Y2K Emergency Guide: Lights and Warmth

KEEPING WARM

If electric or gas utilities fail, don't try to heat the entire house. It is easier to heat one room, and it is easier to heat a room if you are bundled up warmly. A winter emergency is not a time to expect that you can walk around the house barefoot and in shorts. Wear loose layers of clothes. Keep dry. Wet clothing loses its ability to insulate, and can suck heat right out of you (wool is an exception). Stay out of the wind as much as possible. Clean clothes keep you warm better than dirty clothes. Make sure your head, hands, and feet are protected. Wear a warm cap inside & outside the house.

Newspapers can be emergency insulation. Wrap them around legs, arms, torso, tape over windows/ceilings, on the floor. Blankets, cloth, curtains, plastic, newspapers, & mattresses can be used to insulate windows, doors, walls, and floors. DO NOT seal the room so that no fresh air can get in. You must have ventilation.

Emergency heaters include propane, kerosene, candles, wood, "canned heat", buddy burners, and the burners on your gas stove (if the gas is on but the electricity is off). Place all open-flame heaters in front of a ventilation opening (this keeps exhaust fumes from spreading through the room). A window or door MUST be open at least 1" to provide sufficient fresh air. Position the heater so that it won't be knocked over.

Propane camp stoves may be used indoors, but DO NOT use liquid Coleman fuel stoves inside the house. DO NOT leave a propane camp stove, or the burners on a natural gas stove, burning while you sleep. Kerosene used according to the manufacturer's directions, can be safely used while sleeping. DO NOT leave candles burning while you are asleep. They may get knocked over in the night and cause a fire. DO NOT use charcoal briquets inside for cooking or keeping warm -- doing this has killed people. DO NOT use wood unless you have a fireplace or properly installed wood stove. If you need a campfire, build it in a safe place outside. The flame of 1 candle can keep you from freezing to death.

Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the improper use of open flame heating include headache, lethargy, blurry vision, room feels "stuffy". If symptoms occur, get fresh air into the room immediately or move everybody out fast. Pregnant women and unborn babies are particularly at risk.

At night, use extra sleeping insulation such as blankets, newspapers, sleeping bags, rugs, curtains, layered clothing, and have everyone sleep together. Wear a cap to bed. If you have no heat, pitch a tent in the middle of a room, and gather the family inside. If you don't have a tent, improvise one from sheets, blankets, newspapers and furniture. DO NOT use open flame heating inside a tent. The best place for babies is on their mother's bodies, either in the arms or using one of the many ways of carrying a baby and still having your hands free. Drink a lot of water, and eat frequent meals with lots of carbohydrates. If you have heat, and your neighbor doesn't, invite them to shelter with you. Work with your community to ensure that nobody is left out in the cold.

MAKE A BUDDY BURNER

Materials needed: Plain corrugated cardboard (no bright ink printing, no wax or plastic coating), flat tuna/pet food cans, or flat pineapple cans and lids, #10 can (the large institutional size), candle wax or paraffin. Tools: punch-type can opener, tin snips

1. Cut the cardboard in strips whose width is the height of the can -- across the corrugations, so the hole show. Roll the strips until the cardboard roll fits snugly into the can.

2. Melt the wax. Use a double boiler, because if the wax gets too hot, it can burst into flame. You can improvise a double boiler by putting water in a large pan, and then setting a smaller pan into the water. Each tuna can will take about 4 ounces of wax.

3. When the wax is melted, slowly pour it into the buddy burner so that it runs down into the holes and saturates the corrugated cardboard and fills the can to the rim. You can put a small piece of cardboard sticking up or a candle wick in the middle to help start it, but this isn't required. Let it cool and harden. To light it, set it on a brick or concrete block. Put a lighted match in the middle of the can or light the wick. The flame will spread across the top of the can.

If using indoors, place in front of a door or window open at least 1 inch. Set the burner on a brick or concrete block, It produces a lot of heat and the flame can be 6 to 8 inches high. This doesn't mean it is unsafe, it does mean you can't play around with it or treat it casually or without thinking about what you are doing. BE CAREFUL. Pay attention to details and use common sense whenever handling open flame. DON'T set it on the floor, as someone may kick it over. DON'T let the kids play with it (toasting marshmellows is OK).

To use for cooking: Cut out one end of the #10 can. Use the tin snips to cut a 3" high and 4" wide "door" on one side of the can at the open end. Leave the top of the door uncut. Bend this flap of metal up so the door is "open". Take the punch-type can opener, and make 3 or 4 holes on the other side of the can at the top (this is your chimney). Light the tuna can, place the #10 can over the Buddy Burner and cook on top of the can. This "can stove" can be adapted to fuels like twigs, charcoal or charcoal briquets, but these shouldn't be used indoors. Charcoal briquets should never be used indoors under any circumstances. The fumes can kill you.

