Groceries & Hurricanes

[JenyEliza]

Just got off the phone with my mother in Volusia Cty. She made an interesting comment while we were chatting...said she wasn't planning to keep more than $20.00 worth of food in their fridge and the garage freezer until December 1.

Even with the generator to power the fridge, they've suffered food losses because they couldn't run the garage freezer along with kitchen fridge, fans, TV--and most importantly the pump they MUST run in the backyard 24/7 to keep the 3 feet deep pond of water there from breaching their house. Without pumping, the water keeps rising and threatens their house (they're not too far from St. John's River--but not in flood plain) She said she's tired of throwing food out.

I don't blame her, but I'm guessing our Thanksgiving meal this year will be...sparce...hurricane rations.

Anyone else down that way share her feelings about Hurricanes and groceries?

Jeny

[tronbunny]

My mom, also in Volusia, had to throw out 2-300.00 worth of food after Frances.
Plus, i had to clean out her outdoor freezer that had 40 pounds of ground meat for her dogs, that she forgot thawed after Charley... It was so bad, that we ended up throwing out the freezer, and the clothes I was wearing!!!

I have a big generator at home, and I'll even, smugly buy ice cream before a storm.
I still won't buy a whole bunch of stuff, because, after all, I could run out of gas.

[Persepone]

So what is the secret to stocking groceries to minimize losses/still get use of freezer, etc.?

Perhaps the secret is a smaller freezer? Or cleaning the freezer out before a storm? Keeping different kinds of food?

It would be interesting to see what different people think the solution is...

I liked Sanibel's comment (in the Prep before the storm thread) "What if Martha Stewart were into Hurricanes?"

Interesting notion to think about!

[jdray]

Pack the freezer with bags of ice. Little to big, just stuff every little space with it.
The more thats in there, the longer the food stays frozen.

You can also take and freeze bottles of water and let those thaw out in your fridge to help keep things cool.

One BIG thing that helps:

Make a list of everything that is in your fridge/freezer when you have power still. Then, when power goes out, you know what's in there. You can choose what you want before opening it. Then mark the list.

[nolabelplez]

I live in the country. I used to stock up. I had a freezer full of strawberries, blueberries, boiled peanuts, corn, meat, etc.
I lost it all (although we did have some great smoothies while the power was out.). I'm leaving the big freezer unplugged for now.
I planned on filling it last Thursday, but didn't when I realized Jeanne was coming. I guess I'll restock in December.
Right now I'm just getting groceries for the week, but that is a lot more trouble, because I have to go in town more often.

[drudd1]

I would have to say that we won't be doing any major stocking of the freezers any time soon. We have a generator, so we didn't worry too much about losing food. During the extended outage with Charley, things were fine. Not so with Frances, at about day 5 without power, the thermostat failed on the big freezer, and we had to scramble not lose everything. Goes to show, that even if you have a generator, make plans as if you don't. After all, things break!

[alicia-w]

we had about 60 pounds of fish in our freezer. We always have those two liter soda bottles partially filled with water and then frozen. More efficient for the freezer anyway. Then he put a layer of newspapers, several bags of ice, another layer of newspapers, covered the freezer with a moving pad and sealed it with duct tape. Turned the power off and left. When we got back after 5 days, everything was still frozen as solid as a rock.

[jude]

*IF* the power is back- before you handle the smely stuff refreeze it. It is easier to deal with frozen and not all soupy.

[cinlfla]

For those of you that lost a lot of food I thought I would pass this on my mother in law works for the dept of children and famlies and there is some kind of disaster food stamp relief thing going on in Orange county it ends on Friday and it starts in Brevard on the 5th of Oct this is for people that do not get food stamps if you already get them you will not qaulify for this. My sister in law went in Orange county yesterday and got them for her family my brother in law has missed some work and they lost a lot of food during power outages and they had some minor damage to there home. I think you can check your countys website for more info on this. You must live in a county that has been declared a disaster area like Orange, Osceola or Brevard I think there were a total of 19 counties in all I'm just not sure which one they all are. Its my understanding this is a 1 time thing hope this little bit of info can help someone.

