Sheltering at home

The first afternoon

You will want light, water, a way to cook, the radio, and the medicine. Put those within one minute of the place you will sit. Fill containers if a storm is forecast and you trust the tap now. Charge the power bank while the socket still works. Move the car if floodwater has opinions about your street.

Pick one room to heat if winter is the threat. Hang a blanket over the door. Tell everyone that is the room. A whole cold house heated in patches wastes every fuel.

Information

A battery or wind-up radio that receives local stations is how you hear “do not drink the water” without a mast. Write the station frequency on the radio. Social media is a rumour mill with occasional facts; treat it as such.

Know your neighbours well enough to knock. The person with the baby and the person with the generator do not need a committee, they need an introduction made on a normal day.

Food order

Eat the fridge, then the freezer, then the food that needs cooking, and keep the no-cook layer in reserve if fuel is short. Do not serve a feast on night one and porridge-sadness on night three if you can pace it. Holdfast’s days-of-food figure assumes you are willing to eat what you stored. Sheltering is that willingness.