Micro-Disasters: Real-World Preparedness Lessons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On a bitterly cold morning—when the pipes freeze up, and the faucets stop running—the reality of frozen plumbing hits fast. That was my experience last Saturday morning, with wind chills in the negative double digits. First thing in the morning, I noticed the toilet sounded odd. There was no water filling the tank after it was flushed. That’s when it hit me—”Great, my pipes must be frozen.”

Up until that moment, I’d never dealt with frozen pipes, so the question popped into my head: “Okay, so my pipes are frozen, now what do I do?” Is this a total disaster? How do I unfreeze them? Do I even want to unfreeze them? What if my plumbing is a mess, and I’m without water for days or weeks? I had no plumbing answers.

We Can’t Know Everything

Sure, I know security—I have a degree in it. Yeah, I was an Army Ranger and oversaw the guard force at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. I’ve done a lot, and you know what’s not on my resume: cold-weather plumber, a construction guy, or an old coot with lots of related knowledge.

Yes, I know a lot about what I know, but nothing about what I don’t know. Up until a week ago, I didn’t know anything about frozen pipes. How to thaw them. How NOT to thaw them, and a host of other information I had no idea about. Like what you should consider when you scoop water out of your tub to flush your toilet.

Preparedness Is the Answer

While I didn’t have many, if any, plumbing-related answers, I did have prepping answers to my plumbing issues. It was my preparedness that got me through almost a week without much trouble. Thanks to my prepping and having P.A.C.E. plans in place, I got by for almost a week without water and with very little inconvenience, which is the whole point of preparedness.

That’s what this article is about: where I missed the mark, where I succeeded, the real-world preparedness tests, the lessons learned, and my thoughts along the way. This is more than a story about frozen pipes. It’s not an SHTF event. It’s a look at the kind of micro-disaster most of us can expect to face at some point.

TL;DR: A micro-disaster is a personal crisis, like frozen pipes or a car breakdown, that affects an individual or individual family. To handle these disruptions, overcome cognitive biases, assess the situation, and stay flexible in your response.

What is a Micro-Disaster

A Micro-Disaster is a disaster that affects individuals and individual families. This is not an impact on a community, or larger. It’s what most people can expect from time to time. A problem that impacts just individuals and their families.

No one outside your immediate circle is coming to help. If you or they can’t get it done, you’re dead in the water until you get it figured out.

For some people, a micro-disaster is a job loss, a car engine that died, or a kitchen fire. In the case of my micro-disaster—frozen pipes—there was no running water for showers, washing clothes, doing dishes, flushing toilets, etc.

The Impact of My Cognitive Biases

This is a great opportunity to use myself and my frozen pipes to illustrate how cognitive bias impacted me.

When one has no point of reference for identifying, preparing for, and dealing with a problem, they don’t know what they don’t know. They know so little that they can easily overestimate their ability to address the issue (The Dunning-Krueger Effect). Likewise, they know so little that they can underestimate what’s involved in dealing with a situation—so much so that they don’t address it.

That was my case. As a Southern California surfer kid, I had no idea what to do about sub-zero cold, other than what I’d heard and read over the years. My experience with cold, aside from skiing when I was younger, was limited to the few days a year when the mid-40°s prompted me to wear sneakers instead of flip-flops.

While I worried my water would freeze last year at this time, it didn’t. So I told myself it hadn’t happened yet, which meant whatever I was doing (not much) was just fine. I was good to go. No need to worry about what to do if my water stopped flowing, because it hadn’t stopped flowing yet. I was good to go (Normalcy Bias).

Where Preparedness Succeeded and Where It Fell Short

When the water stopped flowing, it forced an immediate audit of my preps. The pipes were frozen. That was a done deal. Now it was about the preps I put in place to see me through the day. So, I do what comes naturally to me and, without thinking about it, worked my way up the Survival Pyramid.

Mindset

The first thing I did when I realized my pipes were frozen was to acknowledge and accept the situation without getting frustrated or making a mountain out of a mole hill. It wasn’t an emergency—no one was going to die. Instead, it was an inconvenience. It happens, and I’m prepared for stuff to happen, so might as well make the choice to be positive. In my case, I decided it was a wonderful opportunity to test preps and learn about an important prepping aspect of my new personal environment—living in areas that get seriously cold.

Situational Awareness

Before I could decide on a course of action. I needed to pause to assess and orient myself to my situation. I walked through the house, checked all my faucets, the washer, and the toilets, and yes, they were all frozen.

Next, I went to the closet where I keep my water and checked on my two cases of water and a few gallon jugs. I also double-checked that my bathtub was full and good to go.

I also double-checked my stash of baby wipes and the dishwasher and cupboards to manage my food-prep expectations. Lastly, I checked how much water I had in my Big Berkey, and I was set to go.

