Thing is I also donate a lot of nonperishable stuff to the church and various organizations. Then I simply replace part of my stock. So my supply comes in handy in more than one way.
It's a good idea to keep a supply of non-perishable food stored, in case of an emergency situation. Three years is a lot though. When are you building your bomb shelter?
What an awful way to die. It boggles the mind to think of how much stuff it would take to collapse a floor like that.
Don't think so Chuck. What I did learn in Katrina about storms and cellphones though, if there's equipment out of service and the system won't handle a call, that's when texting finally has a purpose. We refugees couldn't make voice calls but found that texts would go through, so you'd text the number of a landline you ended up at, and they'd call it. The only constructive use I've ever found for texting but there it is. It's all about bandwidth. Voices use too much, text hardly any. Then of course some clown is going to start sending pictures of a downed tree and slow everything down..
I'll bet he's found a source for canned hamburgers. 
Yuck! Why would anyone want to hang onto such a thing? If that isn't nuts, I don't know what is.
Police control the phone company now?
Using snow and ice to preserve food is always a good idea. Never heard of a "FIOS battery" -- what does that do, provide backup power for your FIOS TV? In that situation TV is not your priority; radio maybe... or you can just do what I do and keep a UPS system for at least short-term fill-ins. If my power goes out I don't even lose the internet because the UPS kicks in, and speaking of communication you can use the internet to make phone calls too -- Skype is one way, Gmail is another -- I make lots of outgoing calls via Gmail (and they're free).
Double-A (AA) flashlights and devices aren't that useful; AAs don't last very long. That's what D batteries are for. The bigger the battery the more stamina it's going to have. AA flashlights are largely a waste of time. Even with fresh batteries they don't cast much light. When I grew up we always had oil lamps around -- my mom called them 'hurricane lamps'. They, or candles, always help light up a room and never need batteries.
Thanks, Chuck.
Police control the phone company now?
Using snow and ice to preserve food is always a good idea. Never heard of a "FIOS battery" -- what does that do, provide backup power for your FIOS TV? In that situation TV is not your priority; radio maybe... or you can just do what I do and keep a UPS system for at least short-term fill-ins. If my power goes out I don't even lose the internet because the UPS kicks in, and speaking of communication you can use the internet to make phone calls too -- Skype is one way, Gmail is another -- I make lots of outgoing calls via Gmail (and they're free).
Double-A (AA) flashlights and devices aren't that useful; AAs don't last very long. That's what D batteries are for. The bigger the battery the more stamina it's going to have. AA flashlights are largely a waste of time. Even with fresh batteries they don't cast much light. When I grew up we always had oil lamps around -- my mom called them 'hurricane lamps'. They, or candles, always help light up a room and never need batteries.
We couldn't text during the ice storm because the cell phone lines were used for 911 calls.
The FIOS is basically a Fiber Optic Cable and your phone runs on it as well as your TV. It is all shared. The phone company rips out the copper wire and gives you a backup battery because communication is done on a fiber optic wire. The backup battery only lasts eight hours.
With LEDs, batteries last a lot longer because LEDs use a lot less electricity. We have a lot of AA and we have lantern as well as other types of flashlights so that we can use other batteries if we have them available.
I have a windup radio as well for storms.
That's a lot.
