Posted on 10/21/2016 11:04:13 AM PDT by Lorianne
Longtime correspondent Bart D. (Australia) recently experienced a multi-day regional loss of electricity. His first-person observations help us understand what breakdowns in energy are like on the ground.
Observations of life in an extended power failure by Bart D. (Australia)
South Oz is continuing with its streak of extreme weather. The latest being our encounter with what's being described as a category 2 'hurricane' with the added bonus of a severe front preceding it that produced many low-grade tornados. A score of major power transmission towers were twisted off their footings, 80 000 lightning strikes fried out a lot of 'secondary' electricity infrastructure ... 40% of power that is usually being generated from wind had to be shut down due to extreme winds and base load backup generators failed in many locations (including my region).
Power 'gradually' returning after blackout plunged state into darkness
End result ... entire state without electricity for a day and a half. Some regions, including my home region, (about the size of the state of Tasmania) were without electricity for 3 nights and 2.5 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at charleshughsmith.blogspot.jp ...
I live in the country in the Appalachians. This happens at least once a year. And it’ll be out for a day several times a year. No big deal. I consider it an opportunity for a trial run.
ts good to be prepared.
We have a generator, MREs and plenty of ammo.
Yeah, better than gold and silver!
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Gold and silver will always be good but you must have food, water and ammo first. Lots of ammo. People that don’t have it and can’t get it in the closed stores or out of stock stores will trade a lot of good stuff for it.
There is no excuse for having the luxuries of life before you are prepared for a simple power disruption or even societal breakdown. Food is cheap now, buy double and store it. Fuel is cheap now, buy double and store it. Ammo is not as cheap as it once was but a lot cheaper now than when everything goes to Hell in a hand basket. Get a gun for every occupant of the house and make sure every member of the house is a good shot and practice, practice, PRACTICE! Be sure you are a perfect shot at least to the length of your driveway with a long gun. Make sure you can make a head shot at 30 feet with a pistol. Don’t be ruined by body armor if somebody wants your stuff, make it hard to get.
I guess to some it doesn’t sound Christian but if you can’t take care of your family then you are not very Christian.
Your 60 inch curved TV and Tesla car won’t mean much when you don’t have food.
It can’t hurt to be prepared, you hopefully never have to use any of your preparation any more than you have to use your car insurance, but as sure as you don’t have it you will need it.
Do it now while you can.
I go camping in the backyard.
Lost electricity where I live for week, due to a blown transformer.
Cooked all the meat and dairy next evening, then tossed the leftovers int he freezer which stayed cool for 4 or 5 days.
Used to have to do that a lot in OK. Lived very rural and in the winter it was pretty common to lose electricity.
Fortunately we had an storm shelter and an old fridge. We would move everthing to those when the power was out for more than a day.
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We have 9 kids and 24 grand kids. We are kind of the Brady Bunch. Anyway while we do have some long term storage in grains and freeze dried stuff I don't see ever having to use it. So much of what you buy has preservatives that you just store regular stuff on the shelf. The “best used by” date on the product is usually nonsense, in many cases we are just now eating stuff we bought 10 years ago because we finally cycled through other stuff. Cereals, grains (properly stored) and canned goods last darn near forever. There are a lot of canned meats available especially ham and chicken. Get a caner and learn to can your own meats, it is really inexpensive that way, you can easily visually inspect your product on the shelf prior to opening and it is better for you than the prepared stuff. While you can't keep potatoes and other fresh vegetables for a prolonged time you can get by for up to a year with potatoes and squash if you are careful and then plant the seedy potatoes in the spring.
Learn and don't get caught up in the long term storage nonsense you see on the tube.
For me and my household, we are OK as long as there is natural gas. We have a 14K generac that will run the whole house.
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I have a 16KW but you shouldn’t depend on the gas. You would be wise to get at least a 500 gal propane tank, it is easy to switch back and forth. Your genset will take over 2 gallons per hour. Get some big batteries, a charger that will take all 14KW you can give it and a good inverter. Then you should be able to get by with only running for 3 or 4 hours (charging the batteries) once ever day or two if you are careful.
Using natural gas will cost you just as much as the propane if not more. It gets pretty expensive, pretty quickly to run a generator 24 hours a day. You could easily pay $50 a day, that’s $1600 a month. A one week outage is not a big deal but if the SHTF and society crumbles NG won’t cut it.
