Portable solar generators are an excellent choice for keeping electronics humming while trekking through the wilderness or riding out an unexpected power outage, but sometimes, your alternative power needs might be a little more, well, mundane. Consider the case of a building a pole barn or other outbuilding on a…
Getting far, far away from it all may be a wonderful way to relax and recharge, but going ultra-primitive can be dangerous. Civilization has its headaches, but it also has emergency workers, easy access to important information, and the safeguards that allow us to live our daily lives without the…
Take a quick look at your appointment calendar. Did you find an entry for “Deal with Weather Related Emergency” or “Take Part in Evacuation” anywhere? Of course you didn’t. Disasters don’t follow a predictable schedule. They arise unexpectedly, and you have to be able to respond accordingly. Sometimes that means…
We all know that there’s no getting out of death or taxes, but unfortunately, life’s list of inevitable problems doesn’t end there. As more than 50 million people discovered during the blackout of 2003, at some point, a power outage will leave you sitting in the dark. Since these interruptions…
For most people, a short electrical outage may be inconvenient, but for those dependent upon oxygen concentrators or other medical equipment, a night without power could be catastrophic. If you or a loved one are a member of that growing population, the very thought of losing electricity might make you…
One day in the not-too-distant future, when you are gathered around the barbeque with your neighbors to share a few burgers and a more than a few stories, someone will probably bring up the July Heat Wave of 2012. You might get tired of hearing the story, but you aren’t…
As summer fades and a familiar chill seeps into the morning air, thoughts naturally turn to the wonders of fall. In those quiet hours, we dream of spectacular foliage, intricately carved pumpkins, and watching our favorite college team dominate the grid iron. And yet, for many of us, something ominous…
We are living in a unique time in American history: Never before have so many people known so little about their neighbors. That’s unfortunate, because, even though we tend to think of preparedness as an individual mandate, the truth is that neighbors who can pull together while responding to a…
Long ago, when practice for another grueling season was about to begin, Green Bay Packers veterans knew Vince Lombardi would start things off by reminding his team of something too important to forget: “This, gentlemen,” the great coach would say, “is a football.” Lombardi understood the importance of the fundamentals….
Gone are the days when the only methods we had of lighting the darkness were candles and lanterns. Welcome to a day and age where light is literally at the tip of our fingers. With just a flip of a switch or a push of a button, we can illuminate…