After living through Irma several years ago, we have added a couple of solar generators to our preps. We have a big gas generator that will run the whole house (and a/c!), but with Irma, there was no fuel! All the gas stations were either out completely or if they got refueled, there were lines for miles (literally). We would get up at 4 am and start hitting the stations near the interstate hoping someone got refueled over night.
We live in FL and have experienced many storms and have lost power many times, we are usually out for about a week when a hurricane rolls through. But Irma was different, all of south FL evacuated north eating up all our resources and after the storm, they came back through going home, so we had major shortages for days before and days after it hit land. That on top of record breaking flooding in my area, shutting down almost all the roads near our river... I-75 was within hours of being shut down, that would have been a huge blow.
I say all of this because of the fuel prices today and possible shortages. It is going to be very painful if not impossible for average Americans to afford to run generators if there are blackouts (along with fuel shortages). It is a really scary feeling when you have no.power and a generator sitting there little or no fuel to run it.
Solar / batteries are expensive and really won't run a whole lot for very long. But I know with what I got, I can run my well and keep a couple freezers going. I hope you all are taking steps to make sure your families will be safe and fed if they do pull some (more) shenanigans thos summer.
After living through Irma several years ago, we have added a couple of solar generators to our preps. We have a big gas generator that will run the whole house (and a/c!), but with Irma, there was no fuel! All the gas stations were either out completely or if they got refueled, there were lines for miles (literally). We would get up at 4 am and start hitting the stations near the interstate hoping someone got refueled over night.
We live in FL and have experienced many storms and have lost power many times, we are usually out for about a week when a hurricane rolls through. But Irma was different, all of south FL evacuated north eating up all our resources and after the storm, they came back through going home, so we had major shortages for days before and days after it hit land. That on top of record breaking flooding in my area, shutting down almost all the roads near our river... I-75 was within hours of being shut down, that would have been a huge blow.
I say all of this because of the fuel prices today and possible shortages. It is going to be very painful if not impossible for average Americans to afford to run generators if there are blackouts (along with fuel shortages). It is a really scary feeling when you have no.power and a generator sitting there little or no fuel to run it.
Solar / batteries are expensive and really won't run a whole lot for very long. But I know with what I got, I can run my well and keep a couple freezers going. I hope you all are taking steps to make sure your families will be safe and fed if they do pull some (more) shenanigans thos summer.