Well, just got our power back, 72 hours almost to the minute since it went out on Thursday. (I know because the kitchen clock was stuck at 4:24 all weekend) So since I'm always around here learning from everyone else I thought I'd post some thoughts about this weekend in the hopes someone may take soemthing from it. (Probably not, since most if it will be reasserting things you've probably heard here before.)

The storm was not a suprise, it was all over the news here for at least 6 days before it made landfall because it was coming in as a category 5 hurricane. At this time people were preparing and getting thigs ready for a long term damage cleanup, but when it was downgraded to a category 2 storm (I think two days before making landfall) the news media was downplaying it left and right and were actually telling people that they didn't have to worry about much damage or power-loss, as if 105 mph winds are now common in VA.

The storm hit here Thursday afternoon, and most buisnesses and schools, even the Federal Govt. did the prudent thing and didn't even open that day, maybe because they were worried about the safety of their employees, or maybe because Metro decided they weren't running trains or busses and no one else had a choice but to close. The worse of the storm was from roughly 11pm thursday to 1am Friday.

The first problem was that we didn't have a backup power source for the sump pump. I was able to rig up a siphon that worked pretty well, but if we had gotten the rains that were on the higher end of the forecast, I doubt it could have kept up.

Later that night I was hearing lots of cracks and thuds and was becoming really worried about the big oak trees accross the street. By dawn the storm had moved on and during the damage assessment I realized how lucky we'd been. We lost 7 trees in our yard, all at least 20 ft tall, but none of them hit the house. Toss in a few missing shingles and one broken storm window and that rounds out all the damage we had. Like I said, we were pretty lucky.

It will suprise no one here that bottled water became our new best friend. We never lost our tap water, some people did, but the county has said that drinking water should be boiled (anywhere from one to ten minutes, depending on which "expert" you listend to on the radio) until Tuesday, which is a minor problem if you have an electric stove and no power. We could have boiled it on the grill in a pinch, but it was far easier to have fresh water stored.

We lost almost all the food in our freezer over the next couple days. We grilled a lot of the meat we had when we realized we weren't getting power back anytime soon, but still lost quite a bit.

I finally got to justify having a chainsaw. I've spent the better part of the last three days cutting up downed trees and limbs throughout the neighborhood. My back and arms have not appreciated all this extra work, though, so I'm glad I have a bottle of Advil handy. Tip::When using a chainsaw on pine trees, either wear long pants and sleeves, or have a plan for removing sap from arm and leg hair.

I should get a commission from Princeton Tec because everyone that saw my Attitude said they were going to get one. I started carrying this in a cargo pocket after the Northeast blackout this summer and I now feel as naked without it as I do without a pocket knife (ok, it's not quite that important, but you get the idea)

Fortunately, everything in the FAK got to stay there.

Cards, candles, oil lamps and batteries came out after the sun went down, but I was too exhausted from sawing all day to stay up much past then anyway.

Things I've learned::
Overall, this was a wonderful learning experience. It was bad enough that I learned some things, but not so bad as to put us in any real danger (once the trees stopped falling)
--Cell phones did not work hardly at all on Friday, but worked decently on Saturday (one more reason I'm looking into HAM radio)
--A battery back up for the sump is important, and I'll be looking into that as well.
-- I'm also going to check into generators since my grandmother is living with us now. It's not too bad for me at 22 to go without AC for a few days, but at 87 it's a little rougher on her
--Although we're some of the last people in our area to get power back, there's still lines down accross the street just a block over, which really suprised me. I assume they're turned off, but I didn't get close enough to find out.

All in all, we came out all right. Some friends of mine down in Norfolk did not fare as well. I talked to them just long enough to make sure they're still alive, but they told me their entire street is destroyed. Thankfully their area was under manditory evacuation and they were with some other firends when the storm hit.

Anyway, I hope everyone made it throught alirght.

Chris.

Welcome back <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

We were very fortunate indeed.

Back on-line after 46.5 not-entirely-unpleasant hours without electricity, almost like a mini-vacation.

