Light Your Way Out of Disaster!

Disaster preparedness is something that has been on my mind for some time now. Toronto is one of the most stable areas of the world to live in, but hey… you never know! For those of you who remember, there was the Great Blackout of 2003 when most of the North Eastern North American continent was without power for a few days. And just recently, Toronto had a freak rainstorm that resulted in some severe flooding and no power for several days in some parts of the city.

I’ll admit that I also have a bit of a fascination with post-apocalyptic settings and there is some influence there… Nevertheless, it’s never a bad idea to be prepared! There may come a day when you’re clamouring to join me for a meal of freeze dried mac and cheese. Then we’ll see who’s laughing!…

Anyways, so I have decided to prepare for an emergency disaster and will document the progress of what I will be calling “Operation: Armageddon Outta Here”.  Hopefully there will be regular updates, because that means the next time disaster strikes, I’ll be ready.

First order of business is light. For that, I am prepared with an arsenal of flashlights and batteries.

As you can see, not only do I have several flashlights available, I also have several types of flashlights. From left to right:

- LED headlamp with red light. This is very handy for when you need both hands. Also, the red light feature is nice because it lights up the area in front of you enough for you to see, but it won’t blind you and reduce your night vision too much

- This neat flashlight was gifted to me by Deb. Why is it neat you ask? Because it doesn’t need batteries! You just shake it and it’s good to go. Very handy for longer blackout periods as the batteries run out

- The mag lights. Big one to light up the way and smash things if necessary. Small ones are just convenient and easy to carry.

I have these stored away in two separate locations that I can reach easily so that if the power does go out, I don’t have to go look for them.

It’s not like I’m afraid of the dark, but I’m sure everyone has been in a blackout before and it really sucks to stub your toe and bang your knee on things you can’t see – basically it’s hard to do anything without light. So go get a flashlight or three if you don’t have them already and make sure you have spare batteries for them or, better yet, get a flashlight that doesn’t need batteries!