Last night, it hit home. I was in the basement sorting through our storage bins and I smelled this gas smell. After five minutes, I called for my partner who came down and checked it out. We called the gas company and waited for an hour for them to come and check it out. In the meantime, we got the cat carriers in case we needed to beat a hasty retreat.

I thought about throwing tarps over all our supplies, though I didn't. I was a bit nervous about letting other people down into our basement. But we figured since our house is attached to a church, we could always say it was for the church...

In the midst of waiting for the gas company to arrive, I realized we did not have bug out bags packed. Folks, if you haven't done this, do it now. You never know when you might have to leave your home. I figured I could wait til December. But last night we might have needed it. My task for today is to put together those bags.

The end of the story is that it wasn't natural gas we were smelling. It was gasoline. The guy who lives a couple houses over uses a generator to run some of his autoshop tools. Evidently, he had poured gasoline down the sewer and the fumes had seeped in through our basement toilet.

I've learned that we can never be too prepared!!!

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), March 24, 1999

Answers

Libby, you did the right thing, however, some people in a basement would have light a match and KABOOM! My husband works for the gas company and has told me some horror stories. Some guy decided to commit suicide and turned on the gas on the oven and stove and waited for the house to fill with gas. When he realized he wasn't dying, he decided to have a cigarette and when he light the match, KABOOM!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 24, 1999.

Libby:

What were the reactions from the gas company worker(s) when they saw your massive stash?

Good point about preparing bug out bags. What foods would you include?

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 24, 1999.

Dear Dinosaur, The gas company guy didn't even blink when he saw the stacks of tp and paper towels!!!!! Fortunately, most of the canned food was in a separate room in the basement, though the door was opened...

What food for a bug out bag? Well, probably dehydrated food because of the weight. Though also would have to have a water source. If I was bugging out via car, I'd take 5 gal jugs of water. Also our water filter and water purification tablets. We've ordered a couple of 3600 calorie food/energy bars from an emergency supplies place, so we'd take those.

I really can't believe the gas guy didn't say anything about all the stuff. Maybe he thought it was church supplies since our house is literally connected to a church. Wonder if he's seen similar sights in other basements?

-- libby alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), March 24, 1999.

Libby:

I'm thinking of three ways to bug out:

1) by car: many things could be hauled 2) by bicycle: backpack and wire baskets, limited choices 3) by foot: backpack, absolute essentials only

Of course I would like to bug out in an auto, in which case I would bring along gallons of water, but if I can't use the vehicle, then I hope to get my Katadyn Combi water filter soon (it's been on backorder for a while) and put that in the backpack.

I liked your suggestion regarding inclusion of "3600 calorie food/energy bars". Are these similar to the Balance food bars? I've never eaten any of these things, but supposedly they're more nutritional than candy bars. Do your food bars have a long storage life?

I'll bet service people have seen it all, literally. When they enter people's houses, they encounter many personal habits in private settings. Maybe he thought you were a packrat!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 25, 1999.

Dinosaur -- Did you see Diane's thread on mobile preparations? I think it was a day or two ago. She has great lists for car bugging out. (Actually, a very, very long list!)

The 3600 calorie bars were in a emergency prep catalog I found. I've never eaten them, but I figure if I'm in that type of a situation, I wouldn't worry too much what they taste like. I've got a feeling they're not as good as balance bars...

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), March 25, 1999.

I've eaten the Mainstay brand bars. They taste lemony- not too bad. They're not too dry either. There's another kind which is not supposed to taste as good.

-- Manny Namez (MNMZ@shoutout.hol), March 26, 1999.

Glad you see the value of back-up mobile plans, Libby.

Ya NEVER know. Belgrade and Kosovo are sadly learning that lesson as well.

*Big Sigh*

Diane

See also thread ...

PERSONAL Y2K, EMERGENCY OR DISASTER RESPONSE MOBILE PREPARATIONS

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000dz6

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 26, 1999.