Posted on 01/22/2012 8:48:55 AM PST by djf
I lived!!!
As anybody who doesn't live in a cave probably knows, the Seattle Pacific Northwest this week was hammered by winter storms - knocking out juice to what amounted at the high point to over 300,000 households, which affected around 1.2 million people!
In this case, it was actually predicted that there could be scattered power outages. News on Wednesday evening had pieces about people stocking up in stores. IN A NUMBER OF CASES< THE STORES WERE ALREADY SOLD OUT OF THE DESIRED ITEMS!!!!
Flashlights, batteries, generators, stuff like that were already either unavailable or a premium item.
The snow started falling late Tuesday evening, and continued into early Wednesday morning. Local news was predicting a wide variety of amounts, Seattle has alot of microweather because some areas are closer to the Sound which is warmer, and some areas are at much higher elevation, which (usually, but not this time!) are colder.
I made no advance preparations right then with the exception of digging out some small propane bottles and my little Century Primus single mantle lights. Well, except for making sure that my flashlights were out in the open in readily available places.
Now I say I made no advance preparations but in a way I lied. Because over the years, I have accumulated things, some because of immediate need, some as a planned activity in cxse of a SHTF scenario.
I have two generators, a Champion 3500 watter (quite new) and a Coleman 1800 watter. Every summer I move them to the front of the shed they are stored in and fire them up. Make sure the oil is clean and full. Put a bit of a load on them and let them run until they are warm just to make sure they are lubed good. Hit them with a touch of carb cleaner. General small engine maintenance things.
I also have LOTS of extension cords, not just household type cords, but serious shop type cords. And power strips.
Food and coffee. One of the things people were stocking up on were ingredients for soup. Soup is good food. In an emergency, soup can warm you and keep you alive!
Having been up almost all Tuesday night, with it still snowing, Wednesday morning I slept.
Later on that evening, it started getting bad (according to the news). I am at 600 feet, and only had had about 6 inches fall, now every single year I have at least once when I get way more than 6 inches - so I was concerned, but not overly.
I heard a few branches fall, but not many.
About ten PM, my lights flickered and went out. I started my propane lights and turned on my BATTERY POWERED!!!! radio of which I have about 3, but rarely use.
I didn't start the generator, it didn't seem so bad and my house was still warm (I had had the foresight to make a pot of coffee beforehand and put it into my thermos. My juice goes out enough that I've learned to do that, if the juice stays on, I just pour the coffee from the thermos and use it that way.)
A click and a ping and the power came back on about 2 AM. So I went on my porch. That was when I got scared.
Air temp was about 28 degrees. And it was raining...
Power was on, my heat was on, so I had a drink and went to sleep for a bit.
Awake at 6:30 AM Thursday, I went on the porch and was astounded. A lilac tree near my porch was covered with ice and bent over my porch. A cherry tree that grows nearby had it's limbs almost touching my porch. It was still pre-dawn, and I had a cup of coffee and a smoke, suddenly a big blue flash, and my lights flickered. They came back on. Second blue flash, they went out. Came back on once more and the final blue flash killed em for good. It really was spectacular standing on my porch and watching the flashes in the distance. And there was almost a roar of sounds of tree limbs and even whole trees coming down.
Now I'm not the greatest housekeeper in the world and I soon realized that you do not want to have alot of clutter lying around when you are in anything like survival mode! So keep the paths to your important items/resources CLEAR if possible.
My house was still warm so I didn't worry about the generator, but I could tell then that it was going to be an extended event.
About ten in the morning I got one of my shop extension cords and a power strip and headed out to start it. I looked at the road and just did a general look of the neighborhood and saw no lights, heard no generators, not even a car engine, everything was coated in ice.
I tried to start the small one, even gave it a shot of starter fluid, no dice. It was cold out. It is no secret that when you are cold to the point of being uncomfortable, you RAPIDLY lose your effectiveness. So I came back in and got gloves and a hat, went back out. Didn't want to waste time, so I moved the small one towards the back and rolled the other one up (the Champion), gave it a shot of starter fluid, and yanked on it.
First pull, it started.
Plugged in the cord, came back inside and plugged the power stip in, then from there I hooked up various items starting with my pellet stove to try to keep the place warm.
One of the lessons: Over the next few days I used 4 shop type extensions cords (two of them 50 footers), two power strips, and about five household type extension cords. Better to have too much than not enough.
My power finally came on 6:30 PM Saturday making for 60 hours without juice.
I lost Internet. the phone worked for a while, but after about 6 hours, there was no dial tone, just white noise. Phone system totally powered down about 3 in the afternoon, I concluded from that that many of the small phone substations you see around are running off of UPS's and if the local juice goes, they can only last for so long.
I was unable to get out because the snow was so bad I couldn't get my chains on. Next time, if I know or hear about this in advance, my chains are going on BEFORE it happens.
It was OK though because I have plenty of food and coffee and propane for my lights (when the generator was off). My routine was to run the generator for about 8 hours, warm my place up good, then cycle it down and let it cool off. Wait (sleep) for 5 hours or so, gas up the generator and restart it for another 8 hours.
It was Thursday afternoon before I heard anybody else running a generator, about 4:30, right before dark. After dark fell, it was totally obvious who was prepared and who was not!
Fewer than one out of six had a generator, most places were completely dark, or very dimly lit as if by candles.
Temps in my house would get up to about 63 degrees with the pellet stove, but after 5 or 6 hours when the generator was off, it would fall to about 55 degrees. I quickly learned that SOCKS ARE GOOD FRIENDS!!