To regulate the flame, use the can lid as a damper. Place it over all of the flame to extinguish the fire, or cover it partially to regulate the amount of flame. You can also use a piece of aluminum foil (several thicknesses folded), that is larger than the tuna can. Handle the damper with a pot holder, or a pair of plyers, or punch a couple of holes in the edges of the lid and use some wire to make a handle. To refill the buddy burner, place small amounts of wax on the cardboard while the burner is operating. As long as it has wax, it will burn.

Baking: Using tuna cans as little pans, anything you would bake in a regular oven can be baked on top of the #10 can stove. Simply place another #10 can over your baking pan and its an oven!

Emergency heat: Don't put the #10 can over the buddy burner, as it makes more smoke with the #10 can than without. Light the buddy burner, let it warm up a room. As soon as the room is warm, extinguish the buddy burner.

A second type of buddy burner can be made by putting a roll of toilet paper in a can (such as a new paint can, or a #10 can.) Soak the paper with alcohol, place as noted in "important precautions" below, and light.

LIGHTING

Emergency lighting can be candles, flashlights, and lanterns. Putting a light in front of a mirror increases the illumination. If using candles, kerosene, or propane lanterns, take appropriate fire safety precautions. DO NOT go to sleep with an open flame light burning. Store fuels like propane and kerosene safely outside of the house or apartment.

You can get power for lights and radios from a car battery. People familiar with electricity can rig emergency lights from car batteries, brake lights, wire and fuse boxes from cars or junkyards. It is also possible to build an improvised generator using an automobile alternator and a lawn mower engine. If these activities are organized as a community, people with skills will be able to help others learn how to do these things. This kind of utilization will cause a car battery to deteriorate faster, but in an emergency, sometimes such trade-offs have to be made.

OTHER ENERGY ISSUES

Fossil fuels have "Carbohydrate" cousins. Alcohol made from grain can be used in place of gasoline (this requires some adjustment of the engine), and "biodiesel" can be made from any kind of animal or vegetable fat or oil. No modifications are necessary for the diesel engine, and the exhaust smells like french fries. Making biodiesel involves combining methanol and lye and then mixing this with vegetable oil. The process yields glycerin soap as a byproduct. Methane gas is a produced by rotting compost, trash, and human waste. In China, such gas is used to cook food and power vehicles. Due to space limitations, it is not possible to describe these alternatives fuels in detail, but most communities have people with these skills and knowledge, or it can be found in libraries..

WORK TOGETHER WITH YOUR COMMUNITY

Hard times call people to come together in solidarity and cooperation. Many of the activities necessary for recovery from a disaster are difficult at the household level. Through voluntary cooperation with others on useful, life-sustaining projects, the health, safety, and wellness of the entire community is protected.

Pay attention to your own inner responses to the disaster, and understand that many people will have adverse psychological or spiritual reactions to disasters. Be extra patient (especially with children).

Text (c) 1999 by Robert Waldrop, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, Oklahoma City. Permission is given to reproduce this flyer for free distribution. The information is compiled from sources deemed credible, but readers use it at their own risk. "The time to build the cellar is before the tornado hits." http://www.justpeace.org.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 20, 1999

Answers

Thanks Old Git for this very valuable information. It will help a lot of people.

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), November 20, 1999.

Also..turn off your water at the main. Drain all pipes by running the faucets (might want to save the water). Advise your neighbors to do the same. Otherwise your pipes may freeze and burst, making lots of work for the town plumber.

-- Amy Leone (leoneamy@aol.com), November 22, 1999.

I haven't turned the heat on in my house yet (: to practice Y2K living in advance :) so on cold nights I've developed the following method of keeping warm.

I have a mosquito net mini-tent that I got from REI. It covers the head and sholders and is held up by two semi-hoops of fiberglass arranged in an "X" going from corner to corner and crossing over the top of the mini-tent.

To keep warm I use extra blanktes on the bed and throw a sheet over the top of the mini-tent. The sheet seems to provide enough air infiltration to allow myself and the cat to breath, but also holds enough heat in to keep the head & sholders considerably warmer then "room temperature.

PS I wear a hooded sweatshirt to bed also. -Dennis

-- Paul D. Law (Dennis) (PaulLaw@aol.com), November 22, 1999.

Paul - I did the same thing, growing up in Minnesota. With air outside at zero degrees, a single sheet over your face captures an amazing amount of heat.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), November 22, 1999.