We are not hard core preppers by any means, but our lifestyle kind of lends itself to it. We buy food in bulk, grow and can/freeze our own, and know how to hunt and fish and prepare our catch. Water is no problem, either as we live literally across the street from the headwaters of a major river, and the deepest lake in the state not counting Lake Michigan. When COVID hit, we weren't worried...we figured if stuff got really bad we could live off the 100lb bag of rice and shelves of canned veggies in the pantry for months if we had to.

Then last year I got diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I'm now insulin dependent, and the carb load from a rice-based diet would likely kill me. Insulin requires refrigeration long-term, and most of what I eat is now very perishable.

We live about 3 blocks from a power substation, and rarely have outages of any significant duration. I know I should have some sort of backup power source, but it's never been an issue in the past, or a huge concern.

Yesterday morning I got home from work at 6am and went to bed. At some point I got woken up by the power going off, and promptly went back to sleep. I woke up for real at 12:30 and power was still out. I ended up calling in to dispatch and was told that we had hundreds of lines down across the county and the power company wasn't able to provide any kind of estimate as to when stuff would get restored.

I immediately realized that there was a chance it could be days, and that I was in trouble. Aside from my insulin, there's a year's worth of beef in the freezer trying to thaw out and rot, not to mention all the groceries in the fridge. I jumped in the car and joined the other unprepared idiots at the store buying a generator. Thankfully I was able to get one before they sold out. It's not huge, but it'll power our fridge and the deep freeze, or alternately the well pump and the furnace blower motor if necessary. I got it home and had just gotten done sinking a makeshift ground rod by the backyard patio when the power came back on. It figures, but I was happy to have it back. And I'm keeping the generator.

So my question for others here who are medication dependent or have certain medically necessary dietary requirements: what are you doing to prepare for extended periods without power or refrigeration? Any plans or tips or tricks that you'd care to share?

Also, what about long-term supply disruptions like war or some other ill-conceived lock down that either keeps us trapped in our homes away from medication and medical supplies, or just straight-up supply disruptions from people not going to work for months at a time? Any strategies or thoughts on this?

Your insulin stash is a bit more hardy than you think but preparing to keep it cool is still a good idea. Frio makes cooling pouches in various sizes. They just need water to work. Root cellars have been used forever. Think about something like that longer term. Realistically you’re now in a situation where you’re going to last as long as you have insulin. Your dietary considerations around insulin render the rice and beans survival strategy more difficult. Consider having your doctor overwrite your prescriptions. That will allow you to build up a stockpile of insulin. Maybe consider keeping some of that stockpile in a different location. Somewhere nearby enough to be easily reached.

Consider a Propane powered refrigerator/freezer.

Best wishes to you.
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Insulin is good for 28 days unrefrigerated.

After hurricane Ivan we were without power for more than 3 weeks. My 94-year-old mother lived with us at the time. The portable generators we had would not even keep the fridge going and we had to throw a lot of stuff out. Neighbors with big chest freezers were driving around giving away their thawing meat. We had to drive 30 miles to find a gas station or grocery store or drug store that had power. Couldn't take a shower because there was no power for the well pump. Fortunately, the small guest house on property had city water so we could get water and a cold shower. We lived on MRE's for a while. (My Mom thought the MRE's were really good.) I said never again and installed an overkill 40kw diesel generator that powers everything and I have a 100-gallon nurse tank parked next to it. Hopefully it never gets so bad that I can't get somewhere to refill my nurse tank but if it does, I guess we will have to get medieval. You prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
So my question for others here who are medication dependent or have certain medically necessary dietary requirements: what are you doing to prepare for extended periods without power or refrigeration? Any plans or tips or tricks that you'd care to share?

I don't fall into that category, but, if I did I'd have solar for sure.

Solar with a backup generator.

I have a generator which runs on gas, natural, and bottles propane. I sadly keep six tanks in my garage.

Two options come to mind. Solar with battery storage (expensive), or natural gas/propane generators. Whole house coverage with auto transfer switch. You might forget the power is out!
Craigslist has used Generacs from time to time.

Being near a substation means you should be getting power fairly quickly. Restoration of power is on a priority system. Hospitals and essential services come first. Another option is to evacuate to a location that has electricity hotel or friend outside the area. Like Hayes I have had to deal with this issue many times over the years.

If you want an eye-opening read on this subject check out the trilogy One Second After, by author William Forstchen. It's a book series about an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon detonated over the U.S. The author did extensive research about the weapon's effects on our electric grid, and also the cascading failures in our various systems, and the tragic consequences. In the book, the main character's young daughter is diabetic, and while he initially is able to wrangle a few vials of insulin from the small town pharmacist while the pharmacy is being looted, but ultimately he has to watch his daughter wither away over a period of months and die. It's a sobering but easy and quick read. I've read the first book, but haven't gotten around to reading the last two. I gave the book to one of my brothers hoping he would take the lessons to heart and do a little prepping for his family, but he's not much of a reader.

