View Full Version : This sure is a test of preparedness!
We had a freak snow storm here on Saturday, which resulted in lots of downed limbs and power out for the whole town. Its now Wednesday, and more than 70% of the town is still without power, and there are no power trucks to be seen. We have never been without power this long in this house.
While we are comfortable, this is getting old. Everything takes so much longer, and requires so much planning. We have a woodstove for heat, which means we have to take turns getting up in the middle of the night to add wood. Taking a shower involves hauling water from the hot tub on the porch, heating it on the woodstove, tranferring that to a camping shower bag, bringing the bag up to the bathroom. Just brushing teeth means getting potable water and bringing it upstairs. Flushing involves hauling more water from the hot tub.
This morning we had toast, which we did like grilled cheese on a fry pan on the woodstove. It took 10-15 minutes. Have to remember to do the tidying, and the wood hauling and anything requiring good vision during daylight hours. Internet means a drive to the library. At least the stores are open for resupplying food and water. I have lots of ingredients, but after clearing wood all day, too tired to do much work, and don't want to be using a sharp knife in the dark. I don't normally eat much prepared food, but I purchased some this week along with disposable dishes. I will need to keep that in mind when resupplying my emergency goods.
I know, whine whine whine. I am thankful for heat and hot water and coffee and a showers, but I will be even more grateful when the power is restored. :laff: I think its time to add a generator. Just having running water would make life a lot more pleasant.
flowerseverywhere
11-2-11, 3:34pm
Glad to hear you are well. These days I don't think government help will be quickly coming- too many disasters and not enough money. There are still people in NY and Vermont that are dealing with the mess Irene made and we all know how Katrina has turned out even all these years later. I saw power trucks heading your way down the NY thruway yesterday so hopefully relief will be there soon.
It sounds like you are somewhat prepared. Maybe when it is all said and done you can post what you found that was useful in your preparedness and what you could have done better. Many of us here are preparing for not the end of the world as we know it but for just the type of crisis you are living through.
Good luck and I hope you all get power back soon.
Sending warm thoughts/well wishes your way, Herbgeek. Fingers crossed for a speedy return to your normal life.
herbgeek, we experienced the same thing here, although did get our power back yesterday morning. Here's hoping you are back up soon! We do have a generator and that definitely made life easier as we had heat (outdoor wood boiler), hot water (solar, supplemented by the wood boiler), and some lights/electrical outlets (and the refrigerator and chest freezer had power). We were without internet for the most part (I can tether my phone to create a hotspot, but it is slow as molasses and frustrating when you are used to having high speed internet at the ready!). Our road was blocked in nearly a half dozen places by downed trees, so leaving our place was extremely risky. Fortunately, we had plenty of food on hand, so it wasn't too much of a hardship, but you are right about the planning and the general change in how/when to do things. We had to choose meals that we could cook on the grill or in the microwave. Plenty of people in our town are in much worse situations, so I am not complaining. But I will definitely say that buying a generator was one of our best investments! Keep us posted on your situation and hopefully everything will be back to normal soon!!!
Well its day 5, and still no power, but the electric company is promising we'll be restored by 11:45 tonight.
The big lesson for me was thinking that since I would be home and have all day, that I'd be in the mood to cook from scratch the way I normally do. I failed to consider that 1) many of my ingredients would be gone (had to dump the freezer) and 2) there would be other storm related tasks (sawing trees and hauling debris) that would take energy and 3) just general life would take more time. There will be more heat and eat canned meals in the emergency pantry for next time. I think we did pretty good otherwise, other than not having enough potable water. I only had 2.5 gallons, which would have been sufficient for drinking but not for dish washing. I suppose if things were really bad (stores closed) I could have melted snow and boiled that for a while.
I think we did pretty good otherwise, other than not having enough potable water. I only had 2.5 gallons, which would have been sufficient for drinking but not for dish washing.
Thank goodness for your hot tub! Water has definitely been our concern, which is one reason we went with rain barrels (old wine casks). I wouldn't have thought I needed potable water for dishes, as long as I'm not using sewage-or-animal-waste tainted water. Don't you think your hot-tub water was good enough, except for maybe a final hot-water-rinse? (Not sure if it's a chem hot tub or cedar, but either way...) Inquiring minds in disaster zones want to know... ;)
Its such a drag to lose all power! On the news last night, it sounded like places are very slow to repair the damage. That's really unfortunate. I hope you get it back soon!
We routinely lose power here for a week or so in the winter during high-wind events, and we've basically ended up arranging things so we can go indefinitely without power. Our water supply will function for a month or more without any power needed, we can heat the house just fine with wood and our woodstoves don't require mid-night intervention, we can cook, we use kerosene lanterns, etc. etc. The lack of warm showers is a bother, but we have work-arounds.
Our only weak spot is the septic system, which has a small pump to move liquids from a tank up to a drainfield, so I have a small generator that I run for a few minutes a day to run the pump, as needed. If we didn't have the generator or fuel, other solutions to the waste problem would have to be found.
