Rocket stoves are so simple to make that it is easy to make them from whatever you have handy. This, of course, is dependent on you understanding what makes them work. It is a fine example of a favorite saying I made up: "The more you have in your head the less you have to carry in your hands."
Some survivalists can walk naked into the woods and come out fatter with clothes on. Other, less knowledgeable people, can starve to death right next to food they don't recognize.
If you are capable of it, learning the theory of rocket stoves will mean you can be safe and warm without having to haul around an actual stove. Learning what makes rocket stoves work means that you can make one out of whatever you have handy. That is a lot of freedom and security for you and your loved ones.
It is no shame if you cannot learn the theory of rocket stoves. If not, then you will just have to buy or make one and make sure you can get it when you need it.
Link to research center that invented rocket stoves
The Aprovecho Research Center provides technologies for poor people in developing nations worldwide. Their rocket stoves are only part of their efforts.
This guy used a hole in the ground with a bit of pipe for a rocket stove for camping.
I ran across a blog where a guy used nothing but a hole in the ground and rocks to make a rocket stove. I have not found it in time to add to this post, but will provide a link to it as soon as I do.
I would like for all my readers to have the freedom and security of knowing they can always manage to have warmth and ability to cook, no matter what arises.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
A Cheap Rocket Stove Could Save Your Life And Maybe Help The Earth
Rocket Stoves are not complex but they are very efficient. They burn most of the gases that are given off by the burning fuel, thereby producing more heat per amount of fuel than other types of stoves.
This has the added benefit that they do not use as many fuel resources and do not pollute as much as other types of stoves. And they are very cheap to make. It is possible to make one for free.
Some people combine a rocket stove with a thermal mass so that the mass will retain the heat after the fuel is no longer burning and slowly release the heat.
Youtube is crowded with rocket stoves now. There are all different kinds. The two main kinds are metal or ceramic/brick.
The metal ones do not last very long because the fire in them is so hot that it soon burns up the metal. I read that their average life span is from about a month to three months. If the metal is heavier, they can last much longer, however.
LDS Prepper has several videos on youtube that show how to build a rocket stove from tin cans and a little sand, ashes, or vermiculite. His videos were the earliest rocket stoves on youtube and are still around. This is probably because his videos are very clear and easy to understand. One of his videos shows precautions to avoid injury when you make a rocket stove like his. You can cut yourself badly or get other injuries if you are not careful.
I don't believe LDS Prepper mentioned that you need to keep an unvented rocket stove outside. They are efficient, but nothing is perfect and it would be awful if you died from carbon monixide poisoning caused by your emergency preparedness equipment.
The main tool you need to make the tin can rocket stove is tin snips. If you have those, the stove can be almost free. I will post more later on some rocket stoves that are free, not almost free.
It concerns me that people who use dial up or other slow internet may not be able to see the youtube videos on building rocket stoves. I plan to write and draw instructions for making one that can be printed out or read without downloading videos.
Some enterprising souls have already begun making and selling rocket stoves. I think this is very good. People have a way to make money. Other people can buy a rocket stove to save on their fuel costs. The little tin can ones have been selling for $25.00 in one place. All different versions have been proliferating all over the internet. They are not hard to find now.
I am working on adding contextual ads to this blog. That should mean that ads selling rocket stoves will probably be on here soon. I like that. It means you get to look at things you are interested in. I am not a very technically proficient person, so it may take me a while longer to do this.
This has the added benefit that they do not use as many fuel resources and do not pollute as much as other types of stoves. And they are very cheap to make. It is possible to make one for free.
Some people combine a rocket stove with a thermal mass so that the mass will retain the heat after the fuel is no longer burning and slowly release the heat.
Youtube is crowded with rocket stoves now. There are all different kinds. The two main kinds are metal or ceramic/brick.
The metal ones do not last very long because the fire in them is so hot that it soon burns up the metal. I read that their average life span is from about a month to three months. If the metal is heavier, they can last much longer, however.
LDS Prepper has several videos on youtube that show how to build a rocket stove from tin cans and a little sand, ashes, or vermiculite. His videos were the earliest rocket stoves on youtube and are still around. This is probably because his videos are very clear and easy to understand. One of his videos shows precautions to avoid injury when you make a rocket stove like his. You can cut yourself badly or get other injuries if you are not careful.
