Riding Out a Disaster Part 1

Here is the best emergency area lighting for use during a disaster– It’s that time of year again. Fire season for the whole western United States, and hurricane season for the East Coast. We are up in California right now, and because of the severe risk of fire, the local utility will shut off your power at a moments notice, should the humidity drop, and the wind (can we say breeze) kick up. Once shut off, we can be without power anywhere from 2 days to a week. During a hurricane, the East Coast can lose power from a week to a month, depending on the damage.

While not having power is a major inconvenience, there are definitely things you can do to make it more bearable and survive the ordeal. You could buy a gas or propane generator, but that will only run while you have fuel, and it is noisy, so you won’t want to run it all night long. We use ours during the day and early evening, shutting it down around 11pm, and switching over to lanterns. We have pets, so kerosene lanterns are out. There is a big fire hazard if you knock one of those over while they are lit. For safety we switched to rechargeable and battery powered lighting inside. It is much safer and quiet, and if you fall asleep with them on, you won’t wake up to a fire in your house from a kerosene spill.

In this post, let’s take a look at a few lighting items that are very safe, aren’t too expensive, and will definitely make life easier while the power is off. You will note that most everything I recommend is either rechargeable, or runs off standard AA batteries. The reason for this is simple. After a disaster, be it wildfire, earthquake, tornado or hurricane, all sorts of food and supplies will be donated to your community centers to distribute to victims of the disaster. The only batteries I ever saw donated in any disaster I have been through were AA Batteries. Cases and cases were brought in and handed out to help people get by.

The best emergency area lighting for use during a disaster.

We use the Streamlight Siege series and the LE portable light, both readily available on Amazon. There are two sizes of Siege lantern. The Super Siege, which is the biggest and brightest of all the lanterns I am writing about here. The only draw back I can see with this lantern is you must charge with a 110 volt outlet, which is really no problem if you are on a generator. It is not only an 1100 lumen lantern with different dimmable levels of lighting including a red light, but it also a 10,400mah USB charging station which will charge a typical smart phone about 4 times. It has a diffuser you can be removed for more direct light, a hook on the bottom to hang it upside down for overhead light, a waterproof storage area at the base for cash or keys, and to top it all off, it floats!

White light run time is 5.75 hours on high (1100 lumens), 11.5 hours on medium (330 lumens), and 36.25 hours on low (125 lumens).
Red light run time is High 140 hours (2.7 lumens), and Low which is 348 hours (1 lumen). It can also flash an SOS at 2.7 lumens for 320 hours. That’s pretty impressive stats for a little lantern.

We have 2 of these for use in the kitchen when the power is out. They hold a charge pretty well too. I have been able to store them away and pull them out during an outage, and they are ready to go. You can see them here on my affiliate page.

The best emergency area lighting for use during a disaster.  The next lantern we use is the Streamlight 200 lumen light. This little light runs on 3 AA batteries, and is a real lifesaver. I purchased quite a few of these to place around the house, like living areas, bedrooms and bathrooms. Like the Super Siege, the have a removeable diffuser for more direct lighting, and they also float, which is great if you are anywhere around water.

Run times on this little light are: High (200 lumens) for 7 hours, Medium (100 lumens) for 15.5 hours, and low (50 lumens) for 37 hours.
Red light mode will preserve your night vision and will run for 192 hours (8days) at 0.7 lumens.
It also has a red light SOS mode that will run for 288 hours (12 days).

Riding Out a Disaster Part 1 – Now some of you will look at the price and say, wow these aren’t cheap. Yeah, I agree, but you definitely get what you pay for with these. Streamlight has a no hassle warranty that will repair or replace your lantern for free, for life. All you have to do is write them a letter, tell them the problem, and they will send you a return authorization to include with your light. You can even do it on their website via email. It is just that simple. I have used these lights for years, and have only had to return one. Every other Siege lantern has always performed flawlessly every time I need them.

Next on the list is the LE brand LED Camping Lantern. I have had two of these for about 3 years now, and one went bad. I wrote the company and they sent me out a new one free of charge, so I have no complaints with their service and warranty.

The light will function as both a flashlight and an area light. The main flashlight puts out 500 lumens so you can find your way around in the dark pretty easy, and the area light has 6 different dimming modes including red light options as well. It is not waterproof, but is water resistant, so rain and splashing water is not a problem at all. Lastly, this little workhorse has a 2600mah battery that can be used as a power bank to charge cell phones, and it uses a built in USB cable to recharge itself, meaning you can use a car adapter or a solar power panel to recharge it in the sunlight. So far it is a great little light at a really affordable price.