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I’m sure my survival story will be perfectly hilarious to those of you live way up north:
So there was this time we had a blizzard in New York City. It started on a Friday evening. I did not take the weather reports seriously because blizzards only happen to people living in the Little House on the Prairie.
Well, come Saturday, the wind was roaring and the snow was hip-deep. It was dangerous to go outside, frostbite risk, whiteout conditions. I looked out my windows and thought, no, this cannot be! Whiteout conditions only happen to people living in the Little House on the Prairie!
The mayor ordered a halt to public transportation and car traffic. NYC was in suspended animation. And that’s when the boiler in the basement died. No more steam was being pumped through the building. Specifically, no more heat was coming out of the steam radiators in my apartment.
I still had electricity, which did me no good since I didn’t have any sort of heat-providing apparatus to plug in, not even a heating pad or an electric blanket. The wind hammered the two leaky (they were leaky?!) windows at the back of the apartment. Cold drafts flowed unimpeded through the apartment from back to front, via archways I couldn’t close off. I had no way to contain heat, so there was no point in turning on my gas oven to try to heat up the place (which probably saved me from accidentally killing myself with carbon monoxide poisoning).
The temperature in my bedroom was in the high 30’s, so I tried to sleep sitting up in my glider in the living room (I don’t own a couch). I wore multiple layers of clothes and my coat, hat, earmuffs and gloves. I had every blanket I owned piled over me. Getting up to use the bathroom or get something to eat or drink was a misery.
By Sunday the temperature in my living room was 40 and I was seriously worried I was going to FREEZE TO DEATH. Not in the Little House on the Prairie. I was going to freeze to death in an apartment in NEW YORK CITY.
And I had this Scarlett O’Hara moment where I swore that as God was my witness I would never let my home get so cold again.
Well, I didn’t die, obviously. The temperature in my living room did not dip below 40. (The pipes in our building did not freeze.) I spent a very uncomfortable few days as the weather cleared, the roads were plowed and a new boiler was installed in the basement. Once I thawed out I got online and googled and stumbled upon Daisy Luther’s article describing how she had fortified her cabin in the boondocks of Northern Canada to withstand the cold.
I was inspired. I digested the information and then, over time, I made some investments. Spent money. This is the result:
I paid a handyman to make storm windows for those two leaky windows at the back of the apartment, because replacing those windows was not in my budget. Each storm window is a framed sheet of plexiglass and the edges are lined with weather-stripping. They attach to the wall on the inside, and completely cover the entire window box. Not one breath of wind gets through. The chill does radiate through the plexiglass, and I block that with thermal curtains that are long enough to puddle on the floor.
So I bought an assortment of thermal curtains ranging from heavy-duty, fleece-blanket-like curtains:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4D3ZUX/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1to more attractive, lighter-weight thermal curtains:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011NQ1MCE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JZ0THV8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1I call these my winter curtains and they go up in the fall. For the wide, deep window boxes, I hang heavy-duty thermals inside the window box using a sturdy tension rod, and then I hang attractive lighter-weight thermal curtains from curtain rods installed outside the window box.
I attached curving curtain rods over the 3 archways of my living room. (dratted “open concept,” now I understand why old houses have doors on each room.) I hung up medium-weight thermal curtains:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001SAOTGC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1and it just looks like decor, not survival mania. I made sure to use curtains long enough and hung low enough, to puddle on the floor. When I close these curtains, I turn my small living room into my “cold weather retreat.” This would be the room where I ride out another cold weather emergency. I’ve got a winter-weight sleeping bag and a cot now so that I can sleep in my living room.
Then I bought something called an oil-filled radiator:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TGDGLU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1It looks like a radiator on wheels. You plug it into the wall, the oil inside it heats up, the heat radiates out. It is dead silent. It an energy hog, uses as much electricity as a window air conditioner. I would use it inside my “cold weather retreat” if the electricity is on but the boiler is out.
I’m too chicken to use a propane or kerosene heater, and I am not sure if those are even legal to use in NYC.
I invested in a down comforter, which cost a sad amount of money. I didn’t buy an electric blanket; I went low-tech and bought a hot-water bottle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXVZZP3/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1 (The natural gas would continue to flow to my stove even if the electricity goes out, so I could always heat water for the hot water bottle.. and coffee!)
and something called a Heat Blanket (it’s the size of a throw): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001K2HSGG/ref=dp_prsubs_1 It is space blanket material on one side and fake fleece on the other.
