The Big Snow of 2008

We don’t get snow very often where I live. Every few years we get to see the white stuff and it’s pretty exciting. If we’re lucky we’ll get a few inches that lingers for a day or two. But since we are not accustomed to snow, few people know how to drive in it. Consequently everything shuts down. Seriously. All of the schools close, and many businesses. Even though I have a 4x4 vehicle, my employer lets me stay home when it snows. It’s great fun actually. I get to bundle up and go outside with the dogs. They love to play in the snow and I love to watch them (or play with them)!

But in December 2008 this happened.

It was the biggest snow storm Oregon had seen in 40 years. I think I was off work over a week. It was amazing and spectacularly beautiful. However, I live in a tiny town with one small grocery store. When it began to snow the shelves were wiped clean. No bread, milk, eggs, chips, butter, meat, pop, etc. In 2008 the last thing on my mind was being prepared for an emergency. What was I thinking? I wasn’t. Lucky for me, but not so lucky for him, my husband knows how to drive in the snow and never misses work because of it. (Thank goodness he doesn’t work anywhere near where I work!) Anyway, he was able to find what we needed. We were fortunate in the sense that there was just the two of us and the dogs. We had meat in the freezer and a little food in the fridge and pantry. If we had lost power for any length of time during that storm we could have been in a real pickle.  Without power we have no water.

Then a month or two ago I ran across an article on EMP’s and preparedness. When confronted with the question of being able to survive for any amount of time I was dumbfounded.  Why had I never considered this before?  I thought I was always "ready" for anything.  Not so.  Needless to say, it really got my attention.

Since then we have done our research, cleared a storage space and begun the process of actually storing food and supplies.  At this point I'm ready for the next snow or ice storm. I'm even ready for a loss of power, but not for too long.  We have quite a ways to go but at least we are on the right track.

I hope and pray we never have to rely on our storage for anything other than a snow storm.

Thanks for stopping by!