Last night, in California, we had a pretty good rainstorm move across us. Lots of heavy rain & wind.

Well, while working upstairs, the entire house lost electrical power and became completely dark. As a big smile spread across my face, I grabbed the waiting emergency flashlight that was sitting on the nightstand.

Immediately, I started running downstairs (to save my spouse and dog, of course) and yelling, ”My time to shine, my time to shine . . . “

Just after crossing the last stair and basking in the glow of my flashlight -- power was fully restored. The outage may have lasted ~15 seconds. I think even the dog was laughing.

Oh well -- Live to fight another day . . .

This was a good storm to stay inside. I had to make one mandatory errand on the 101FWY. I'm in the slow lane doing 55MPH watching others blow past me at a safe and sane 80MPH. At 55 I still barely avoided a stalled car WITH THE PEOPLE GETTING OUT in the #2 lane ( center) I pulled in front, hit my blinkers ,yelled to get back in and buckle up while grabbing my road flares. People are honking and rendering the one digit salute until a CHP cruiser arrived. My 10 minuter errand turned into 45. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

But you were READY! And THAT'S the whole point. You didn't know that the power would be on right away. That put you up with the maybe 1% or less of everyone in the U.S.

Sue

The 23rd (night before Christmas Eve), our power went down for more than 5 hours. I live In Illinois, but thankfully the temperature was abnormally warm, so the house was holding it's heat fairly well.

I was working on my computers, and got them all shutdown before all of my UPS shutdown and I grabbed my CMG Infinity Ultra from my desk (I use it for cracking into computer cases under my desk). For anyone who cares, it's the pre-Gerber buyout ultra and I'm still on my first Lithium Battery with the thing!

Anyway, I had quite a bit to do, but the first thing I did was preserve electricity in my UPS systems just in case I needed to run something. The furnace fan would be out of the question, but after running around and sealing up the heat, etc., I had a lot of time to kill while wrapping presents by a fluorescent lantern. So I started thinking about what to do should the power not come on by 3a.m. as the power company estimated.

I have a gas burning fireplace that can crank out 33k BTU. It works just fine without the electric blower, but wouldn't heat the entire house... broken pipes came to mind, so turning on water ran through my mind - I'm just not certain that really prevents pipes bursting. So, I had heat covered, but what about the rest? I started to realize just how much electrical equipment I run and found myself thinking about wiring up a generator in the near future. If not just for the emergency thing - for the convenience if the power is out for a substantial time. I telecommute, so this is a non-trivial issue for me. My UPS cover brown and minor black-outs, but long term coverage would be nice.

I got to use a few of my flashlights... my Coast Pen Light, my CMG Infinity Ultra and a no-name over-the-ear LED I picked up. So it was sorta fun, and it got me thinking about being more prepared with food/water/power/heat. I suppose that's a good thing. I'd be interested in thoughts about localized heating - but I've just never trusted the things, so I'll need the simplest/safest models you guys and gals use. Generator advice would be great too. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It's incredibly rare for such an outtage where I live. There is a wind farm a few miles away, a nuke in 3 different directions within an hour drive, and I think a coal fired plant as well. I'm pretty sure it was a line failure, as lights were on just down the street.

Running water - even a small trickle - really does prevent pipe bursts. Several years ago we went through a very cold winter, with frost going a foot deeper than the design maximum. The city asked people in certain neighborhoods to keep a tap on a slow drip all winter, to prevent supply-lines from freezing.

Leaving some water running... I've done that, but are you supposed to leave ALL the faucets dripping, or just a few?

Sue

It depends where the freezing risk is. If you have a problem for pipes buried in the ground, then any faucet will do. if you have some pipes buried within your insulated walls, then the faucets attached to them should be running.

If you have lost power and the whole house is dropping below freezing, then I would shut off the water at the source, drain the system including the hot water tank (being sure to turn off power to the tank's heating element - it can burn out if the tank is empty), and put antifreeze in the toilet traps and other standing water, as you would when shutting up the cotttage for the winter. This wouldn't be necessary for a short term problem, since it might take several days for the house to cool to the freezing point.

What about houses attached to septic systems? Would the antifreeze not kill bacteria?

Not likely in the quantities you'd be using. I wouldn't get rid of all that water without making sure I have a supply to work with. Fortunately, we have alternative heat sources, so the risk of the house piping freezing is nil.

A number of years ago I totally re-plumbed the house I am currently living in. I also replaced the water line into the house from the street. I have been in the Northwest long enough to realize that the pipes are not buried deep enough for extreme temperature lows that do occur, so I buried the pipe three feet below ground. Subsequently the city put water meters in and started to bill based on usage instead of flat rate. The next winter we lost our water due to the water line freezing at the water meter. The city insulated the meter box with sawdust, a common practice used by cities in the Northwest. But prior to the freezing weather it had rained causing the sawdust to lose all its insulating powers. After thawing the pipes at the meter with a heat gun, I replaced the sawdust with non degradable packing pellets. It never froze again. If I had let a little water drip, I could have avoided the problem but it is hard to do that after spending so much time replacing leaking plumbing.