"Lake Effect" Snowstorm strands hundreds for hours in New York State

"Jack Geiselman, who was stranded for 14 hours in 32-degree weather, took it all in stride.

'I tend not to be a ranter-and-raver about things and the point is, it's nothing I have any control over,' the 60-year-old semi-retired civil engineer said. 'I guess the way I look at it is, it's over. I guess stuff happens. It's not the end of the world.'

Geiselman was traveling in a Honda Civic from Keene, N.Y., to Cleveland with his black lab Boomer to help his daughter get her house ready for a baby due between Christmas and New Year. He had with him a sleeping bag and plenty of warm clothing and gas. He said state troopers came by with coffee and food for people in cars."

Source.

Everyone should have a survival kit in their vehicle. It was great that NYS Troopers were able to provide food and warm beverages to people...but what if they had not been able to do so? If the storm had been worse, this could have turned out much worse.

The great thing is, you don't have to expend a lot of money to have a pretty good survival kit in your vehicle. Because you won't be hiking around in the wilderness, you can get by with a lot of cheap Wal-Mart gear in reality. A couple cheap Wal-Mart sleeping bags which would not fare too well out in the wilderness, or even many trips to the local campground, will do just fine to keep you warm and relatively safe.