Electricity...Do you take it for granted?

[bczygan]

I sure did.

Until 4 days ago, when Detroit got hit with a big storm and the most outages in our power company's 100 year history.

Had to buy a generator just to save the fridge and have a few lights.

Could only run the generator intermittently.

Charging the phone in the car.

No fans for the heat and humidity. No AC.

TV only when running for the fridge.

Just got back from camping. This feels worse then camping. At least we had electric at the camp site.

So many of our toys require it. What would you miss the most, if the power went out right now? How prepared are you?

Now that we have a generator, I can run electrical devices away from the grid. Maybe some boon-dock camping. Can even run the electric chainsaw around the neighborhood without an extension cord.

 

[aka Larry]

I live in hurricane country so I've BTDT. The longest I've been w/o power is 5 days and damn that was a long 5 days!

Yes, we take electricity for granted as pretty much everything runs on it. I couldn't even go anywhere because I couldn't get gas because the gas pumps work on electricity too!

I should buy a generator, but the power failure is relatively rare (once every 5 years or so) so I have yet to bite the bullet and get one.

 

[lametec]

Power goes out twice a year pretty much, so I've owned a generator since 1998.

 

[The mean fish]

We went 16 days without power after Hurricane Ike and when I was a lot younger we went 24 days without power after Andrew in South LA.

I don't take it for granted but I do make sure we can survive without it for a while.

 

[APEowner]

I used to live in a cabin in the Adirondack mountains. I don't even take indoor plumbing for granted.

 

[Major Ramifications]

We get used to it, but I learned after Hurricane Katrina that I can live just fine without it. Running water, on the other hand, I cannot.

Mean fish, where in south Louisiana did you lose power for 24 days after Andrew?

 

[48RON54]

We rarely lose power and if we do it last for minutes.

I am not prepared at all. I suppose I would drink all my beer before it gets warm. Then talk about how thankful I am that is just a "dry heat".... Or drive to the movies. Power should be back by the time I'm home and/or beer is gone.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I was in charge of large group of computer servers during the "Great East Coat/Midwest" blackout. They were all on a large battery backed up UPS (the size of about 6 double wide refrigerators).

EVERYTHING WORKED AS IT WAS SUPPOSED TO !!

The UPS kept all the equipment running for almost 30 minutes while we di an orderly shutdown

The Emergency Lighting worked (although there were a few dark areas).

We had keys to the doors that had electronic locks !!

We even had a couple of flashlights that worked.



I just went through 2 weeks of no A/C which included the the hottest 2 days of this summer in SE MI.

 

[nine4gmc]

Hurricane alley here, we lose power a LOT. First week is ok, it's when you get into the 2,3 and 4 weeks that things go bad. Stores run out of food, gas stations run out of gas, it's not fun. I would hate to see what happened if the whole country grids went down for any amount of time...

 

[ratman2]

Hurricane alley here, we lose power a LOT. First week is ok, it's when you get into the 2,3 and 4 weeks that things go bad. Stores run out of food, gas stations run out of gas, it's not fun. I would hate to see what happened if the whole country grids went down for any amount of time...

We better hope we never see an EMP or a major attack on the grid

 

[roadpilot]

We moved to our (then) new house in OCT of '02. We had a couple of blackouts between then and the big Northeast blackout of '03. Back then, I bought an John Deere 8K portable generator, which we've used at least a dozen times since then. Last winter, I finally broke down and purchased a Generac 20KW whole-house generator, which we're in the process of installing. I never took power for granted before, and now, we're prepared with a primary whole-house and a backup portable.

 

[Nick Danger]

We have good power here. Maybe one outage every five years.

The most recent one lasted from 7PM to midnight. I discovered that what I missed most was my CPAP. I couldn't get to sleep without it.

 

[JBourquin]

Lost power for 3 weeks during the ice storm of '98. Most of January with sub freezing temps..

 

[Boiler]

Had am ice storm in central indiana in January about 8-10 years ago. Was out for five days. House went from 70 to 50 in about 90 mins and the panic set in. I started smoking again during that outage too.