Our water supply will function for a month or more without any power needed
bae, could you explain the set up you have? I'd love to try to replicate it, if possible. Thanks!
bae, could you explain the set up you have? I'd love to try to replicate it, if possible. Thanks!
We get our water from a lake which is downhill of us. The water is treated, and run up the hill to a series of rather large holding tanks that are sufficient for drinking water, irrigation, and fire flow. It's all gravity fed once it reaches the tanks, and the tanks are large enough to keep us happy in bad circumstances for quite some time - the system serves ~40 households, but except for the summer months, only 15 or so households are in residence, and in the typical winter weather, people aren't irrigating, and if the power fails they won't be running laundry. The nearest tank to my house only dropped 15% during a 10 day power outage last winter.
See:
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?1349-Where-does-*your*-water-come-from
I hear you, Herbgeek! A few years ago we had a major ice storm and no power for 8 days. I learned a LOT! We couldn't stay in our house (no heat, no water). A generator would have been a major hassle as we would have had to drive 30 miles to buy gasoline for it - we still don't agree on acquiring one. I'd rather spend the money on alternate means of getting a bit of power (40 watt solar panel to use as a trickle charger for a battery, or actually take the time to build the three VAWTS that we have most of the supplies for), instead of spending the money for something that is just going to sit and gather dust most of the time.
Anyway, now I'm more prepared. But getting water from our property would be the problem. Out here, when a storm is coming, everyone fills everything they have, including the bathtub, with water. And the food in the freezer? I'd have to do some serious canning on the little cast iron wood stove in the shop. I hope I never have to do that! :o)
Hang in there! The team that fixed our wires were from N. Carolina, so they had a long drive to even get here.
Unfortunately, I have to report one death from hypothermia due to the length of the power outage. I am unaware of all the facts around the case, was she elderly? disabled? We have turned a corner from discomfort and inconvenience. The storm struck Saturday, I saw one National Grid truck on Rte 9 a major artery thru Worcester County and the Pioneer Valley Monday morning. The worker place cones around a telephone pole down to the ground blocking one lane of traffic. The pole was not righted until Thursday, yesterday. Rte 9 thru Belchertown was blocked with trees, downed poles and wires until Wednesday morning. Not all residents have an alternative source of power. All foods in refrigerators or freezers is no longer edible. Rte 32 through Palmer into Monson (struck by Tornado June 1) was in same condition until Wednesday late afternoon. I work for a municipality and yesterday morning, a gentleman from a disaster recovery contract engineering firm was in the Town Hall all the way from North Carolina preparing to work on our town. The storm struck Saturday. The Attorney General's office for the Commonwealth has already started a criminal investigation into the lack of preparedness of National Grid. Also, many people bundle phone, tv and internet, those folks have no means of communicating unless they have alternative cell phone, but they need to be charged to work. I can tell you that people are beyond patience today. Every call is a plea for power. Towns are staffed to the bare bones but giving it there all to help or just listen. I do not own a chain saw and would be unsafe using one if I had. Folks like me, elderly, etc...may still be stuck inside the house. Neighbors are helping for sure, but it's hard to grasp the size of the situation here. It's not one street, it's every road from Sturbridge to Springfield. We will have more deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning, fires and electrocution as this event continues. This is my second experience with a major loss of power, I lived in Leicester when the Ice Storm of '08 rolled over central Mass. Its' hell.
Don't you think your hot-tub water was good enough, except for maybe a final hot-water-rinse?
This is my own squick factor. We only change out the water 2-3 times a year, and it was already due for changing. That's several months worth of body oils etc in there, as well as some chemicals. Its probably adequate from a sanitation perspective, I just didn't like the idea of using that water. Its ok for rinsing hands, though.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-11, 3:35pm
Cypress and Herbgeek, when it is all over you will have some great advice to give the rest of us. I heard from a relative in Connecticutt who just got power last night. The grocery stores were not restocked because the roads had so much debris and while they thought they were prepared with a generator they used far more gas then they thought they would. They only could flush their toilet because someone had a pool and they used buckets to dump water into the toilets.
I am thinking that spending $20 and getting some gallons of water to last a couple weeks is sounding more and more like a great idea. I have some storage containers and also some containers in the freezer that we rotate through once a year but maybe I should get more serious about water.
Our power didn't even blink once. But oh! so much destruction everywhere! Driving around on Sunday there were so many roads closed, lines down and so many beautiful trees destroyed after having their trunks split in half. There's no saving them now.
Power was out for days in the town where the spa is located. Luckily all my clients were clean!
Glad to hear you're OK and that you're learning good lessons. Most people don't get the chance to learn how to deal with an extended disaster until it's too late, so it's great you can use this for any future issues. This sort of thing is also good for everyone to here to assess what your threat possibilities are and how you might deal with them, a theme we've covered before but bears repeating.
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