Generator + Gas = water pump.
How did you fuel the generator? Stored or from the vehicle?
Opinions vary on these matters.
Batteries are the biggest pain in the patoot I can imagine. I've got several acquaintances here in E. AZ who are off-grid, using solar and batteries and firewood. But they say batteries are a MAJOR commitment. Those batteries keep giving problems; and one day they're going to have to be serviced or scrapped. I'm just looking 5-10 years down the road, being that much older and having to deal with the darn things.
My plan is to run the generac, 3 hours on, 6 off. Tried that in the last outage and it worked well.
We don't get to use propane in my development; otherwise, the redundancy of having a big LP tank is not a bad idea at all.
I think it's all in what a guy thinks is most sustainable with the least hassle.
I genuinely appreciate your response; thanks!
Been there done that! Winter time ice storm. It sucked!!
I keep about 15 2 liter soda bottles filled with ice in the bottom of my garage freezer. It’s enough to keep it cold for days, and provide some water in an emergency.
Big mistake. Thanks, environ-MENTAL-ists.
I lost power for two weeks once in the coldest part of winter; which meant no water, heat, and road was closed for first four days, until I cleared four downed trees from it myself. Only thing I missed was my computer; have a wood stove for heat, propane for cooking, and plenty of non-perishable foods on hand. Also a spring house that never freezes and additional bulk potable water from stream on my property, although I do have to break the ice when its really cold. All in all, i could go all year with no electric and it would be little more than a minor inconvenience. I went a full winter with no running water due to failed well that couldn’t be re-drilled til spring. Again, heat water on stove, drink spring water or stream water, but no biggie.
Day one I do nothing.
Day two I do nothing
Day three the meat (damn I love venison) is starting to thaw in my freezer.
Day four, I cook venison and any other meat in the freezer and start smoking the rest in my smoker. It will last a few weeks after smoking and if the electricity comes back on I put the smoked meat in the freezer.
Day seven I start killing deer and smoking them into jerky that will last months. I have about twenty or more deer that live on my property. I will not go hungry. I also have a years supply of carbohydrates stored in the form of rice and beans. I will survive as I have the means on my land. I have ample wood on my land to make cooking fires. I have firearms and am very adept in their use. A very large lake is close to my property so I have water and fish. I have Clorox to make bad water safe. I have salt to cure meat. I have antibiotics for disease.
I will not go hungry I will protect and feed my family with my skills. I have neighbors that do the same.
Yeah, we are preppers. Oddly enough Mormons are also preppers. They store and prepare food just as I do, but I am Catholic.
Each and everyone of us have a duty to prepare for the worst and pray for the best. The absolute best is that all our preparations are never needed. The worst is not to be prepared.
Great minds...
Great post. Thanks.
Ask anyone who’s been through a major hurricane.
a decent generator with a “light” load Fridge, Freezer, fans, kettle for hot water to make tea or coffee (plugged in as needed)tv, and 2 lights will run for 12 hours on 5 gallons.
Been there done that for ONE month after Katrina.
And since it’s summer in the South at that time, nobody wanted a hot shower ;)
We live in the boonies where current goes out pretty often.
You can make do with a whole lot of “inconveniences” when
you have to do so. - Every day is different. Of course, one
can’t dig a hole in frozen ground for potty needs. So, we
just play it by ear. If it’s too hot for wood stove, we just
eat cold food.
We have a well that is set up so we can pump up a bucket
by hand. - It would take some adjustment; but it’s the
way I grew up.
Don’t let this internet & computer stuff stress you out.
I’m 70 yrs. old and the internet & computers are for the
most part fairly new things to me. (I did have the
advantage of having to work at word processing early on
in my job.)
I doubt I use more than a quart of water a day to bathe
myself. When I shampoo my hair, I just run a sinkful
of warm water and make do with that, mostly for rinsing
my hair.
I guess some would say I’m sort of dirty; but I’ll just
have to do anyway!
Tough girl. Wow, and good for you. I too must have coffee and have been using drip coffee systems for years. I’ve found the BEST dripper. It actually brews the coffee. Unless you have one already, check out the Clever Coffee Dripper. I use mine twice a day, and I love it:)
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