Friday, July 1, 2011

Slumber Parties & Emergency Preparedness

Have you ever noticed my crazy random title posts?  My reasoning behind this is to catch the eye of the reader. Ah.......there's a method behind my madness....
We had a power outage slumber party last night. A transformer near my son's house blew up and caused a large fire. Then, like a domino effect, the power went out all across our town. In fact, I was on my way to the temple and happened to call them before and they told me they were running on generators and weren't starting any more sessions.

Mine went out too. For about 40 minutes. 40 minutes is a verrry long time when it's nearly 110 outside. Well, for other unluckier members of my family, it was more like 8 to 10 hours, which makes it impossible to stay in your home. It actually feels hotter inside than it does outside in the shade.

We had an impromptu power outage party yesterday for my poor displaced children and stayed cool at my house. One of my offspring had returned home to gather their nighties when the power returned, so they elected to stay home. The other one elected to stay with me.

So we had our own mini disaster. I actually received a reverse 911 call warning me to conserve water and to go to the evacuation center named to cool off.  High summer temperatures can be really dangerous and life threatening.

This got TL & I talking and thinking. We live in a city. We probably will never have a flood, hurricane, maybe a slight chance of a tornado, I guess there's always a chance of an earthquake. But the greatest chance of a big problem here is a power outage in the summer. How do we keep cool for an extended period of time? How do we survive at least with  semi-comfort?  How to we take care of our large family if they don't have power?  These are serious questions for us. We are talking about getting some type of generator and a portable AC unit. At least we could stay alive and comfortable in our own home and maybe help others out.  Anyone done any research on generators?

P.S. The photo above is one of the sacred grandchildren enjoying his morning green smoothie, made by Grandma of course!

5 comments:

Reno said...

We have a whole-house generator just in case. I'm not sure what kind but if you're interested, I can ask DH. I think we also have a smaller one that would be good for shorter time periods.

Marilyn said...

Ooh yes, Reno, I would love to know. Except we do live in the city and we don't want a gasoline powered one-we're thinking either propane or solar.

Amy said...

That pic of C is PRICELESS!! I seriously laughed so hard when I saw it. Love that kid.

I almost kinda wish I was still living in Mesa so we could have come to the slumber party :)

Kerin said...

Sure gets you thinking doesn't it?!
We make sure to have plenty of firewood for a winter, and we know that we could stay warm that way, but I've never thought of how it would be to try and stay cool, especially living in the desert. Hmmm. I think you have a good solution to the problem.
Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Keep cool :)

Reno said...

Marilyn, DH said we have a 4800- whatever that is- and yes, they do have ones that run on propane. Good luck.