Coping with aftermath of storm - in a fun way.

December 20, 2006

Ron,

I only just realized the extent of this storm, it's been quiet here in WV. Were

shipments of produce interrupted?

Here is a website I found with some instructions on making a pedal powered

juicing machine. It's also fairly easy to convert a conventional blender or

food processor to pedal powere in a similar way. If you need an old bike let

me know, I can direct you to a generous Seattle source.

http://www.geocities.com/woodyroyparker/juicycle.html

I assume the storm is the reason the list has been so quiet the past few days.

Nick

-

Ron Koenig

RawSeattle

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 11:48 PM

[RawSeattle] Coping with aftermath of storm

While many in the Puget Sound area have endured not having power for

days (and some still out of power), I would think that those who are raw

foodists or eat mostly raw foods could cope much easier since food and

drink didn't need to be heated. Most of the food that needed to be thrown

out was prepared food, meat, and dairy products. It does show us what

we need to do to get by when there is no guarantee of gas from the gas

stations and food from the stores.

Ron Koenig

December 22, 2006

Hi Nick,

I don't think the shipments of produce were interrupted, but most of the

stores had no power (Whole Foods in Bellevue never lost power, PCC in

Kirkland had electricity on Saturday when I shopped there), so those

who didn't have generaters were closed, and many refrigerated items

had to be thrown out. Trader Joes in Bellevue had a shipment of food

wrapped out in front of the store, as they continued getting shipments of

food, but were closed when power was out. They has to sort it all out,

throwing out the refrigerated items that thawed, and didn't open until

around noon on Sunday.

For me personally, my power went out Friday morning around 12:35

a.m. and came back on Saturday around 5:45 p.m. Traffic was so bad

near my house on Friday, that I just walked down to the Fred Meyer

nearby (passing several others walking back home with bags of

groceries in hand), which was running on generator power. There were

long lines and produce was disappearing quickly, if not already gone.

Considering that around half of the transmission lines were out and

many substations were damaged, it's no wonder that at the height of the

outage, 80% of Puget Sound Energy's customers were without power.

Gas stations could not pump gas, street lights and signals were out,

making for a long commute on surface streets, assuming there were no

trees or downed power lines in the road. Considering the enormity of

the outage, PSE has worked hard to get it all back and running.

I just wonder what would happen if we were to have a major earthquake,

which would add to the power outage, water and natural gas disruptions,

bridges collapsed, etc. It would make for a major disaster.

Ron

RawSeattle , " Nick Hein " <nick.hein

wrote:

>

> Ron,

> I only just realized the extent of this storm, it's been quiet here in

WV. Were shipments of produce interrupted?

>

December 22, 2006

Ron,

I once asked a group of people what they would do in the event of a major

catastrophe like an earthquake. One woman, who was quite sensible in every

other way, said she was fully prepared because she had a 4wd vehicle and could

get through anything to get what she needed. Obviously, this isn't true and

even if it were she still depends on gas to run it. I think the best way to

prepare is plant a big garden, stash enough firewood for a fireplace and live

simply. And keep 2 bikes around, one to run the generator/saw/blender and the

other for going to trade for things you need to get from someone else.

Nick

-

Ron Koenig

RawSeattle

Thursday, December 21, 2006 9:36 PM

[RawSeattle] Re: Coping with aftermath of storm - in a fun way.