I don't believe LDS Prepper mentioned that you need to keep an unvented rocket stove outside. They are efficient, but nothing is perfect and it would be awful if you died from carbon monixide poisoning caused by your emergency preparedness equipment.
The main tool you need to make the tin can rocket stove is tin snips. If you have those, the stove can be almost free. I will post more later on some rocket stoves that are free, not almost free.
It concerns me that people who use dial up or other slow internet may not be able to see the youtube videos on building rocket stoves. I plan to write and draw instructions for making one that can be printed out or read without downloading videos.
Some enterprising souls have already begun making and selling rocket stoves. I think this is very good. People have a way to make money. Other people can buy a rocket stove to save on their fuel costs. The little tin can ones have been selling for $25.00 in one place. All different versions have been proliferating all over the internet. They are not hard to find now.
I am working on adding contextual ads to this blog. That should mean that ads selling rocket stoves will probably be on here soon. I like that. It means you get to look at things you are interested in. I am not a very technically proficient person, so it may take me a while longer to do this.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Thank You To My Readers
It really bothers me to think of people dying simply because they lack a little information. That is a big reason I am writing these blog posts.
I do not have that many readers yet, although they are increasing by quite a bit. It helps me to keep going when I see the statistics on how many of you keep looking. Thank you.
It is a little like a sheep that got in my family's alfalfa field once. The sheep ate a lot of green alfalfa which can give them such bad gas it can kill them.
It was one of our neighbor's sheep. They kind of liked having bad fences that let their sheep get into our pasture. They got free feed that way. They didn't care about those that died. I guess they figured they came out ahead anyway.
The sheep got down into the creek. The creek had worn a ravine through the field that got much steeper on one end. I tried to make the sheep go down toward the shallow end where it could climb out more easily. It had its wool all soaked and it was very heavy and the water was cold.
Nothing I could do would make that sheep go down toward the shallow end and climb out. It was determined to go further up where the ravine was steeper, and the water was deeper.
I got my brothers to help me. That was no more use than what I had done by myself. The sheep was in water almost up to its nostrils and shivering violently. We didn't think it would do any good to call the neighbors. They didn't seem to value the lives of their sheep.
We called the neighbors anyway. No good. They just laughed at us for calling them and caring about a sheep.
The next day the sheep was dead in the creek.
People remind me of that sheep sometimes. Sometimes people are determined to go to the steeper end of the ravine and die.
If you know other people who are not sheep, maybe you can tell them to take care of themselves and learn how to take care of themselves in disasters. My blog is not the only way to learn this. It is one way and probably easier than some others.
The world is different now. We are going to have more and more disasters for the rest of our lives. It is increasingly unlikely that anyone can go through their life without experiencing a disaster. If we are to live through disasters, ignorance is not possible. We must choose knowledge or death.
I do not have that many readers yet, although they are increasing by quite a bit. It helps me to keep going when I see the statistics on how many of you keep looking. Thank you.
It is a little like a sheep that got in my family's alfalfa field once. The sheep ate a lot of green alfalfa which can give them such bad gas it can kill them.
It was one of our neighbor's sheep. They kind of liked having bad fences that let their sheep get into our pasture. They got free feed that way. They didn't care about those that died. I guess they figured they came out ahead anyway.
The sheep got down into the creek. The creek had worn a ravine through the field that got much steeper on one end. I tried to make the sheep go down toward the shallow end where it could climb out more easily. It had its wool all soaked and it was very heavy and the water was cold.
Nothing I could do would make that sheep go down toward the shallow end and climb out. It was determined to go further up where the ravine was steeper, and the water was deeper.
I got my brothers to help me. That was no more use than what I had done by myself. The sheep was in water almost up to its nostrils and shivering violently. We didn't think it would do any good to call the neighbors. They didn't seem to value the lives of their sheep.
We called the neighbors anyway. No good. They just laughed at us for calling them and caring about a sheep.
The next day the sheep was dead in the creek.
People remind me of that sheep sometimes. Sometimes people are determined to go to the steeper end of the ravine and die.
If you know other people who are not sheep, maybe you can tell them to take care of themselves and learn how to take care of themselves in disasters. My blog is not the only way to learn this. It is one way and probably easier than some others.
The world is different now. We are going to have more and more disasters for the rest of our lives. It is increasingly unlikely that anyone can go through their life without experiencing a disaster. If we are to live through disasters, ignorance is not possible. We must choose knowledge or death.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Problems We Are Leaving For Our Grandchildren Will Get Us Too
Mark Twain said that there are three kinds of lies. "There are lies. There are damned lies and there are statistics."
