#disaster preparedness

[zinjanthropusboisei]

Noticed something a little funky in the world around you and want to figure out what's up? Especially if there might be something you ought to be doing about it? Not sure what information sources to trust these days? If you're in the US, federal agencies like NOAA, USGS, EPA and more collect massive amounts of scientific data every day, much of which is publicly available online - if you know where to look.

A PDF version with clickable links is available for free on my itchio page (quakeandquiver); I'll add a direct link in a reblog.

[artemis-pendragon]

Okay so I'm not in the hurricane evacuation zone by any means but I do live in a horrendously natural disaster-prone region SO!! Here are the best tips I've gotten for surviving in a disaster zone.

1) Write your name and your emergency contact's phone number in DARK PERMANENT INK somewhere visible on your skin (wrist is good) so if you're unconscious or dead emergency response can ID you and get in contact with your family/friends

2) If you have any particular medical needs or conditions write that too!! Specific medications + doses, warning signs and symptoms to watch for, etc

3) During the disaster, if your circumstances change or may change soon, record a new voicemail message explaining these changes so anyone who calls you knows your most recent status and location. Whatever details you think might help!

4) Stock up on Rx meds before pharmacies close. Get some OTC meds too and make a watertight and portable first aid kit. If you're gonna be in flood conditions and your Rx bottles aren't fully sealed, wrap the lids with duct tape to make a tight seal. If you've got tampons and pads in the house, stuff those babies in there! Good for everything from periods, to bloody noses and open wounds in an emergency! Plus they're super absorbent and can be used to temporarily block up small spaces and cracks

5) If there's no bottled water left in stores buy the biggest and cheapest bottles of soda you can, dump them out, and fill them with fresh water. If you have sinks and bathtubs that aren't expected to flood, fill those bad boys up with fresh water, too. Store as much water as you can!!

6) Put all important documents such as Social Security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, or anything else you want to save into waterproof bags. Ziplock baggies double sealed with duct tape along the closed seams are great! Double bag if needed!

7) Special cool new thing I learned about hurricanes that I'm probably the last dumbass on earth to know but just in case I'm not: even if a hurricane makes landfall as a Cat 3, if it was a Cat 5 over the ocean on approach it will bring in Cat 5 surge. Downgrading the wind speed doesn't downgrade the flood potential

8) TAKE THE BACKROADS OUT OF MAJOR CITIES OH MY GOD PLS DONT GET STUCK ON THE FREEWAYS IT'S HELL

9) Last but not least, if you can't afford to evacuate or don't have a place to stay, some people under videos and posts tagged with current natural disasters are offering temporary places to crash for those in affected areas for free!! I've seen multiple cases now of people offering up their guest rooms or couches to evacuees and their pets in the last week that have worked out ❤️

If anyone else has more tips, and more experience with this type of disaster specifically, please add on!! Love you all and hope everyone stays safe 💕

[neolithicsheep]

We are getting towards winter in the northern hemisphere so it's time for me to share my number one tip for surviving winter power outages from my time living off grid that isn't "get a wood stove installed".

Get a bed tent. You don't have to permanently install it with your mattress inside it although you will have to do some macgyvering if you don't. It will create a little cocoon that will stay warmer anyway but you can level it up a notch by buying a cheap king size comforter and draping that over it for more insulation. If your power goes out and you need to stay warm, load every pillow, blanket, and living creature that will reasonably fit into it and close the door. You will have a warm and cozy little cocoon to which you can add battery powered lights, a gallon jug of water to keep it from freezing, etc.

Also grab you solar lanterns (LumenAID makes great ones), soft beanie hats, hand warmers, and socks to sleep in, and consider sweaters for your pets for whom they're appropriate.

[lesbianinthenightosphere]

Who knew that Anti-COVID activism and anti-eugenics are the key to communal solidarity? /s

[writingwithcolor]

[Running Commentary] Zombies are Zombies: Cultural Relativism, Folklore, and Foreign Perspectives

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina: OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

Marika: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

Rina: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

~ ~ ~

Based on the reception we received the last time we did one of these, the Japanese moderator team returns with another running commentary. (They���re easier to answer this way) (Several of Marika’s answers may be troll answers)

Our question today pertains to foreign perspectives on folklore—that is, how people view folklore and stories that aren’t a part of their culture. CW: for anything you’d associate with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, really.

