How to Save Food During a Long Term Blackout

Oh, if I only knew then what I know now.

As some of you remember from previous posts, Greg and I endured a 3 week stay at the "Stone Age Hilton" during Hurricane Rita.

Looking back, we didn't realize how bad it was, or how unprepared we were. You never think it's going to happen to you...until it does.

That hurricane forced me to reevaluate our ability to recover from a catastrophic event. We were younger then (well, a little younger). If it had happened today, I'm not sure we would've recovered as quickly.

We lost so much, the worst of which was electrical power. Getting it back was out of our control. We could live with the wrecked house, the debris, and the toppled trees, but without electricity, we were living like cave people. The only blessing was that Greg was able to repair the water lines so at least we had running water and flush toilets.

We lived without electricity for 21 days. At first, I thought we might be able to save some of the food in the freezer, but once we realized the extent of the devastation, we knew it was a pipe dream.

When you're in the middle of a catastrophe, you're busy. You're dragging debris to a burn pile, trying to cook off a grill, or waiting in long lines for gasoline. By the time we lost the light, we were so tired, we collapsed onto a mattress we dragged out into the "safe" part of the house, ie, the part of the house that didn't have trees on top of it.

After it was over I thought about what we should have done. 

The first order of business was finding another source of electricity that didn't come from the grid. We had an ancient, gas powered generator that handled our most basic of needs, but again, gas was hard to come by. We had to ration how best to use the generator.

We gave up on the freezer, and concentrated on keeping us cool in the evenings and giving me one bare bulb so I could clean inside. It was unbearably hot. Having worked every daylight hour, we opted to use the generator for our comfort while we slept.

Today, we have one new gas generator and two solar powered generators. The hard part isn't using the generators, it's keeping them running.

If like Hurricane Rita, gas is hard to come by, again, you're limited on how best to use the gas (or diesel) machines. But solar generators are a pain too. You have to set up the solar panels and they take hours to replenish the solar battery. And you better hope it's a sunny day.

Bear in mind too, that to run a standard refrigerator, you'll need a machine that can provide 1500 watts of power. This isn't so much for running the fridge (that's generally under 700 watts), but starting it requires more oomph.

If you suspect your power loss will be short, say only a few hours you can:

• Use dry ice
  
  
• Use regular ice
  
  
• Don't open your fridge/freezer at all during your blackout. If the freezer is well packed, the contents should stay frozen for up to 3 days.

If the outage looks like it will be more than a day:

• Hook up your generators. You only need to run it for a few hours. What I would do is pull whatever food I need for that day, then plug it into the generator. The idea is to only open those doors once a day.
  
  
• In a situation like this, I might keep perishable, but frequently used food (like mayo or vegetables) in an ice chest. You can keep replenishing the ice (or dry ice)  as necessary.

If it's a real catastrophe with no hope for quick repairs, see above, then...:

• Start eating your freezer food down.
  
  
• As you eat your freezer down, be sure to replace the space with plastic jugs of water. They will freeze and continue to keep your other food cold.
  
  
• It's impossible to eat all your food quickly. If you think no help will reach you right away, look for other ways to use up food. If you know how to can, you can pressure can your food. This will make your meat last for years instead of months. If you can, you'll have to do it like great grandma did, outside, over an open fire.  --Starting to sound a lot like work, doesn't it?
  
  
• You can also dehydrate meat, fruit, and vegetables. This is easier than canning, but it does require electricity. Fortunately, most dehydrators while needing electricity for a long time, only use a tiny amount.
  
  
• See if friends in nearby unaffected areas can take your frozen food.

Don't be surprised if you lose the lot during a long outage. That's what insurance is for. 

In the meantime, in anticipation of a crisis, concentrate on storing cans, dried foods, whole beans, and rice.

The biggest annoyance during an outage is that you never know how long it will last. Many times your energy provider can give you an estimate on when power can be restored.

If it's a major outage, it's most likely caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, or ice. Depending on how bad it was, don't expect an immediate response.

They're doing the best they can, but if a large area has been affected, you'll have to wait like everyone else.

During Rita the one thing I missed most were fresh vegetables. They were the first to go bad, both in homes and grocery stores. I didn't see a piece of lettuce for over a month.

Once fresh produce runs out, it's unlikely you'll see it again until the city restores power and trucks are allowed to make deliveries again.

It's tough living without electricity. If you want to know how tough, turn off the main breaker in your house and see how long you last. It's sobering.

What's the worst calamity you've had to endure? Did you learn anything from it?

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