Military veteran makes preparedness his life’s work
Date: 12/20/2013
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comCHICOPEE – Do you know what to do when the electricity goes off in the middle of winter?
Army veteran Robert Prince knows a lot of being prepared as part of his training as a paratrooper serving in the 82nd Airborne Division and now he is making preparedness his life’s work.
Prince’s company Storm Ready (
www.storm-ready.com) helps people be ready for natural disasters. This week, he conducted a free seminar on preparedness at the Knights of Columbus Council 4044 on Memorial Drive.
Prince said he first began to think about preparedness training after the threatened computer shutdown in 2000. He undertook “countless hours of research” looking at food products and other elements of disaster preparedness.
He said he had to temper his approach from a military viewpoint to a civilian one as he helped family members and friends who were interested in the subject.
“‘The time wasn’t right,” he said of carrying his message further.
It wasn’t until two monumental events that people started to take disaster preparedness seriously, he maintained: the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“9/11 changed everything and Katrina changed everything,” he said.
For New Englanders, he said, “Winter is our greatest foe,” and he pays particular attention to the season and his challenges in his programs.
He said that a power outage that affects a home’s heating system in winter deserves “immediate action.”
Prince noted, “Modern life begins with electricity and ends without electricity.”
He said if the heat goes out during a storm, the first step people must take is to preserve the heat in the home. They need to cover windows and doors with blankets or sheets to provide another layer of protection from cold air for the outside.
Then they need to move people into “primary rooms, such as the kitchen or the living room.”
The other parts of the house should be closed up.
“It’s a common sense approach,” he said. He added that people should stay calm in such an emergency.
Prince said that Massachusetts is the only state in the country that has outlawed small, ventless heaters powered by propane. He does speak to people about it in his seminars, but he added, “I’m not trying to fight the state [on the issue].”
He said that as alternative people can benefit from the heat generated from candles. He emphasized that candles are a fire hazard and said that a home fire extinguisher is essential safety equipment.
What he advised is to use small tea candles as opposed to taller candles as they can present more of a fire hazard. Children, Prince added, should always be kept away from lit candles.
Prince has also researched what kinds of emergency foods to have on hand and said how to store the food items is just as important as the selection of the foods.
Prince will be repeating his free seminar in February at a yet to be determined date.
