We have the canned goods, the dry goods, the water filter, the ammo, an emergency trunk filled with everything you can think of—drugs, first aid, lanterns, etc.
But I’m sitting here in the dark for hours after a transformer blew in our small village. Totally failed our dry run. I can’t get the lanterns working. Our batteries seem corrupted and I don’t have the right kind of batteries in some instances. And I need a lantern that uses another kind of energy too.
Big fail! I’m off to Home Depot when the lights come on to truly get prepared. Glad this happened today. I thought we were in good shape. Didn’t make it an hour.
"water filter"?
What about water? This is by far the most important item. I'm on a well and have no generator big enough that can power the well. I keep 30 gallons in 5 gallon "cubes" on hand at all times. They came in handy when our well failed one weekend and more recently when the Houston derecho left us without power for 72 hours.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S1RACNY
Additionally, if you know something is coming, fill your bathtubs with water. These can be used for bathing. I wouldn't get into them to bathe, but I'd dip out enough of that water to shower with in some manner.
You can also pick up a Birky filtration system which would make any water clean enough to drink. It will run hundreds of gallons through it. Before you need to replace them. 4 years worth, I believe. We use one in our big RV because we cannot trust the cleanliness at the spigot at the RV parks. Always some idiot using the drinking water to clean their poop hose! Morons.
You still cant get the Berkey Black filters as they are still under attack by the EPA. We also use one in our RV bc people can be nasty. We use a clear glass Big Berkey in our house and man that tap water can be really yellow brown sometimes.
We have a well on our place but I don't trust it, lots of herbicides and pesticide runoff from 100acre corn/cotton field. That will be last resort. Have a 300 gallon tank we collect off a gutter we'll run through the Berkey.
Filling the bathtub ahead of time can also allow you to flush your toilet. During Snovid here in Tx few years back that came in really handy.
The BlackBerkey filter thing is utterly infuriating...especially as we witness Helene victims trying to get back to safe living. You have to wonder who was behind the decision. The Cheneys/Halliburton would be my guess.
Pleasant Hill Grains has a good summary of this BS at their site:
https://pleasanthillgrain.com/berkey-water-purifier-filter
https://pleasanthillgrain.com/media/pdf/Berkey-Water-Filters-Sues-the-EPA-Press-Release-Final.pdf
https://x.com/absolutewithe/status/1699923966582821135?s=46&t=YOYLTb1OndfnTUo90FwYGg&_kx=