With the winter weather finally deciding to become winter and starting to become colder and snowier. This edition of The Stinger will give you some tips that will help you in need of a power outage, stuck in your car during a storm, or what you should have in your car in case of an emergency.
A snowstorm has just hit the town causing a town-wide power outage. Here are some tips to know to help keep food good and not perish. First, if you can move all of the things in the fridge into the freezer to keep them cool and slow the process of your food going bad. After that, if you are able DO NOT open the door to the freezer if you can avoid it. In a power outage food in the fridge will stay cold up to 4 hours without power. Once the power has been restored, see if the food in the freezer is still cold. If not, throw it out, do not test to see if it’s good.
To stay warm during this power outage dress in warm clothes, and pile blankets and other items to make a warm pile. This will help you conserve energy and heat in your body. You can also light candles and close curtains and blinds to try and trap the heat in the house.
So, you learned how to keep food good and yourself warm during a blizzard at home. However, what do you do when you are driving and you end up trapped on the side of the road? First, you should figure out how much gas you have and try to conserve that as much as possible. Running the car with the heat on for a few minutes every hour to heat yourself. When heating your car you should remove as much snow from the exhaust pipe to keep from getting gas poisoning. Keep in mind that you should also roll down your window every so often so you don’t end up with carbon monoxide poisoning.
As well as keeping blankets or warm clothing in the car if you have the space. Also, keep off your phone to conserve battery power to be able to call for help in the morning or when the weather lets up. And if you can prepare beforehand, put crayons and a lighter in your car because the crayons will burn for up to 30 minutes giving you a light source and a heat source so you can reserve the gas in your car.
And finally, you should always have some sort of a first aid kit in your car just in case. You can keep a multitude of bandaids, alcohol wipes, a tourniquet to stop blood flow, flares, gauze, and even needle and thread. Never knowing what could happen, having these items or just planning ahead when you have knowledge of the weather possibly being dangerous. Always be prepared or over-prepared just in case so you can save yourself and others in the instant that there is an emergency.
Good luck everyone and stay safe.
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