William Forstchen has become a bit of an activist and figurehead in the movement to persuade government officials to spend the money to harden the U.S. electric grid. It's estimated that it would only take a few billion dollars to harden the key components in it, and while hardening them wouldn't prevent all blackouts, it could greatly reduce how widespread the event is and minimize the downtime.

92fstech I realize this won't help in your case, but I made a decision years ago to skip some doses of my prescription meds and instead stockpile them, and I now have a 6-9 month supply. Granted they're technically expired, but I'll take my chances with expired meds over the possibility of having no meds during a crisis. I take the expired ones for my daily doses, and rotate the new unexpired meds into my stockpile, so I'm taking daily meds never more than a year since expired.

Been doing this for probably 4 or 5 years now, and I'm still here.

In many other ways I'm not nearly so prepared, and I've given a lot of thought to trying to stockpile refrigerated/ frozen food, but there is no good way to do it in my circumstances, so if the SHTF then I'm going to be out hunting, fishing, and bartering for what we need.

Glad you survived without any serious problems and thanks for the reminder this thread provides.

I have solar panels and a backup generator. I’m also a Type I, and the other folks are correct about insulin lasting longer outside the fridge than the labels lead you to believe.

I’ve also accepted that if the SHTF, I’ll be going on the suicide missions since I won’t last too long anyway.

Luckily not on any meds needing to be kept cold, but we finally are getting a whole house generator installed next month. Been lucky that all the other times we haven’t been out of power for more than a day or so, but don’t want to take a chance these days.

Insulin wise, I'm currently only taking lantus, and at the dosage I'm using I'm making 3 months worth last for five, so I guess that's not so bad. I know it's pretty hardy stuff...the pen I'm currently working through stays unrefrigerated, but I really don't want to risk the rest of the supply going bad because it gets warm. We do have a michigan basement (dirt floor, never gets above about 60 degrees down there) which is kind of like a root cellar, so I guess in a worst-case scenario we could move things down there and hope for the best.

Thankfully we live in a part of the country that doesn't see many natural disasters. We get the occasional small tornado or maybe a Blizzard every couple of years, but no hurricanes, earthquakes, or fires. My in-laws live in the Florida panhandle, and they were there for Ivan...we were down just a few weeks afterwards and I remember what a mess that was. They had just moved there and were living in a rental house, which got destroyed. Stuff was messed up for a long time afterwards.

I'm not in a position at this point to be able to afford a whole-house generator. We do have a camper with a basic solar setup, so I could use that for lighting and some other minor stuff, but there's no fridge in it. A small propane powered fridge might not be a bad idea, as if an outage lasted more than a few days I could transfer stuff to that and free up the generator for other things like the well pump or other appliances.

quote:

I’ve also accepted that if the SHTF, I’ll be going on the suicide missions since I won’t last too long anyway. Wink

Yeah I guess if somebody has to do it, it might as well be me! I was kinda hoping to go out by eating a giant pile of donuts, though .

I was also about to recommend Forstchen's book. It is an eye opener.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Yeah I guess if somebody has to do it, it might as well be me! I was kinda hoping to go out by eating a giant pile of donuts, though .

That’s how you fortify yourself for your coming transition to the other side, like a kamikaze pilot taking a last drink of sake before climbing into his Zero. Donuts for glory!

quote:

That’s how you fortify yourself for your coming transition to the other side, like a kamikaze pilot taking a last drink of sake before climbing into his Zero. Donuts for glory!

Heck yeah, one last blaze of glory washed down with a mound of sugary goodness .

It wouldn't be the first time in my life that donuts have taken on a ceremonial significance. The last day at the state LE academy before graduation, they served us donuts for breakfast. The food that they had served over the previous 16 weeks had been horrifically bad (I learned there that green eggs and ham is not just a Dr. seuss-ism!), and then on the last day before we became "real cops" we got donuts, like some sacred right of passage .

After evacuating from Katrina we ended up in Nashville. No problems getting refills from Walgreens where I had been getting my scripts filled. They were nice about it and did not ask lots of nosey questions. A pleasant experience.

quote:

Originally posted by TBH:
Two options come to mind. Solar with battery storage (expensive), or natural gas/propane generators. Whole house coverage with auto transfer switch. You might forget the power is out!
Craigslist has used Generacs from time to time.

This, times infinity. I have a propane Kohler on a big tank, has run 4/5 days at a time during major outages. Absolutely painless, other than the ridiculous price of propane.

BTW, I wouldn't give you a quarter for a trainload of Generacs. HORRIBLE reputation around here for reliability and availability of service/spares.

Obama has propane at his abode in MA.

quote:

Originally posted by m1009:
Luckily not on any meds needing to be kept cold, but we finally are getting a whole house generator installed next month.

Whole house generators are great...until the propane runs out. Then, you're going to die unless you've got some other alternatives.

Solar, wind, hydroelectric are all options for some. Root cellars, canning, and freeze drying are options for others.

Bottom line is, at least half of the population of this country is going to die should the S really HTF.

A good (deep enough) root cellar should keep things under around 45F which is good enough for insulin, but that is the least of the OPs problems. Even being able to source insulin is going to be problem number one.

And I would agree with previous posters, if you haven't read Forschten's books, now would be a good time.