I’ll Have My Booze Just In Case
I’ve thought a little bit about natural disasters. Out here in CA it’s all about the big earthquake. I have a pretty substantial emergency kit stocked with cloths, food, batteries, radios, water, etc. But what I forgot to put in there is booze.
These people were not as delinquent as I:
It appears that the Hurricane Gustav spurred lots of people to stock up on booze.
Why?
Is it a matter of not wanting to ride out the storm sober? Maybe they figure that so many stores will be knocked out of commission in a Hurricane they may end up with no access to alcohol for a while. (Is that a bad thing?) Or maybe they figure water won’t be potable and you can count on alcohol not being tainted. I’m not sure what it is.
But it is kind of funny.
I’ve got about 20 cases of wine here in the house in Glen Ellen, stashed in various places. I figure as long as my roof or walls don’t come down and fire doesn’t break out during an earthquake my stash is relatively safe. It’s all fairly close to ground or pretty darn secure. So, I’m safe if the big one hits. I’ll have my booze.
But just to be safe, I’m putting a case of that wine in my Earthquake Emergency Stash. I feel better already.
If you are like most of us you’ll put it in the emergency stash and then forget about it. So stash something age-worthy. Then when the big one hits you may be living in the back yard but you’ll have some fine hooch to enjoy!
I don’t quite understand the picture. Is she just stocking up on a blanket outdoors waiting for the storm to arrive?
As someone who has had to ride out a couple hurricanes It’d be hard for me to overstate the importance of wine’s (coupled with reading material and playing cards) contribution to my relative sanity during the storm and in the rebuilding period after. If you were planning on squirreling away one case make it two – you’ll be happy you did.
I’d go with the Earthquake Petite Sirah from Lodi.
Here in the hills of Southern CA we get to contend with the regular brushfires that rage through the area in addition to the occasional earthquake. Consequently, I maintain a stockpile of 20-30 cases of wine here but also have emergency caches in other locations around the region. This minimizes the opportunity of losing it all in a single disaster.
We just went through Tropical Storm Fay down here in Florida and my wine supply is EXTREMELY important … no power or water for 2 days !!!!
We had the neighbors over on the lanai,turned on the portable radio to some jazz and drank a nice red … what else you gonna do in the hot steamy weather?
Denise
So what happens to wines in caves in Florida, New Orleans…or Haiti when the electric is out for days, weeks? I can’t imagine everyone has a dedicated cave generator…
Is a lot of high-end wine with “impeccable credentials” on the auction block after a week in the tropics without electric? Did that happen post-Katrina? post-Loma Prieta?
Then again, with no facts whatsoever to back me, I don’t doubt half the wine delivered around the world has had a “heat moment” enroute to destination (including in the trunk on I-75 enroute from cheap-tax felony-state KY to controlled OH or PA…in July.)
I did find a way to serve wine in a weather crisis. Will Riedel pick up on this trend?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dixieblue/2823712368/
Two words: HURRICANE PARTY!!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hurricane+party