[jes]

I worked with emergency food stamp applications during Frederick. Frederick hit on 9/12. We would ask the value of the food lost and their gross income from 9/1 through 9/12. If there was a deficit the the case was awarded. I doubt they do it the same way now, because there was a tremendous amount of fraud.

[ladygatorslayer]

I evacuated for Frances. When I came back home, I found that power had been out for 2 days. Everything in my freezer and fridge had to be thrown out accept a few condiment type things.

Since then, I haven't had much of anything in my freezer. The grorcery store is right around the corner, and I go there every couple of days, to get meats. It killed me to have to throw away expensive meats last time. I won't do it again.

[caneman]

I worked with emergency food stamp applications during Frederick. Frederick hit on 9/12. We would ask the value of the food lost and their gross income from 9/1 through 9/12. If there was a deficit the the case was awarded. I doubt they do it the same way now, because there was a tremendous amount of fraud.

Well, I've now lost 3 batches of food. I learned after the last one though that I was only going to keep a couple days worth of cold food on hand, If you don't have a generator, I recommend this. Too much of a hassle buying ice, shuffling around, etc......

[FlaCrabhead]

I never ate so much in my life during Frances! Did scrambled eggs, bacon, toast on the grill for breakfast. Cooked chicken and steak to use for sandwiches and Chicken Caesar salads. Hamburger was cooked on a cookie sheet on the grill and put in a pot with beans and diced tomatoes to make chili. Hotdogs and burgers were cooked and, if we didn't eat them, the dogs gladly did. We were without power for 4 days and the only thing I threw out was toaster strudel and a questionable container of sour cream. Frances was trying to take my sanity, but she was NOT going to take my food too!

During Jeanne, we only lost power for 16hrs but had bought a generator by then. Still, I didn't buy many groceries after Frances because I knew Jeanne was coming. We kinda missed not having the chance to tailgate with all of our neighbors in our garage again but were thankful we made it through okay.

[MSRobi911]

Don't forget you can claim lost food from your freezer and fridge on your home owners insurance claim. At least it helps meet the deductible. Take a picture of it before you throw it out so you can show your adjuster.

[Windsong]

MWatkins had a list of stuff on the perparedness link that included "eat from your freezer all week when watching the cane approach and that way you will have minimal food to worry about" or something like that.

I took that advice for Frances and Jeanne and did not have to throw away much.

[birdwomn]

In addition to eating up your frozen foods and perishables before the storm there are a couple of other things you can do to help:
- store block ice in your freezer before the storm (old milk jugs), etc.
- get some 5 day coolers & put the most important refridgerated items in them as soon as power is lost (these are the things we planned to eat)
- take a couple of the blocks of ice you made and put them in the fridge when power is lost. It really helps to keep it cool longer for those items that you didn't get into a 5 day cooler, like salad dressing, sauces, etc.

Since the things you are eating are in the coolers, you aren't opening the fridge and freezer except to switch out ice those first few days. It won't keep everything perfect for weeks, but it does help get you thru a few days.

[alicia-w]

USAA is paying for food spoilage and waiving the deductible.

[mawmawofseven]

fill strong freezer zip lock type bags with water and put into your freezer. it will freeze and take up any unused space not allowing any air to begin defrosting . can also be used for drinking water as needed.

[lurkerinthemidst]

I lost food during Frances and again during Jeanne. However I did not have much during Jeanne. My family lives on a budget and I freeze produce and buy meats on sale, slaughter our own meat etc. I lost a whole freezer full of stuff. Things that will effect my family for months. We were still struggling from one hurricane when the other arrived. I DO NOT plan to buy much at all to put in the freezer. I am buying on a weekly basis. I heard something about several of the counties that Ivan hit were rural counties. Ones that people have a garden all spring and summer to put up produce in the freezer, slaughter animals to put in freezer etc. Things they live off of for the rest of the year and many of them lost EVERYTHING. Some of these people only eat because they grew of raised what they have. This has caused a MAJOR impact on many in regards to food.

[fci]

Folks:
7 hurricanes in Southeast Florida in 44 years!
Yes, we have been cursed this year but prior to this year we had 5 in 44 years.
People are overreacting.
This amazing year will most likely NEVER be repeated in our lifetime!!!!