What happened was no more than a pleasant shake-down of preparations made; the weather was warm but not hot, and once the rain quit we were quite comfortable with the windows open. During the second day some of the neighbors were getting a little testy about the situation, but there was no indication that we were going to have to deal with looting or other dramatically antisocial behavior anytime soon... the closest we came this time was at disabled stoplights, where a little more courtesy at what are supposed to be 4-way stops would have been welcome. The power outage was spotty, which meant that there were long lines everywhere, especially Starbucks (a man has to have priorities)... but there were restaurants and hardware stores open, and one drug store even had "D" cells. We never even completely ran out of hot water- it was still a little warm. Survival was not much of an issue for us, this time.

Some lessons learned anyway:

I should have remembered from camping trips that the lady of my life is more attached to hairdryers than any other electrical convenience. Still not sure what to do about that.

There are more generators around than one might suspect. During the night when the one nearby noisily ran out of fuel, I could still hear others running in the distance. Folks at work are reporting perhaps 1 out of 6 houses having one, and more as the blackouts go on. Could be that some people have less faith in the infrastructure than they used to.

There really are people silly enough, ignorant enough, to buy a
gasoline generator and run it inside their homes. The radio reported several hospitalized, and at least two dead. How sad- but our society does such a good job of preventing people from having to deal with anything, having to learn anything, that I suppose this sort of thing is inevitable. One wonders how long these people would have lived a century or two ago.

The Aladdin kerosene lamps, while a bit expensive, are a wonder and well worth it. Steady, silent, white light at about the same power as a 60-watt bulb, they made reading comfortable and had some neighbors wondering if we had power. They look enough like "normal" lamps that visitors to our house never guess they aren't electric. I even loaned two to a church for Sunday morning service, and they excited a lot of interest from both genders. There are also conversion kits to use them as electric lamps... of course, that increases the amount of time needed to use them when the power goes out. The lanterns are also useful- the delicate mantles of the Aladdin lamps don't like being knocked around, and the lanterns save using batteries for trips to dark areas of the house (bathrooms).

We need a transitional stage between the electricity and the kerosene cooking stove, just some way to heat water for coffee and tea in the morning, short of unpacking and filling the stove and getting the wick saturated. Once it's ready to go the kerosene stove works fine for the duration (once I got the "hang" of it.. the directions were terrible) but if you don't know how long the blackout is going to last, you don't know if it's worth the effort or not. The first morning, we ended up using a coffee-can "hobo" stove, ventilated by a "church key" can opener, with Sterno inside. It worked, but it took a long time (Sterno is really for keeping food warm, not cooking... low heat output). I already have an order in for Esbit fuel tablets for next time, and I have an Esbit stove... somewhere. Once I locate it, it will live in a kitchen drawer, with tablets, ready to go.

Ma-and-Pa stores without power do appreciate cash.

Reflexively turning light switches on all over the house when the power's off is relatively harmless. Reflexively dumping food into the disposal might not be.

I should have more mantles for the Aladdins stored. They're awfully fragile in use. I had two spares for three lamps- I'll at least double that.

Shaving by kerosene lamp is an interesting challenge. I used to have an old-fashioned shaving mug, with compartments for the soap and brush, that you could fill with hot water from the kettle. I'll have to find another.

There is no obvious way to chill wine with kerosene. Thankfully, some of the ice held out in a cooler. A man has to have priorities.

I've probably got too much kerosene stored. In two days, I doubt if we used a quart. Might have been different in winter, though.

All in all, no big challenges this time, just a little experience gained. Biggest loss is the frozen food, some of which we salvaged by cooking. In fact, the power coming on Saturday night was a little bit of a letdown.. but it's awfully nice to have a hot shower.

I recall you don't like pressurized gas appliances, but... as a suggestion, a cheap propane 1 burner stove and a single 1 lbs disposable propane bottle are handy for exactly the situation you reported on. Boil a little water, shut it down. Just a thought.

