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With a major winter storm brewing this week that’ll impact more than 2,000 miles stretching from Texas to the northeast, Americans are preparing for what some are calling the “most impactful” winter storm of the year. The combination of snow, ice, freezing rain and frigid temperatures is reason enough to make sure you and your family are prepared for the worst, including power outages.
In 2007, there was an ice storm across parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, where I grew up. Our power and heat went out for five days, and even though we lived near the center of our then 3,000-population town, I remember feeling like my family was much on our own in terms of staying warm and making sure we had what we needed.
We slept in the living room near the fireplace, boiled water on the fire, went to bed when the sun went down to conserve flashlight power, and tried to stay warm as best as we could wrapped up in blankets while burning through our surplus of firewood. Eventually my grandpa brought us a generator, and the following day our power came back on. It was an early life lesson in being prepared for the worst that winter weather can throw at you.
