Emergency Warm Enclosure for Power Outages

[lanswyfte]

Here in Oregon, we've been having the best time ever! </s> Tonight my power went out for the third time since the first ice storm hit last weekend. It was out ~3 hours Saturday night, ~7 hours Monday, and ten minutes after it went out tonight at 2200, our local power company put out an e-mail notice that things are worse than they've ever seen it before ("catastrophic damage, trees and limbs down, landslides, close calls"), and that "all customers currently without power should plan to be without power for a week or more."

I haven't been able to leave my apartment until tonight (solid ice on the ground, no traction). Tomorrow I get to test out how well socks over my shoes work. I don't have many options for keeping my two sneks warm that long (can you say "unprepared?" Yes, I thought you could!), and when I brought them into bed with me Saturday night, Gibbs (BP, in my avatar) was not a happy camper--- kept moving around inside his bag more than I've ever seen before, so I was grateful when the power popped back on in three hours.

I came in here to see if they'd be okay overnight in their regular tanks while the temperature is going down, because somewhere I read, "better too cool than hot," and Gibbs is in (I'm guessing) a state of brumation (every so often he pokes his head out of his favorite log on the cool side of the tank, but he's been really quiet and hasn't eaten since last year--- okay, October 22nd! Just before his 8th birthday), so I wasn't sure how cool was too cool for one night. I'd bagged them Saturday because when the temperatures went down after that outage, Gibbs came out of his log, so I assumed he was too cold. Robin, my albino checkered garter snake, just turned ten yesterday, so I worry a bit about her because of her age, but she tends to tolerate the cold better, and her tank is temporarily here in my room where I can keep an eye on her.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I'm a little scatterbrained right now because I've had to get my sons calmed down despite the outage (both are autistic and anxious) on top of worrying about the snakes. As I told them, I'm more worried about the snakes than us, because I know we'll be fine. I haven't ice chests here at home, except for those soft-sided insulated grocery bags, so I guess I'll have bedmates tonight, and tomorrow I'll see about getting them set up in the insulated bags with hot water bottles and blankets around them (to help insulate). Signing off now to save my phone battery until I can get gas in my car in order to charge the phone.

Stay safe and warm out there, everyone!