Keep reading for necromancy, horror games, debunking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Hong Kong jiangshi films, Japanese disaster prep videos, and Vietnamese idol pop...

Essentially, in my story there’s an organization who wants to end the world. They think this one woman in particular, a woman of mixed Vietnamese (irreligious, Kinh) and Japanese descent who spent her formative years in Japan, is the person to do it because she’s (for lack of a better term) a necromancer; powers are semi-normal in this world. She prefers not to use her powers overall, but when she does she mostly talks to ghosts and spirits that are giving people issues. She could technically reanimate a corpse but she wouldn’t because she feels that would be morally wrong, not to mention she couldn’t start a zombie apocalypse in the traditional sense (plague, virus, etc.) in the first place. 

(Marika (M): Your local public health officials would like to assure necromancers that reviving the dead will not provoke a zombie apocalypse. This is because necromancy is a reanimation technique, and not a pathogenic vector. Assuming that the technique does not release spores, airborne viruses, gasses, or other related physical matter that can affect neighboring corpses in a similar way, there should be no issue. However, necromancers should comply with local regulations w/r to permitting and only raise the dead with the approval of the local municipality and surviving family.)

M: I think it makes sense for most people of E. Asian descent, including Japanese and Vietnamese people, to find it culturally reprehensible to reanimate the dead. I imagine the religious background of your character matters as well. What religion(s) are her family members from? How do they each regard death and the treatment of human remains? Depending on where she grew up, I’m curious on how she got opportunities to practice outside specialized settings like morgues.

M: It’s true, space in Japan is at a premium, even for the dead. You note that most of Japan cremates, but, surely, it must have occurred to you that if there aren’t that many bodies in Japan to raise…she doesn’t exactly have much opportunity to practice with her powers, does she? I yield to our Vietnamese followers on funerary customs in Vietnam, but you may want to better flesh out your world-building logic on how necromancy operates in your story (And maybe distinguish between necromancy v. channeling v. summoning v. exorcisms). 

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina (R): OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

M: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

R: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

R: And yes, the Tofugu article uses Resident Evil and those games to support its theory, with the reason that they are set in the West. But that only suggests that Japanese people consider zombies a Western thing, not that Japanese people consider zombies nonthreatening if they were to exist. 

M: Same with vampires - series like Castlevania also use Western/ European settings and not “Vampires in Japan '' because vampires just aren't part of our folklore.

(M: Also, realistically, these series deal with individuals who quickly perish after their bodies are used as hosts for the pathogen in question, rather than the pathogen reanimating a corpse. Although the victims are initially alive, they soon succumb to the pathogen/ parasite and their organic matter then becomes an infectious vector for the disease. It should be noted, infecting ordinary, living humans with viruses to grant them elevated powers, is not only a major violation of consent and defies all recommendations made by the Belmont Report (in addition to a number of articles in the Hague Convention w/r to the use of WMDs) and is unlikely to be approved by any reputable university’s IRB committee. This is why the Umbrella Corporation are naughty, naughty little children, and honestly, someone should have assassinated Wesker for the grant money.)

R: wwww

From what I know Vietnam didn’t have a zombie movie until 2022. 

R: Do you mean a domestically produced zombie movie? Because Vietnamese people have most certainly had access to zombie movies for a long time. The Hong Kong film Mr. Vampire (1985) was a gigantic hit in Southeast Asia; you can find a gazillion copies of this movie online with Viet subs, with people commenting on how nostalgic this movie is or how they loved it as a kid. 

M: “Didn’t have a [domestic] zombie movie” is not necessarily the same thing as “Would not have made one if the opportunity had arisen.” None of us here are personifications of the Vietnamese film industry, I think it’s safe to say we couldn’t know. Correlation is not causation. It’s important to do your research thoroughly, and not use minor facts to craft a narrative based on your own assumptions.

(R: …Also, I did find a 2017 music video for “Game Over” by the Vietnamese idol Thanh Duy which features… a zombie apocalypse.)

(R: The MV has a very campy horror aesthetic and zombie backup dancers (which I love, everyone please watch this lol). But the scenes at the beginning and end where people are biting their fingers watching a threatening news report clearly establish that the zombies are considered a threat.)

So at one point, she laughs about the idea and remarks how ridiculous it is to think zombies could end the world. What I’m struggling with are other ways to show her attitude on the issue because I’d assume most non-Japanese readers wouldn’t get why she thinks like that. Are there any other ways to show why she thinks this way, especially ones that might resonate more with a Japanese reader?

