1. Check medicines in advance and refill those needed before storm hits and electricity/roads possiobly go out for days or more.
2. My son told me this: Before the storm, fill jugs with tap water in case city water pipes bust and tap water is muddy.
3. Recharge cell phone while electricy is still on.
4. In case electricity and fridge go out, have on hand canned foods, peanut butter, crackers and bread. Check net for more ideas.
5. In case electricty goes out, before then, if you know someone with a generator, which will keep their fridge running, if they have room, ask them if you can take them unopened food containers from your freezer. Consider giving it to them, for electricity may be out 4 or 5 days or more, and they can cook it duirng that time. At least the food won't be wasted.
6. For temps nearing 20 degrees (check net), net said, "It sounds wasteful, but leaving a gentle trickle of hot and cold water running from a sink or bathtub faucet can prevent pipes from bursting on the coldest nights. Roto-Rooter recommends this, especially for sinks or tubs with water supply pipes that run along outside walls, which get exposed to the lowest temperatures. Make sure the drain is open, so the sink doesn't overflow...." Check net for more ideas on this.
7. Check local and national TV weather reports for updates and more ideas.
8. Check net for other suggestions.
Post Edited (Tim Tam) : 1/24/2026 4:18:21 PM (GMT-5)
Then my paranoia kicks in and I thought people were lining up.
Speaking of paranoia, over July 4, I hate firecrackers, and I heard some that I thought my relatively new (by 2 years) next door neighbors had set off in my behalf, just like my former bad neighbors of 28 years did.
So, later by a couple of days, I'm thinking, they're kind of gentle people, 40 or more, that probably wouldn't do that. Plus, just a week or so before, that same neighbor had a 3rd in one year package misdelivered to my house and I called him to tell him that, left a message, and he called me back to thank me for calling him and he said, if you ever need anything give us a call and I said same here.
So we're on good terms. So I'm now on the fence whether the fireworks was an attack from that same neighbor or came from further away. Also, the fireworks from what I thought was from next door lasted for about 45 or more minutes. I don't think anybody is going to wait that long that the neighbor will see who's firing them. Also, you commit crimes against people who lived further away, not from next door, for next door will know who it is and can retaliate too easily.
I'm building up a case that it wasn't my next door neighbor who fired the fireworks, knowing I don't like them at all.
So I gave up on your responding, it's been so long, that when your name came up a week or more ago, I didn't recognize it until today.
I did the ice storm tips because I thought there might be some people, like me, who really dread that, having been through a couple, and it gets on my nerves thinking a third such storm might be coming up: no electricity, no ice box, no heat, too little food if no canned items stored up, and possibly out of medicine.
I do appreciate your response.
Yeah, right, it was ice storms, now heat wave.
Also, in the last 3 or 4 weeks, it seems like all my appliances have given out and I don't know how to work replacement mechanical things and its's been very frustrating trying to keep up with technology in the computer age. I'm wondering if I'm getting so far behind I can't keep up and time will pass me by.
It's "good" to hear about ice storms again, given the recent heat waves and extreme fire danger in my area. This fire season is shaping up to be the worst I've seen. Not that I've seen much, but I've seen enough! SWM MDD+PDD
Did either of you get smoke? I am in Michigan and we got it bad. I guess there were (are) wildfires in Minnesota and Utah. Among other states. The weather seems to have come to extremes lately. Winter was hard here and the spring took forever. Then summer is just too hot. I don't know how people in the southern states make it through the heat.
I hope you both are having a good day.
TimTam Fireworks annoy me sometimes. My dog is so afraid. And I have a lot of wild critters here and I know they upset them. I border state property so they can go farther in the woods. The fireworks have become loud in the past few years. They are closer than before.
Thanks for posting...
Hugs, Karen...Moderator-Depression
fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue, depression, allergies, diabetes (type 2), breast cancer 2021
Yes, plenty of smoke at times, both from Canada and local. Periods of heat and haze interspersed with thunderstorms and occasional downpours that don't really seem to put out the fires It'll be on tenterhooks until the summer's over.
It'll be on tenterhooks until the summer's over.