Transcript:

Carla Ramsdell thought she was ready to face a weather disaster. But after surviving Hurricane Helene and seeing how many people in her state of North Carolina were left without food and water, she changed her mind.

Blocked roads, power outages, and structural damage prevented people from accessing food and water.

Ramsdell: “It caught a lot of us off guard. We prepared as we would have for many storms that come through our area, but maybe not to the extent that we should have. … There’s some real genuine fear that welled up in me that I prepared some, but did I prepare enough? And I think maybe I’d never been intentional enough about even knowing what that meant.”

Ramsdell survived the storm unharmed, but has since made it her mission to help others be ready for these events.

So she created a YouTube series called “The Resilient Kitchen.”

In the videos, she explains what to stock up on in advance, how to cook on a camp stove, and how to filter water in an emergency.

Ramsdell suggests people learn these skills and take steps to prepare for a disaster well before a storm hits.

Ramsdell: “That would really be my goal is to just give some people a little bit of a breath to say, ‘I’ve done some of the work I need to do. I know what the steps are beforehand,’ and hoping that just brings a lot of peace of mind for others in the path of a storm in the future.”

Reporting credit: Myriam Vidal Valero / ChavoBart Digital Media