Every time there is major news coverage of a new scientific discovery that tells us that we are destroying the earth with our stupidity, government officials solemnly tell us everything is ok. They find "scientists" who claim the majority of scientists are wrong about global warming, climate change, polar ice caps melting, and the dependence on petroleum and gas of our whole civilization. They often trot out experts to tell us that we have plenty of gas and oil to continue our wasteful use of it indefinitely.
How much gas and oil is left in the world is not as important as how much oil and gas is left that we can use. At some point it takes more energy to pump out the oil and gas than it does to leave it there.
There is a new technology that allows cheaper oil and gas extraction. This means that old, formerly defunct oil fields can now allow extraction of more oil and gas.
The name for this type of gas and oil extraction is "fracking".
Fracking involves pumping steam into the old oil well to force more oil and gas out. Steam under pressure is what runs a lot of power plants. It is powerful stuff.
People who live near fracking operations complain of problems that it causes them. One of these is having their water aquifers polluted.
An aquifer is like a giant sponge made of rock that holds water in tiny holes all through it. Most wells get water from aquifers. Some aquifers are very old and so is the water in them. Once an aquifer is polluted nobody knows how to fix it. That means bad water forever.
Another problem that people complain about from fracking operations is seismic activity. That means earthquakes. The world is getting more and bigger earthquakes than ever before. The same applies to the tsunamis that go with a lot of them. It is pretty hard to pin increased earthquakes and tsunamis on fracking from oil extraction, but that does not mean there is no connection.
If I was Japanese, I think I would be pretty teed off at fracking operations. I am not happy about it and I live in Alaska. We just got the first radioactive debris washing up on our seashores from Japan. This stuff does not stay put in one place. The world is connected, like it or not.
There is a lot of sanctimonious stuff going around about not leaving problems for our grandchildren. It is a lot of talk but little action.
We don't get off that easy. We get to enjoy those problems in our lifetimes too. They will be worse for our grandchildren, but it is only fair that we get at least some of them. That is already starting. Our grandchildren are really going to hate us when they realize what we did to them.
You may hate yourself too. You need to get ready for the swarms of natural disasters that are going to be the new normal.
Do whatever you can to go easier on the planet. You will have the rest of your life to regret not doing so.
Every time there is major news coverage of a new scientific discovery that tells us that we are destroying the earth with our stupidity, government officials solemnly tell us everything is ok. They find "scientists" who claim the majority of scientists are wrong about global warming, climate change, polar ice caps melting, and the dependence on petroleum and gas of our whole civilization. They often trot out experts to tell us that we have plenty of gas and oil to continue our wasteful use of it indefinitely.
How much gas and oil is left in the world is not as important as how much oil and gas is left that we can use. At some point it takes more energy to pump out the oil and gas than it does to leave it there.
There is a new technology that allows cheaper oil and gas extraction. This means that old, formerly defunct oil fields can now allow extraction of more oil and gas.
The name for this type of gas and oil extraction is "fracking".
Fracking involves pumping steam into the old oil well to force more oil and gas out. Steam under pressure is what runs a lot of power plants. It is powerful stuff.
People who live near fracking operations complain of problems that it causes them. One of these is having their water aquifers polluted.
An aquifer is like a giant sponge made of rock that holds water in tiny holes all through it. Most wells get water from aquifers. Some aquifers are very old and so is the water in them. Once an aquifer is polluted nobody knows how to fix it. That means bad water forever.
Another problem that people complain about from fracking operations is seismic activity. That means earthquakes. The world is getting more and bigger earthquakes than ever before. The same applies to the tsunamis that go with a lot of them. It is pretty hard to pin increased earthquakes and tsunamis on fracking from oil extraction, but that does not mean there is no connection.
If I was Japanese, I think I would be pretty teed off at fracking operations. I am not happy about it and I live in Alaska. We just got the first radioactive debris washing up on our seashores from Japan. This stuff does not stay put in one place. The world is connected, like it or not.
There is a lot of sanctimonious stuff going around about not leaving problems for our grandchildren. It is a lot of talk but little action.
We don't get off that easy. We get to enjoy those problems in our lifetimes too. They will be worse for our grandchildren, but it is only fair that we get at least some of them. That is already starting. Our grandchildren are really going to hate us when they realize what we did to them.
