Comment by lesalia on Texas Freeze Retrospective: meetup notes · 2021-03-04T05:16:10.792Z · LW · GW

Hi, I was at the meet-up and helped with some of the compiling of notes.

I like the idea of disaster preparedness retrospectives as a regular thing to be posted on LessWrong. Maybe they could be used for calibration, similarly to prediction calibration. For such a purpose it might be good to specifically track which "predictions" we got right (prepper items that helped, normal items that helped), and which "predictions" we got wrong in either direction (needed/wanted an item but didn't have it, had an item but didn't need/use it).

I took the time to organize the items mentioned in the meet-up into these four categories. I added a few that weren't written down and a few that I had forgotten to mention.

One limitation of this would be that it doesn't track knowledge and skills and social capital (friends, relationships with neighbors). Those are important too. Depending on the type of disaster probably more important. Maybe they could be lumped into a revised set of lists or accounted for in other retrospectives.

Proposed format:
Item name (need(s) it helps with) - usage description - e.g. examples
Additional explanation for the fourth category

Prepper items that helped:

• Stored water (water) - e.g. a few extra cases of water bottles
• Iodine tablets (water) - purifying water
• Battery-powered UV light (water) - purifying water
• Non-perishable foods (food) - e.g. dried food, canned food, MREs
• Camping stove (food) - cooking
• Lighter and matches (food, water, heat) - operate gas stove or gas fireplace
• Fireplace fuel (heat) - logs, old newspapers, brown grocery bags
• Mylar blankets (heat)
• Hand warmers (heat) - place between layers of socks/shoes or gloves - e.g. HotHands
• Battery-powered light sources (light) - e.g. flashlights, lanterns, extra batteries for them
• Solar panel (communication) - provides electricity for charging phones

Normal items that helped:

• Duct tape and rags (water) - wrapping outdoor faucets to prevent pipes from freezing
• Water storage containers (water) - storing potable water, storing any water - e.g. buckets, jugs, empty bottles
• Rolly cart (water) - transporting water
• Gas stove (food, water) - cooking, purifying water
• Electric kettle (food) - cooking at UT campus
• Air fryer (food) - cooking at UT campus
• Fireplace (heat)
• Blankets (heat) - e.g. down comforter, multiple blankets to pile on top of each other
• Warm clothes (heat) - e.g. Uniqlo HeatTech, long underwear, jogging pants, ski mask, skiing/camping gear, REI clothes, sweaters

Items we didn't have but wanted or needed (but also can't necessarily vouch for if the item is not also listed above):

• Stored water (water)
• Pitcher water filter (water)
• Dried food (food) - e.g. grains, quinoa
• Solar generator (food, heat, communication)
• Propane generator (food, heat, communication)
• Pressure cooker (food) - cooking at home if generator provides enough power, or cooking at UT campus
• Actual firewood (heat) - e.g. a large quantity of logs
• Axe (heat) - producing firewood from nearby tree branches
• Electric blanket (heat) - to use if generator provides enough power
• Solar phone charger (communication)
• Road salt (transportation)

Items we had but didn't need or use (which one might think may help in a disaster like this):

• LifeStraw (water) - purifying water
  • Inefficient for processing large amounts of water.
• Outdoor grill and charcoal (food, water) - cooking, purifying water
  • Already had a gas stove.
  • Did not want to risk hypothermia operating it outdoors.
  • Did not want to probably die of carbon monoxide poisoning operating it indoors.
• A hand crank radio with phone charger (communication)
  • The one in use didn't work well for phone charging—test your items before counting on them to help.
  • Didn't happen to need the radio functionality of this radio.
• Small candles (light, heat)
  • Did not produce enough light or heat.