what's your emergency plan?

Hey Everyone,

I'll be soon getting my own apartment/duplex so I'm still at the planning and plotting stage of setting up a snake room (possible breeding down the road). I'd really like to hear from several of ya'll about how do you safeguard when, lets say... power outages due to weather issues? I figure a portable generator is a must have but any other ideas? Heatpacks? What else?

If you were left without power for a week during the winter season how would you protect your snakes? What's your emergency plan?

In my area we are noted for flashfloods, twisters, and freak snowstorms so I'm trying to plan ahead to avoid a serious "OH S---!!!" moment. Knowing my luck its bound to happen eventually.

Thanks in advance! :)

Personally I have enough insulated crates to house every one of my snakes. Along with this I also have a bunch of the 40 hr. heat pads. I also have a portable propane heater that is safe for indoor use with enough bottled propane to heat my reptile room for about a week. I also have a small generator that would be more than enough to run my rack. I have most everything stored in the closet of my reptile room. I figure better safe than sorry...

Morgan

I had my first experience with this when the power when out riiight after I got six new snakes. First time dealing with this all and there was a ridiculously long delay on my 40HR heatpacks... so I had nothing.

BUT! If ever without the heatpacks, all you need to do is use a very, very good ziploc and fill it with hot water and pack the snakes as if to ship. You have to make sure there's a good barrier between the snake and the water though, because it's HOT. My snakes were cozy the whole day. :]

I didn't have anything for my two milk's but I nabbed a small icechest which heated right up and worked like a charm, but for the majority of the time I had the ziplocs of heated water resting over the hides where the snakes were hunkered down and it kept them nice and warm as well.

Thank you both for such good advice!!!:gj:

If Minneapolis goes without power for a week, there are bigger problems than my snakes (sad to say, but true).

I'd pack 'em up and go to one of a half dozen friends' places that would likely have power.

If I can't leave, or none of those other places have power, there are MUCH bigger problems than my snakes.

I don't plan for a perfect outcome for every single 1 in 10000 chance likelihood of it ever happening to me that is possible, but I stay flexible in reacting to situations.

For my small animals, insulated boxes and 40hr heat packs would suffice in most emergencies. Large snakes are much harder to handle in such emergencies.

This would all be moot if I had my own place with a backup generator, which is a much better solution, but until that happens, there are risks (and benefits) living in an apartment.

Thanks Mainbutter for those good points.:) Right now I'm going to have to rent either a house or a duplex depending on the market and I know I need some good input of taking care of my snakes if something like this happens. Many of you have great insight into this- hence the brain picking ;)

I didn't lose any power in the snowstorms that hit TX a few weeks ago but I could have and solid ice roads I wouldn't be able to leave for a good 4 days. That event is what spurred this post actually.

I think that you are doing the responsible thing by planning for an emergency. While you cannot plan for every issue that my arise you can take some basic precautions that will leave you in a better position if an emergency arises. What is worse spending a few dollars to have emergency supplies that you never use, or a bunch of sick or dead snakes because you didn't prepare.

Just my opinion,

Morgan

Everyone gave great advice regarding loosing power.

As far as tornadoes, when we lived by Chicago our plan was having tubs and heat packs set aside so we could bring the snakes with us to my parents because we didn't have a basement. If one hit and our home was destroyed I would to contact other herp friends in the area that weren't affected and bring our animals there and set them up temporarily. Now, luckily we have a basement and if one hit (which I don't even know if Colo Sp has tornadoes :confused:) we would stick to our original plan.

I have a propane heater, indoor safe. I really wanted to build an auto back up system that would run off a batteries but the cost has slowed the design down a bit. I personally live where there is a silly law about small gas motors and time used so a generator is not really an option. The thing to remember about generators is most proportional T-stats need to have pure seine wave power. Most generators are modified seine wave and will cause the units to 'stick' either off or open. I think Honda is the only pure seine wave generators around.

http://spyderrobotics.com/support/ups.html

As was already mentioned, I just keep a stock of 40 hr heat packs that you can buy for skiing/boarding here (they're always readily available where I am). I've got a box full of them so that they're ready in case I ever lose power.