A closed refrigerator without power gives you about four hours. A half-full freezer gets about a day, a full one about two. Those are the CDC’s numbers, and they are where most 72-hour plans stop. Water, phones and fuel do not fail on the same schedule, and the outage does not care how long your kit was built for.
Today’s SITREP walks ten checkpoints, from 24 hours to a year and beyond. At one week, check refills and waste disposal. By two weeks you need a confirmed replacement water supply. Three weeks tests your cooking setup, because preparing dry rice uses stored water and fuel as well as food. At one month, decide whether home is still safe. At three months, verify how you keep replacing supplies. At six months, replace home-filled water. A year and beyond needs another food supply and a workable place to live.
The X is counting days of stored food without checking the water, cooking fuel and care your family needs to use it.
Three moves this week. Test a full day of meals on your outage stove and measure the water and fuel. Write down the reasons you will leave, with a destination and a ride confirmed. Protect the stock you have, dry, out of sight, with a written count.
This SITREP is free for everyone, with the 90 Days Without the Grid field guide and a new Grid Down Family Planning Worksheet at SurvivalDispatchStore.com. 🔋