Question for the Dis'ers from the North?

[hereyago]

Hi. I live in southeast Virginia. Now, just recently, we had a wonderful Nor Easter which made me ponder some things.

Now, we have had to rough it with a generator,etc, in the summer when a hurricane visited us a few years ago. But:

To the people who have experienced power outages in a blizzard/ ice storm-which we haven't had in years, but what advice or ideas can you give about how to "rough it"?

We have a generator, we have non perishables and batteries, grill. What other things have you used that made an outage easier? My biggest thing is that I didn't want to turn off portable heaters for an hour so my hot water heater could warm up. ANy tricks of the trade? TIA

[N.Bailey]

Well, in all honesty, there haven't been many power outages in my area really. We did have a huge blizzard back in the early 90's that had power lines down for an extended period of time. Not so much in towns, but if you lived in the country, it was down for sometime (though I don't recall how long).

Things you can use are, gas stoves, kerosene heaters, grills (as you've mentioned), blankets, etc... It's also imperative that you open your freezer (probably your refrigerator too) as little as possible. Foods will keep frozen for days if it's not opened (of course, moving things out into the snow works too). Flashlights, candles, and hand operated can openers can really come in handy too.

[Silent1CB]

One good reason to not have an all electric house in the North. Woodstoves, fireplaces, and gas cooking stoves can be alternate heat sources. With the gas cooking stove, you can still cook. If you have a well, then you can't pump any water without electric, but that one is easier to get by without by filling buckets or tub before the storm. Generators also help for keeping the refridgerator going. And you can always just put the food outside in the snow to keep it cold anyway. LOL

So much of it is basic & we've grown up this way, that I honestly don't give it a lot of thought. Its just the way it is here.

[DISNEY1975]

It seems like your doing well down there.

We havent had a "blizzard" in a while. We get 2+ feet of snow often, but it is plowed at onset and a lot of utility wires are now underground here in MA...therefore, no outages.

There was a bad ice storm last year in MA. The ice brought down a lot of older neighborhood powerlines. The gas and electric company worked day and night to restore power, with no luck for about 2 weeks. It was right around Christmas too! All the generators in the world couldnt help. Water pipes were bursting everywhere. Unless you have an industrial size generator, you cant really run a fridge or furnace from it. It might bring you a little TV entertainment and a grilled cheese on an electric grill.

My suggestion is catch up on sleep and get used to PB & J! After 36 hours, lock it all up and find a hotel!

[AshleyW]

Originally Posted by DISNEY1975

It seems like your doing well down there.

We havent had a "blizzard" in a while. We get 2+ feet of snow often, but it is plowed at onset and a lot of utility wires are now underground here in MA...therefore, no outages.

There was a bad ice storm last year in MA. The ice brought down a lot of older neighborhood powerlines. The gas and electric company worked day and night to restore power, with no luck for about 2 weeks. It was right around Christmas too! All the generators in the world couldnt help. Water pipes were bursting everywhere. Unless you have an industrial size generator, you cant really run a fridge or furnace from it. It might bring you a little TV entertainment and a grilled cheese on an electric grill.

My suggestion is catch up on sleep and get used to PB & J! After 36 hours, lock it all up and find a hotel!

Agreed. The winter before last, we lost power for 6 days thanks to an ice storm. The only thing we could do is pack some clothes (and our kitties!) and head to a hotel.

There isn't really a TON you need to do to be prepared for a short outage. Keep lots of candles, lighters, food that doesn't require cooking, bottled water. We have a closet full of board games and crossword puzzle books to keep us entertained. Lots of thick blankets and quilts to pile up on the bed.

The one thing we never thought of, though.. we didn't use a generator obviously, and when the power came back and we got home from the hotel - we found out all our fish had died. The water got too cold and they couldn't handle it anymore. I thought we were really well prepared - I even put in some of the vacation feeders for while we were gone, but apparently I forgot all about the water temp.

[funkychunkymonkey]

big laundy baskets (makes it eaiser to put your cold food outside), warm sweatshirts (if your a fireplace less house like me). If you have pets dont forget them. They need to be warm too. Food has never been a issue for power outages but heat has.

[mlynn]

My advice with a generator. It should be a known fact.But every year we hear of people dieing from running them inside the house. Make sure you keep the generator itself outside!!!!

[Boo'sMom]

If you have a well, and electric pump: water, water, water.
We keep several large storage containers of water because when our power goes out, we have no water, which means no flushing toilets, no washing dishes, no drinking water, etc.

[MIGrandma]

I second the water idea. I keep several gallon jugs in the garage, for toilet flushing. And I keep bottled water stocked up for drinking.

We do have a commercial size generator, because we used to raise pigs on our farm so had to have a big generator for them. If the fans in the barns stop running, pigs can start dying in as little as 15-minutes (this is in the summer, mostly) because they don't sweat.

We no longer raise pigs, but do use the big generator if the power goes out in the winter. In the summer we just live with it. But in the winter our kids come and stay with us, so we need to use the generator then.

We usually wait several hours though, before getting it started, hoping the power will come back on so we don't have to start it. So water is the big thing. And we use kerosene lamps/candles for light.