There is a big difference between a weekend camping trip and a weekend storm survival plan.

First of all, you plan the camping trip and you hope the storm passes you by.

Well the storms of winter haven’t been passing us by and in fact have knocked us about without electric power three times in recent memory. In our modern society it sends us for a loop when the light switch doesn’t turn on the light or the furnace doesn’t heat on command.

Nature has no respect for modern conveniences.

The good thing about mankind is that we are resilient and we do figure things out after a while. Living in the country I learned a valuable lesson during this year’s storms. If you live in a rural area you will be the last area on the list for repairs during major storm outages. Logic tells us that populated areas will be the priority due to the numbers game of people who are without services. Not that I blame the utility services but at the same time I don’t have to like it or even accept being helpless to nature.

Back when I was a kid, we often heard about being prepared for disasters and my folks would stock up the shelves with canned goods and have supplies that would keep us going for weeks if need be. My mother often referred to her bottled gas stove as her safety net.

No electric — her stove didn’t need it.

My uncle had a cabin in the mountains that he referred to as the “Mountain House” and it was run by an old generator that covered the lights and water pump. Heat was the workout video as we cut and chopped firewood endlessly to keep the old fireplaces roaring in cold weather. It was off the grid but you sure could be self-sufficient during every season of the year.

The month of February tested out as a difficult month for modern conveniences, friendships, family and in many ways survival ingenuity.

No. 1, I found out how important it was to have a plan for storm situations. The last string of storms put everyone who lost power in a bad way: no heat, no water, no lights and no refrigeration.

You learn to prioritize really quick, take care of the young, old and infirm immediately. You may need to move them to a place of safety in your own personal network of family or friends. We had people in these categories and relocated them to a safer place and I had the unenviable job of securing the pets and homesteads.

The search for a good generator was on and there was not one to be found in Butler County. I made a road trip and found one in Hermitage that was the last that they had — I took it when they asked me if I was from Butler County.

Going up my country lane was like being at a campground — propane grills cooking, jugs of water for both drinking and toilet flushing, generators humming away to keep freezers and some lights on. Most of my neighbors had alternate heat sources and we had the man-cave propane stove fired up enough to keep the house at a balmy 64 degrees.

All the supplies that my parents used to store came to mind as I made a pot of coffee on a gas stove and brought it into the all-electric kitchen to share.

Dressing warm with my outdoor adventure clothing proved to be effective as I checked on the frozen food and fuel supplies. All was well and I knew that our plan would see us through this storm.

Making a mental list and then putting it on paper and finally setting the plan in action is the real deal for storm survival.

I started with alternatives to energy and heat. This included propane stoves, bottled gas and generators, wood stoves and fireplaces.

Be careful not to use any heat source that will bring carbon monoxide into your living area.

Have warm blankets or sleeping bags on the ready as well. Lights can be as simple as flashlights, lanterns and those wall plate lights that you see on the counter at many stores, keep a store of batteries and make sure they are still fresh.

With LED lights they can be long lasting and really convenient as you move about. Canned food or freeze-dried food packets are easy meals in a pinch. If you have a grill or propane cooker, put it to use and make an easy meal.

Finally, you need to put in a supply of fresh water.

It can be very difficult to do anything without water. We need to hydrate, and those plastic jugs of water in one to five-gallon containers will come in mighty handy as needed.

Remember to plan ahead and you will be much better prepared for the next storm blowing through Western Pennsylvania as you know it likely will.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.