Some Actions to Consider for Blizzards

I am writing this on Christmas day 2022.  As many have probably heard from news services, the Buffalo, NY, US area (and just about as bad or worse, Cheektowaga, where I live)  got absolutely pummelled by a blizzard.  I have memories starting about 1970; before that, there just isn't anything left to recall.  This would include the infamous Blizzard of '77, though I was just a young kid and for the most part only remember that yay, I got a whole extra week off of (public) school.  To me, this was far worse than anything I have ever encountered.  I happen to live now only about 20 m south of where I grew up.  I never remember a time that, for more than a day, continuously, I could not see across the street, or about 15 m away.  And the whiteouts even persisted for a few seconds to less than 10 m.  The snow was coming down at a fairly rapid clip, but the key difference is the cold front became stationary and caused winds to blow nearly constantly at about 50 kph, with one peak gust at 89 kph.

This had been predicted at the beginning of the week to arrive sometime late Thu, 22-Dec or early Fri., 23-Dec.  Worse yet, there would be rain starting a day or so before, and a rapid fall of temperature, meaning there would be a layer of ice, then snow on top of it.  The predictions were also for the stalling of the front, and a prolonged period of high winds which would blow the snow around.  It turns out that blizzard conditions got started about 8am or so local time when I woke up on the 23rd.  At around 9am, my power mains went out.

BIG, HONKIN' DISCLAIMER

 Before this goes any further, I just want to  make sure it is understood that:

• I am not an expert at any of this.  Do NOT take anything I say as advice.  Do your own research.  I am just giving you points to think about and research for yourself.
• Everybody's body/health/economics/home are different.  You have to decide carefully what works for you; what you can physically handle, what stresses you can handle, what your budget will allow, and maybe in particular, how tight/loose your home is with respect to insulation and weatherizing.  What I think works for me might not be advisable or be downright dangerous for you to do.  I come at this from the perspective of a single family Cape Cod style built in 1956, which is downright abysmal compared to today's well-engineered and sealed houses.
• Whatever you do, that's on YOU.  I am ONLY suggesting.  You follow any of this at your OWN risk.
  

OK, with that out of the way, let's crack on.

The following things are fairly simple and don't cost a lot.  And by comparison, I mean that acquiring and/or installing a backup generator is certainly an ideal, but it can be quite expensive. My thinking is, this list is supposed to be cheaper and simpler than that.

There are a number of things I thought to do, or not do, right away.  Unfortunately, some of these are an afterthought because I found out the hard way it would have been wise to do before this storm hit.  And I thought I would share these with you as things to consider to maximize your comfort and minimize any losses (e.g. spoiled food due to lack of refrigeration).  I also explain my reasoning for many of these.

• If you have enough time to acquire some, invest in some rechargeable batteries designed with USB power outputs (often called "power banks").  These will come in handy for charging a cell phone.  Make sure they are charged (or are charging) as soon as the weather service (e.g. NWS here in the US) predicts the arrival of that storm.  In this year's case, that was Mon. or Tue. for a storm that arrived Fri., so several days' notice.
  
• You may want to charge your cell phone from a laptop's USB port.  Iit might be worth it to trade cell phone time for laptop operation time.
  
• Charge up your laptop's battery, if you can, just like the power banks mentioned above, well before the storm hits.
  
• Some of them will have a PD (Power Delivery) port specifically for the purpose.  Often for the Type A port, the plastic in them is yellow, instead of black or white for USB 2 or blue for USB 3.  Often they will have a little lightning bolt icon beside them.  None of that is really standard, but are common conventions of many manufacturers.
  
• Some laptops may not switch on the power to any USB ports unless the computer is operating.  In a power out situation, boot the laptop and then put it to sleep.  Often this will still keep the port(s) on.
  
