Wow. I will have to think twice now about stoking my freezer. it is very rare that the power goes out here but you never know. We get earthquakes here so it is best to be careful.

I just can't believe that there was no were closer for you to go if you choice to go for a hot meal.

Believe me - I am not one to go to the Red Cross for a meal - my home was intact - sure we had a lot of property damage from the storm and we lost a lot of items when the power was out due to the sump pump not working (which was also something not covered by insurance or FEMA! - insurance companies have a way of twisitng the fine print in their favor and they get away with it!), all of our trees were damaged - some so severely they had to come down (another thing the insurance company or FEMA does not cover! - NEVER NEVER NEVER give to some of these places when they ask for donations!) The Red Cross did finally step up and give meals to some of the elderly - if the elderly could get to them - but one thing is for sure - when I saw how slow they were to help others and just how long they helped and what they did - I will NEVER give another penny to the Red Cross or any disaster relief organization. I will give to the Southern Baptist Coalition - for they were the volunteers that came up here to help and they did not charge for the trees/hangers being trimmed and they lugged them all to the curb - very neatly and very fast. Although I am a Catholic - we did hold a prayer circle afterwards in my yard - they were angels sent to help!

What upset me was the length of time it took to bring back the power, the lack of care by insurance companies and FEMA and the attitude they all had. We were victims - they did not care. And I was upset over the amount of money I spent to fill freezers only to lose it. Now I only fill the 2 fridge freezers.

All the high taxes we pay here - and the government would not help with anything. All they did was clear the streets and that took them forever. They were mostly interested in clearing parking lots around the hockey stadium so that the hockey games could go on! Too bad if the streets weren't cleared! It made no sense at all!

We had lost our Thanksgiving turkey, our Christmas roast beef, our New Years Turkey along with much more. I replaced them - but it was the principal of the whole thing. When the insurance company is not going to help because of the deductible (and I had all my receipts from 3 days before the storm hit!) and FEMA will not step in - it's just not right. I did not want to hear that I could get a hot meal at the Red Cross. The whole thing was a botched up mess - I have no faith in our government agencies! They could have given out food stamps or something (only food stamp recipients got an extra allotment) to the rest of us that lost so much. dont' get me wrong - I didn't expect the $600 I spent in meat - but they could have made some sort of effort. Bad enough we had no electric, heat, phones, and we had a water shortage during that time.

During that time we had peanut butter, crackers, the bread from the freezer that thawed, nuts, dry cereal, dried fruit and canned goods. With no water and nothing to drink - you really don't feel much like eating. And we were so frozen it wasn't funny. We couldn't get out if we wanted. All the trees were down, wires were down, the roads and sidewalks were ice covered, tree covered and power lines covered. And the tree branches were still falling for several days. So you just stay in and wait - that is all you can do.

It was the Southern Baptist Coalition volunteers and the Baptist Church volunteers from Wisconsin that took care of us. We are surrounded by Catholic Churches - they never organized anyone to do anything - they just cried poverty because they could not make money. And these parishes are rich! So now I have changed my mind about where I give my money from here on in!

And when we finally could get out about 5 days later - many roads were still impassable - and we had to drive out of state to get dairy/meat/.produce because there was none to be found from one county to the other because of the storm! Thirty miles from home it was nice driving - but that 30=mile radius around us was bad!

The day after we got dairy/meat/produce - we lost all power again for about 6 hours. It got better after that.

I've gotten over it - but I will always remember what happened after that storm. If anyone lives in an area with bad weather - get a gas powered power generator that will hook up to a natural gas line (the regular generators would not work because we could not get gas from the gas pumps) and you don't have to worry about being gassed to death either! Dont depend on anyone to help you - make a plan - make sure each member of your family knows exactly what to do. Keep canned goods and hand held can openers around! cold peas or corn ain't that bad! Have plenty of batteries and a radio with a weather band. And plenty of batteries for flashlights - several of them. First signs of a storm - boil and bottle water! One company up here decided to give out dry ice - a week after the storm hit - sure didn't help most of us - just those that went without power for weeks! Canned tuna and jars of dried beef are good to have. Dried fruits, crackers - just for those bad months at least. Keep bottled water handy - you can mix that with a powdered drink as well. But the big thing is - make a plan to survive.

The second night we had no power the lights went on for about 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the night. I jumped out of bed and did 3 loads of laundry! Then the power was out again. Didn't have any power for another 3 days.

It was fun................

unreal.....guess you never really realize the work (or lack thereof) of some of these agencies until you need them.

we're looking at a severe ice storm for the weekend and they're already predicting power outages due to ice on the lines. I'm not thrilled, but I'm making sure we have a few staples on hand that won't need power to prepare. I can go hungry, but I'll kill an animal with my bear hands if it means my baby gets to eat. (don't worry, we have plenty for him to eat - - no raw coyote or bobcat for the lil tyke, this time )

dry ice will help to keep refrigerated items cold - check with a dry ice supplier on that - I now it helped some of the people up here - I don't know if you need to refrigerate anything for the little one - and I am like you - I will starve to let a little one eat

I have a friend that had a huge 28 cubic foot freeze packed with food that they had bought on sale and then Hurricane Isabel came through and knocked the power out for two weeks. They lost everything in the freezer, which leads me to wonder if it's worth having a freezer if you're then accepting a risk of losing everything in it. I know these events are rare, but even a rare event that costs you $500.00 in lost food is expensive. It takes a lot of scrimping and saving to resave that $500.00. It might be best to not have a freezer at all, and just pay regular price.