This all seems like an insane overreaction. I question what gets someone into this level of panic. Just chill out for a couple of days and enjoy reading some books and have an adventure. Unless you’ve got a medical emergency and need to have power for some devices just relax and wait for the power to be reconnected. I get that there are emergencies in the world but not having power at home is an inconvenience.
I spent $600 for a box to be delivered to family which only had batteries and battery fans.
It took my family 6 MONTHS to get power.
My sister would alternate what she did every day.
Some days, she would leave in the morning to go get gas. The line was ALL DAY. Only thing she was filling was the car up. If the temp was too high, because of my grandparents (90’s), they’d just sit in the car to cool off. They’d take the time to charge the phones.
The next day, she’d hit a supermarket. Again, a line all day, to be hopefully let in, and buy whatever is left. I mean, WHATEVER is left (if anything) because the ports weren’t open and nothing was no food being delivered. She would buy expired food, food that clearly had been too warm, then cooled down again, etc.
That and then she’d hit the more rural areas to see if anyone had fruits or anything they were giving out.
The currency at one point was ice. Cause it can keep your food safe and getting it wasn’t easy.
Cellphones were down most of the time. When they came up, they were overloaded. Then antennas would run out of gas and they’d go down again.
At 3 months, I was finally able to get my mom, my sister, and my grandparents out. Before, we’d buy tickets and flights would get cancelled. Every single day we’d go in.
When they made it to us, I took my sister to help buy groceries for my mom and grandparents.
Seeing her walk in, and when we reached the back of the first aisle, she just couldn’t hold it back and fell down crying because of the food. ‘The food’.
Seeing a woman in her mid 20’s crashing into the floor and crying just cause there’s food after being 3 months without it is sad. That being my sister was, heart breaking. Other people came, my wife explained a bit. A few stayed and talked, tried to calm her down.
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I applaud the author for taking action. For preparing. But let’s also understand, this is 6 days, and he could have drove his family anywhere else with that money. Find the cheapest rental or hotel and put everyone in a room there. That’s it.
From the reading, the hard part is keeping the kids entertained and food. He lost some. He could have used bags of ice.. but a cooler, drive 2, 5? hours and fill it with bags of ice. The fill your fridge and gift the rest. Repeat in one or two days. Only open to fill a smaller cooler for the day.
But he needs a jackery, solar panels, a generator, and $350 worth of groceries. Would $100 have sufficed for a bit and left stuff for others?
For me, while rainy funds are good, after disasters back home the most important part is community. They’re the ones helping each other. But I see nothing about it.