R: The problem is this does not resonate in the first place. Your line of thinking is too Sapir-Whorf-adjacent. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, otherwise known as linguistic relativity theory, claims that language shapes cognition—that you can’t conceive of something if you can’t express it in your language. This is a very weak theory that you can easily bring evidence against: think of the last time you felt an emotion you had a hard time putting into words; just because you didn’t have the language for it doesn’t mean that you didn’t feel it, nor does it mean that you won’t be able to understand or recognize it if you feel it again. Similarly, it’s not a sound assumption to say that if some kind of subject matter does not exist in a culture, then people of that culture couldn't possibly conceive of it. This excerpt from linguist Laura Bailey sums it up quite well. 

M: Just because ghosts may be more culturally relevant doesn’t mean that zombies (or vampires, or whatever) are nonexistent in a Japanese or Vietnamese person’s imagination when it comes to horror and disaster.

R: Really,  if anything, Japanese people are much more attuned to how easily a society’s infrastructure can be destroyed by a disruptive force without adequate preparation. Japan is natural disaster central. A Japanese person would know better than anyone that if you aren’t prepared for a zombie epidemic—yeah it’s gonna be bad. 

M: Earthquakes, tsunami, typhoon, floods: Japan has robust disaster infrastructure out of necessity. 防災 or bousai, meaning disaster preparedness is a common part of daily life, including drills at workplaces, schools, and community organizations. Local government and community agencies are always looking for ways to make disaster and pandemic preparedness relevant to the public.

M: Might “zombie apocalypse prep as a proxy for disaster prep” be humorous in an ironic, self-deprecating way? Sure, but it’s not like Japanese people are innately different from non-Japanese people. Rather, by being a relatively well-off country practiced at disaster preparation with more experience than most parts of the world with many different types of disasters (and the accompanying infrastructure), it likely would seem more odd to most Japanese people within Japan to not handle a zombie apocalypse rather like might one handle a combination of a WMD/ chemical disaster+pandemic+civil unrest (all of which at least some part of Japan has experienced). Enjoy this very long, slightly dry video on COVID-19 safety procedures and preparedness using the framing device of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

M: Living in Los Angeles, I’ve often experienced similar tactics. We do a fair amount of advance and rehearsed disaster prep here as well. In elementary school, the first and last days of class were always for packing and unpacking home-made disaster packs, and “zombie apocalypse” simulations have been around since I was in middle school for all kinds of drills, including active shooter drills, like the one shown in this LAT article. The line between “prepper” and “well prepared” really comes down to degree of anxiety and zeal. So, it wouldn’t be just Japanese people who might not be able to resonate with your scene. The same could be said for anyone who lives somewhere with a robust disaster prevention culture.

M: A zombie apocalypse is not “real” in the sense of being a tangible threat that the majority of the world lives in fear of waking up to (At least, for the mental health of most people, I hope so). Rather, zombie apocalypse narratives are compelling to people because of the feelings of vague, existential dread they provoke: of isolation, paranoia, dwindling resources, and a definite end to everything familiar. I encourage you to stop thinking of the way Japanese people and non-Japanese people think about vague, existential dread as incomprehensible to each other. What would you think about zombies if they actually had a chance of existing in your world? That’s probably how most Japanese people would feel about them, too.

[victusinveritas]

Everyone should be prepared. The list below is what you must have prepared to take and also scanned and uploaded (and password protected). More info in slideshow link below : They strike fast and with little if any warning. How to Prepare for and Survive a Wildfire https://www.slideshare.net/CoolGus/prepare-for-and-survive-a-wildfire-255302421

[etraytin]

Emergency Preparedness on a Budget: Part Two (Medicine and Power)

Hey there everybody, time for Part Two of Emergency Preparedness When Money is No! You can find Part 1 (Food and Water) here.

Just a note on Part 1, someone in the comments made the extremely good point that having food is not super-useful if you cannot eat it because you can’t cook it or get into the cans. This is true! My example stash used Chunky Soup and tuna because they can be eaten cold and usually have pop tops, but a can opener is a great addition to the emergency kit. Many preppers will also include a propane camp stove in their food stash, but if you’re on a very tight budget, you can absolutely get by with a few days of cold soup. (A basic propane stove, tank and lighter runs about 30-40 dollars if you are interested in getting one.)

