I don't know if you've realized this, but yesterday's sustained almost hurricane-force winds that blew through the Miami Valley was a once in a lifetime event. It's never happened before (not at least in any recorded history of Dayton), and it probably won't happen again.

We do need to send kudos out to all of the first responders - the police and fire, the citizens patrol teams I saw out directing traffic in many area and, yes, the folks who are working for D.P. & L. and the other power companies as well. This is a nightmare for those folks...teams have been sent in from other states (if I heard Larry's news right this morning on my battery-powered portable radio), and I'm sure they're working as hard as they can to get the lights back on. But, with 200,000 plus customers affected, it's gonna take a while.

I'm sure a lot of you had what you might have called a mildly uncomforable night last night. Same for me and the people at my house. But, we got through it reasonably well. Why? Out in the garage, packed safely away in plastic totes were:

A camping stove with several bottles of propane.

Non-perishable food supplies including a box of non-fat dry milk, gallons of water in plastic jugs, and yes...instant coffee (which tasted pretty good at 6:30 this morning).

There's 2 battery-powered radios in the house, 3 or 4 flashlights (and yes, I got more batteries yesterday. And the box of candles we had was a great find, too!

With ice in the cooler, the perishables are staying cold. And the frozen stuff in the freezer in the kitchen was still solid as of 8:30 this morning.

A lot of people kinda laughed at me a few years ago when I started making these "emergency kits", and again, when I replaced some of the supplies last fall. Bet some of them aren't laughing so hard now.

If you haven't done this, make it a point when the power comes back on and things settle down to go spend a few extra bucks at the grocery store and do it. An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

Something like what we had yesterday will probably never happen again. But the next time we have a big snowstorm that takes out some power lines, or (God forbid) a tornado or severe thunderstorm hits, you'll be glad you were prepared.