Rural Power Outages: Unprepared and Unpreparedness

[Ivan Seeking]

One of the worst aspects of rural living has been the power outages. Once again, here I sit by lantern light wondering if this will take one or two hours, or two days. I can fire up the generator if needed, but that's only enough power to run the smaller appliances. If it gets much colder, I may have to fire up the wood stove.

I didn't know that we were going to have a wind storm. It is really howling out there and I did nothing to prepare. Also, I think our shiny new local power lines lured me into a false sense of security.

 

[chroot]

It's pretty remarkable that you manage to surf PF without any power. (Laptop battery?)

It looks like the pacific northwest is getting pretty much hammered this week.

- Warren

 

[Moonbear]

It's pretty remarkable that you manage to surf PF without any power. (Laptop battery?)

Hamster power!

I'd hate to have the power go out in winter. I don't mind so much in summer (I grew up accustomed to power outages every thunderstorm, and as long as it's warm and you have a BBQ, you can deal with it). At least you have a wood stove to keep warm!

 

[ranger]

In NYC its a big deal if power goes out for a few minutes, let alone a few hours. I can't even remember the last time we had a power outage.

 

[Rach3]

In NYC its a big deal if power goes out for a few minutes, let alone a few hours. I can't even remember the last time we had a power outage.

I can, and I don't even live there!

 

[Moonbear]

In NYC its a big deal if power goes out for a few minutes, let alone a few hours. I can't even remember the last time we had a power outage.

I can, and I don't even live there!

Yeah, it's on the news every time there's a power failure in NYC.

 

[Kurdt]

Also, I think our shiny new local power lines lured me into a false sense of security.

The only reason that they're new and shiny is that they get replaced so often due to damage

 

[scorpa]

I feel your pain, the power is always going out at our farm. I remember a few years ago in the winter we lost power for 3 days, no generator no nothing, luckily we have a gas stove so we could at least use that to cook. Worst part is that no power means no water, so you can't even use the shower...ick

 

[Astronuc]

In NYC its a big deal if power goes out for a few minutes, let alone a few hours. I can't even remember the last time we had a power outage.

Try August 14, 2003 some time just after 1600 ( 4 pm). It was about that time when the lights dimmed and my PC's shutdown as we had a voltage drop. The power stablized for a few seconds and then went out. We then learned the street, then neighborhood was out. Then we learned the state was out, and finally the entire northeast US and parts of Ontario.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_North_America_blackout

We were without power for about 36 hrs, and others were days without power.

 

[Loren Booda]

Ivan,

Where's that old pioneer spirit? Break the ice on the pond for a bracing bath. Dip tallow for winter's candles. Be thankful that at least you have a thundermug!

 

[jtbell]

Hamster power!

Around here we use gerbils. When our server bogged down during a lab in the programming class that I used to teach, I sometimes said, "looks like someone forgot to feed the gerbils again."

I'd hate to have the power go out in winter. I don't mind so much in summer (I grew up accustomed to power outages every thunderstorm, and as long as it's warm and you have a BBQ, you can deal with it). At least you have a wood stove to keep warm!

Just pile on the blankets, wear a warmup suit for pajamas, and make sure you have someone else in bed with you. That's how my wife and I got through two nights without power after a blizzard knocked out our town completely a few years ago. It helped that our water heater uses natural gas instead of electricity, so at least we had hot water!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It's pretty remarkable that you manage to surf PF without any power. (Laptop battery?)

Yep, laptop battery and dial-up. I don't even own a tower. Normally we're on DSL modems, but I keep the dial-up account for travel and emergencies.

We are getting hammered and there is much more to come. Luckily this outage only lasted a couple of hours. I ended up running into town and the power was on when I got home.

In the past it used to be much worse, but in recent years it hasn't been so bad. Hopefully the days of losing power every time the wind blows are over. Turns out that this was a fairly expansive outage so it got fixed quickly. If the problem is on a minor line, it can take a long time before they make it out; esp when there are other areas going down.

The neighbors tell me that about five years before we bought this place, this area lost power for ten days during freezing weather!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan,

Where's that old pioneer spirit? Break the ice on the pond for a bracing bath. Dip tallow for winter's candles. Be thankful that at least you have a thundermug!

Have you noticed that the pioneers are all dead? You see where that kind of thing will get you?

 

[hypatia]

You get those freaky low pressure systems there. A friend of mine lives on the northern coast, she pays more attention to her barometer then to her thermometer.
Glad to her you got power back, the sense of adventure is not so much fun when your cold.

 

[kesh]

I live on a boat with no power but that which i generate. Laptop, lighting, cellphone charger and radio is powered by 330 amp hours of 12 volt lead acid powered by a wind gen and the boat's engine. Wind is a good thing for power!

 

[turbo]

My wife and I live on a sparsely-populated back road, so when there is a wind storm in the forecast, we fill lots of jugs with drinking water (we have a well with a submersible pump) and get the generator ready (power cords to critical or nice-to-have equipment). I was told by a lineman for the power company that our road is about the last place in town that will get power back when there are widespread outages. He wasn't lying. That's OK. We have a gas stove for cooking, a gas water heater, and a wood stove (our primary heat source).

 

[Evo]

Wow, quite a storm Ivan, 100 mph winds and three dead. How did you fare?

 

[turbo]

We are getting hammered and there is much more to come. Luckily this outage only lasted a couple of hours. I ended up running into town and the power was on when I got home.