There used to be absorbtion refridgerators that ran on kerosene... probably still are, although you'll pay a premium for one. A common modern example is an RV "three way" reefer (AC/DC/propane) running on its propane source. Not really anything to wear out on an absorbtion reefer - no moving parts.

Another thought - so far, two of us reported loss of frozen food stores. Even a fairly large chest-type freezer takes a very modest amount of electricity to operate. I suspect the the cost of a SMALL portable generator to power a freezer is less than the cost of the contents of the freezer... when we have prolonged outages, the freezer is the 2nd thing I provide electricity to (1 - reefer, because there is a fine line between OK and spoiled on non-frozen perishables; 2 - freezer). Also, the freezer usually only needs to be run once a day to keep contents safely frozen - at least, if the Wx is moderate or if it is "earth-sheltered" (in a basement).

Back to work... thanks for the report. Reminds me that I need to check OUR mantle supply...

Glad to hear everyone came through the storm relatively unscathed.

We were pretty fortunate, we only got a couple inches of rain, much less than was expected. We had alot of wind though, fortunately, no trees came down on our house although one of our neighbors wasn't as lucky. We lost power at 2am on Friday morning. It had flashed several times and we were ready for it, so I cranked up the generator and plugged in the sump pumps, frig and freezer. So we were pretty well set.
Cooked on the camping stove, and had lots of edibles that didn't require cooking. The only downside was that we didn't have water (our pump is hardwired and couldn't plug into the generator). We had thought ahead and stored plenty of drinking water in a large coolers as well as bottled water, and used stored rainwater to flush toilets. Our power came back on at 6pm on Friday, so we weren't down for too long, especially compared to some who may be out all week.

Lessons learned: Check your sump pumps before the day of the storm. When I was laying extension cords for the pumps Thursday morning, I noticed that one of my sumps was full of water. The switch had gone bad on the pump. Fortunately, a quick call to my plumber got me a new pump installed in under 2 hours. This definately saved me a flooded basement, but would have saved me some panicking if I had caught it Tuesday instead of the day of the storm.

My new generator worked great. Although we mainly got it to keep the sumps running and the basement dry, it was really nice to not have to worry about my fridge and freezer as well. We plan to get a hookup to the main house supply so that we can run the water pump as well.

I was glad I still have a small tv with rabbit ears. I almost got rid of it earlier this year because we never use it, but our cable went out as soon as the winds picked up, though we still had power for several hours. The tv was handy for checking the radar and getting weather reports, as was my wind up radio (Grundig). The cable was out for another day after the power came back as well.

Overall, it was not something I want to do everyday, but due to our preparations, it wasn't terribly inconvenient either. And you just can't beat a 4 day weekend.

Greg

"I recall you don't like pressurized gas appliances, but... "

I should have been clearer about that... my only reservations are about pressurized gasoline (white gas, Coleman fuel) or other liquids. When that type of lantern and stove first became available an awful lot of farm houses burned down before people figured out they weren't for indoors. A lot of people have now forgotten that lesson. I've been talking to people who have been cooking over Coleman stoves in their houses. I've tried to convince some that it's a bad idea, but they don't want to hear it.

I don't really have the same reservations about propane or butane cannisters, and it's a good suggestion. It's certainly convenient, and unlike the Esbit, you can actually control the temperature enough to simmer foods...or, say, cook an omlette.

On the other hand, Esbit is cheap, simple, non-toxic (unlike some similar solid fuels) very compact, has a long shelf life... and generally all I'm trying to do is get coffee and tea.

I think Lehman's (Amish country hardware) still has kerosene refrigerators. Not going to spend that kind of money just to chill the wine, though. :-) Only a problem maybe 5 months out of the year anyway...

"I suspect the the cost of a SMALL portable generator to power a freezer is less than the cost of the contents of the freezer."