You may hate yourself too. You need to get ready for the swarms of natural disasters that are going to be the new normal.
Do whatever you can to go easier on the planet. You will have the rest of your life to regret not doing so.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Make A Cold Weather Shelter Around Your Bed To Trap Body Heat
If you can not afford to buy emergency heat sources, you need to know how to stay warm. You can make a shelter around your bed to trap body heat to stay warm.
Your shelter needs to be small so that your body heat will be enough to warm the space in it. If you have more than one person, you need to make it so that you share the space so that more body heat will be trapped in it to keep you warm.
You need at least 15 inches of insulating material around your body heat shelter. That can be whatever kinds of fiber you have in your home. I plan to use couch and chair cushions, blankets, and linens around mine. I can get 15 inches out of them. If you do not have 15 inches from these items, you can add any clothing you are not wearing and books and papers.
You will need to find a way to support these items around you when you place them around your shelter. Chairs and a table or curtain rods or closet poles are some of the ways you can hold up your body heat shelter.
You need to allow vapor from your breath to get out of your body heat shelter so that it will not get damp inside. This is especially true if you have used plastic as part of your shelter. Plastic traps the heat well, but does not breathe at all.
You will need to allow fresh air to come in as well. When you make your openings for vapor to escape your body heat shelter, remember that warm air rises and cold air drops. You can get fresh air from a low spot and let out the vapor-laden air at a high spot.
If you have pets, you will be much warmer with them inside your shelter too. If you can not manage to do this, you need to provide shelter for the pets and make sure their water does not freeze.
You also need to make sure your own water does not freeze or have a way to thaw it. Bringing water into your body heat shelter will melt ice eventually. It will make you a little colder in there, however.
Since I live in a cold place I have made my bed into a body heat shelter for all the time. I put a book case at both ends of my bed and put it all in a corner. I put boards across the two book cases for a top.
I bought a closet pole and made a curtain out of a heavy blanket and added more material to it so it is thick and insulates well. I hung the closet pole between the book cases on the edge of the boards. I used a piece of pvc tube before I got the closet pole. The pvc bends in the middle, so it does not work as well.
I used a large piece of cloth over the top of my bed before I got the boards to put up there. The cloth does not trap the heat as well as the boards, but it makes it quite a bit warmer anyway.
When you have an actual cold weather emergency in your home you will need to add inches of insulation around your bed to make it a good enough shelter. The top will be easy. The open side will be harder. I plan to add furniture to hold insulation up higher and hang some things from the top. Couch and chair cushions are a fast and easy way to get some thickness.
When you make a permanent cold weather shelter around your bed, you can lower your heat more at night and save on your heating bill. This is good for your pocket book and also for the earth.
If your bed is too warm in the summer, you can take the curtains off. The top of the bed is good for storage, especially unused bedding.
I put a small electric fan on the book case at the foot of my bed to cool it off when it gets too warm. You can adjust the temperature by opening the curtain, as well.
A clamp light attached to the book case at the head of the bed makes it nice for reading in bed. A battery operated touch light is another way you could do this.
My cats really approve of this bed shelter and usually sleep in there with me, even though I have a heated bed for them. I keep a container full of cat treats on the book shelf near my head. We are all ready to trap our body heat in an emergency.
I am adding a note because of a change in earthquake disaster preparedness. Having things directly over your bed is now considered bad for earthquakes. New studies show that you are more likely to get squashed flat by trying to hide under things. Please look at my more recent earthquake posts to learn more if you are in earthquake areas.
Your shelter needs to be small so that your body heat will be enough to warm the space in it. If you have more than one person, you need to make it so that you share the space so that more body heat will be trapped in it to keep you warm.
You need at least 15 inches of insulating material around your body heat shelter. That can be whatever kinds of fiber you have in your home. I plan to use couch and chair cushions, blankets, and linens around mine. I can get 15 inches out of them. If you do not have 15 inches from these items, you can add any clothing you are not wearing and books and papers.
You will need to find a way to support these items around you when you place them around your shelter. Chairs and a table or curtain rods or closet poles are some of the ways you can hold up your body heat shelter.
You need to allow vapor from your breath to get out of your body heat shelter so that it will not get damp inside. This is especially true if you have used plastic as part of your shelter. Plastic traps the heat well, but does not breathe at all.
You will need to allow fresh air to come in as well. When you make your openings for vapor to escape your body heat shelter, remember that warm air rises and cold air drops. You can get fresh air from a low spot and let out the vapor-laden air at a high spot.
