Emergency Plans need to work for women/older people in house

[Persepone]

I realized last winter with our snow issues/power outages how important it is that emergency preparations work for the people who are likely to use them--not necessarily the "men of the family" and not necessarily the young/strong household members. Now is a good time to "dress rehearsal" emergency stuff. And do the dress rehearsals with all adult members of the house--not just with one person doing the work. My experience has been that almost all weather emergencies occur when the "man of the house" is on the other side of the country on a business trip, etc.

I'm female, no longer young, no longer strong, etc. But I can handle our snowblower, generator, etc. If we did get a hurricane here (unusual, but it has happened to me) I can handle even the plywood. But being able to do these things now requires some advance preparation, etc. that it did not when I was 25.

There is a gizmo out there for a couple of dollars (I think I paid less than $4) that allows you to easily carry a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood because it sort of fits on the bottom and provides a "handle" and then you sort of balance against your body. But you don't have to have the "armspread" to do this by brute force!

As you get older (somewhat wiser) you learn that there are tools out there that make jobs easier--and also you learn the value of "good" tools rather than the cheapo versions of stuff. Good contractor cordless electric drills, sawsall, etc. that you can recharge on your generator are wonderful--but make sure (especially if you are a woman) that they weren't designed for gorillas! Alas most of the high-grade American stuff was designed for a macho market. I tend to buy Makita because I can actually handle the tools safely. But you really have to hunt around for high-quality useable tools if you are a woman. Staple guns often require huge hands, etc. for example. If a chain saw is on the list, it needs to be gasoline-driven (and you need to have the gas and appropriate oil and chain oil, etc.) and needs, again, to be small enough to handle safely. Sure, my husband can handle the tools designed for extra-large gorillas, but I can't--so we have two sets of tools these days.

If you are not the primary "hurricane preparer," but there is a chance you might be the one who has to deal with hurricane prep., make sure you can start and hook up stuff like generators. Make sure you can move it from its storage to its operating location safely, that you know how to hook to its grounding rod, that you have properly-rated extension cords, gfci protection, etc. for its outlets, etc. etc. etc. All this stuff takes some preparation and tinkering, but if you do it in advance, and do it regularly enough (you need to test your generator about once a month under load), you get it down to a science. Insist on learning this stuff and making sure it is set up so that you can handle it start-to-finish by yourself because otherwise Murphy's Law states that the person who "normally" would do this will be in China, Hawaii or someplace when the hurricane hits the East Coast of the US. So make your guy put wheels on the generator. He may be able to lift it--but you probably can't even drag it. Make sure those special extension cords are labeled so you know what plugs into what safely. If YOU write the labels, he may scoff, but you won't make mistakes when you go to use them. "extension cord for freezer" may be more meaningful to you than the rating stamped on the cord by the manufacturer.

If you store water in large containers, make sure you can handle them. Someone posted something about having a pallet of bottled water. Huge demijons? Nice if you can handle the bottles. Not so nice if you can't lift them easily and don't have a siphon... It's better to have a mix of sizes of bottled water. If your grandmother needs to be able to handle the water, what size should the bottles be? Consider this when buying stuff if your grandmother is in your household.

The window air conditioner is a great idea, but not if "grandma" is the one who has to put it in place in the window. (remove plywood and bull it up into the window). It might be better to get one of those "room" air conditioners, figure out in advance where the vent hole goes and prepare the vent hole and buy the insulation for the exit tube so that the room air conditioner does not heat up the room it is trying to cool. Think it through or try it out in advance. Box fans might be a better alternative, even though they don't cool or dehumidify.

One final thought. Make sure any instructions, labels, etc. can be read by older people in low-light conditions &/or make sure there are larger copies available. I have trouble reading labels on a bunch of stuff in my house now that I'm older and do need to shine a flashlight on my programmable thermostat, for example, to read the key labels. My grandchildren can read them in dim light.