Lights Out

Stake President George Rosenberg of the Pittsburgh North Stake recently wrote with the following question:

"During the weekend of the storm word got back to us that there was not any severe damage to members' homes, etc. The only problem was the power outage. A few of our people had generators with fuel, wood stoves, etc., but we don't see that as a solution for the majority of our members who just didn't have electricity through no fault of their own. Any ideas? I have thought about encouraging propane tank/grill use at least for cooking, oil lamps for light, etc. that can be stored easily (without having a fire hazard such as gasoline stored around the house/garage). Anything else come to mind that would be appropriate for this area?"

In response I wrote, "Charcoal grills are definitely one option we would use for cooking, and fortunately this didn't happen during the winter, when heating systems would be compromised. In that case we would turn to our wood stove. For light we rely on a lantern (from Radio Shack) that we can crank and that also will charge a cell phone and has a radio receiver."

But what other ideas are out there? How did you prepare for the lights to be out?