slim Jims and a pouch of jerky. Also several cans of tuna and several pouches of dried fruit...... prunes,apricots and cranberries and raisins. I have a jar of queso and a couple boxes of crackers.

We have a charcoal grill and a gas grill and our weather is mild enough that if we really had to cook outdoors in a storm we'd manage.

If I lived where I could be snowbound or wasn't able to leave the house I would be keeping more ready to eat things.

Come to think of it we could probably eat quite well for a week without any power and up to a month with ways to heat stuff. Wouldn't be the most balanced diet but we wouldn't starve.

Same as Wildchild - we have a gas range and a gas grill.

But we always have canned beans, canned soup, crackers, etc. Fortunately, we haven't lost power here for more than an hour in ages.

Eating out, staying at motel while the power is off. Too hot to stay home. It's been off since Friday!,,

One of the problems with this past week was that there was NO warning. There wasn't even a drizzle of rain forcast.

You're lucky if your fridge kept your food cold for 24 hours--it was so hot here, that by morning (the storm it us at 12:55 AM, our fridge was already warm, our frozen food was already half-defrosted. I keep a thermometer in the fridge and it was well-above the danger zone by then. It was hellishly hot here, though.

I didn't have a lot in, but luckily, the grocery store at the corner opened for a few hours that morning, and we were able to grab a few things. We ate peanut butter sandwiches, canned soup, canned pasta, applesauce, the little flavored tuna and cracker things. I cooked on the propane grill--so could add Bisquick biscuits to our meals to round them out.

This sort of weather is SO unusual for our area--we never get extreme weather, or flooding, or earthquakes, even really bad hurricanes are rare here. So people weren't prepared with emergency food stashes. Most don't have generators--we have a very small one but it was only powerful enough to charge our phones, run lights and fans.

We were among the lucky, as well, our power was only off about 30 hours. People in our area are STILL off and told that it may be tomorrow at the earliest (that's just about a full week) before they're going to be back on. Some friends of ours are in that category. And, of course, getting power back is only a part of what's needed. There's so much damage, do many downed trees. Residents have been working all week to try to clear their property of downed trees. It's virtually impossible to get anyone out to help, there's so much destruction, so we all have to physically do it ourselves--even if we're old, senior citizens (like us). DH worked for days to cut up a tree that had fallen and landed with it's top branches on our garage, and it's trunk on the shed. He finally got enough cut away that he was able to roll it off the garage without damaging it--the shed was already on it's last legs, so the damage to it was unimportant.

Even now, though, as we drive around town to do errands, etc, it's shocking and unbelievable to see the extreme damage that happened in just 25 minutes last Sat. morning.

We keep lots of cans of Vienna sausage, tuna, chicken, deviled ham even sardines for my husband, I don't eat them. I always have a well stocked pantry with canned goods, crackers, chips, bread, peanut butter, etc.
We keep several extra 5 gallon bottled water around.
We have a wood burning fire place and a few cookers but the stove is electric unfortunately. I usually have a variety of cereal too and I like it even with out milk.

One thing on my list of things to get soon are battery power fans. I saw a really nice one today at the luncheon. The hostess brought it out and set it up on the table to give us a breeze. I would love to have one like that. They told me that I can find them at academy sports in the camping area. I will be going there soon.

We were at Lowes yesterday looking at their large whole house generators, their price to professionally install and connect to the gas line we provide is right around $1000, the unit that would power every thing in the house was around $4500, but they are having a 10 per cent off sale. Definitely not cheap, and I don't think we need to power every thing so can go down a size and be ok. Plus it can always be disconnect and taken with you if moving.

I feel like if we are going to stay here or ever go back to Louisiana it's something that is worth it. I know personally in my health situation I could not handle this kind of heat.

I also am thankful for my gas stove when the power goes out, however, the washing up of the pots and pans and dishes afterwards is a real problem when the water pump won't run. That's why I keep a supple of paper plates, bowls, and plastic silverware in the cupboard at all times.

As for the washing of the pans, I end up using precious drinking water I have to buy. Always thought there should be some sort of disposable inserts you could put down in a pan, that could withstand boiling point, and then lift out when finished cooking. Also, boil in a bag foods other than rice are hard to find.

since I always cook without electricity when camping.. it would not be hard for me to do when the power is out.

Also, I have a gas stove, and thus, can cook on it.

But, during power outages in the summer, I would take my camping stove and go outside.

I can cook up a lot on it.

Here are some pictures using camping stoves.

this was using 3 cookers however

another meal here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=34072&v=40

Here is a link that might be useful: camp cooked food

One thing we learned at an early age living in South Louisiana and facing so many hurricanes and the weather situations that come with them is if you even think something is going to knock out the power fill every bath tub full to the brim with water and every large pot (those gumbo pots come in handy) and even the washing machine with water, if it will hold water fill it up! Because the pump runs on electricity. here I have city water so I would have water.
Plus on the farm we had large cisterns that catch rain water which could be used for a lot of stuff. This is a good reason to pick up a couple of those big plastic rain barrels, at least during the storm you can catch water.