• For Microsoft Windows, suspend or sleep is usually available on the logon screen, in the lower right hand corner, on the same menu you would use to shut it down.
• For Linux, it is often an option (e.g. "suspend") on the logging out dialog, or on the login screen somewhere (upper right hand side of the screen for LightDM).  Also, sudo systemctl suspend will work for many folks.
• Sorry, I don't have experience with Macs, or other systems.
• Your vehicle is probably an OK source of charging power, either with USB ports built in, or through a 12 V power supply which plugs into an auxilliary power outlet (what used to be used for electric cigarette lighters).
• In the modern, work-from-home world, you may not be operating your engine as often as when we were all commuting to an office.  You may want a float/trickle charger to keep your battery at maximum.  Batteries will have a slight power draw from the car's electronics (example: hold your radio's station memories), and they do self-discharge.
  
• I happen to have picked up a Simonize brand one from Ollie's Bargain Outlet, which even comes with a quick disconnect connector, making it easy to plug in once I park in my garage, and disconnect when I want to go somewhere.  For the record, I'm driving a gasoline car, not an electric or hybrid.
  
• If you're fairly certain the power will fail, consider bumping your thermostat up a few degrees a few hours before the storm is predicted to hit.  You may not be able to heat your home because of that lack of power (for the blower fan in your furnace, mainly), and you will be riding down a thermal hill so to speak.  If you start higher, you may enjoy more heat for longer.  Of course, this thinking has to be balanced with the fact that heat transfer occurs faster when the temperature differential is greater.  I cannot easily give you the math for what would be optimal for you, but in my case, normally I keep my house at 21, and I put it at 24.  It wasn't scientific at all, it's just what I thought would be a decent compromise.
• If you're a ham, charge up those HTs!  I put my BaoFengs in their charging cradles the day before.
• Charge up those cell phone accessories, such as rechargeable Bluetooth headsets.  It might be better not to use them at all, but for example you might need both hands free while talking to someone, and the best (or only!) way to do that would be through your Bluetooth headset.
• Some mobiles have some settings for battery longevity, such as cutting off charging at 85%.  You probably want to maximize available battery for the duration of the event, so turn this feature off.  Make a note of doing this, as in, what menus/submenus of the settings app you needed to go through to get to that setting, and maybe set a reminder to turn it back to longevity mode after the event is over.  Then charge to 100%.
• Depending on how much time you have between doing this and the expected arrival of the event, and availability of the features on your device, you might want to/have to turn on fast or super fast charging (I have a work-issued Samsung Galaxy S21+ that has all 3 of these feature "switches").
• If you have tablets, make sure they're all charged up, and similarlly aren't limited to less than 100% charging.
  
• Once the power does fail:
• Keep an eye on your basement sump, and bail it as necessary.  I have a rectangular bucket that I bought for washing my floors that worked just fine, but really anything like a serving or mixing bowl should work.
• It is a plumbing code violation where I am to empty (pump?) your sump into the sanitary sewer. I think, but am not certain, this is more for capacity reasons during a rainstorm than content reasons.  Nonetheless, in order to minimize going outside and letting heat out/cold air in, I was emptying this bucket into my laundry tubs.
• Consider carefully (sort of "why") that this ordinance was put into place, and act accordingly.
• Maybe instead you have a basin, bin, or tank you could empty your sump water into, and empty that outside when it gets full.  Again, the goal is to minimize the amount of time you spend with your outside door open.
  
• Of course, a more expensive solution, which I do not yet have, is a battery operated or Venturi action pump.  Again, this list assumes you're kinda on a budget.
  
• Set a periodic reminder on a mobile device to check your sump at an appropriate interval.
• On Android, I found the program "Repeat Alarm" which seemed pretty good for this.
• Once it was on the aforementioned S21+ (the only device with Internet access at that point), I temporarily turned on the radios and used Google's Files program to transfer it to some of my tablets, to save the mobile battery for any emergency communications and use the tablet's battery for the reminders.
• Choose a very loud sounding, distinct alarm for these reminders, and turn the volume up to maximum.  The one I used is called "Orion."  You don't want to be in another part of the house, or asleep, when some hard-to-hear, not cranked to the max reminder happens.
• If possible, set up more than one device like this, and power down all but one.  If you run low on battery on the one device, you can boot up the next one.  It also doesn't hurt to have some redundancy; you might want to consider also running this on your phone, despite the above admonition of saving its battery, because you might have your phone with you in a pocket at all times as opposed to a tablet on a table or desk somewhere.
  