If you have pets, you will be much warmer with them inside your shelter too. If you can not manage to do this, you need to provide shelter for the pets and make sure their water does not freeze.
You also need to make sure your own water does not freeze or have a way to thaw it. Bringing water into your body heat shelter will melt ice eventually. It will make you a little colder in there, however.
Since I live in a cold place I have made my bed into a body heat shelter for all the time. I put a book case at both ends of my bed and put it all in a corner. I put boards across the two book cases for a top.
I bought a closet pole and made a curtain out of a heavy blanket and added more material to it so it is thick and insulates well. I hung the closet pole between the book cases on the edge of the boards. I used a piece of pvc tube before I got the closet pole. The pvc bends in the middle, so it does not work as well.
I used a large piece of cloth over the top of my bed before I got the boards to put up there. The cloth does not trap the heat as well as the boards, but it makes it quite a bit warmer anyway.
When you have an actual cold weather emergency in your home you will need to add inches of insulation around your bed to make it a good enough shelter. The top will be easy. The open side will be harder. I plan to add furniture to hold insulation up higher and hang some things from the top. Couch and chair cushions are a fast and easy way to get some thickness.
When you make a permanent cold weather shelter around your bed, you can lower your heat more at night and save on your heating bill. This is good for your pocket book and also for the earth.
If your bed is too warm in the summer, you can take the curtains off. The top of the bed is good for storage, especially unused bedding.
I put a small electric fan on the book case at the foot of my bed to cool it off when it gets too warm. You can adjust the temperature by opening the curtain, as well.
A clamp light attached to the book case at the head of the bed makes it nice for reading in bed. A battery operated touch light is another way you could do this.
My cats really approve of this bed shelter and usually sleep in there with me, even though I have a heated bed for them. I keep a container full of cat treats on the book shelf near my head. We are all ready to trap our body heat in an emergency.
I am adding a note because of a change in earthquake disaster preparedness. Having things directly over your bed is now considered bad for earthquakes. New studies show that you are more likely to get squashed flat by trying to hide under things. Please look at my more recent earthquake posts to learn more if you are in earthquake areas.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Cold Weather Emergencies At Home Kit
You need to be prepared for cold weather emergencies in your home as well as in your vehicle. If the power goes out to your home you need to be able to survive until it comes back on.
Unusual weather has been occurring all over the world. Even if the area you live in has never experienced very cold weather, you need to be ready for it now. The weather systems in the world have changed and you can no longer expect to depend on getting the weather you are used to.
The east coast of the United States has experienced cold weather emergencies that have never been seen before. People have died as a result of these emergencies because they were not prepared. Some of these people got a lot of snow and had never dealt with freezing temperatures before.
Even if you think you live too close to the equator to get cold weather, you need to be prepared for cold weather emergencies now. Here are things you need to get ready:
Winter Survival Kit for Your Home
Keep several days’ supply of these items:
• Food that needs no cooking or refrigeration,
such as bread, crackers, cereal, canned foods,
and dried fruits. Remember baby food and
formula if you have young children.
• Water stored in clean containers, or purchased
bottled water (5 gallons per person) in case
your water pipes freeze and rupture.
• Medicines that any family member may need.
If your area is prone to long periods of cold
temperatures, or if your home is isolated, stock
additional amounts of food, water, and medicine.
Emergency Supplies List:
• an alternate way to heat your home during a power failure:
- dry firewood for a fireplace or wood stove, or
- kerosene for a kerosene heater
• furnace fuel (coal, propane, or oil)
• electric space heater with automatic
shut-off switch and non-glowing elements
• blankets
• matches
• multipurpose, dry-chemical fire extinguisher
• first aid kit and instruction manual
• flashlight or battery-powered lantern
• battery-powered radio
• battery-powered clock or watch
• extra batteries
• non-electric can opener
• snow shovel
• rock salt
• special needs items (diapers,
hearing aid batteries,
medications, etc.)
Do not use any of the heat methods mentioned above without a way to vent them adequately. If you cook, you need to vent your cooker adequately. If you are not sure how to do that, you will need to cook outside. If you have to cook outside, you can heat bricks and bring them inside to heat your bed area.
This list came from the Center for Disease Control, USA. I think you also need something to cook or heat water on. A small barbecue or hibachi would work.
My preference is a rocket stove. I like rocket stoves because they do not take much fuel and you can burn almost anything in them. A few twigs can cook an entire meal.
