Rural Power Outages: Unprepared and Unpreparedness

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges and experiences related to power outages in rural areas, particularly during severe weather events. Participants share personal anecdotes, coping strategies, and reflections on the reliability of power infrastructure in their regions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Personal anecdotes

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes the uncertainty of power outages during a wind storm, expressing concerns about the duration and their preparedness.
  • Another participant notes the difficulty of managing power outages in winter compared to summer, highlighting the importance of having a wood stove for warmth.
  • Several participants from urban areas, like NYC, contrast their experiences with power outages, emphasizing the rarity and significance of such events in their locations.
  • A participant recounts a past experience of a prolonged power outage lasting three days, emphasizing the challenges of living without power, including lack of water access.
  • Another participant shares their routine of preparing for potential outages by filling water jugs and readying a generator, noting that their location is often last to regain power during widespread outages.
  • Concerns are raised about the dangers posed by heavy winds and saturated ground, with one participant mentioning the risk of falling trees during storms.
  • Humorous remarks are made about alternative power sources, such as "hamster power" and "gerbils," in a light-hearted exchange about managing without electricity.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of experiences and coping strategies regarding power outages, with no clear consensus on the best approach or the reliability of power infrastructure. Multiple competing views on the severity and frequency of outages in different regions are present.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention varying levels of preparedness and infrastructure reliability, with some noting historical outages that inform their current strategies. There are references to specific weather conditions that exacerbate the situation, but no resolution on the best practices for managing outages is reached.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals living in rural areas, those concerned about emergency preparedness, and anyone interested in the impact of severe weather on power infrastructure.

  • #61
Man, Ivan! You've got a fixer-upper there. it is now 2:48 and the temperature has gotten down to -12 deg F outside according to my LL Bean inside-outside thermometer. Our house is comfortably warm (wood heat) and there is no danger of the pipes freezing at this mild temperature. If we got -10 for a couple of weeks, I'd monitor the temps in the cellar, but that seems like an unlikely scenario, given the warming trend. Today was the first day that the local snowmobile club got out their groomer and tried to make a base for their trails (IT-87 runs for a 1/2 mile inside my eastern boundary).
 
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  • #62
turbo-1 said:
Man, Ivan! You've got a fixer-upper there. it is now 2:48 and the temperature has gotten down to -12 deg F outside according to my LL Bean inside-outside thermometer. Our house is comfortably warm (wood heat) and there is no danger of the pipes freezing at this mild temperature. If we got -10 for a couple of weeks, I'd monitor the temps in the cellar, but that seems like an unlikely scenario, given the warming trend. Today was the first day that the local snowmobile club got out their groomer and tried to make a base for their trails (IT-87 runs for a 1/2 mile inside my eastern boundary).

:smile: A fixer upper based on a pipe?

Go to bed.
 
  • #63
Ivan Seeking said:
:smile: A fixer upper based on a pipe?

Go to bed.
Or perhaps an insulator-upper? :redface:
 
  • #64
Well, there is a lot of work to do around here [I am currently slugging it out with two major projects, and three seriously overdue], but I had to laugh considering that the problem occurred in my new $20K pump house! :biggrin:
 
  • #65
Ivan Seeking said:
Well, there is a lot of work to do around here [I am currently slugging it out with two major projects, and three seriously overdue], but I had to laugh considering that the problem occurred in my new $20K pump house! :biggrin:
Holy cow! $20K? That's some water project. When this place was built, the owner relied on ground-water and put in a dug well with a pump in the cellar. Later, after a very dry spell, he had a well drilled with a submersible pump installed in that, so we have two independent sources of water, either of which can be piped to parts of the plumbing. Currently, we use the dug well for watering the garden, washing the cars, etc, and the drilled well for in-house consumption. All that piping is in a cellar that is normally unheated aside from radiation from the living quarters upstairs, so I watch the temps down there during very cold weather, lest I end up with a skating rink. :bugeye:
 
  • #66
In addition to what you see [which is oddly skewed for some reason], there was a load of major landscaping, tree removal, driveway modifications, electrical, etc to be done. We still have the original pump house down in the pasture which has the primary pump, and then we have a constant pressure booster pump and filters system seen in the new house here. It is all fully automated and only requires servicing three times a year [chlorine and brine tanks]. I used to have to service the old one every month, and even then the water was still a huge problem. Also, this one is right next to the house which makes it much more convenient.