• For this particular event, I was initially checking every 15 minutes, but this gradually lengthened to once every 30 minutes, then 60 mins, then 90 mins, then 3 hours, 4 hours, and finally 8 hours.  By 10am on Sat., the rate of water ingress looked like it was slow enough, or maybe nonexistent, so as not to have to worry about it anymore.
  
• Minimize opening your refrigerators and freezers.  You don't want the room heat ingressing into those and warming its contents, even the air.
• Transfer as much as feasible into refrigerators that are in cooler spots.  As an example, my kitchen has a fridge, and that room was about 23 to 25 degrees, while the one in my basement was in an 8 degree environment.  This is to minimize heat ingress while you do have to open the fridge (again, higher temperature differentials mean faster rate of heat transfer). Much less heat is going to go into the one in my basement compared to the one in my kitchen, so I "consolidated" much of the contents into the one in the basement.
• As a side note, I keep some things in the fridge just to slow mold growth (bread, rolls) or chemical reaction (cells/batteries self-discharge).  I did not bother transferring those "nice to haves" to the basement, as they weren't as critical be kept cold to keep from spoiling.
• Minimize going outside. You don't want to lose heat while you're going out and coming back in.
• When you do go outside, just before you come back in, tap your shoes/boots on the door threshold to throw off any excess snow.  You don't want to have to heat up that extra snow with what little heat you may have left.
  
• For this next tip, the inspiration was, about 2/3 of the way through the M*A*S*H episode "Twas the Day After Christmas." "Colonel" Klinger, "Corporal" Potter, and Hawkeye are in the company clerk's office discussing what to do, because a snowstorm in the area is about to bury Uijeongbu. Potter talks about killing the generator to save fuel for emergency use.  As a result, they would have no refrigeration, for example to keep blood and some drugs useable.  As a result, they take these outside.  So, how does this apply to losing power in the winter (or a blizzard)?
• Empty your freezer(s) into a box or boxes, and put it/them in your garage.  Even just placing it/them outside might be enough for you.
• If you don't mind thawing them after the event passes, many products in your fridge will be just fine if you also take them outside and they freeze.
• Pack snow into a pot or pots, and put them in your refrigerator.  The snow will absorb heat.  Given that you want to minimize access to its insides, it's difficult to say how often you should check and remove these pots to empty them of their water and pack in new snow.
• I have a cheap battery trickle charger with an LED on it, which I got at Harbor Freight.  I put it on my lawn tractor battery in November.  During the power failure, this LED was slowly discharging my battery!  Lead-acid batteries do not "like" to be discharged, which is the main reason for putting a trickle charger on it in the first place.
• Unhook this for the time being.
• Make yourself a reminder to reconnect it when power has been restored and is stable.
• You may want to consider unplugging more expensive appliances that might be susceptible to power surges and spikes that may occur when the power gets turned back on.
• Turn off the service switch on your furnace.  The last thing you want is your controller board to get zapped when you need to get your house back to warm as soon as feasible.
• Water heater, especially tankless.  Same thought as above with regard to the controller board.
• TVs
• sound systems (a stereo in my case)
• computers/monitors
• In my case, they're on UPSes, which protect them from all but the most egregious spikes.
• I have a bunch of computers not on the UPSes which I switched their power strip off, because they're dependent on the router and its DHCP server starting first.
  
• ONT, cable modem, satellite receiver, etc.
  
• some peripherals, such as printers
• I don't have a new enough one, as I think my older ones are pretty robust, but your refrigerator(s)
  
• There are usually several options on cell phones and some tablets that optimize battery life or battery longevity.  In a section above, I mentioned the 85% charging cutoff of Android on an S21+ for example.
  