 

[sourdough]

We better hope we never see an EMP or a major attack on the grid

True dat! Better have beaucoup cash on hand because your credit/debit cards will be worth only the plastic material it contains. If there is one main terrorist threat, it would be some group gaining access to a nuclear weapon and detonating it in the air above a populated area. The threat to health would be negligible compared to the damage done to our wholly integrated electronic financial system, not to mention that most vehicles, all electronic hardware such as we are conversing upon, and any related things. Life as we know it would cease for the time being, if not for a looooong time. Wanna invest? Guns and ammo and sentries at lookout posts day and night. The hordes that have no more food than 3 days' worth in their homes will get hungry soon, and will stop at nothing to eat.

Have you ever watched the movie "The Purge" (2013) or the sequel? Better have enough arms and ammo on hand.

Do I sound irrational?

That's for you all to decide.

Back to the OP:

Power for all food refrigeration is #1.

Power for heat if in the winter is #2 (we have propane but need power for fan/controls).

Power for microwave oven is #3 (we have a propane cookstove but it's electrically ignited. No problem with the rangetop but the oven is **** unless the genset is on).

Fuel for an extended period is #4. Lots and lots. I am reminded in a way of "The Road Warrior". Think that is out of our realm? Think again.

We had been without power for three days in winter a few years ago due to downed trees on the local powerlines and we are in a very rural area, so the power utility concentrated their manpower on the populated areas as opposed to our area. Can't blame them: we're supposed to be tough out here.

Just remember if you have a genset: you need a large fuel supply to carry you through whatever emergency is impending.

Your call...

Jim

 

[EOC_Jason]

Two week when Hurricane Ike blew threw. First week wasn't too bad, the weather was nice and cool and plenty of repairs and cleanup to do. Second week got hot and humid and just plain sucked... Why the power company has all aerial power lines in a prime hurricane area I do not know...

It was actually pleasant with not power anywhere. No A/C's running so it was so much less background noise. People didn't really drive to conserve gas, so very little traffic. You worked with your hands during the day and could see what you accomplished, and when it got dark you went to sleep.

 

[383 240z]

Keith

 

[Bib Overalls]

I was working at Clark Air Base in the Philippines when Mt Pinatubo started rumbling. We evacuated the entire base population; Airmen, families, school teachers, US civilian employees, pets and a few Class B dependents (as well) to Subic Bay Naval Station. Over 20,000 people as I recall. For the first couple of days it was like a vacation. Then the volcano popped and when it did about a foot ash came down. Basically it rained sand. And then it rained for real. The wet sand shorted out the transformers and they started to blow. So they shut down the grid. All at once we had no light and no way to prepare fresh meals. That was fixed with MRIs. But the real problem was sewage. The housing area at Subic was on the side of a hill. As every plumber knows, **** flows down hill (and payday comes on Friday). With no electricity, the sewage pumps stopped working. However, the water storage system was gravity fed. So, at dock side, raw sewage started bubbling up around the manhole covers. The place became uninhabitable. Fortunately, there was a US Navy task force returning from the Gulf in the area and they came in and took us off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fiery_Vigil

 

[1Garageman]

We lost our power years ago because of a strong wind storm, 75+mph, that blew out the power for about 3 days. It was really tough to sleep without my CPAP machine!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

We better hope we never see an EMP or a major attack on the grid

Funny another thread on here is also talking about EMPs. Now are standalone EMP generators still theoretical or are they physically possible?

 

[Gerald O]

Funny another thread on here is also talking about EMPs. Now are standalone EMP generators still theoretical or are they physically possible?

It's easy to generate EMP, but how big are you thinking? As a weapon it needs a lot of power.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

It's easy to generate EMP, but how big are you thinking? As a weapon it needs a lot of power.

Yes as a weapon. Like the EMP generator in Ocean's Eleven(yes i know its a movie!)

 

[SchuLace]

I lost power for a couple days during a nice storm a couple years ago. My house got to about 45 degrees and I decided one afternoon that I was packing up and going to my parents if I didn't have power when I got home and luckily I had power.

The little things like turning on a light in a room are really missed when the power is out.

 

[MagnumForce]

EMPs don't work like you see in movies, especially like in Ocean's Eleven. Their damage to the grid would be extremely minimal and localized.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

EMPs don't work like you see in movies, especially like in Ocean's Eleven. Their damage to the grid would be extremely minimal and localized.