Now on to today’s topics: Medicine and Power

Once you’ve got your 3 days of food and water sorted, you want other important survival stuff in your kit. Being as how we are all here together on Tumblr, the odds are pretty good that you or someone in your house is reliant on at least one kind of medication that must be taken regularly. If that’s the case, you need to have at least 3 days and ideally a week of meds stocked up as well.

“Wait a second,” you might say, “a week of medicine is not going to do me much good if I starve to death after eating my three days of food,” and you would be right, if a bit dramatic. In a disaster situation, however, the food and water supply pipeline is basically the first thing that activates. I was in the Asheville area during Hurricane Helene and though it took about the expected three days for support to really gear up, there was food and water being passed around within about 24 hours despite no gas, no communications and highways blocked in all directions. In almost any situation, you are going to get access to food and water before you get any other kind of relief. Getting your own prescription medicines in the right dose, on the other hand? That’s a lot more dependent on the kind of disaster you’re looking at, so it pays to plan ahead.

If you are in the US and have non-controlled prescription meds, most insurance plans will allow you to refill your meds up to 7 days early. If you can set a reminder on your phone and do that a couple times, you will end up a couple of weeks ahead on your pills without any skipping or rationing. That’s a good place to be even without considering disasters, just because life does insist on happening ALL THE TIME and sometimes it’s hard to get to the pharmacy.

If your medicines are tightly controlled then this is a harder problem. One thing you should definitely NOT do is skip medicines to build up an emergency supply. The whole object of the game here is for you to be healthy and okay even when bad things happen, so it defeats the purpose if you are hurting yourself to try and prepare. Talk to your doctor about what you can do to get emergency supplies of your medicines, or what to do if there is a disaster. Usually they will be sympathetic, and hopefully they can help. If they cannot help you beforehand, they generally have more leeway to help if a disaster is looming and it’s worth trying to call them if the weather report is particularly grim. In a big disaster, especially if you’ve had to leave your home, get yourself to a Red Cross shelter and ask for Disaster Health Services. They can be really helpful in getting those important medications.

For nonprescription meds, it’s helpful to have a small supply of the basics in your medicine cabinet, built up over time. If you go into your Walmart or equivalent when you are not even sick and buy the generic version of all these meds, you’re probably going to save 50%, maybe more, over trying to buy them at the drugstore or gas station when you’re already feeling terrible. They’re just good to have around! Another thing to note is that medicines kept cool and dry will last a lot longer than their best-by dates, so you don’t need to go throwing them away every couple years. Here’s a short list of some of the best meds to have on hand in an emergency:

Painkiller/Fever Reducer: Advil or Tylenol in the US, ibuprofen and paracetamol elsewhere. Good for keeping fever down if anyone gets sick, or for treating sprains, muscle strains or headaches. Be very careful of the dosing since both of these can do bad things in high doses.

Anti-Diarrheal: Immodium or loperamide. It’s easy to accidentally eat something bad in an emergency, and diarrhea can be both a logistical problem (especially if water is off!) and a potentially life-threatening health issue.

Electrolyte Solution: Pedialyte, electrolyte drink, oral rehydration salts. If someone does get diarrhea or if the weather is very hot, hydration becomes a massive issue as well. Someone who is sick or dehydrated enough may throw up plain water, but electrolyte drinks are better tolerated and solve the problem much faster. If you do not have any of these, you can also make your own oral rehydration solution by mixing a three-finger pinch of salt and a one-hand scoop of sugar into about two cups of water.

Antihistamine: Benadryl (diphenhydramine) or Claratin (loratidine) This one’s especially big after hurricanes, tornadoes, or any other storm that really rustles the jimmes on the local vegetation. It can be a little slice of hell to be out clearing all the brush that fell on your house and be surrounded by vast clouds of pollen and the occasional swarm of really unhappy bees.

Antacid: Pepto-Bismol (Bismuth subsalicylate) If you’re already on a proton-pump inhbitor like Prilosec or Zantac, stock those up instead. Otherwise, Pepto-Bismol is a good all-rounder to cover heartburn, upset stomach and nausea, all things that might come from stress and weird food during a disaster.

First Aid: A first aid kit could be a post on its own, but you can get the basics for cheap and keep them in a drawer til you need them. For maximum versatility, get yourself gauze pads and medical tape because you can use them to make whatever size bandaid you need, a few butterfly closures for bigger cuts, a tube of bacitracin zinc for antibiotic cream, a long cloth wrap to brace a sprain or fracture, and a bottle of saline to wash a wound or clean your eyes.