If you haven't lost power again, you're among the lucky ones. I don't know how accurate the reporting is, but it seems that at least a million customers are without power and many may not get it back for days. Good luck.

 

[jim mcnamara]

The neighbors tell me that about five years before we bought this place, this area lost power for ten days during freezing weather!

That would have been nice to know before you bought the farm, er place... :)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow, quite a storm Ivan, 100 mph winds and three dead. How did you fare?

I think we're in pretty good shape but it does look like a war zone out there. I guess Integral lost a patch of roof.

I worry most about heavy winds when the ground is saturated. We still have a couple of trees that could take out the house. Last month we had fifteen inches of rain and it hasn't let up yet, so that was a very dangerous storm in part because of the timing.

I did hear a very loud crack at one point so something took a hit.

Turbo, I have much the same routine, but since we have no gas out here, we keep the woodstove for heat and cooking, in a pinch. We can run on the generator but it's only 5KW, and it is quite an ordeal to break into the line. I don't bother unless we know that it will be long outage.

The first time that I heard about the ten day outage was when we first looked at houses in area. Back then we had more of a pioneering spirit!

 

[Math Is Hard]

all the critters ok, Ivan?

 

[turbo]

Turbo, I have much the same routine, but since we have no gas out here, we keep the woodstove for heat and cooking, in a pinch. We can run on the generator but it's only 5KW, and it is quite an ordeal to break into the line. I don't bother unless we know that it will be long outage.

We don't have natural gas, so we are dependent on a bulk tank of propane that is topped off on a regular schedule. My biggest concern in the case of an extended outage is keeping our 2 large chest freezers supplied with power, so I keep lots of gasoline available for the generator. We have a pond in our back yard, so water for washing-up is not a problem. My generator is only 2700W and it does not supply 240V, so now that we are in a house supplied by a well with a submersible pump, I may have to consider upgrading to an 8-10KW unit with at least one 240V outlet to feed the entrance panel. Otherwise, being off the grid is no hardship. Good luck with the trees and saturated soil. I have lost quite a few this fall. A recent wind storm blasted us with heavy winds out of the east, which is not the prevailing direction. Our house was hit by branches blown from a tree ~40 feet away, but there was no real damage - just a mess to clean up.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

MIH: Bun is tossing a mouse around the kitchen, Zoobie is hiding from Bun, and Einstein is watching Bun play with the mouse. Yep, all is normal.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We don't have natural gas, so we are dependent on a bulk tank of propane that is topped off on a regular schedule. My biggest concern in the case of an extended outage is keeping our 2 large chest freezers supplied with power, so I keep lots of gasoline available for the generator. We have a pond in our back yard, so water for washing-up is not a problem. My generator is only 2700W and it does not supply 240V, so now that we are in a house supplied by a well with a submersible pump, I may have to consider upgrading to an 8-10KW unit with at least one 240V outlet to feed the entrance panel. Otherwise, being off the grid is no hardship. Good luck with the trees and saturated soil. I have lost quite a few this fall. A recent wind storm blasted us with heavy winds out of the east, which is not the prevailing direction. Our house was hit by branches blown from a tree ~40 feet away, but there was no real damage - just a mess to clean up.

I can run 120 or 240 on the generator, but what makes it a bugger is that we have an old style breaker box that has no main-main. Instead we have six sub-mains. It is all but impossible to get at the drop line connection without removing the meter [to prevent backfeeding the power lines and killing a lineman], so I have to disconnect the wires at the breaker and run one circuit at a time and then switch as needed. Every now and again I consider getting a 20KW generator with auto-start and the $10K safety switch [required by law], but it just doesn't make sense given the time between outages. At one point I think we went three years without any outages at all.

 

[Integral]

Yeah, boy was it blowing last night. I have lost about 2 or 3 shingles and there is leak around my daughers window that only shows up in the wind, I applied some caulk, have to see if that does the trick. Now I am getting myself stoked to head up on the roof... RSN. The weather is pretty clam now.. Make hay while the sun shines... Or should that be patch roofs between squalls?

After that I think I'll head over Ivan's way.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It has been four days and there are still over 7000 people without power here in Oregon. Washington was hit ever harder. To make things worse, it has been in the low twenties at night, and today we never even broke above 32 degrees F. Over 100 people in the NW have received treatment for CO poisoning caused by the use of generators, or while trying to heat their homes with alternative heat sources such as BBQs, and 14 people have died.

 

[therealkellys]

We just got our power back here this evening. It went out on Thursday, I believe. No damage to the house, but it looks pretty much like a disaster zone in the neighborhood. Lots of large all over the road. We were actually the "lucky" ones. Others in more rural parts of the city have been told not to expect the power to be back till after Christmas!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Are you in Washington?

 

[Evo]

It has been four days and there are still over 7000 people without power here in Oregon. Washington was hit ever harder. To make things worse, it has been in the low twenties at night, and today we never even broke above 32 degrees F. Over 100 people in the NW have received treatment for CO poisoning caused by the use of generators, or while trying to heat their homes with alternative heat sources such as BBQs, and 14 people have died.

We have frequent prolonged power outages here in the winter also. Last year the Darwin Award went to a couple that put the generator inside their attached garage, so basically a room inside the house. Less hassle than having to go outside to take care of it, right?

 

[therealkellys]

Are you in Washington?

Yes, in a large suburb about 15 minutes from Seattle. It's still pretty bad here, saw a ton of gigantic trees down while driving around this morning.