Dropped $40 on a hand-crank radio before the ice storm and it's the only reason I knew what was happening

Jordan Cooper · 2026-10-23T03:50:03.708247+00:00

Back in January I grabbed a $40 hand-crank weather radio at a hardware store in Tulsa, mostly because the power grid here goes down if someone sneezes. When the ice hit two weeks later, my phone died in about 6 hours and the internet went with it, but that little crank radio kept pulling in the local AM station with the road closures and warming shelter addresses. I cranked it for 90 seconds every couple hours and it never quit. Now I'm wondering if I should add a backup battery pack or just trust the crank, so what are you all keeping in your power-outage kit?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

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Dropped $40 on a hand-crank radio before the ice storm and it's the only reason I knew what was happening | Analog Life Hacks - Pinecone Attack