Power:

A lot of the disasters you’re likely to face will involve power outages, whether it be just your neighborhood, half the town, or the ENTIRE TRI-STATE AREA (if you are Dr. Doofenschmirtz.) In our Modern Miracle Age just about everybody has at least one flashlight with them at all times, built into their phones, but that’s only going to get you so far when the lights go out.

Powering your phone is a top priority in a power outage, not so much for the light but because it is your main source of communication and information for as long as the cell towers are working. You will want a power bank for your emergency kit; a little battery pack about the size of a cell phone itself, that holds enough electricity to recharge your phone one or more times before needing charged. A basic power bank can be had for about $15, but they are nearly infinitely scalable both in cost and benefits. You can get them with built-in cords, with solar panels, with flashlights of their own, with capacity to charge multiple phones, etc. Buy whatever one fits your budget and needs, then make sure to keep it charged and keep the appropriate cords with it!

Given that you’ll need your phone for other things, you’re going to want some light sources in your emergency stash as well. The easiest and safest of these are battery-powered flashlights and lanterns. You’ll want a mix of lanterns to light a room, flashlights to carry around, and headlamps for reading and close work. All these come in a huge variety of quality and price, but you don’t need anything expensive, just something that will work. Watch for sales at the beginning and end of camping season. Once you have your lights, buy batteries for all of them but do not store them with the batteries installed! For best storage, put your batteries side by side (not touching end to end because they may discharge over time) in a plastic baggie and rubber band or tape the bag to its light. Put them with your emergency food and you’ll know where they are, even in the dark.

Candles are a power-outage classic because they’re cheap, cheerful and don’t need batteries, but be careful if you use them. Make sure it’s on a clean, hard surface with nothing around it to burn, and that you never leave one unattended or in a room with only kids or sleeping people. A mirror tile or flat mirror is great if you’ve got one because it’s not flammable and will make the light brighter. Make sure your smoke alarm is working! (If you don’t have a smoke detector, call your fire department or local Red Cross and they can get you hooked up with one.) Jar candles are usually the best in terms of burn time and safety, and you can often get them real cheap and barely used at garage sales. After-Christmas sales are also good, if you don’t mind the smell of off-season merriment.

There’s a lot more stuff out there for emergency power, from solar generators to backup power stations to uninterruptible power supplies. Preppers love power almost as much as they love weird food hacks, and that is a _lot._ Unfortunately, once you get past the power bank level, the prices start going up very fast. If you have a few hundred dollars to put into your preparations you can get a portable power station that can not only charge your devices but run small appliances for awhile on AC power. If you use a CPAP machine like me, a power station might mean the difference between being able to sleep soundly or not. If you get one of those, make sure to get one that can charge in several different ways, especially from a running vehicle. They’re really handy in a pinch! Watch very carefully for sales on these stations from companies like Jackery, Bluetti and EcoFlow. They compete closely with one another, and a new model on the market from any of them can trigger price wars. It’s worth doing a little research to get a better deal.

Next time: Temperature Management (Or “Too Hot and Too Cold.”)

[refugedepot]

Before you run those dandelions over with the lawn mower or douse them with weed killer, check this video out. Dandelions have various benefits, edible leaves rich in vitamins, diuretic properties, potential antioxidant effects, and use in herbal medicine. via @bodylovebytal

[captawesomesauce]

Disaster Prep is a full time 24/7/365 day a year thing, because no one should just go out and buy everything all at once, and times and circumstances change!

More importantly, there is no one size fits all way of thinking about your family, your situation, and your needs.

Some people do well with checklists, buy this and they're done. And that's ok! Some people do better with being asked questions and thinking critically about what they have, what they need, and what they'll do if x happens, or y happens. And that's ok too!

So having said that, a bunch of people I know and love have been filling my message boxes with questions asking me to tell them what to do, and so I made this quick little pdf as a starting point, not an ending point. This is the rough draft that I sent out, I've not proof read it, and I've found that days later, I'm still adding some stuff to it, but it's "good enough" for now and so I'll share it with y'all too...

