There are lots of lessons coming out of the December 2007 ice storm that hit the Mid-west.
Some of my extended family live in Oklahoma. They are pretty prepared... at least compared to most of the population. They shared a story they were personally involved in.
An elderly friend of theirs lives by himself in a mobile home. He has a daughter-in-law in the same town who does check on him, but she has other responsibilities, as well. So, my extended family checked with him by phone shortly after the ice storm hit. He was doing fine, then. Later in the night, however, the power went out. Their call the next day found him alive, but cold. And maybe a little befuddled.
They ventured out to check on him in person. He only had a sheet and an electric blanket on his bed. That was fine for him when there was power... not so good when it is freezing outside and the power is out. He had a generator... but couldn't get it started. (He is about 85 years old.) He was looking for a kerosene heater as he had plenty of kerosene. (We'll discuss the dangers of that another time but in the meantime, be very cautious about using combustible heaters inside! The fumes can kill you!
The family had blankets in their cars (traveling icy roads in winter means a blanket in the trunk). They got them out, wrapped him in one and put the other blanket on the bed. Then they got the generator started. With power again, his heater worked, he was able to have a hot meal, and all was right again. For a while.
When they called to check on him the next day, they discovered that he had shut off the generator because the noise bothered him. However, he had slept warm due to the blankets they had given him. (It seems he doesn't even have extra blankets because the electric blanket had been plenty good enough for him in the past.) But he was getting cold again without power. (Mobile homes especially have a tendency to do this.)
They called the daughter-in-law (who was going to be going by to see him anyway) to alert her of the issues. If I recall correctly, power was restored after only a couple of days and he is fine.... But only because of caring (and thinking) friends and relatives. This could have easily turned into another news statistic of another victim of hypothermia (the term for dying from too much cold.)
You did catch the lessons in this, didn't you? He did some things right, but wasn't really prepared.
Next time, we'll visit more about what we need to do to stay prepared in situations like these.
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