MacGyver Survival Tips
Blizzard 2015 is quickly approaching Long Island, potentially crippling roads, mass transit and could cause power outages in dangerously low temperatures. Governor Cuomo has warned New Yorkers to leave work early in the event of rails and the LIE shutting down. By now, the weather channel has sent you out to hardware stores and grocery chains to stock up. But do you know what to do in the event of an emergency during the super storm? Fear Not… Our resident MacGyver Guru has come up with the ultimate Blizzard 2015 survival guide to keep loved ones safe with or without power.
Clean the fireplace and have enough wood stored inside for emergency use. Also double check that all fire extinguishers are full and safe for use.
If you have an outdoor fire pit, build a fire outside and heat up some non-river stones on it. Bring a few rocks in at one time, placing them on heat resistant tile or a kettle/kitchen pot that can handle the heat to create a mock furnace. Keep rotating stones to stay comfortable.
If you do not have an outdoor fire pit or can not safely light a fire, use metal coffee tins or terracotta planters with two or three tea lights in the center. This will provide a safe alternative and will keep you and your family warm enough to avoid hypothermia.
If you run out of Candles, Insert a candle wick into the center of a can of Crisco. If the can has a large diameter, multiple wicks can be inserted. Leave a quarter of an inch of wick showing above the Crisco to make sure the flame is a manageable size.
The ultimate MacGyver lighting trick: Leave a quarter of Mountain Dew soda in its bottle. Add a teaspoon of baking soda and three caps of peroxide to the bottle and shake it up. You will have a super cool glow light that both you and the kids will love!
Close and seal off doors to parts of the home less frequented. Use one towel per door to seal the draft from coming in. Insulate windows in a pinch by duct taping plastic wrap the inside of your windows to help keep the heat in and the cold out. Leave an air gap between it and the plastic so you have that cushion of non-moving air. If you can get to a hardware store, purchase a window insulator kit like 3M’s
If pipes freeze and you run out of water, place clean containers outside to collect snow that hasn’t touch the ground. Bring a container in one at a time to melt and run the water through a brita filter device.
LED lights are a great substitute for candles in a power outage. If you have some battery powered LED lights from holidays in storage, have them handy. LED lights are fairly common to find in a hardware store this time of year as well.
While at the grocery store shopping for last minute supplies, it is a wise choice to stock up on your favorite protein bars. Nutritional supplement bars are easy to store and provide enough nutrients to survive if you can’t leave the home.
A must have emergency power source is a smart purchase to make. Our recommendation is the Brookstone Portable Power Supply, which can give you seven hours of emergency power. This is key if an emergency evacuation is needed or just in case you need to reach family members in an outage. This little machine can power lights, TVs, stereos, small appliances and computers. It’s DC powered for jumpstarting cars and boats, includes jumper cables, a USB port and has a handy built-in super LED flashlight.
In any natural disaster event like this blizzard, having access to information could save your entire family from horrible circumstances. Downloading smartphone apps like the NFPA 1600 app or The Red Cross’ free Shelter View app could aid in evacuation routes, travel insight or rescue missions.