We have have a grill, wood burning stove, out door burning fireplace access, tons of camping gear including stoves and a generator. I have a stocked pantry. I have a lot of stuff that could be cooked up like beans, rice, tuna and other meats, etc. I'd probably make up some soups and tuna or other type helper if I wanted fast and easy. I can also make this stuff from scratch. I could cook up whatever meat and veggies I had in the fridge or freezer. Assuming we hook the generator up, we wouldn't have anything go bad. We've been through nasty power outages in the past. We try to stay prepared.

Yep, we have a gas grill and stove. We own a propane camp stove also. We keep 7 gallons of water in the garage. The house has 3 fireplaces(there's a cord of wood @ hand).

I'd start cooking the meat in the freezer, after I got the cooler out and dumped all the ice into it. I generally have rib eye steaks, at least 4 frozen.

When we evacuated for the recent fire, I took canned Hormel chili, cheese, diced onions to put over tortilla chips(the hotel suite had a kitchen, I could have cooked anything). I also keep a dozen cans of tuna in the cupboard & several gallons of fruit juice.

LOL, I'm with you georgysmom! Going out gets old too, but in extreme situations, what is one to do?? ;)

One thing I learned from our last long-lasting power outage was to plan ahead for making coffee. I can light my stove with a match since it is gas. I bought a french press to make coffee. I can boil water and use the french press. If I know a big storm is on the way, I grind some beans ahead of time. In the past I've smashed coffee beans with a hammer to "grind" them if the power was out.

Also keep boxes of milk or dried milk around. I can live on cereal, coffee and PBJ for a long time.

I also can walk to the grocery store and they seem to be on a different system of wires than my house, plus they have a generator. Sometimes it's hard to get there when the snow is up to your arse!

You have no power and you open the fridge/freezers?????? I have been told by the power company and learned from past outages that items stay cold/frozen for at least 72 hours. My outage last year was for 5 days during the summer and freezer items were still frozen.

As for food, I ran to a store near by and grabbed some meats and we had canned tuna, chicken and veggies. A natural gas grill was a life saver as was my espresso pot.

Our best investment has been a generator. Now I can run the fridge and my pond equipment, plus switch lines for a micro or a fan. I wish I could get one for $4500 for whole house. It would be close to $10K for me.

Wow you must have an enormous house! Our house is 4000sqft, we have two central air conditioning units but we can close off the two sections separately, so as far as I am concerned as long as my bedroom and main living areas are on we can get by. My office and the whole sunroom area are on one ac the rest of the house on the other.

I'm one of those who keeps a very well stocked pantry. We would be bored with what we were eating after a couple of days, but we wouldn't starve. We also have a camp/cabin about 15 miles from home, where we have a small generator (enough to cook with electricity if we want to (have a 2 burner hot plate there), and enough to power a tv and charge phones, etc). It's not a 'full house' generator, but cost us only about $400, didn't have to be installed, and would do quite well if we set it up in the garage and ran a long heavy duty extension cord inside to power refrigerator and a hot plate. And I use a manual can-opener anyway - no longer even own an electric one :-)

That said, we've never been without power for an extended period either. But I think we'd get by just fine.

We have canned chicken, lots of macaroni and cheese, canned chili beans, Chow mein (2 can kits), canned tuna, and there is the old fall back: Spam. There is a bag of apples in the frig - these will keep a week or more after a power fail. We have 2 sources of popcorn: microwave and regular. The top burners on our gas stove works fine without wlwctric power. The oven will not work since this valve is an electric solenoid. Occassionaly, I make popcorn the old fashioned way. I think it tastes better and I have control of the ingredients.

If I do not wish to fire up a stove burner on these hot days, I can break out my old camp stove and use it outside. Its a 2 burner coleman fueled type. I have sucessfully started it after it was stored for 5 years. I keep a little coleman (naptha) fuel for this stove and a couple of coleman type lanterns for emergencies.

Larry and I were talking about this the other day.. and he said if we ever experience a long drawn out power outage... we will pull the breakers to off and pack up the car and go to Missouri... or Iowa... taking all of the frozen meat with us in two gigantic coolers we have... he has freezers in both locations..

For short term.. just eat out over in the next county or so.. plus we do have a well stocked pantry filled with canned meats, sardines, peanut butter and jellies, crackers and such...

Carolyn

CountrySunshine, you mentioned pulling the breakers before you leave. Is that to protect your wiring or what?

