My deepest sympathies. We lost power for 2 hours last week (high winds and tree branches) and I was climbing the walls. It was night and my husband was at work. W/O power, we have no phone, no heat (even though it is gas), no water, etc. I just went to bed and lay there making up a list that I need to buy — more flourescent lanterns — one for each floor of the house. A battery operated radio. Of course a supply of candles and matches (I had those, but didn’t want to use them.) Had plenty of wood for the wood stove, but didn’t want to make a fire, either.
I have 2 generators, but neither is convenient to use. Have to figure out what to do about that. Been saying that for more than 20 years, and we’ve made no progress on it.
The problem with generators is that you cannot use them indoors. Therefore, I have to tackle the puzzle of running the generator on the porch outdoors and how to get the electrical connection that the generator is powering indoors, while keepiing the exhaust fumes out. That is so a freezer or refrigerator or other appliances can be connected to it.
Just as I was writing this, WE Energies called to notify me that the electricity was reconnected and to tell me the cause for the outage. Well, the electricity was reconnected last Sunday night! It’s a good thing that I’m not on a breathing machine!
Anyway, the serviceman and I got into a discoussion on the use and problems of home generators. He suggested that I get an exhaust pipe from an auto store to direct the fumes away from the house. Then my husband (the resident engineer) spoke up and said that if I had an OUTDDOOR 220 plug (dedicated to the generator) that I could plug it in and that it would power much of the house. At least until I ran out of gas.
Add that to my list — an adequate supply of gas to survive a power outage.
Yep getting gas for the generator can be a big problem especially if a wide area is without power. During Katrina my wife and I went two weeks without power. We had a generator but keeping it gassed up turned into a daily adventure for me. The nearest town that had spotty power being restored was 32 miles away. The radio stations were broadcasting when a gas station would get power and how much and when they were expecting a delivery of gas. Some were rationing how much gas you could pump per vehicle. And the lines were long. If I remember right our generator went through 5gal of gas in 8 or 10 hours. Depended on the load we put on it. We had something like 5 5gal gas cans and a number of smaller ones. I tried my best not to get below 2 full 5 gallon gas cans. You also got to remember to get gas for the vehicle also. Wal-Mart was just about the only store selling food. They planned for the storm and had big generator sets brought in at just about all their stores that were not damaged. It think most of their stores have emergency generators to keep their refrigerated and frozen food from spoiling and to keep a few lights on. But the big generators they brought in ran the whole store.
Also been thinking about a generator. My freezer did well for the 48 hours, but because it was full, I was starting to get concerned.
We have a wood stove, so heat was not a problem. I have a cast iron griddle which came in handy for cooking bacon and eggs. We could heat water for dishes and making coffee.
Heard horror stories about people, particularly in CT, that used outdoor grills inside and died from carbon monoxide...one man died from using a lawn mower inside.
My battery operated lanterns and radio saved the day. Because we’ve experienced this several times in the past and because we live in a rural area, we were fairly well prepared...but a generator will be next on the list.
Here’s a tip my neighbors forgot: get a manual operated can opener...they never thought of that!