I am going to do blog posts on how to make your own rocket stove. There will be two kinds. One will be a metal one using tin cans. The other will use bricks. I will also include links to videos on how to make the metal rocket stove. You can buy these already made. The metal ones do not last very long because the metal eventually burns up. Since you can get free tin cans to make these, and make them yourself, you may think it is worthwhile to simply make a replacement when one wears out.
You need a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector near where you will be using an extra heater. If you are not used to needing to heat your home or using a non-electrical heater, you especially need these. The batteries must be replaced at least yearly. You can use something like daylight savings time or a holiday, to remind you to do this.
If you are not used to cold weather and you do not have much money, you can build a shelter around your bed to stay warm. It needs to be small so that it will trap your body heat inside to keep you warm. I am going to do a blog post about this next.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Cold Weather Emergencies Vehicle Safety Kit
Here is my best cold weather tip: Dress for the weather! I can not believe how many Alaskans go out dressed as if they live in Palm Springs. So what if your hair gets a little mussed by a hat? You will look a lot worse with frostbite. That could cost you ears and a nose. It could kill you.
Many people in Anchorage Alaska do not even own a warm winter coat. This is the kind of stupidity that can ensure that you do not survive and remove your genes from the gene pool. Get a bleeping coat. Wear it.
An incident happened in my neighborhood a couple of days ago. It did not turn into a disaster, but it could have. There was a power outage. This is not always a disaster, but in Alaska in the winter time it can be.
The power company got the power on within a few hours so it was not a big problem. It happened in a part of my neighborhood that is heavily populated by elderly people. Elders can be more easily affected by cold than younger people, so I was wondering whether I should call the Red Cross to find out if I could help out with the cold weather shelter for the elders.
The power was not off long enough to require a warm shelter for the seniors in the affected area.
The incident was enough to make me decide that I am going to cover cold weather emergencies sooner than I had planned.
A neighbor was visiting, who had a home in the area where the power was out. There was a request from home to bring candles since there were no lights. They didn't know where their flashlights were either.
You can save your life and the life of your loved ones by preparing for a cold weather emergency. If you live in a cold climate you need to be prepared for cold weather emergencies. Some of these emergencies may be as simple as a car with a flat tire or a power outage.
Even if you live, you don't need a case of hypothermia or frostbite. That could cause permanent kidney, pancreas, or liver damage. You could also lose fingers, toes, ears, etc.
A small amount of emergency preparedness can stop injury to your body or those of your loved ones in a cold weather emergency. It could even save your lives.
You need a small go kit in your vehicles so that a break down will not kill you. Broken down vehicles kill many people every year in cold weather. This is something you can easily prevent.
Here is a list of items to have in your car to keep you and your family safer:
• blankets
• first aid kit
• a can and waterproof matches (to melt snow for water) I like a tea candle better. Do not do this near the gas tank or spilled oil or gas.
• windshield scraper
• booster cables
• road maps
• mobile phone and spare battery
• compass
• tool kit
• paper towels
• bag of sand or cat litter (to pour on ice or snow
for added traction around tires)
• tow rope
• tire chains (in areas with heavy snow)
• collapsible shovel
• container of water and high-calorie canned or dried foods and a can opener
• flashlight and extra batteries
• canned compressed air with sealant (for emergency tire repair) They also have cans with sealant in them to automatically patch punctures.
• brightly colored cloth
This list came from the Center For Disease Control, USA. I made slight additions.
If you have an accident or your vehicle breaks down stay in the vehicle. It is too easy for you to become disoriented in wind-driven snow and cold.
Check to see that your exhaust pipe is not blocked.
Be sure to turn on your engine for about 10 minutes each hour to get heat inside. Don't forget to open your window a little for fresh air and to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
Next make sure you can be seen so you can get help. Tie a colored cloth, preferably red, to your antenna or door. Turn on your dome light to be visible in darkness when you run your engine. Once the snow stops falling, raise your hood to show you need help.
Keep your blood circulating; exercise. Move your arms, legs, fingers and toes vigorously. This will help you to stay warm and prevent frostbite.
Call for help. Wrap your blankets around you and if someone else is with you, huddle together to stay warm. If you have any extra clothing or fabric in the vehicle, wrap it around you as well to help you stay warmer. Don't forget seat covers for this purpose.
I want to write more about cold weather disaster preparedness.
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