I know I have a list somewhere in my preparednes files I'll have to look it up. Off the top of my head I can suggest those packages of just add water side meals and Asian/ teriyaki Noodle meals (not ramen) Knorr makes about 20 different "sides" vegies and noodles etc most are $1 at least in WalMart. cans of soup some of those pre cooked containers of Uncle Bens rice etc. as long as you can heat up watr you can prepare a tasty meal even Mac and cheese and potatoes. Time to start thinking now before the next emergncy.

The week before our icestorm in 2000 I bought some of those little cans that you light (like for keeping foodwarm for a buffet) Sterno and the little fold up stove that goes wih it. I was able to het water on them and then make soup and stuff also since it was dead winter I was able to heat water and make little bottles to put inside shirts etc.

sarahlee123 I'm pretty sure that's exactly what CountrySunshine meant. It's often recommended to flip your breakers off to avoid surges as power comes back on. Often there can be multiple surges.

If you have appliances with digital readouts, like a washer, refrigerator or the like, it'll be much more susceptible to surge and spike damage than a "regular" appliance. You should also unplug computers.

I always chuckle when people say I have a gas stove, I can cook! For me, when the weather is hot and the power goes out, the *last* thing I'm looking for is a hot meal! LOL And no, I'm not making coffee and tea either! A cool sandwich or a cool pasta salad is far more refreshing to me. Power out in the winter? Well, I'm more concerned about pipes freezing or the like than haute cuisine too. Much depends on what you have available for food preparation. I have a propane grill and a propane camp stove (Hank Hill would be proud) were I to need it. I alway have the much-maligned and demonized bottled water around even though I have city water, since the water source can be damaged in certain conditions. Widespread power outages for long periods of time and they can't run the pumps to get it in the towers. I pretty much always have ample supplies of pet food around too. People often forget their pets in times of stress. I can live off crackers, cheese and summer sausage if I had to and throw in some peanut butter and a loaf of bread, you can do ok, or at least I can. I don't have those allergies.

Again, much depends on what you have available. Often cooking things requires cooling it first and often you don't have refrigeration other than coolers so you have to work with what you have.

I guess if need be I could also build a fire out in the yard somewhere and rustle up some roadkill to tickle the tastebuds!

There's advantages to living in the boonies and advantages to living in town. Short of catastrophic damage, you'll likely find it easier to handle needs in town than in the boonies. The big thing is to consider the possibilities and take reasonable steps to prepare. What would hurt you the most? If you're on oxygen and need IV feeding, you'd better prepare differently than a healthier person as far as your preparation. Some meds need to be kept cool. Plan for it.

In the past week my a/c has been out and we've had 100ð+ temps and 80ð+ dewpoints. Frankly, it wasn't that bad. Two to three fans blowing on me kept me reasonably comfortable. I grew up without a/c. My bedroom was in the attic. I also spent a lot of time camping and at the cabin without electricity so I know what hot weather is like and how to deal with it! Yes it takes adjusting and some prep but I get along just fine. No I wasn't running the oven, baking cakes and roasting turkeys. I kept a level head and dealt with it. Often, it's not that big a deal.

Cynic, you had me with the crackers, cheese, summer sausage and PB -- but you just had to toss in the roadkill, didn't you!

For the others who also mentioned a propane grill, some really frightening news from my neck of the woods: A fire swept through a large apartment complex (2 buildings), and the damage was so bad residents cannot return (and today is the day the temperature will head above 100). The cause was determined to be a propane grill, and it turns out that having one in the apartment complex was a violation of county law.

I'm so scared of fires in my townhouse complex (wood decks throughout) that I won't even get a charcoal grill!

Crackers, cheese, summer sausage, you better have alot of bottled water on hand after you eat that 24/7. And I still say I'm SO GLAD to have my gas stove in times of power outages - hot summer or freezing winter. No coffee or tea? Please, I still put the kettle on the stove to heat water for coffee no matter what.

Most of my ideas have been said earlier.

I thought the other day that I made a mistake - I should have tried to borrow a generator and headed down into that area, just after the outage began, when they said that it covered so wide a territory and would be out for so long.

I've done that a couple of times, mainly to keep food in good condition in freezers. During one period in early spring, people wanted me to run their furnaces, but they were hooked directly into their service box and I refused to take the risk of feeding power back out on to what the linemen believed to be a dead line.

It seems to me that local codes should allow a connection to a furnace to have a connction that could be easily broken, to allow one to feed power from a generator.

On the second project, after a major ice storm in Quebec, I wasn't much help, as my generator was small and few wanted such.

ole joyful

We bbq so many things, even in winter! No reason to go hungry when you have a bbq!

I've lived in several places where we have had power outages, mostly winter related, and have been able to light gas stove with a match, which is so handy. However, the gas stove that came with this house (Kenmore) has a safety feature that is a real PITA - no gas feed with no power!! Power has to be on to re-set it. Do use a gas grill, but for an extended time, would probably go to a motel. Fortunately, we have had excellent responses from utility companies so that hasn't been necessary - so far.............