How we survived a family gathering that turned into an emergency preparedness drill.
Almost four feet of snow fell overnight. The forecast said we'd be getting 6.66" of snow —which should have been a clue — when we planned our family gathering. We only learned the storm was much bigger just hours before it struck. The worst in 20 years, our neighbor told us, and we were lucky enough to experience it with the 14 family members who were visiting. What we thought would be a few days of games, food, and hiking quickly turned into a nearly two-week emergency preparedness drill — far from resources or other people. This was yet another part of mountain living we were experiencing for the first time.
We'd recently moved into our home and had made emergency preparation our top priority, but with two babies and a toddler in the house — as well as a couple of picky eaters — our first step was to inventory the supplies everyone had with them.
Taking inventory of our supplies
As we'd anticipated, nobody had packed enough supplies for more than few days—including what they brought for clean clothes, baby food, formula, and diapers. This presented some immediate challenges and hiccups we had to manage along the way.
Immediate challenges:
We knew we'd run out of baby supplies long before we could get out
Cooking for 16 people is a full-time job in itself
Our well had never been tested on such a high load
Our sleeping arrangements weren't ideal for a longer stay
We had just gotten back from another trip and hadn't stocked up on perishables
Making the most of our experience
We decided to make our experience fun and take notes on what we learned along the way. We went sledding, played games, had karaoke nights, got out the guitar around the fireplace, and experimented with new recipes.
We worked hard too. We melted snow from the yard to make up for the water our well couldn't produce, made our own cloth diapers and baby food, and when all else failed in creating our own baby formula, we called on friend who lived down the mountain for help.
Lessons learned from our emergency preparedness drill
1. Listen to warnings
Our neighbor has lived in these mountains since the early 80s. When he stopped by to warn us about the incoming storm, we paid attention and discussed our options, but by then it was too late for anyone to head back home — or even drive to town for supplies.
2. Pick up resources when you can
We'd recently returned from a Texas hog hunt when the storm warning came. The meat from the hunt was ready to pick up from the butcher — just a few miles down the canyon — so we rushed out and picked it up to have in on hand for the duration of our drill. The snow had already begun to accumulate by the time we pulled back up to the house, but we had fresh hog sausage that we used during our drill for breakfast, pasta, and other dishes.
3. Stock up on longer-term food storage ahead of time
We were grateful we put some thought into our early preparedness plans when we were able to pull food off the shelves to feel all of us for that extended timeframe.
Some of the most useful and easy-to-prepare foods during our emergency preparedness drill were:
Oatmeal
Pancakes
Homemade bread
Tuna sandwiches
PB&J
Stews
Soups
Pasta and sauce
Because we were prepared for emergency situations, we were able to accommodate all food allergies. We keep out allergies and food-sensitivities in mind when buying long-term food storage. It seriously does no good to stock up on foods you cannot eat.
As we took note of the volume of food consumed during this drill, we made a list of those items we'd like to have more of, and those that took up too much space without adding enough nutrition. These notes helped shape our current food storage plan.
4. Monitor water usage
We'd never tested our well to that degree before but we weren't surprised when the flow into our cistern became a mere trickle. To combat the scarcity of water, we rationed showers, used disposable kitchenware, and gathered snow from outside to melt for dishwashing and clothes washing. We also pulled out some bottled water we had in storage for drinking.
We used our Joseph Joseph wash basins to wash and rinse dishes in so we wouldn't have to fill the entire sink, and we used an industrial mop bucket to wash clothes in. When the sun was out, we dried out clothes over the rail. At other times, we used a standing clothes rack in front of the fireplace. We've since bought a Lavario off-grid washer — that's a game changer!
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5. Be prepared to up-cycle and recycle
One of our daughters dug through drawers and our fabric bin to find all the supplies she would need to make some emergency cloth diapers. They even had elastic at the legs and velcro across the fronts so they could be adjusted for size. The best thing about them is that they worked! They just required more of our water to wash them.
There are a lot of resources available online to walk you through making diapers, baby food, or homemade formula — but the internet won't be available in every emergency situation. It's important to plan for that by printing out important information or buying books on the topic for reference when the grid is down.
We wouldn't have even considered keeping cloth diapers in our storage if not for this drill in emergency preparedness.
A note about diapers:
If you have kids in diapers, I might suggest just buying some cloth diapers ahead of time and keeping them in your storage for emergencies. This is the type of cloth diaper my daughters now have in their emergency preparedness supplies.
6. Know basic nutrition and meal prep
Without a basic knowledge of nutrition, it would have been difficult to prepare baby food that would be sufficient for the babies and toddler. We have made it a point to understand nutrition and what the body needs. We used this to make enough baby food to get through the entire time. The babies loved it — and happy babies make life much easier during emergency preparedness drills, to say nothing of actual survival scenarios.
7. Know your community
We had friends in the community who didn't get hit as hard as we did (who also happened to enjoy snowshoeing). By keeping in touch, we knew when they were able to get out of their neighborhood — and knowing our situation, they were eager to help deliver the baby formula we needed. We were elated when he also showed up with disposable diapers and everything for BLTs.
8. Take care of your emotional health
Being stuck for an extended period of time, during an emergency preparedness drill or an actual disaster, can be taxing on you and those around you — especially when there's little space to get away and decompress. We recognized that this might be an issue and worked early on to get everyone some kind of personal, if not private space:
A bedroom shared with spouse and/or kids
A mattress in the loft
Sleeping bags on the floor of the home gym
This didn't solve the need for quiet and calm, but for those moments we had the outdoors at our disposal. The sun was out, the temperature was in the 60s and the snow was slowly melting around us.
To feel productive, some retreated to the garage to work on a simple woodworking project. Others shoveled snow. To expend frustration or energy, we turned to snowball fights — which inevitably led to laughter and a new sense of calm and friendship.
8. It's okay to ask for help
When we'd shoveled enough, gotten our little plow stuck too many times to count, and discovered too many quirky personality traits, we were ready to call for help. The snow had melted down to about two feet, but it was wet and heavy. We didn't know if even a large plow would make it up our steep, long driveway. We were willing to take a chance and put an end to our emergency preparedness drill.
We made the call. A few hours later a road grader with chains rounded the corner to our home, where people waved and cheered from the deck.
A final takeaway
As we think about what we learned from this emergency preparedness drill, some key points come to mind:
Many people would never want to live in the mountains for fear of getting snowed in or stuck, or worse. We loved the experience and several family members said that it made them want to live in a more remote place like we do.
Most people would have to resort to bare minimums where food is concerned but we ate well — often gourmet meals — the entire time because we routinely plan out our food storage for such emergencies.
Being snowed in provided some amazing evenings that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives because it forced us to slow down: Music nights, karaoke night, Zombicide and other games around the kitchen table, and a newfound interest in Mushroom Wars as the kids battled out against each other on the Playstation.
Get started with your preps by downloading this 1-year food storage list.