Well, not in my case. The stuff in the 'fridges got moved to coolers with the ice from the freezers once the ice started to melt, so that food was Ok for the short period involved. Total contents of the freezer was probably between $50 and $100. Actually, since the restaurants and grocery stores were open, we didn't even use any of the MRE's in the basement. :-)

I'm still unconvinced on the generator thing. As I said, I heard them dying, presumably from lack of fuel, and being restarted at 2 or 4 in the morning... and reports from the Montreal blackout included a lot of them being stolen. Then there's the noise- turns out we attracted more attention than I really like just by having bright lights.

But maybe someday I'll be convinced. If this becomes a regular thing (and no one scoffs at that idea any more).

Glad you and yours weathered the whole thing safely.

"I think Lehman's ..." Doh! - I get their catalogs as well, since I occasionally order from them. If anyone would have kereosene reefers, they would. Prol expensive...

Eh, sorry for the confusion - WE were no where near the storm - upper Mississippi River Valley region. Thanks anyway (and glad y'all had a nice safe "adventure").

My generator thought was something along the lines of a 900w Honda or the like - tiny tiny and quiet running. Have to check, but I bet our large chest freezer doesn't require that much juice.

Family of 6 + two dogs and I don't want to think about a freezer defrost... several times we have lost power for days at a time in the winter over the last decade, and if it's not back on in about 36 hours, I lug out a genset and crank it up for a couple of hours every day. Running it continuously is a waste of silence and fuel...

As for the wine... I stick to reds most of the time - maybe you could switch <grin>

Gee, a perfect excus, er, reason to order more stuff... lucky you - seriously, interesting to read your post - thanks.

I love the Lehman's catalog. Good stuff, most of which I have nowhere near the lifestyle to need, but interesting.

>>As for the wine... I stick to reds most of the time - maybe you could switch <grin><<

Will the sacrifices never end? Must we lose all touch with civilization? Stop the madness!

Greg,

Is your well pump 220v or 110v? Most are 220v and most of the small gensets aren't wired up for that.

If your genset has what you need for your well pump, a transfer switch is the way to go for the circuits you want powered - it sounds like that's what you intend to have installed - good deal.

Regards,

Tom

I`ve got my power back after 3+ days and never really missed it,thanks in part to this forum and my training as a Boy Scout many years ago.
I had hit the local Sams Club and stocked up on plenty of batteries, bottle water, propane, etc., so I was ready for most anything that could happen. What I was not really prepared for is the attitude I have seen a few of my so-called intelligent neighbors have shown. In the days before and after the storm some, thankfully not many, thought 1 flashlight, a couple 6 packs and some chips would see them through til the local gov`t and power co. had everything fixed. Well, they found out differently, but instead of learning they wonder why with all the taxes and power bills paid everything wasn`t fixed by the day after the storm and complained that they couldn`t drink the tap water. These are the few that watched the rest of the neighborhood clear 6 streets that had trees up to 30" diameter trunks and 50-60 ft tall blocking them then move on to trees in yards, on houses, or or leaning and threatening to fall. I heard more than a few "Wait for the county, that`s their job." Those were the ones that went in search of an open McDonalds while their neighbors pulled out the grills into a central spot and had a massive block party.
The most important lesson I learned is that in general I can count on my neighbors, even those that I barely knew from blocks away. I overheard parents explaining to their kids to remember when they are older that when everyone works together those Big trees aren`t too hard to move.
All in all most of us have come thru unscathed, a little wiser, and confident that we Can take care of ourselves when the chips are down. Many are making lists to plan for the next hurricane, snow/ice storm or whatever.

Hey Greg, you might also want to check into one of these. I'm assuming that your generator is large enough to power your needs. The first is installed by your power company, http://www.generlink.com/about_generlink.cfm# Check on prices this might be much cheaper than a normal transfer switch.

This one requires you to know something about doing electrical work, http://www.marwellcorp.com/sp2376op.htm If you are not familiar with electrical panels don't use this one.

If you are only looking to add your water pump to your generator needs, have a plug and outlet installed for your water pump. When your power goes out unplug the pump and plug it into the generator. This might not be feasible depending on how your pump is wired and installed. HTH.

