Preparing for Life’s Storms

Preparing for Life’s Storms

Living in Maine, we know that storms will come. Some of us fly south for the winter, hoping to avoid them. But as last year’s devastating hurricane season demonstrated, no place is exempt from the potentially destructive forces of nature. When forecasters predicted a foot of snow and blizzard conditions along the coast of Maine earlier this month, I hauled my largest canning kettle out of the basement and filled it with water. I made sure we had enough fuel to keep a glowing fire in the woodstove. And I stocked up on groceries.

How prepared are you?

How prepared are you?

On a whim, I ran a couple loads of laundry, filled the bathtub and topped my largest kettle with even more water last Sunday night just before going to bed. The following morning, like roughly 400-thousand other Mainers, I awoke to the rush of wind and complete darkness. The fierceness of last week’s storm, known as a ‘bomb cyclone’ — and how long my family would be without electricity (six days!) — caught me largely unprepared.