I made a lot of miscellaneous purchases, like wool-and-leather moccasin-socks from LL Bean. warm throw blankets, fleece-lined pants, and soft thin long johns.
Over time I read more, took online preparedness classes from Daisy, and branched out into preparing for other emergencies.
So there’s my story of surviving a blizzard and how it launched me on my preparedness journey. If anyone has further suggestions, I am interested to hear them!
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Molly, I live in the frozen north and I’m not laughing. You did good. I wonder though with all the things you bought did they cost as much as new windows would have? A down quilt is a wonderful thing.
I have been known to tape bubble wrap over the windows. A down sleeping bag can be good for 20 below zero.
Anyway, glad you won’t freeze.
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@woodsrunner thank you for the encouraging words!
I was quoted about $10,000 to replace all 7 of my windows, or $3,000 to replace just the 2 back windows (I do live in the rip-off capital of the world), and I decided to go with lower-tech methods.
I have heard other people recommending taping bubble wrap over windows. I should pick up a few rolls and keep them for a third layer.
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By the way what makes us laugh is people freaking out over a half inch of snow. I wouldn’t want to be on the road with some people in that weather in some places.
I remember coming home at night in a road so snowy that I had to follow a semi and floor the car to get thru a drift and it was barely crawling at the other end of it. Now I’m older and I just stay home when its that bad. Often here in the winter the police close the roads in really bad conditions. I hate whiteouts more than ice.
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@ molly Malone
For Windows try a restore salvaged building materials you can find deals on windows and other stuff if you are not super picky. Habitat for humanity has them in most main cities
There is also ceramic tints you can get put on for summer heat reduction. If just doing plastic look for some card board like greenhouse plastic it has higher r value and lasts a few seasons.
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@namelus thank you for the suggestions!
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@MM,
Glad to hear you survived!
And I am not laughing at all. The blower went out on our wood furnace in the basement, no forced air. We had at the time a pellet stove. I do not recommend those things. Anyways, yeah, the house got down to 40. I kept the furnace going as it kept the basement and pipes from freezing.
I recommend anything wool! Hats, socks, blankets, etc. A close second is heavy weight performance base layers. REI used to have their own brand but I cannot find them anymore.
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@crowbar thank you for the encouragement! Yes, others have recommended merino wool to me. I didn’t know that a blower could be a point of failure in a wood-heating system.
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Yeah, the blower was connected to the HVAC. Took 3 days to get the part in, and a guy to come out and fix it. Those were 3 cold nights!
As for the pellet stove, when it started to go, we got a free standing small wood stove for the kitchen. No moving parts! No dependency on electricity! And for its size, it really kicks out the heat.
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You’re definitely a survivor, MollyM! That’s often how folks decide to pursue that Boy Scout motto. Experiential learning is the best, actually. Lessons stick with you. You worked with what you had …and you did it yourself! Then you fixed the issues before the next time.
Here’s an odd hint about that bubble wrap on windows: If you spray water with a plant mister on the windows …then just put a pre-cut-to-size piece of bubble wrap up – it should stick. Don’t have the bubble wrap overlap the wood on the windows.
I use the larger size bubble wrap [more thickness of air] and you should apply the back, smooth side to the window. Not the pillowed side. This eliminates sticky tape around the windows. Just wash your windows in the spring. If they don’t stick the first time, just do it again and hold on a few seconds. I’m not sure how it will work with very large windows tho…. ??? Might have to do it in sections?
OldMtWoman …yeah, blizzard stories are funny AFTER THE FACT!
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@oldmtwoman thank you for the encouragement and the tip about using bubble wrap on windows!
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So, updated weather forecast: single digits for tonight. Clear sky.
Got the furnace going, the wood stove going.
Tomorrow I will have to dress accordingly to tend to the livestock.
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Great story, Molly! I’m honored that you found my blog this way. 🙂
A heater that is rated safe indoors in every state but Massachusetts is the Mr. Buddy heater. It’s propane but if you grab a CO detector with battery backup, you’ll be ok. I use this myself and have been happy with it.
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@daisy thank you and I will think about the Mr. Buddy. It makes me nervous to have a propane heater but it is something to think about. I didn’t know it was legal to use in 49 states.
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There is something called sodium acetate, it is used in reuseable heating pads, I use them for sore muscles and on long outdoor days. It would work in a power down situation as well. I use a brand called heat wave the larger one for neck and shoulders is a God send for me.
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