Are you prepared?

The power was off in Martensville for a large part of the day yesterday. It felt like an adventure when I got home. I ran around the house and opened blinds to let what was left of the sun shine in. I lit dozens of candles for light as well as warmth (our house was only 17 degrees celsius). I called Hugh to pick up some food on his way home. We could have had a sandwiches and salad, but if felt like we were having a serious adventure and we needed some fun food to go with it.

My mind started spinning the "what ifs". What if the power was off all night? I need to save the batter on my cell - our house line doesn't work without power. What will I do during that time? I could still key an exam for school, but there would be no blogging. I could live without TV, but I just finished my book on the weekend. . . hmmm. . . could always pull out Harry Potter! What if the power was still off tomorrow? We could cook on the BBQ, but we will need to really limit going in and out of the fridge and freezers if we want to save any food in them. 

I realized that I needed to be better prepared for this situation, so I went online last night. This is the basic emergency kit list that was on the Government of Canada's website getprepared.ca. 

• Water – two litres of water per person per day (Include small bottles that can be carried easily in case of an evacuation order)
• Food – that won't spoil, such as canned food, energy bars and dried foods (remember to replace the food and water once a year)
• Manual can opener
• Flashlight and batteries
• Battery–powered or wind–up radio (and extra batteries)
• First aid kit
• Special needs items – prescription medications, infant formula or equipment for people with disabilities
• Extra keys – for your car and house
• Cash – include smaller bills, such as $10 bills (travellers cheques are also useful) and change for payphones
• Emergency plan – include a copy of it and ensure it contains in–town and out–of–town contact information

My two biggest concerns on the list are water and radio. These are two things that are easy to get. I have already put water on my grocery list and I am going to start looking around for a wind-up radio (I just looked on ebay.ca, but their prices are a bit too steep for me). 

The secondary items I am going to look for on that list are an LED flashlight. We have one flashlight, but I would like an LED one. The life of a LED flashlight is so much longer than that of a regular one and I think it would be better to have more than one. I seriously DO NOT want to fight with Calder about who gets to hold it.

I also printed off THIS LIST. It has a bunch of other items I have around the house that in the event of an emergency, I probably wouldn't be able to remember.

My adventure last night lasted all of an hour. I was kind of sad. I was looking forwarded to "roughing it" for an evening!