Gear

What You Need to Survive Blizzard 2016, From Boxed Wine to Wi-Fi

Worst case scenario, you're cold and stuck inside. Best case, you're just sort of bored and kind of stuck inside. Either way, hunker down with this gear.
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brck
Losing the ability to check up on family and receive news can be terrifying. The BRCK ($250) is a self-powered Wi-Fi device for when the snow wipes the power out or your Internet gets painfully slow. The small black box runs on a 3G network with any sim card and can handle up to 20 devices at once for up to eight hours. If the mobile 3G networks get finicky, this rugged box-of-Internet comes with an antenna to extend your ability to reach out to a mobile cell tower. It was originally designed in Nairobi, Kenya to keep the Internet reliability pumping where electricity and Internet connectivity is always spotty, so it should probably do you just fine if you get knocked offline for a day or two.

Meteorologists predict at least two feet of snow will cover cities across the Atlantic coast this weekend, and utility companies are getting ready for widespread outages. Some may lose power, Internet, and mobile service. It may get dangerous out there. At the very least, it may get boring.

If you do decide brave the storm and venture outside, you’ll probably have to dig your way out the front door. Expect parking spaces painstakingly carved from walls of snow protected with garbage bins and lawn furniture, exhausted TV meteorologists describing what you can see out your window, and kids with fingers crossed hoping the snow will mean no school on Monday.

Unless you have to, it’s probably best to just stay off the roads, stay safe, and stay inside. Here’s some gear we recommend to prepare for the weekend. Snow be damned.