I had drinking water and water for flushing the toilet. The only things I would be hurting at are clothes and dishwashing. Everything else—my non-negotiables—drinking water and toilet-flushing water—was set to go.

2. Insulated Crawlspace

The freeze also exposed a critical weakness in my home’s weather preparedness: the skirting. Living in a manufactured home, the crawlspace is the soft underbelly of your thermal defense.

The skirting is meant to shield against the elements, creating a buffer zone that keeps the plumbing safe and flowing. However, the extreme cold, combined with the wind, found every gap and thin spot in the skirting. The icy wind cut right through, freezing my PEX tubing.

While standard skirting is great most of the year, insulated skirting is definitely something I need to add to my list of future upgrades and preps. Additionally, I need to find a crawlspace heater option for the nights that get really cold.

 3. Using Bathtub Water to Flush Toilets

Most of us have talked about filling up bathtubs, and many have done so as a prep. However, I’m willing to bet most have never scooped water out of the bathtub to flush their toilet. So here are some tips I’ve learned from doing it for almost a week.

1. You’re going to spill: Moving pitchers/pots of water from a bathtub to a narrow toilet tank can get wet and messy. Do yourself a favor: put down the towels ahead of time.
2. Flush when needed: I’ve heard many people say they will only flush once a day to conserve water. The answer is to flush whenever needed. You don’t need the smell and nastiness forming—it’s not healthy. So, plan on flushing whenever you think it’s time.
3. Toilet cleaning: A dirty toilet with a tank that doesn’t refill isn’t fun to clean. It requires extra water and is kind of a pain, so think that one through a bit.

4. Cooking

If your water stops flowing and you’re on a limited supply, you’ll definitely want to rethink your cooking.

1. No-Water Foods: I cooked meals that required little water. If I needed to add liquid, I used my supply of broths.
2. Dishwashing: If your water supply shuts down, dishes, especially if you have a family, will pile up. So, as part of your food preps, consider having disposable plates, bowls, and cutlery on hand and ready to go.

5. Torpedo Heater

A torpedo heater is a great piece of prepper gear, and up until a week ago, I had no idea what it was. A toerpeod heater is a forced-air heater that generates a lot of heat and pushes it out with an internal fan. They look and sound like small jet engines and can be purchased for $150 to $500.

Some torpedo heaters burn propane for heat, while others can burn multiple fuels, including kerosene, diesel, and JP-8 jet fuel. While some battery-powered torpedo heaters exist, they all require an electrical source to power the fan that delivers heat.

If you live in a cold area, this is a must-have. And it’s such a must-have that if you wait until the pipes are frozen, you’ll most like not find any in the stores, as was my case.

6. Thawing Out the PEX

Thawing out the PEX tubing with the torpedo heater is fairly easy:

1. Open all the faucets in the house to prevent problems when the pipes unfreeze.
2. Lift the crawlspace skirting in one area.
3. Pre-position a fire extinguisher near the heater.
4. Get the heater fired up and pointed under the house.
5. Let it run for a few hours, and the PEX should unfreeze.
6. Inspect underneath the house for any water leaks.

Broader Context: Applying Lessons to Everyday Micro-Disasters

While this experience centered on frozen pipes, the core lessons translate easily to other challenges you might face—such as unexpected power outages, severe storms, or even local flooding. The mindset shifts, practical adjustments, and resourcefulness that got me through days without running water are the same tools that will carry you through any sudden disruption.

In each situation, relying on basic plans, having preps ready to go, and understanding your unique environment play a huge role. Whether the lights go out or a tree blocks your driveway during a storm, these micro-disasters are chances to test your readiness, discover what gaps exist, and build greater confidence for whatever might come next.

The Bottom Line: Preparedness Starts with Small Disasters

Facing frozen pipes wasn’t just about troubleshooting a household inconvenience—it was a wake-up call about the value of real-world preparedness. I was quickly reminded that it’s not the big, dramatic disasters we need to worry about most. Rather, it’s the micro-disasters—unexpected, personal, and hands-on—that test whether our plans and mindset actually work.

Preparedness is about building flexible systems, being honest about what we don’t know, and being willing to adapt when circumstances change. Resilience means keeping your head, making do with what’s on hand, and learning and improving as you go.

Most importantly, as preppers, we need to recognize that these small challenges are really opportunities. They push us to check our biases, address our weaknesses, and become better caretakers of our homes and families. My frozen pipes turned out to be the kind of real-world test every prepper faces sooner or later—proof that simple, practical preparedness goes a long way, turning what could be a major problem for the unprepared into just a blip for us who are prepared.

So next time a micro-disaster shows up on your doorstep, see it for what it is: a lesson and opportunity in readiness and resilience. That’s where genuine prepping and peace of mind begin to show themselves, and that’s a good thing.

Additional Resources