Ray,

Yes, I was planning on having something similar to your first suggestion installed. My gen is 6000W, and has 4-110 and 1-220 outlet. Our water pump is hardwired to the panel, so we couldn't plug it in. I suppose an option would be to have an outlet/plug installed, but I think it will be useful to essentially be able to run anything I want selectively by flipping the breakers. We have oil heat, so in the winter if we lose power due to an ice storm or whatever, we should have the juice to run the blowers and such for the heat. That and running water is all the missus really needs to be happy. Actually, she does ok without both as long as it isn't for too extended a period.

About the comment on running gens for short intervals; I suppose that works well with regards to the fridge and freezers, but the main reason we left ours running was for the sump pumps. When it's wet out, our sumps fill constantly, so shutting off the pumps for very long is really not a good idea. The sumps were the main reason we got the gen, and although they are expensive it is alot cheaper than replacing everything in my basement.

Thanks for the suggestions...

Greg

Greg, one thing you might want to check is how old your oil furnace is. The reason i ask is small generators tend to have "dirty" electricity. If you have a newer furnace, even though it is an oil burner, it might have electronics in it that are susceptible to damage from voltage or phase variation that is present in a small gen set. Old oil burners will run just fine on a generator. If in doubt check with your service tech. or the manufacturer.

I don't know much about generators and wiring, so this may be a silly question, but...

Since these devices require some manual intervention anyway, couldn't you accomplish the same thing just by throwing the "main" breaker at the circuit panel?

The problem I see in isolating the house from the grid (which is certainly necessary if you're going to use the house wiring) is knowing when the power's available again... and I don't see that any of these devices address that either.

But I may be missing something.

Ray,

Thanks for the heads up. It is fairly new, since I replaced the 40 yr old one when I got the place. I will be sure to check it out.

Greg

Presumed, while it is technically possible it is not recommended. Transfer switches have mechanical interlocks so that you can not have line power and generator power at the same time. If by chance you hook up the generator and forget to switch off the mains or someone else switches on the mains your generator will be back feeding the power lines. The power will go back out through the transformers at 7200 volts, this is can be lethal to line workers. If no one gets shocked the power will come back on and fry your generator.

There are generator transfer switch set ups that are automatic, line power goes off, generator comes on. When the power comes back on the generator shuts down. These systems are generally expensive.

If you are using a small transfer switch it will not disconnect your whole house from line power, leave a light on in a circuit that is still on line power and when the power come back on so will the light. It is also advisable to turn off all major appliances that are still on line power. HTH

Some comments on this thread:

On the subject of non electric refrigeration- refrigerators come in two types: electric powered compressor systems, and heat operated evaporative systems. The heat can come from propane, kerosene, or electricity (a heating element). The evaporative type was popular way back there (1930s or so) but then Frigidaire, a division of General Motors, set up an assembly line for production that was similar to those for making cars. This brought the unit cost down for the electric powered compressor refrigerator. Money talks, and the cheaper compressor type of refrigerator won out. Kind of like the VHS and Beta video formats, or PC and Mac.

http://www.lehmans.com/

http://www.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator.htm

To cool a bottle of wine, etc- wrap loosely in cheesecloth, douse with cool water, place outside in the shade where it will get a breeze, and add more water from time to time. Won't be cold, but is cheaper than spending $1500 on a non electric refrigerator :-)

Alternate method- place in clay pot filled with either salt water (brine) or a solution of potassium nitrate in water. Rotate bottle from time to time.

If you have ice and want to cool something in a hurry, fill a water can with ice, water, and the beverage to be cooled. Screw on the lid, place on side, and roll back and forth. Works sort of like making homemade ice cream. I haven't tried this myself, so don't know how effective it is.

Freezers- keep the freezer completely full. Fill up the empty space in the freezer with gallon jugs of drinking water. These are 69 cents or so at the grocery. They will freeze solid, and help keep the contents cold when the power goes off. After they thaw completely, use for drinking water. Don't use empty milk jugs- buy drinking water in plastic gallon jugs. Some people say to pour out some of the water to allow for expansion. I've found that the gallon jugs just bulge out when frozen. Sure, one or two might split, but so what.