• I suggest making notes of what changes you make, especially how to access these settings (which menu choices you have to make in the settings app to access them), in part so that you can "undo" them and get back to how you normally like them in non-emergency situations.
• One of the biggest battery sucks is the display.  Reduce your idle timer to minimum, usually in the settings section for "display".  Mine is normally at 5 minutes, I put it on the minimum of 15 seconds.
  
• Turn off unneeded radios.  For example, if you don't need Bluetooth, shut it off.  If you don't have working home Internet (mainly cable subscribers), turn off Wi-Fi.  Turn off NFC.  And so on.  (I'm not sure if turning off the UWB switch on an S21+ would save battery or not.)  Airplane mode would be close, but chances are you do not want to turn off the cellular radio(s) because friends or family members might be trying to contact you to make sure you're all right.
• There may be a setting for CPU usage.  The Android on an S21+ has settings for best battery life, compromise, and best computing performance. It's that first one that you may want to consider choosing.  I personally did not; I left it on compromise.
• Shut off unused parts of your house.  In my case, my top floor serves mainly for storage.  I don't go up there too often because it's typically too warm in summer and too cool in winter.  I shut the door to its stairwell so heat from the main floor would not rise up there.
  
• If you have a gas range/cooktop, turn on one or more of the burners.  I own a propane torch, so I also have a torch lighter tool that worked OK to start them.  Another good choice is an outdoor portable gas grill lighter.  For the most part, for my particular home, it held its own as far as the furnace thermostat about 4m away read.  There are SEVERAL caveats to consider VERY carefully before doing this.
• I do not know why burning gas in a furnace is so prone to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, should they fail with for example a heat exchanger crack, while it seems perfectly fine to cook with gas ranges and ovens.  There are also ventless gas space heaters.  Keep in mind the principal that light towards the red end of the spectrum is lower energy than that of the blue end.  This is important, because CO is produced by incomplete (e.g. cooler) combustion, so if you're seeing blue flame it is probably better than seeing yellow flame.  Even if there were some small amount of CO production, my particular house is quite leaky, and with the winds that were extant during this blizzard, I think any such fumes got diluted fairly rapidly.  Again, this is not at all scientific, just my general thinking.  To be really safe, I ought to have a regularly maintained CO alarm.
  
• I have a "space saver" microwave oven above my cooktop that I did not want to "bake."  I bought it with the house, and so I do not have documentation for it.  I suppose its design assumes that if you are running all burners below it, you are using its integrated range hood.  Of course, without electric, there is no operating range hood.  When I kicked in the two rear burners because I wanted to gain instead of just maintain temp, one of the plastic tabs that facilitate removal of the range hood air filters did get soft and droop, so it was likely too hot in there.  Especially in this event, where vehicular travel was basically impossible, you do NOT want to need the services of the firefighters.
  
• The area around my cooktop did get quite warm.  Make sure ANY combustibles are WELL away from these flames.  Seems obvious, but I thought I would mention it anyway.
  
• My gas oven is microprocessor/microcontroller controlled, so that was a no-go for me.  You may have one that does not require electricity.  Same extremely important caveats for my cooktop apply to operating a gas oven.
• If you are at all concerned about your pipes freezing and bursting, it is often said that trickling water cannot freeze, so turn on one or more of your faucets at JUST a trickle.  You may also want to write yourself a reminder that once the heat's back up, turn off all the faucets that you turned on to a trickle (list them in your reminder and check them off as you shut them, just to make sure).
• It might be even better, especially if you have a basement, to shut off the main valve at your meter and drain the rest by opening all your faucets.  The short bit of pipe between either the floor or the wall doesn't SEEM like it would be susceptible freezing, since typically that far down in the Earth the temperature is constant and nowhere near freezing.
• Put something in the bowl of your toilet(s).  If you don't have proper plumbing antifreeze handy, such as used for RVs, windshield washer fluid might serve well enough.  You may also consider putting this in your tank(s).  If you have pets that are prone to drink out of the toilet, of COURSE you want to be exceptionally careful about this.
  

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