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/6977/img00030smbw1.jpg

We have never gotten around to the planter boxes that will go along the outside of the left wall. This would have prevented our little problem. But is was a simple as some cold air leaking in under the slab.

This area has bad water [high in iron and sulfer compounds at times]; hence the elaborate system.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #67
Wow! That is some system! No wonder you've got such a pile of dough sunk in it. I was wondering how you could possibly sink $20K into a pump house...you've got a whole water-treatment plant in there. Too bad about the mineralized water...we've got great ground water throughout most of Maine. In fact, if you buy Poland Spring bottled water, that comes from here, and they are expanding operations tapping at least one or two more aquifers in Maine. The municipal water district that serves my father's town has had their water judged the best municipal water in the state, and perhaps the country - I don't remember.
 
  • #68
turbo-1 said:
Wow! That is some system! No wonder you've got such a pile of dough sunk in it. I was wondering how you could possibly sink $20K into a pump house...you've got a whole water-treatment plant in there. Too bad about the mineralized water...we've got great ground water throughout most of Maine. In fact, if you buy Poland Spring bottled water, that comes from here, and they are expanding operations tapping at least one or two more aquifers in Maine. The municipal water district that serves my father's town has had their water judged the best municipal water in the state, and perhaps the country - I don't remember.

Way back in the bad old days, people around here just lived with the water or provided only primary filtering. When it gets bad, which is usually when the water table gets low in the summer months, to me it is like drinking rust. I don't see how people could stand it but I guess you get used to it. Of course, you would still ruin all of you clothes and water appliances if you use it, which in fact is what happened to us when the old system started to fail. This was when I decided to buy what you see.

Now the area is growing with expensive homes going in that come with a decent filter systems, but I'm told by all that we definitely still have the best water in the estates. Of course, eventually we will be annexed by the nearest town and municipal water will be piped in, so this system was purchased with the idea that it must last until about the time that should happen; which I think will be in no less than ten, and likely more like twenty years.
 
  • #69
It's a balmy 16°F (-8.9°C) here, and this morning, it was a mild 8°F (-13.3°C), and still no snow yet. Further north, they had an ice storm that knocked out power to about 50,000 during the weekend, and some folk are still without power.
 
  • #70
Yesterday afternoon, the snow in Portland melted just a bit - for about an hour - just enough to add to the ice problem today. It was so bad this morning that people were seen driving snowmobiles on major roads.
 
  • #71
Wind storms kept us in a brown out all day, so we cut the main power to the house and have been running on generator all day, and now into the night. One last fill up, then I can go to bed.
 
  • #72
It's gotten up to 7 deg F this morning with a light breeze, so I may get out a bit today. Yesterday was colder with a brisk NW wind so I pretty much stayed in and tended the wood stove. I used to be much more tolerant of cold - as a ski patrol member at Enchanted Mountain I used to get to work early every day to inspect the trails and recommend drift-busting, packing, grooming, etc. Many mornings, the manager would make us wait until the temperature got up to at least -20 deg F before he would let us on the chair lift. Walking out to the ski rack, the snow would make high-pitched squeaking noises.
 
  • #73
That just isn't right...
 
  • #74
Ivan Seeking said:
That just isn't right...

Yeah, the one in pink is definitely too fat for a bikini! :smile:
 
  • #75
Moonbear said:
Yeah, the one in pink is definitely too fat for a bikini! :smile:

:smile: :smile: :smile:
 
  • #76
Moonbear said:
Yeah, the one in pink is definitely too fat for a bikini! :smile:

:smile: :smile: :smile: Maybe that was it! I kept thinking that the pink flamingo was out of place. :biggrin:
 

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