rwc
Member
Back online after what one Northwest utility is calling "The Big Whopper."
The basics:
Food - The more full a freezer is the longer it stays cold. My upright freezer is in the garage and vacuum packed venison stayed solid for the 48 hours we were without power. 3-5 days probably would have been trouble.
Water - Our shared well does not have a generator back-up and we had to haul water upstairs to flush the toilet. A couple rain barrels tied into a down-spout will take care of our flushing needs in the future, and if neccessary, allow water for drinking through filtering. We had enough drinking water stored.
Shelter - We recently moved to Bainbridge Island and power outages were on my mind. We decided to install propane as a backup for the otherwise all-electric appliances. Oh happy day. Our Valor gas fireplace doesn't rely on a blower and was able to put out enough heat to keep most of the house comfortable (it has a battery powered remote control system with a thermostat built in). I hadn't gotten around to buying the deluxe BBQ I've had my eye on and I would have been regretting it if we hadn't had a propane cookset (Coleman type set-up with tank, two-burner stove, and lantern). We had plenty of flashlights, headlamps, and votive candles.
Lessons learned:
And perhaps most importantly - Do not burn anything bigger than a candle in your house. Tragically, it appears that there are going to be more injuries and deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning than from direct trauma due to the storm. Even generators left outdoors are poisoning people (somehow). I set up my propane cookset on the front porch so we had hot meals and tea. I will be buying a couple flourescent lanterns (they look like Coleman lanters but are battery powered) tominimize the fire risk from candles.
Happy holidays one and all!
rwc
The basics:
Food - The more full a freezer is the longer it stays cold. My upright freezer is in the garage and vacuum packed venison stayed solid for the 48 hours we were without power. 3-5 days probably would have been trouble.
Water - Our shared well does not have a generator back-up and we had to haul water upstairs to flush the toilet. A couple rain barrels tied into a down-spout will take care of our flushing needs in the future, and if neccessary, allow water for drinking through filtering. We had enough drinking water stored.
Shelter - We recently moved to Bainbridge Island and power outages were on my mind. We decided to install propane as a backup for the otherwise all-electric appliances. Oh happy day. Our Valor gas fireplace doesn't rely on a blower and was able to put out enough heat to keep most of the house comfortable (it has a battery powered remote control system with a thermostat built in). I hadn't gotten around to buying the deluxe BBQ I've had my eye on and I would have been regretting it if we hadn't had a propane cookset (Coleman type set-up with tank, two-burner stove, and lantern). We had plenty of flashlights, headlamps, and votive candles.
Lessons learned:
- Don't let your car's gas tank go to "Empty" before a storm hits. The gas station I went to 10 miles away was busy and ran low on gas while I was there. If you can, call before you drive.
- Do have a means of storing and moving water. A sturdy garbage can, a 5 gal. "pickle bucket", a regular 2 gal. bucket, and a nearby source of water will let you keep flushing. 15-20 gal. of potable water is nice to have too so you don't have to filter or boil everything you need for drinking and cooking.
- Don't own only cordless phones for your land-line. When I biked out on Saturday looking for a basic $5 phone they were not available.
- Do have car charges for your mobile phones. The phone networks stayed up in many areas that lost power and cable.
- Do have a means for cutting large trees.
- Do buy lots of batteries before you need them.
- Don't go anywhere in the first 24 hours if you can avoid it. Let the road crews and line crews get where they need to be. Having every traffic light out in large swaths of 4 counties meant traffic jams at almost every intersection.
- Do get to know your neighbors, before you have to.
And perhaps most importantly - Do not burn anything bigger than a candle in your house. Tragically, it appears that there are going to be more injuries and deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning than from direct trauma due to the storm. Even generators left outdoors are poisoning people (somehow). I set up my propane cookset on the front porch so we had hot meals and tea. I will be buying a couple flourescent lanterns (they look like Coleman lanters but are battery powered) tominimize the fire risk from candles.
Happy holidays one and all!
rwc