24 hours with no electricity
First of all, heres what you should absolutely do:
1. Buy enough food water for 3 days. I recommend canned food and bottled water for maximum portability.
2. Fill the gas tank in all your vehicles.
3. Buy enough cigarettes to last you... and buy lighters.
4. Leave your cell phones charging until power goes out to give you maximum battery lifespan.
5. Get a flashlight and batteries. HID lights are better. You can use them to blind someone if needed.
6. Keep a pocket knife on you, and have weapons for self defense.
7. Buy 12 hour glowsticks. Do not use candles, they can cause fires. Glowsticks are awesome, you can carry them and throw them around. You can find these at Walmart and other such unethical product hustling institutions run by minimum wage slavery. You won't find these at places like Eastern Mountain Sports because they claim the glowsticks contain toxic chemicals harmful to the environment (lol).
8. Get something to occupy yourself so you don't go completely fucking insane. A book by glowstick-light, bored games (lol), etc etc. Buy a 6-pack of beer to take the edge off.
9. Get a watch. Time is of the essence! (G-Shocks are cool)
10. Carry $100 cash in ones... yes ONES.
11. Get a radio to know whats going on. I recommend one with a headphone jack for discreet listening. Someone in distress might hear a radio and want to come closer to listen... no thanks!
Overall, the experience was interesting, especially at night. I live on a small island which was completely without power. I had never seen such pure darkness in my life in a residential zone. It was eerie... the stars were extremely visible and I could see the milky way galaxy band across the sky. Lots of people walking around with flashlights out of pure boredom until it got to be around midnight when silence was all you could hear. Some interesting things to note should you find yourself in this sitaution:
1. Police officers will do nothing but drive around with a search light looking for people. They will stop you, and harass you. I wasn't caught, but witnessed this first hand. They're bored, looking for thieves and vandals... and have every excuse to detain you under suspicion. Think about it, with a complete power loss, there are no security cameras or alarm systems. Prime time for thievery in a once in a lifetime opportunity. They will mainly patrol around high value areas like shopping plazas and main roads. Should you need to move around at night, stay off the roads as much as possible, especially main roads. Dress in dark, nonreflective clothing. Carry a weapon. DO NOT CARRY A GUN.. you WILL go directly to jail unless you can pull a conceiled carry permit out of your ass on the spot. You will also run the risk of scaring people if you walk through their neighboorhood close to their house... tread lightly.
2. People seemed to be well behaved minus one pack of black people who decided to go outside at 1 in the morning and fire up the grille while simultaneously shouting and blasting lil wayne. Cops took care of that one. Three cop cars showed up. After the cops left, those people didn't make even the slightest peep. I happen to live in a low crime area near a Naval installation, but my advice to you us to just assume someone will be trying to break into your house and kill you or steal your shit. Leave the windows cracked so you can hear local ambient noise. People are fucked up, so you should be just as fucked up in the head to be ready for it. I can't even imagine living in a shitty neighboorhood during a power outage like this one... I probably wouldn't sleep that night.
3. Currency. I actually went to a gas station that was open without power, they were selling everything in the store for rounded up dollar values to cover taxes. I bought a pack of cigarettes for $8.00, and a bottle of water for $1.50. Gold? Gold is useless. In the event of a real major disaster you may be able to get away with buying stuff for dollars and coins for a little while before it degrades into pure trade. I still don't see gold as being useful in any situation. Theres the reason for carrying $100 in ones... a small camera film case of quarters wouldn't hurt either.
4. The stuff in your fridge will go bad.
5. Hope you like cold showers. ;]
Aside from that... my life is on computers and the internet. I was going INSANE without them. Find something to keep you busy... I was picking Medecos. I guess thats it. Just a little taste. I learned some things. You can just amplify the quantity of prep items depending on how long the power is expected to be out.
The code is hidden in the tumblers. One position opens the lock, another position opens one of these doors...
http://www.youtube.com/xeotech1
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