Greetings from power deficient Oklahoma. Going on day three after the power went out Monday morning around 7:30 am. Some on my street have power..unsure of the genius that mapped out the neighborhood wiring.

Ok, home with my 10 yr old daughter and 2.5 yr old son. Not the ideal condition when power goes...especially when he was right in the middle of his favorite movie "Cars". Ok, portable DVD fired up movie continuing...10 year old fills bathtub, while the water was still running, I wasn't taking chances. I made sure standard water containers are all full. Out to the wood pile make several trips moving wood to the patio. Start fire in the fireplace...no time for fun and games..light the match, turn on the gas. After 10 minutes, fire is going without gas assistance, kids watching a movie. Lunch was heated up on one of my many camping stoves. Raman for her, some Chef Boyarde for him.

It was interesting to watch it unfold. Wife home from work early..no power at the hospital where she works. She stopped at the grocery store on the way home...hour wait in line. Nothing major, just some convienience items. She asks if she should stop for anything else..I get her home. So I am off to the store. Coweta(rural community just south east of Tulsa) has a Wal-mart and grocery store all closed tight..no power. Rumor of some Ace Hardwares open and selling in the dark, just keeping manual records. Hmmm...maybe I need to frequent the Ace hardware and make some friends. Most Tulsa Wal-marts closed no power. I drove to the one in Wagoner(30 miles away) thought I would grab a couple extra fuel bottles..had several, but you never know. Got the last 6 in the store, but it was surreal. Some Christmas shopping, one aisle over from people frantically gathering up candles for light. Flashlight aisle looked like it had just been erected..no lights to speak of. No lamp oil, lanterns or liquid fuel. Good thing I already had all that stuff.

Dinner quesidillas(sp) on the larger camp stove, refrigirated items on the patio...32 degrees.. wake up often to replenish the fire...gas hot water heater, so hot shower felt good.

Pretty much maintaining here..some items for thought.

The sound of large limbs coming off trees is disconcerting. The amount of wood supply on hand will probably last 5 days. Need more stocks for future. The water station never went offline, however several surrounding communities being asked to conserve water, one community has contaminated water. Interesting that within half a day..no chainsaws or generators to be had. Someone needs to slap the lady on the news (watched from my battery powered b/w) who keeps saying check our website for school closings...3/4 of Tulsa without power not to mention surrounding communities. Food really not that much of an issue. I always thought that would be the largest concern of my family..but really for the 10 year old and 2 year old it seems to be intertainment and with the wife it is really warmth. We ate because we were bored.

Oh well, just like camping in the living room, but my couch is not as comfortable as I thought.

We lost power for 16 hours, with in the first 15 minn. My kids were saying that they were bored.
After giving them a list of things that they could do for fun and being told that “all that’s boring” I was relived when I got the call to go out and help remove trees and limbs from the road.

I think that the other guys were grateful for the “child whine” reprieve too, long after we had cleared our township roads we sat in the cold and dark fire station giving our chief hell for not putting in a generator so we could have lights and heat.

I do feel sorry for my parents, they live five miles out of town and was told that it may be 13 days before they get power back. But the roads are clear so they can come here and shower, do laundry, and eat.

On the plus side of the power loss, my wife has agreed that we do need a generator, and it has also got my folks thinking more about being ready for things that my happen.

Got power back here about three hours ago, lost it Monday morning. Had several hundred year old trees on neighbor's property embed themselves in my garage roof, spent fourteen hours cutting them up and tarping garage. Always thought I was fairly well prepared, did not participate in the mad about town Monday shopping frenzy that left shelves bare.

Still have plenty of food, was running low on propane however--almost lost the parakeet over fuel rationing.

Had hot water the whole time, was a blessing. Still, if the power hadn't been back tonight, DW and DD2 would've been staying at my father in law's (he lives next to a power plant, never a burble in the go juice).

Still, temps in house last night got down below forty deg. farenheit. Natural gas furnace, electric blower with gas safety shutoff.

No generator. Have been trying to convince DW we needed one since the last ice storm, I have a feeling she's ready to listen to me now

Future plans for house now include a fireplace or wood-burning stove.

All of the strife in the household would have been eliminated if the girls had let me take them "camping" in the living room rather than trying to pretend the entire house was a viable living space.

Anyhow, on a tip overheard via neighboring cell phone conversation, I managed to restock on propane, which was my only real worry.

Now I need to figure out a way to wash, dry, and iron clothes (I hate ties...dang dress code) the next time this happens

Billy, if you have hot water, fill a couple of lidded jars (quart mayo or canning jars are a good size, and stable) and put them in the parakeet's cage, and cover with a blanket. I put a cheap round thermometer in the chicken's pen when it gets really cold (for here), so I can see how things are going.

This also applies to reptiles and other animals sensitive to cold.

Just a personal opinion: I wouldn't ask permission to close down the outer parts of the house. Just tell them, "Warmth here, freeze there. Your choice."

Sue

I agree with all. Good tip re hot water jars to serve as radiant heat for small pets. Trying to heat the entire house is foolish, put your heat where it has the best chance of keeping your plumbing from freezing. Tough love rules with folks who don't understand the situation.

I was told once to do the same to heat a small room. Say if you have a gas stove but are without electric, or have an outdoor propane grill. Heat up the biggest pan of water you have with a lid then sit it in the center of a small room and huddle around it.

Eugene, you can do the same with common red bricks: heat them on the grill outside, put them in a metal bucket with tongs, and bring them inside. Flameless heat that doesn't use interior oxygen.

Sue

How big are your kids? They can help move the tree limbs and keep watch for inbound traffic.

Ended up doing the next best thing--moved parakeet to bathroom after filling tub up with piping hot water.

Good idea about tough love on the heat...was just envisioning wide, thick straps of plastic hanging from the ceiling over the bar to separate the kitchen from the living room, to provide a walk thru weather barrier.

Another project to ponder is prepositioned tarp tie downs in strategic locations (for various aspects of the roof). Also need to figure square footage for such tarps on garage and house.

Have tornado threat to worry about after ice/snow season is over

At least I won't have to worry about the trees anymore...

Try to use a some trigonometry before deciding you need to measure the roof. If you know how wide and long the footprint of the house or a part of it is, can estimate the distance the roof rises from the eaves to it's peak, and you can estimate the overhang on the eaves, with the use of trigonometry you can calculate roof area.

For a rectangular structure. The width of the roof can be deterined by knowing the width of the structure and the rise of the roof. Squaring both these numbers, adding them and then finding the square root of the sum would give you that width of the roof. The length of the roof should not change much from the length of the structure, and it should not change over the width of the roof. Multiply by the length by the square root of the sum mentioned, and it should give you the area of the roof. The math is much safer than getting out the ladder.

Not sure if I would buy tarps to cover all of the roof, but how much you want to cover is all up to you.

As far as tie down straps, I might forego them. If I needed to put a tarp in place to cover a hole in the roof, and I was in a hurry, I would probably nail it down.

Good luck with the clean up, etc.