SOS! Power Outage Stockpile at risk!

[coupondink]

I am so sick with worry, I thought I would reach out to my favorite community at hcw.com.
There has to be someone here who understands what I am going through and may have some advice...

The Noreaster turned my neighborhood into what looks like a war zone, worse than the Hurricane Irene damage- and that was bad! A snowy mess, with trees down everywhere. Cars crashed in by branches, power lines down, a real mess. The trees were in full foliage, so the freak snow crashed down pretty much every tree in sight.

We are without power now for 2 days. My Mom says fridge food will last one whole day if the door is kept closed. And freezer food 3 days.

Fridge: luckily didn't have too much of worth in there. I consumed or gave away most of it, and pack the rest in coolers with ice.

Freezer: I am worried sick about this. I have a side by side fridge/freezer and the freezer is PACKED with meat. I also have a chest freezer in the garage and it is also packed. I estimated the value of everything to be over $600.

I am quickly approaching the 3 day mark and the power company is now saying it may take a few days more!

I don't know what to do. I was thinking of plugging in my chest freezer by a neighbor- I am pretty sure I could convince a neighbor down the block with a bottle of wine..but not sure how to get the freezer to her garage! I don't think it is on wheels. I was also thinking of putting the more expensive meats and seafood in coolers with ice. I have a big one, and 3 little ones...surely not enough to fit everything.

Guys, I am worried sick about this. I have been working on this stockpile for 7 years. My seasonal work ended last week, and winters are usually lean here for us....I am going to cry.

any ideas?

[anaj06]

Can you get somewhere to buy a generator? If the value is that high, it might be worth the cost?

I would work on getting the freezer down to your friends house if the first is not an option; anyone you know with a truck?


(((hugs)))

[joshmamabear]

the best thing for now is to save as much food as you can in a cooler with lots of ice replenished every few hours though I don't know how far you are to a store that sells ice?

Even if you can find a store selling generators now, I'm pretty sure they sell them top price with a lot of people willing to pay. Unfortunately, most business owners will take this opportunity to rake in profits. Hindsight is 20/20, generators are a must for those of us who live in calamity prone areas and have stockpile of perishable food. Hopefully, you'll consider it when things are back to normal. The best place to look for one is @ estate sales where you can get them hardly used at a bargain price.

I hope you'll have power soon.

[JulieDB]

We lost all of our food in the week long power outage some years back when we lived in NY. I had just stocked the fridge. Was actually putting the food away when it went out.

Now I try not to keep a ton of expensive stuff that needs to be frozen or refrigerated. Yes, my little chese freezer is full. But there is not a lot of meat in there. So no big deal really.

What I do keep on hand is a lot of canned meat and fish. That is what we eat when we get snowed in. Instant mashed potatoes, powdered milk. Can use a drop of butter flavoring in a pinch.

Sorry to hear that you'll be losing so much. If there is a neighbor who can help you out, I'd say go for it! Either that or have a big BBQ and share the cooked meat with other people who otherwise wouldn't get a hot meal.

[belinda2]

In the south we have small independent butchers who have large walk in freezers. They take in coolers of deer for processing. I bet they would rent you a space for a few days. Maybe you could call around and see if they have any available space.

[jkeating]

Do you have one of those hand carts? I have one that I used to move a 650 pound stove with.

I would also take pictures and inventory what you have. It might be covered under your HO policy. I would certainly call your insurance agent and ask. I know sometimes your deductible may be higher than your loss but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[cpaige]

Where in NJ? And I sent you a PM

[coupondink]

Well we got through it. Boy it was COLDDDD.

Thanks for all the advice!!

Here is what I wound up doing. The freezer and the chest freezer were good for about 3 days. Everything was frozen solid, so still safe. On the fourth day, my father saved the day and brought over 5 coolers, and I borrowed one from a friend. I lined up the coolers in the garage- 3 big, 3 little, and the chest freezer worked as a cooler really. I iced it all up and drained each cooler and re-iced every 4-6 hours.

I had to toss 5 garbage bags of food. :-(
But I was able to save quite a bit! Thankfully. All in all, I saved about half.

The bright side is that my fridge and freezer and the cleanest they have ever been in 7 years! Everything fits in the chest freezer now and the fridge's freezer is mostly empty! My DH is happy about that. He hates opening the freezer and pork chops falling on his feet. lol.

Well, the other bright side is that I lost hundreds of dollars worth of food, but I sure didn't pay that much for the food anyway.....thanks to couponing.

They say when you let go of things, you make room in your life for better things. So maybe this all happened to make room for a great sale coming up! "-)

[$Saving!]

Wow, such a shame though to lose all those bargain buys

When we moved down to NC, we experienced our first hurricane a mere 3 years later and due to my son being a chronic asthmatic, he had a nebulizer machine. Roads were blocked for days, if he had to go to the emergency room he could not have gotten there by us or anyone else - we bought a generator just before the storm hit - smartest thing we ever bought!

Son didn't need the electricity (we were out for two weeks) for his machine thankfully, but it sure did save the freezer in the garage and the fridge inside! Plus we were able to plug in a couple lights and a TV too.

I'm grateful that we won't ever lose all the food in the event of a long power outage and we've had a couple since then.

You really hustled to save so much food though! That was a lot of work, well done!

[aimeebee]

I'm glad you were able to save some of it, coupondink!


I live way out in the country (this might not work in a more urban setting.) One winter our freezer went out and we put most of its contents in coolers outside on our back deck. It didn't need ice since it was plenty cold enough outside. What wouldn't fit in the coolers, we just packed in snow next to them. I was so glad that it was winter time because it would have been a much worse thing in the summer. We were able to comparison shop and wait until the weekend when we got paid again before buying the new deep freeze.