Yesterday, we had a severe weather event, with a reported funnel cloud. My home was directly in the path of the storm.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/...lost_power.html

Being "prepared" paid off.

Good News.
The storm came up QUICK. I was already in the basement with my son just puttering around. I didn't notice the storm coming up. My wife - quickly- shuttled the other kids to the basement, to our designated safe spot. The storm raged for a while, then, suddenly, it was sunny and hailing and lighting was coming down. The power dimmed, flickered, dimmed and then went out.

So the flashlights - which were fully operational - came out.
After the storm passed, the damage in the area was extensive - the power lines were destroyed, and it was clear that they would not be fixed soon. After a walk around the house to do a damage check - amazingly nothing damaged, but big branches all over and trees down on all the roads.

We set our 96 hour plan into action. Water got hauled up to the kitchen from the read-to-go 7 gallon dispenser while I pulled out and connected the generator to the pre-connected wiring I've get set up.

Well the generator cranked right up - fresh gas and oil in there - and the house came back on-line to a degree (the generator runs the whole house except for the electric hot water heater, oven, stove or dryer). As an aside - Compact Floros, which make up most of my home lighting, are a fantastic way to save on generator fuel. We had plenty of lights on in the house and the total load on the generator was normally under 750 watts. The largest load is our well pump, which draws 2400 watts@240 volts, and when starting it gives the generator a little "thump", but all the rest - no problems at all.

The Fire Company was overwhelmed with wires calls, so since I'm still technically sworn Fire Police, I was able to close off the road ahead of the huge trees that were down - had plenty of flares in a case, set a line in the road to keep cars out.

The Chain Saw was ready to go, didn't need it, but it's in "ready to run" condition.

Also didn't need the whole-house tarp I have for roof damage (thank goodness) but that was also ready to go.

Bad News
As of right now, there's no rational way for an ambulance to get to my house, and local roads to and from hospitals are blocked.
We got internet access via DSL back this AM, but my Verizon Wireless card did NOT WORK last night or this AM, that's unfortunate, as the cell sites did stay online, but I think that their data backhaul lines were knocked out. I had high hopes for that to work.
The power outage is much more extensive than I expected - while we can get gas, I'm very pleased that I already had enough gas for 3 days on hand. We don't run the generator 24/7, it's running 2 hours on, 8 hours off. That's also in our plan for fuel conservation.

Will keep you updated. Power restoration looks like a hell of a miserable job. We'll make the linesmen some ice tea and snacks.