Any time there is a notice of a natural disaster, there are a flurry of concerns. How dangerous is it? Will there be time to evacuate everyone? Will your loved ones be safe? Will your property survive?
Emergencies are unpredictable. In this chaotic and stressful time, it pays off to have some practical knowledge on hand.
Thanks to Ms. Sheila Pulanco Russell from Lumberton, North Carolina, we all can feel a little safer with this practical survival tip she shared.
Simply titled “The One Cup Tip,” the three main elements are a quarter, a cup of water, and a freezer.
What do those three have in common you might ask? Well, during times of evacuations, it is uncertain whether your electricity, amongst other things, will still be intact. It is also unclear, based on the circumstances, how long you will have to be evacuated from your home.
Ideally, most people will have an evacuation kit, filled with first-aid kits and imperishable foods amongst other things.
But what about your refrigerated and frozen goods? What is to become of those, and how will you be able to tell if they are still safe to eat once you return to your home?
Sheila has the answer, as seen in the image below.
Directions:
- Place a cup of water in your freezer.
- Freeze the water until it is solid, and then put a quarter on top of the frozen water and return it to your freezer.
- Leave it in your freezer.
What does this tip accomplish?
It helps you determine whether or not your food has gone bad, or whether it refroze or stayed frozen while you were away.
For instance, if you return after you have been evacuated and find that the frozen water has melted and the quarter has fallen to the bottom of the cup, you now know that all the food has defrosted and it should be thrown out.
However, if the quarter is either on the top of the frozen cup or in the middle of the cup, then your food may still be okay. The top tells you that the freezer was still intact the whole time – the middle tells you that your food might have defrosted, but later refrosted when electricity returned.
This tip is also useful beyond evacuation notices. For example, if you leave the cup in your freezer at all times and your power spontaneously goes out, you will have this neat tip to rely on.
Most importantly, as a general rule, if you feel your food is no longer safe, simply throw it out. Safety is the utmost priority!
Stay safe everyone!
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For your convenience, here’s Sheila Pulanco Russell’s full post:
For those of you that are evacuating from the coast, I just heard a great tip. It’s called the one cup tip.
You put a cup of water in your freezer. Freeze it solid and then put a quarter on top of it and leave it in your freezer. That way when you come back after you’ve been evacuated you can tell if your food went completely bad and just refroze or if it stayed Frozen while you were gone. If the quarter has fallen to the bottom of the cup that means all the food defrosted and you should throw it out. But if the quarter is either on the top or in the middle of the cup then your food may still be ok.
It would also be a great idea to leave this in your freezer all the time and if you lose power for any reason you will have this tip to fall back on. If you don’t feel good about your food, just throw it out. The main thing is for all to be safe.
[Source: Sheila Pulanco Russell]
