My first retreat to the basement for weather disaster

That's pretty impressive Dragon. For my part, I could not stand the thought of living in a region prone to natural disasters. It would be constantly on my mind that it is only a matter of time before I lose all the hard work I put in the place.

I have a basement, it is not all that sturdy or dry though. I have candles available there. I have things in my house, but not in my basement. I do have foods that can be eaten cold. I think I probably should get us together and get more prepared. I do not even remember the last time we went to the basement. We may have gone three times in the last twenty years.

I do have a lot of things stored back. Although I will only go to the basement, if my son that is in a wheelchair is not home. I will take him to the closet in the middle of the house, it does not have a door on it, but will pull the mattress off of his bed.

I'd be up the creek without the proverbial paddle! and we don't have a basement, heck, the bedrock is so shallow that digging septic systems is a real pain in the butt!

Lucky you! You are really prepared. I don't have a basement so the most I could do would be go downstairs and crawl under the bed or something and pray for the best. Or leave to a shelter if there was time. I do have food and water enough...paper products. I also have tons of candles, matches. Still, not anywhere as prepared as you.

It sounds like you are very well prepared. We live in a mobile home and so the best place for us is somewhere else if we could make it. Earthquake is the one I worry about the most, that and forest fire are more common here then twisters.

For you to be this prepared, as others have stated, that is impressive. I know I could never say I was that prepared. Maybe I should be considering making sure I have a little more stuff for in case of an Emergency, but right now the extra $$ does not seem to be around for sure. But I do think that if I knew ahead of time there was going to be a Big emergency there would be some precautions I would take, like if it was an Earthquake, etc. Only problem is sometimes there is not the warning and then you just have to Pray.

Kudos to you~!!! You really are prepared. We do not have basements or cellars where I live in Savannah as we are at sea level. When we get serious hurricane warning we hit the road and get as far inland as we can. I have only had one mandatory evacuation in 34 years. We stayed through David a category 5 hurricane in 1979. I had only been in the States for 2 years and it scared the bejeezus out of me and my family!

Good discussion..dragon54u! I guess that I have been so self-centred regarding this..I have forgotten to share. In the province of B.C., we have "Emergency B.C." - a gov't sponsored program, with lot's of tutorialship! In each area, we have volounteer foreman's, that person is responsible for the network of persons, whom in turn are responsible for a number of other persons! Safe houses are determined! (Such as in the last tsunami warning)! Each person is enumerated for the supplies they have that could help to sustain life..e.g.; I have 4-WDr, chain saws, 13,500 gallons of stored water, a Power plant (generator), Boat! Every person, in turn, is given a list of necessities to put in totes and store away from the home! Medical supplies, personal supplies, meds, food, bedding, tent, tarps, axes, wooden matches...everything that would sustain life for 72 hours plus! Course, that includes copies of I.D. Cash is NOT needed, as all area "supply depot's" be it food, gas, etc., can be charged to the government, and the supplier will be paid promptly! I was paid within a week for housing 7 persons, just after the Japan earthquake..(housing and feeding)! Each District meets every 3 months in case of upgrading! We are earthquake prone, living on the San Andreas fault, and had one just 18 miles offshore from here in Feb. You betcha..dragon, I am fully prepared (lot's of goodies for pets, too!) It is a BIG, big program with our Provincial gov't and we fully relied on it 4 years ago, this summer when we had a wildfire on the Island (hence the reason I now have a boat)..as the Ferries refused to land/lift off!

We're not as prepared as you are that's for sure. I hope whatever it is passes. But this is another reason I want the basement cleaned out so we have somwhere safe and comfortable to sit it out w/o worry that some thing could fall on you and there's no where to sit down there either.

Hello my dear dragon. Well we are not ready as we don't get tornadoes here in Romania, but we should be ready for Earthquakes, but our old apartment blocks are not really strong for a great one, as most of them already faced a big one (for this area) in 1977 that collapsed many buildings. It had only 7,2 degrees on Richter scale, but it was really long in length - 56 seconds (that's an eternity in earthquake times. Do you have a wireless laptop as well ? just so you can stay in touch in case you have to remain there, or a phone to be able to alert the authorities ?

We were familar with tornadoes when we lived in Oklahoma. However, since we moved to south central Texas, too far inland for hurricanes and too far south for tornadoes, we haven't thought much about them. However, we do have a good supply of canned goods and a battery operated TV/radio. We also have a good supply of battery opoerated lights. Should a tornado head our way, we'd have to grab a bunch of quilts and huddle in the bathtub. Nobody in this area has a storm cellar or even a basement.

as you know, im here in az. most times we have no kind of weather disaster except the heat. if i couldnt have air, id die anyway. i sure do admire your preparedness. but we do have several things on hand like lots of dry goods, and canned food. etc. i dont think we have basements here. ive been told the sand wont support them. who knows why.

Very Impressive Dragon. I am going to be honest and say we are not prepared at all. If we move to Arkansas I will be bugging you to help me figure out how to prep ourselves there because I am very oblivious to any form of disaster preparations. Right now Arkansas is very flooded. I received some pictures yesterday and I was shocked. My boyfriend's mother owns a house up in the hills over there and it is very prone to flooding. She has always prepared emergency food supplies so that part will not be hard to figure out, providing I check the expirations dates of the tons of stuff she has gathered in the years. I see you reccomended above a yard sale, which will be one of our first projects because she has way too much unneccessary stuff. This is a very good discussion because my brain needs to start preparing because whether it is at the end of this summer or not we will eventually move there.

This has got to be the best thing I have read in years! Congratulations for having the sense to be so well prepared. Why the heck don't more people do this??? I'm glad you are able to keep yourself and the dogs safe for a period of time and I'm glad you drill for this. How do you all go to the bathroom? Do your neighbours have a similar facility, do they know about your storm room? We've been hearing terrible news about tornadoes and horrid storms killing people over in America lately...my first thoughts are about whether any of my myLot friends are hurt or in some danger. Good for you dragon54u.

i think it is very goog for everyone.i like this and hoped that a new day i will come.-it is a idealable place