Posted on 02/12/2010 4:03:04 AM PST by Kaslin
I'm the kind of person who always has candles, extra matches and batteries on hand, as well as canned goods in the pantry, in case of an emergency. But I was far from prepared for the Mid-Atlantic Blizzard of 2010. We lost power for almost five days -- which is bad enough if you live in a city, but if you're out in the middle of nowhere, as we are, it can be life-threatening.
Rural folks are usually better prepared than city people, but for those of us who are transplants, it's a challenge. With 35 inches or more of snow on the ground and an 89-year-old mother, a 20-year-old parrot, two dogs and a husband to try to keep warm and fed, I'm worn out. But I learned a few lessons along the way, and maybe next time, I'll be better prepared.
First lesson: Buy a generator. When electricity goes out, so does heat and well water, which requires a pump to get to your house. If you hook up a portable generator to run your furnace and pump, you'll be a lot more comfortable when the power fails.
Second lesson: Next time a guy comes to your door offering to sell you a cord of wood, take him up on it. Those Presto logs they sell at the store work OK to create a romantic mood, but they don't throw off much heat. And a box of them lasts for about a day if you're burning them 'round the clock.
Third lesson: Don't give away old books; they burn better than artificial logs. I was glad I had a few left-wing tomes to throw in the fireplace, along with my collection of reports from the Center for Immigration Studies. I'm not sure which threw off more hot air, but they kept us warm for a few hours.
Fourth lesson: You can heat your house with snow. Since I have a propane stovetop (though, unfortunately not oven) I was able to boil enough snow to keep a small portion of the house warm with steam, that is if you consider 50 degrees warm. You can also use the boiled snow for drinking and cooking. I made a pretty tasty pot of black-eyed peas and a mean chicken and wild rice soup with snow, though we had to be careful to avoid the twigs that found their way into the mix.
Fifth lesson: Don't count on the government to rescue you. After several days of no heat or water and food getting low, the Virginia Department of Transportation did manage to plow our country road to within two-tenths of a mile from our house; though, in the process, they blocked all access to our drive with a 6-foot mountain of snow. Thankfully, we were able to hire a private operator to dig us out with a Bobcat.
Sixth lesson: If you're finally able to get out, stay there. Once the Bobcat cleared our drive, we were able to pack up and leave in our four-wheel drive truck. We took mom to a hotel and the parrot to our son's house. But when the power company notified us that the electricity was back on, my husband and I headed home with the dogs. Bad idea.
Now, snow is falling again, the wind is howling at 50 miles per hour, the house still isn't warm, and who knows how long the power will stay on. But we'll tough it out. We bought more logs, filled up every pot in the house with water and stacked more books near the fireplace -- giving all new meaning to the phrase "burn after reading." I'm actually looking forward to the challenge now that the most vulnerable members of the household are safe and warm. But as soon as the snow melts, I'm headed to Home Depot to buy the biggest generator they sell.
I’ve thought about using some insulated sheeting around the thing to direct the sound away or up.
***you might consider Kai Grundt’s V8 snow blower ***
Sounds interesting, but just what is it’s carbon footprint? How many Carbon credits must be purchased to feel good about operating it, after all, we don’t want any of that glo-bull warming now, do we?;-D
Sorry, I didn’t mean to lecture you. Just the general folks reading the thread that do not have the experience either of us have had.
However, it is very sad when you hear about a family dying because of CO poisoning. In Dec. 2008 when we had a big ice storm in NH atleast 5 people died from CO poisoning. This is addition to folks who burned their house down.
I have a buddy who works for the fire dept. Some of the things people did during that storm absolutely boggle the mind. The best story he told was a call to a house where they had started a campfire on the concrete floor in the basement. They almost burned the whole house down. He wouldn’t have believed someone could be that stupid if he had not seen it with his own eyes.
Sounds like the lesson we learned back in March 14, 1968, when no one in the NE oklahoma-Nw Arkansas had 4-wds! Don Woods, KTUL 8 weather man said it would be just a dry front with no snow. There was close to two feet of “no snow” on the ground and the area paralyzed for a week.
*** Just the simple things like the fact that heavy duty extenstion cords don’t come with two plugs, or 220 plugs etc.***
I buy heavy duty cords, clip the female end off, add a new electrical outlet box for two or even four 110 outlets. I can also make my own 220 extension cords using very heavy duty (600v) cable.
It is also good idea to chain the things down too! :-)
During last year’s ice storm, (I was w/o power for three enjoyable days) a local city broke out it’s big, new, portable generator to run it’s needed auxiliaries. When the power suddenly went out again, they found their new generator had taken a walk. They never found it.
***I also keep a siphon around to access the car tanks if necessary.***
I also keep an “Oklahoma Credit card” handy, just in case. ;-)
***Removing the electric meter is important! If your generator is connected when the power comes back on you will wreck your generator and most likely some appliances!***
You may end up electrocuting and electrical worker because of backfeed into the main power lines if you don’t remeove thee meter.
I would chose to use electrical extension cords rather than the house wiring in such a case.
**I’ve thought about using some insulated sheeting around the thing to direct the sound away or up.***
I’ve seen some in which the owner added an auto muffler to the exhaust.
I'm really glad we have a gas stove and a fireplace. Last year I replaced our electric stove with gas, and one reason was that gas is still available when the power is out.
No power for the fridge, and I was concerned that food would spoil while I was trying to keep the house warm. I had a "Duh!" moment when brilliant daughter suggested we put the fridge contents in a big plastic box and put it outside.
I have some that are worth their weight in copper too.
They are so heavy I don’t even want to use them for
general use.
That's an interesting idea. I also have a lot of 4" plastic drain pipe buried around the yard. I wonder if directing the exhaust in to one of these would dampen the sound significantly. If nothing else, it sure would chase out any critters that may be living in them. lol
The Blizzard of 2010....creating thousands of shovel-ready jobs!
Linda Chavez on how to survive a Snowmageddon.
During a bad ice storm last year, there were many reports of generators being stolen. They’re like giant targets for theives when running.
There were also reports of a few ‘clever’ people who, to avoid their generators being stolen, put them in the basement...
...and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
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