How so? Would grid control equipment be damaged?

 

[MagnumForce]

For a emp to take out an entire grid it would take a high altitude blast and I mean high. 400 kilometers high. Do some research, it just doesn't work like the movies. Cars would even most likely not be affected nor would any small to medium sized electronics. It is in the realm of a powerful nation to cause that type of damage but not a rogue power or a terrorist group. A dirty bomb is much more realistic.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I dont know much about EMP so thats why i asked. Thanks for the info! So all this doomsday prepping and worrying over EMP is nonsense??

 

[MagnumForce]

I bet those people think nothing of getting in a car every day which is far more likely to kill them.

 

[dutchgray]

I dont know much about EMP so thats why i asked. Thanks for the info! So all this doomsday prepping and worrying over EMP is nonsense??

Prepping for power loss is sensible, worrying about EMP is pointless as you'd be far to close to the nuke that generated it to care.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Prepping for power loss is sensible, worrying about EMP is pointless as you'd be far to close to the nuke that generated it to care.

I was talking non nuclear EMP strike....

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

We have been through several long power outages over the years.

We've run anywhere from 3 - 9 days on a 5KW gasoline generator.

Having kid's my comment was - you can make your own electricity but you can't make your own internet. During most of the outages cable service (miy ISP) was out also.

Jim

 

[wyliesdiesels]

We have been through several long power outages over the years.

We've run anywhere from 3 - 9 days on a 5KW gasoline generator.

Having kid's my comment was - you can make your own electricity but you can't make your own internet. During most of the outages cable service (miy ISP) was out also.

Jim

Sounds like they either dont have battery backups on their lines or the batteries need to be changed.

Around here our cable company(Concraptic/Comcast) has telephone service so thry have battery backups on their service lines on the poles.

 

[ratman2]

True dat! Better have beaucoup cash on hand because your credit/debit cards will be worth only the plastic material it contains. If there is one main terrorist threat, it would be some group gaining access to a nuclear weapon and detonating it in the air above a populated area. The threat to health would be negligible compared to the damage done to our wholly integrated electronic financial system, not to mention that most vehicles, all electronic hardware such as we are conversing upon, and any related things. Life as we know it would cease for the time being, if not for a looooong time. Wanna invest? Guns and ammo and sentries at lookout posts day and night. The hordes that have no more food than 3 days' worth in their homes will get hungry soon, and will stop at nothing to eat.

Have you ever watched the movie "The Purge" (2013) or the sequel? Better have enough arms and ammo on hand.

Do I sound irrational?

That's for you all to decide.

Back to the OP:

Power for all food refrigeration is #1.

Power for heat if in the winter is #2 (we have propane but need power for fan/controls).

Power for microwave oven is #3 (we have a propane cookstove but it's electrically ignited. No problem with the rangetop but the oven is **** unless the genset is on).

Fuel for an extended period is #4. Lots and lots. I am reminded in a way of "The Road Warrior". Think that is out of our realm? Think again.

We had been without power for three days in winter a few years ago due to downed trees on the local powerlines and we are in a very rural area, so the power utility concentrated their manpower on the populated areas as opposed to our area. Can't blame them: we're supposed to be tough out here.

Just remember if you have a genset: you need a large fuel supply to carry you through whatever emergency is impending.

Your call...

Jim

And here is more food for thought...ISIL probably has more than enough cash to buy a nuke and fire it off

 

[internetdude]

I take electricity for granted 24/7/365. Around here we only have outages maybe twice a year for 1-2 hours, no big deal unless it's like -30 Celcius.

 

[Garage Josh]

We take it for granted for sure. I know my wife and I would probably be screwed in the event of any long term outage as we are not prepared. We just moved into our first house back in May. Probably should gather a reasonable amount of supplies like water, light sources, food, etc. for a storm since we live in the Midwest either in warm or winter months.

What are you guys suggestions for supplies? Generator would be nice, but the last time I looked they were pretty expensive.

 

[Shadowdog500]

We all live in what James Burke calls the "technology trap".
Check out the intro to the first episode of his excellent series "Connections" that he made in the 1970s. He explains what the technology trap is.

Chris