Why do you have all that stuff? - Remembering Sandy

It's a question I heard many times - Why do you have all that stuff?

Its important to take a step back after a major event and assess how prepared or unprepared we were.

Water - We had several 5gal and 6 gal jugs. I washed them out with chlorine, did 3 rinses and filled them with water. I left them in a bathtub in case there was a leak. Also had a katadyn hiker pro, katadyn basecamp, water purification tabs and a few off-brand filters.

Also had a 60 gallon collapsible bladder that occupies a bathtub. Wouldn't use it for potable water most likely but good for flushing, washing etc.

Food - More than sufficient supplies of fresh MREs

Power - 1500 watt generator and 45gal of fuel would have lasted us a while if we needed it. Also had some 2Watt and 5Watt panels, regulators, large gell cell batteries, inverters etc.

Fuel - We had just over 45 gallons of fuel in 3gal, 5gal and 10gal canisters. Seems overkill until you see the 2 hour wait lines in nj, all the stations out of power and out of fuel in nyc etc.

Communication - Our cellphone batteries are woefully old and have a poor battery life. Many cellphone towers failing caused our cellphones to have to broadcast at more power to reach more distant towers using even more power. Need to upgrade cellphone or at least buy replacement batteries.

HAM - It typically requires about 3W of power for me to hold repeater from home. As atmospheric conditions changed I needed about 30W of power to hold repeater. Definitely changed my power utilization plan. The yaesu ft8800r, ft857, ft817 and vx-8gr all worked great. I stayed in the loop listening to the local repeater and providing voice comms during volunteer shift.