[zinjanthropusboisei]

Since the wildfire smoke has been hitting the east coast, I've been thinking about doing a flowchart-style infographic on where to find US hazard information - so many of the comments on the info I posted were like "huh. I was wondering why the sky looked so funny." With the state of the Internet, search engines, and social media today, it really isn't intuitive where you can go to find reliable information on something so vague as "I noticed something a lil funky today," and so many of the platforms and accounts that emergency managers have spent years building up trust and visibility for have disappeared or become unverifiable because of Twitter's meltdown. Best to go to straight to the source when you can, as long as you know where to start.

This would just focus on the federal government, and mainly on immediate warnings and alert information...I'd rather just focus on natural hazards as well since those are the resources I'm familiar with, but that might be too narrow. Any ideas for questions and flowpaths besides what I've sketched out so far are welcome!

[labelleizzy]

Watching the TV news about the fires 🔥 🚒 raging through LA County, my epiphany is that most people have NOT been marinating in fictional apocalyptic scenarios for most of their lives.

I've had one literal go-bag for over ten years and a mental list of what to grab if I ever hit an emergency situation from home, for even longer.

Because when you talk about the end of the world and all the ways it might end, you think about your wants vs your NEEDS. I would absolutely grieve SO MANY THINGS about my house if I lost it, I have irreplaceable memorabilia and other possessions.

But if I had my husband, our cat, my meds, enough food and water, and the ability to access our bank account and credit card? We could absolutely bug out if required. That is a privilege, not going to lie. Because I've 🤔 thought about it for... Decades, I know what I'd need and what I'd grab or abandon.

Remember: the most important resources we have are between our ears. 🧠

Make a disaster plan. NOW.

[neolithicsheep]

Ok so you're looking at the aftermath of Helene and you're thinking "shit, how would I keep my phone charged? What about my neighbors?" and you have some outdoor space and some cash. Your friendly formerly off grid sheep farmer is here to help.

You need this set up right here:

To that you will need to add:

Y connectors:

The 100aH (amp Hour) deep cycle battery of your choice - lead acid AGM will be cheaper, lithium (LiFePo) is more expensive but lasts much longer.

Finally, you need a small pure sine wave inverter like this one: https://a.co/d/70vRd79

Plug the panels into the Y connectors then into the single wire to run to the charge controller. They are now connected in parallel. Take them outside to a sunny spot and face them south and prop them up at about a 45 degree angle. This isn't perfect but it will be good enough.

Connect your battery and charge controller. Connect the panels to the charge controller. All of the places to do this are labeled and all you need is a Phillips screwdriver. I recommend doing it once in a non-disaster situation so you know you can do it but you'll be fine. Boom, you are getting electricity from the sun!

The inverter draws power even when it's not running so don't leave it hooked up when you're not using it. When someone needs to charge their phone, put those alligator clips on the matching color battery posts, turn the inverter on, and plug in the phone/radio. Voilà! A single 100aH battery is not going to run a bunch of things but it will help keep cell phones charged without using up the gas in your car.

The panels are weatherproof but everything else needs to be protected by the way so you'll need to set this up in a shed or garage or in the house. Lead acid batteries can produce hydrogen gas when being charged but just having one isn't a big risk.

FAQ:

Yes, you can permanently mount the panels to your roof if you own your home etc. They're designed for that!

It is true that places sell "solar generators" - those are a charge controller, battery, and an inverter in one box at a very high price point. When a component goes bad you will be unable to replace the component and must replace the entire $1000 box. They are also not upgradeable or expandable, this is.

You do not have to buy Renogy, I recommend them because they kept me in electricity for the years I was off grid.

You do not have to buy the kit, you can buy the components of it as and when you can afford them!

Remember to keep your battery on a trickle charger.

[wachinyeya]

This Hurricane-Proof Florida Development Easily Endured Helene, Ian, and Idalia–Proving Climate Designs Work https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/this-hurricane-proof-florida-development-easily-endured-helene-ian-and-idalia-proving-climate-designs-work/

[25centsoda]

I am Once Again thinking about disaster preparedness

and, like, what are we doing?? D’y’all know how many tornadoes we’ve had in my area in the last month?? Way more than usual! A lot more flooding in the past 8 or so years also. What are we doing.

also shoutout to FEMA (US Federal Emergency Management Agency) for finally including considerations for disabled people on their easy-to-find infographics on disaster preparedness, I’ve been reading these articles since I was like 7 years old and it’s nice to see more than the assumption that everyone in a household is young and able-bodied. It just takes a few extra lines to say, or one more infographic to make

[victusinveritas]