I have a small propane cooking setup so was able to feast on scrambled eggs and ham, carbs will give you short term energy, but if you are going to do heavy work while trying to stay warm you need something more substantial.
Over the years when it gets cold (and it has gotten to zero in the Seattle area, I will fill up plastic bottles (like Gatorade bottles) with hot water from my faucet and put them at the foot of my bed. This worked very well for me this time, it's important to be warm when you sleep and not fight the cold, you will be much more rested and ready for the next day when you wake up.
So I used this approach, it's kind of a toss up because ny the end of the second day I really, really, really, really wanted a shower, messing with gasoline, oil, my tire chains, snow shovel, etc.
I was scared I wouldn't have enough hot water left, but turned it on and in a minute or so it was steaming so I relished what might have been the last shower I could ever take!
Saturday morning it had warmed significantly, and I was finally able to get the chains on my truck. I was approached by a neighbor and she asked if I could charge her cell phone, hey, no big deal so I brought it inside and put it on the charger. At this time, the power was still out and there were estimates that some limited areas might not have power until mid-week.
Talking to people on Friday I had heard rumors of some people being around who basically didn't live here or belong here. So I started on Saturday if I was outside carrying a small .22 mag revolver I have. But I want to stress I heard of no break-ins or gunshots or anything like that. I have ZERO doubt that if the situation went on like that for another three days or so, that would change, and desperate people would do whatever it takes.
Now at one point in time in the past I had told someone I had two generators. I bumped into him walking around, and he WANTED that generator! I'm not really sure what the solution to that problem would be if the outage was more long-term.
Another lesson: KEEP YUR LIPS ZIPPED ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE!
One thing that struck me is that if there was a general SHTF power outage type thing, do you know who would be the richest man in town? The guy who owns a LAUNDROMAT!!
Gas was already becoming an issue, fellow I know has a 4K generator and he flat out told me he would be out of gas today. Now does it make any sense at all to spend many hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have a generator and be OUT OF GAS on day 3?
Power came on here at 6:30 PM Saturday. Didn't hear any shouts or yells but I am sure everybody was relieved. I had a fairly daunting task of just cleaning things up (still need to wash the dishes I let pile up).
So, thought FReeper preppers might find this interesting. If somebody asked me what the most important thing was I would say "Keep it simple". Simple things like propane lights, canned foods that need little prep, stuff like that won't make you feel like the Waldorf Astoria, but it might keep you from getting so frustrated you don't go out and start shooting from your front porch!
Pinging for possible prepper interest.
Outstanding read.
Thanks.
(bookmarked)
I'd be worried others would hear your generator running and be beating down your door.
possible take-away:
A generator is less of a noise attractant, when the temperature is below freezing.
Everyone is inside with their windows closed?
I find it highly doubtful that a Laundromat owner would find it profitable to purchase a generator with enough capability to power all those washers and dryers, and have it on-site/ready to go.
Prepper’s PING!
I doubt that would make much difference if it had gone on much longer. But maybe it was a good thing that my older, small one didn’t start at once. It is actually alot louder than my bigger Champion.
A soundproof generator house? They would still see your lights.
No doubt after a day or three more, me and a couple of folks would have had to come to some kind of agreement about how to do things and protect our collective ass(ets)!
Years ago in Portland, we had an ice storm that coated the walls, making it impossible to even open a garage or shed door. I soon bought a wood stove.
Valuable read, be safe.
Glad to know I am not the only one who is prepared for bad times.
During the last ice storm we were without power for four days. I lit oil lamps and lanterns I haven’t used in 25 years.
I do not have generators as they have a tendency to walk off when you are not around to watch them or keep them locked up.
There is something refreshing about stepping outside and not hearing traffic, trains or any other noise during ice storms. Just complete silence except for tree limbs breaking and crashing down.
Outages can be just plain fun. The traffic lights are out. The coffee shops are full and people are smiling ear to ear as the computer raised cashier tries to add 2 + 2....
It comes down to discipline. Maybe it’s time to get something to use as black out curtains. Don’t use regular lights where they can be seen from outside. Buy gasoline without ethanol for long time reliability of your small engines. Never allow your small engines to set for months with a blend having ethanol. Marinas have ethanol free gasoline.
Read the Jakarta Pandemic for really long term pointers.
/johnny
Big link chain and a hefty, concrete bolted anchor, heavy cutter-proof lock - grind the bolt edges......12 gauge shotgun to carry with you to see why the generator stopped.
“In this case, it was actually predicted that there could be scattered power outages. News on Wednesday evening had pieces about people stocking up in stores. IN A NUMBER OF CASES< THE STORES WERE ALREADY SOLD OUT OF THE DESIRED ITEMS!!!! “
I don’t understand. When it happens, I’ll just go to Sam’s and Walmart and stock up on all of the items that I need. Have you ever seen just how much food, toilet paper, and other stuff is in a single Sam’s Club? Not a problem.
...LOL.
A place for storing dead batteries.
Chatting with the people around, and I can’t put my finger on exactly what, but I had a strong sense of alignments.
Can-do people who were prepped understood what they had prepped for.
People who did no prepping were basically sol. I saw a young neighbor of mine try to drive his car up and down a hill in what I can only say was an insane manner.
From my perspective, I would have zero reason to align myself with someone who had done nothing at all to prep or at the very least had some substantial skills, a person who would become clearly helpless and dependent and probably a whiner.
I’ve had longer backpacking trips.
There were (and might still be) alot of gas stations out there maybe with full tanks underground but which are unable to pump even a quart of gas!
All modern gas stations use electric pumps on the tanks.
:-{
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