Where's some of that global warming when you need it? The past few days have been brutal.
I talk a lot about being prepared for hurricanes. The same can be said about winter storms that most of us are not used to.
The difference between the hurricane and the winter storm is you're not going to freeze to death when a hurricane hits.
A friend of mine, who lives in Birmingham, got stuck about 10 to 15 years ago when a winter storm put its grip on the city and he lost electricity in a house that was heated with electricity. He couldn't go anywhere because the roads were frozen. He told me he didn't know where he would go if he could.
As soon as the weather thawed, he installed a natural gas heater and bought a propane heater for backup.
“This won't happen again,” he told me.
I lived in Tennessee for a couple of years and I learned they don't prepare for winter any better than we do down here in south Alabama and northwest Florida. My first winter there we were hit by a winter storm that froze everything and dropped temperatures to the teens. I grew up in Tuscaloosa and I saw a few days where temps would dip to near zero but it was usually for only one day. It stayed below 10 degrees in Fayetteville, Tenn., for a week and I was miserable.
As far as I know there were no power outages in the area this week, but it made me wonder if any of us were prepared for going a day or two without heat? Like my friend in Birmingham, you would probably not only be without heat, you'd be trapped by the frozen roads.
After Ivan, like many of you, I bought a generator and also bought a small 110 air conditioning unit that I could at least cool one room of the house. That AC unit was a blessing when Dennis hit. But it wasn't a life or death situation; it was more for comfort.
I did buy one of those 'Mr. Buddy' propane heaters that not only come in handy in a cold hunting stand, but can also warm a room inside your house. I bought mine at South Alabama Gas in Brewton and I know they have more available. Every year for Christmas my daughter gives me more small propane cans for my Mr. Buddy. It can be a lifesaver. That generator in the shed won't help me if I don't have a heater to plug it into. And if I hadn't prepared ahead, I'm not going to the shed at 2 a.m. in freezing weather to drag that generator out.
My bet is this is the last real winter threat we will have until next year. I hope we all learned some lessons that we are less prepared to deal with winter storms than we are with hurricanes. I'm glad we didn't have major power outages but I hope you ask yourself what you would have done if we had.
We all got prepared after Ivan. Don't wait until next winter to get prepared for another winter storm.
On another note, I was talking with my little brother the other day and he posed a question that puzzled both of us and maybe somebody out there can answer the question.
His question was if they put salt on roads to melt the ice, why do we put salt on ice to help freeze homemade ice cream? You can also put salt on the ice in your cooler and it helps keep things frozen.
I only took one semester of chemistry in high school and I don't remember that being discussed.
I'm just curious and if you have the answer let me know.