During normal times the jugs will help conserve electricity by displacing air in the freezer that must be re-chilled each time you open the freezer. Also, a chest type freezer will keep cold better than an upright as the air doesn't spill out each time you open it.

Basement sump- I don't have a basement, but if I did I would consider a hand pump as a backup. Would a 12 volt bilge pump have enough force to move the water up from the basement? One of these on a heavy duty deep draw battery connected to a solar charger might be an option.

Lighting- One option is a car battery, a small desk lamp, and a screw in 12 volt LED light bulb. These draw very little current.

Aladdin lamps are great. The link, for anyone who is not familiar with these: http://www.aladdinlamps.com/store/dynamicIndex.asp

Headlights- the kind that go on your head. I love headlights. I have a Petzl Tikka and it's so handy. I also have a few others. You can pick these up cheap on ebay.

Generators- how about building a small, heavily insulated, locking shed for the generator. This would protect it from theft and reduce the noise. Ventilating the shed to keep the generator from overheating might be a problem. I've also wondered about attaching an inexpensive car muffler to cut down on the noise. Somewhere I heard about attaching a garden hose to the exhaust, then stretching the hose out and away from the generator. This was to reduce the noise while camping. I don't know if this is effective or not.

I've read that quite a few generators are stolen during power outages. How about welding a ring to the frame, then chaining the generator to a tree?


Deaths from Isabel- I did some looking online and found that deaths occurred from the following causes:

drowning- vehicles swept away while attempting to cross fast water

drowning- overturned canoe

drowning- horse drawn buggy swept away while crossing fast water over road

falling down stairs in unlighted home

heart attacks- cleaning up storm debris, etc

struck by falling trees during storm (several)

tree fell on mobile home and killed person inside

struck by falling limb while cutting up tree after the storm

carbon monoxide poisoning from generators indoors, in basement (3)

motor vehicle accidents- lost control on wet pavement; struck downed tree in roadway

two power company employees electrocuted in two separate incidents, while clearing limbs from power lines

car struck by falling utility pole

vehicle blown off roadway by winds and driver killed

http://www.vdem.state.va.us/newsroom/isabel03/deaths.htm


Re: heating water for making coffee, etc. - consider a single burner backpacking type stove. I have a collection of backpacking stoves, from my quest to find the "perfect" stove. Propane, butane, and alcohol are the safest indoors.

Esbit fuel is less toxic than Trioxane, for sure, but I"m not sure I'd call it non-toxic. I suspect that Esbit fuel produces carbon monoxide but don't know this for a fact. Don't misunderstand, I really like Esbit (except for the price) and it's very compact and convenient. Just be careful with proper ventilation with any stove.

For ease and convenience, the type of stove in the link below is hard to beat. These are sold at restaurant supply type stores and are used in restaurants at buffet tables, etc. You can see them on cooking programs on tv, too. There are several different brands, but they are all essentially the same design:

http://frontiersurvival.com/butstovwcanc.html


I also like the alcohol fueled Trangia stove, but the civilian models are expensive. Buy a Swedish Army surplus cook kit instead. I bought 3 sets from a surplus store for five bucks apiece. The cook kit:

http://www.marspec.net/430312.html

http://www.wj-enterprises.com/camstovkital.html

A warning- the stove is brass and filled with burning alcohol. As a result it gets HOT. Don't try to move it while it is burning. One of the newsgroups told about a man who picked up a burning stove and spilled burning alcohol everywhere.

I burn HEET gasoline antifreeze for fuel. Be sure to get the one in the yellow bottle. It's the cheapest form of alcohol I've found. Make sure you do not use anything with hydrocarbons (petroleum products) in it:

http://www.goldeagle.com/heet/


Re: treating tap water to make it safe - forget boiling, just get a backpacking type water filter, or a Brita (or other brand) home system. Better yet, use your bottled water for drinking.

Some of this stuff is elementary, and I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence. I just thought that someone might pick up something they've missed. Thank you for the all the posts on your first hand experiences.