I’ve lived in rural areas much of my life, and you are right. No electricity, no well pump, no water from the well.
It’s a good argument for having a gas stove so there’s heat and, many times water (heat up the ice/snow).
Houses will gradually (depending on how well sealed and insulated they are) lose heat and even then it will take quite awhile for pipes to freeze and burst. I live in a 1960’s era house and it’s taken several hours of no heat for the temp to drop just 5 degrees.
Mother nature is going to do what nature does. We know (or should know) how bad it can get. What we don’t know is when it might happen, nor how bad it will be when it does. We do know that it WILL happen eventually. Poor planning is what turns most of it into a disaster.
Humans survived centuries of “polar vortex” called the Ice Age, and they did it without electricity or furnaces or Gortex or Under Armor heat gear. Even as recently as the mid 1800’s people survived “polar vortexes” without electricity or furnaces, and in far less energy efficient houses.
Have you read “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and confirmed by the very interesting and well researched book “The Beautiful Snow” by Cindy Wilson)?
Currently in parts of the US there are communities who’ve been without power, without houses, for months due to 2 hurricanes. There are rural areas that lose power routinely, because of poor infrastructure, often for days at a time, and often in the winter months.
So, Arlo and Janis, being without power for a few hours, not being able to watch “The Bachelor” and having a tree branch break off really isn’t much of a disaster, or even a concern.
They’re called disasters mostly because those events inconvenience us humans. We build, or over build, in places where natural events happen, and expect nature to capitulate to our desires.
Many are not natural but human caused (or aided). Mostly fires, either through intentional setting of them, or lack of proper precautions (like brush management or equipment maintenance)
Humans have survived far longer without electricity and furnaces than they have with those conveniences. If you can’t figure out how to do it, well, let Darwin reign. Society will be better off for it.
I’ve lived in rural areas much of my life, and you are right. No electricity, no well pump, no water from the well.
It’s a good argument for having a gas stove so there’s heat and, many times water (heat up the ice/snow).
Houses will gradually (depending on how well sealed and insulated they are) lose heat and even then it will take quite awhile for pipes to freeze and burst. I live in a 1960’s era house and it’s taken several hours of no heat for the temp to drop just 5 degrees.
Mother nature is going to do what nature does. We know (or should know) how bad it can get. What we don’t know is when it might happen, nor how bad it will be when it does. We do know that it WILL happen eventually. Poor planning is what turns most of it into a disaster.