Prepping for "Frankenstorm"

If you live on the East Coast, I know you have been hearing about the "Frankenstorm." If not, this is yet again a possible Halloween buster. Last year's "Snowmaggedon" dropped at least 6 inches of heavy, wet snow on Halloween, leaving thousands of people (like me) without power for days and even weeks. We weren't prepared at all for the damage. Trees had fallen EVERYWHERE and if they didn't, the branches were damn near touching the floor!

Meet the Frankenstorm!

{source}

"Frankenstorm" if lands as expected is believed to be the perfect storm. A cold winter-ish type front coming from the west is to collide with Hurricane Sandy which just took the lives of 23 people in the Caribbean. Not sure whether my part of PA will get the hurricane or the winter front but either way, we are doing a little bit of prepping, just in case.

So I thought I would share some ways to prep for Frankenstorm or any other terrible storm:

Water. Get plenty of it! You will need it to drink, eat (boil), brush your teeth, wash up and even FLUSH your toilets! This is very important, especially if you have a youngster in the home. I just picked up 6 gallons of spring water and a few cases of water bottles.

Ice. You can either go out and buy bags of ice OR take some freezer bags and fill it with water and freeze them. These are great for your coolers to "save" food during an outage. PS: Get a cooler! Ours is a 5 day and literally keeps ice for 5 days!

Blankets. This is great for those cold winter storms. Last year it was below 50 when the power was out. It was pretty damn cold in the house.

Flashlights (with FRESH batteries). You always can use these. Nothing like walking in pitch darkness and running into things.

Candles. These make me nervous because of potential fire hazard but they can be good to have. Just keep them away from your kids and pets and give them space from other objects in your home. Can never be too safe!

Canned food. Well you gotta eat, right?

Generator. If you can afford it, get it! We unfortunately can't right now but it is on our wish list.


Other things to think about...

If you have a propane gas grill, think about getting your tanks filled. We have charcoal so it may come in handy to boil water (our stove is electric) and even have hot food!

Fill up your car's gas tanks too. That's a just in case as well.

CHARGE your phone! My phone was not charged at all when we lost power. Scrounging for a source of power sucked big time! Plus it may be your only way to know what the storm's progress is and contacting people in case of an emergency.

Wipes (or wipees as we call them). Great for wiping down you and your kiddos and washing your hands. After all, cold showers in the winter suck too!

 Clean your gutters and drains! You don't want anything backing up into the house from all the fallen leaves!

I think that covers all that is in my brain right now. Share with us what other ways you are prepping for the storm or how you would prep... Please! :)