Blizzard of 2010

Townhall.com ^ | February 12, 2010 | Linda Chavez

[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.

[gop4lyf]

12.5” here in Dallas. Its the most I have ever seen outside of my trips to Colorado. I teach so, no school for me today!

[Renegade]

Also, I don’t see where they have stockpiled gasoline for the generator. I keep a minimum of 20 gallons just for that purpose .

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Our SD has been closed all week. Our buses run on some pretty rural routes. Our roads are (I have posted this before here on FR) like luge runs. Snow enbankments on both sides. School is to resume on Monday...yet even with small snows Sat/Sun...the temps will NOT melt any of this.

Any quick thaw will cause huge floods as storm sewers will not take the massive run off. The coming melt (March?) Will cause epic flooding...and that is pretty much being ignored.

[sergeantdave]

Liberals don’t belong in rural America. They’re stupid, can’t take care of themselves and constantly infringe on the property rights of their neighbors.

Go live in a nice Victorian in the ghetto and learn to rap on a street corner. That’ll keep you warm.

[Gorzaloon]

Also, I don’t see where they have stockpiled gasoline for the generator. I keep a minimum of 20 gallons just for that purpose .

We move into the camper when the power goes out...Have a 4KW Onan. But for the house I would love to have one that runs on Natural Gas. A propane one would be good, but we have NG for heat anyway. The gasoline ones have the sour fuel issue, especially with the adulterated ethanol stuff.

We had a neighbor who bought a good sized gasoline generator, who happily ran it once when the power was out a few days from a hurricane.

After the troubles passed, they shut it off and forgot all about it. It started, next outage, but did not sound very good, then died forever. Reading the manual and changing the oil would have been nice, I guess.

[almost done by half]

Generators are great for ice storm outages too. Buy some heavy duty electrical cords with some cord splitters to plug in a small TV, refrigerator, a lamp or two, and a couple of small electric space heaters. If you plan to run the blower on a gas furnace, have an electrician provide a hook up for you to plug the generator in. If you decide to plug in to your existing electrical wiring take the electric meter off first. You will also have to engineer a reverse plug to plug in to your outlets and to the plug a heavy duty extension cord to your generator. If you generator offers 220 service plug that in to the electric dryer or stove plug if you have one, or have an electrician hook one up to your fuse box. Turn off any extra fuses in the box and turn off any unnecessary appliances before connecting your generator. 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!

[SnuffaBolshevik]

That made my day, Unk!

[almost done by half]

i>After the troubles passed, they shut it off and forgot all about it. It started, next outage, but did not sound very good, then died forever. Reading the manual and changing the oil would have been nice, I guess.

I have one that I fire up at least once a year to run gas and gas cleaner through it. If you don't do this and run the gas dry each time you will develop slug in the carburetor that is almost impossible to get out. Another little secret is these devices are often design not to start if the oil is low or the unit isn't on a flat surface.

[Fresh Wind]

IBTFWAYS

(In before the first warning about yellow snow)

[sockmonkey]

How long does your gas generator run on a gallon of fuel?

In a pinch, I have burned rubbing alcohol for heat. It’s rather expensive, but puts out plenty of btu’s.

[DuncanWaring]

If your generator is connected when the power comes back on you will wreck your generator...

I know a guy that happened to.

Seems it would be fairly straightforward to wire in a "triple-pole, double-throw" switch (I think that's what it would be called) so the house can be connected to the utility power, or the generator, but not both.

[TSgt]

I've got one of these and it powers the whole house. No transfer switch but I always make sure to throw out the main. It's not feasable to run 24/7 because it is a bit of a gas hog. Our next house will have a standby generator.

[Eye of Unk]

Regarding some earlier comments about snow storage in urban areas up here in Alaska we usually commit an area of a parking lot thats in the gradient for drainage and we pile it up like a huge mound.

In the Anchorage city limits these snowmounds are sometimes larger than a football field and 20’ or more in height.They can still be there in late june melting away, with the addition of a little carbon black shot over them and direct sunlight they do melt fast.

The DOT here uses an organized call-up of all subscribed owners and operators of dump trucks and side discharge end dumps, they line up and will get loads from Cat 988 loaders (big mutha loaders!)and taken to dump fields usually near a drainage area like a creek etc.

With our unique sudden weather changes its not uncommon to have a half foot of snow on the roads in the morning and its all gone by mid-day up here. Unknown by a lot of folks in the lower 48 Alaska is the recipient of a current of warm air originating from Japan, long range forecasting is never exact here and forecasting is often just a phrase thats used as a joke.

Tired of the weather one may ask? Just wait an hour in Alaska, it will change.

[piperpilot]

I, too, thought we were prepared. I bought a bunch of groceries, pet food for the dogs and the cat, and 5 gallons of diesel for the tractor. We had plenty of wood to burn if the power failed and enough camping equipment, water and dehydrated food to keep us going for quite awhile. No amount of preparation, however, is sufficient for 5 feet of snow in 5 days. While we never lost power, our snow removal capacity was less than optimal. Our first mistake during storm 1 was not staying up all night and plowing every couple of hours. By the time we woke up on Saturday morning, there was easily 2 feet of snow on the ground with drifts much higher in front of the back door and garage doors. With snow that deep, a 4WD diesel lawn tractor with snow blade and tire chains struggled to gain traction. It took 6 hours to make one pass down our 250 ft driveway, and when we did finish that first pass we found that no snow plow had even touched the street. That was the worst feeling in the world, because if we ran out of fuel or someone had a medical emergency, there was no way to get out. You couldn't even walk out. The snow was waist deep. Note to self: get snow shoes! After days of hours and hours plowing and shoveling, we got the driveway clear and wide enough to drive our vehicles out and the street was finally plowed. I took the opportunity to stock up on more food and more diesel before the second storm hit. Many stations were out of diesel, but I managed to find some without having to go too far out of the way.

we stayed up and plowed/shoveled throughout the second storm, which turned out to be a very wise decision because we lost the tire chains from one of the wheels of the tractor somewhere in the snow and thus didn't have great traction. It was miserable out during the height of the second storm with the blizzard conditions, but it had to be done. We have now ordered a snow thrower attachment for the tractor, which we feel will make snow removal easier the next time. Lesson learned: no matter how well you think you have prepared, mother nature can throw a monkey wrench into those plans in a heartbeat.

[TSgt]

Siemens makes a lockout device for their load centers. It will only permit the primary power or the first set of breakers to be on. This keeps you from having to buy a transfer switch and is 100% legal.

[almost done by half]

I would think just throwing the main switch would be ok too if people did it, but taking the main meter off is pretty easy too.

[JenB987]

We lost power for 5 days. Went out last Friday and came back Wednesday night.

It was annoying, but we have a fire place, generator, a kerosene heater and gas stove and water tank. Actually gave my hubby and me some quality time...no TV, computer, treadmill, video games. We played cards at night and drove around in the 4-wheelers during the day.

When the power came back on, we kind of looked at each other with a “What do we do now?” kind of face. Like the adventure was over. lol

[almost done by half]

The other problems with generators is the noise. I have one with a Briggs & Stratton engine. I bought what they claim is their quietest muffler and it still is too loud to run at night in a residential neighborhood.

[almost done by half]

I think a lot of people buy a generator and then they forget they have to give some thought about how they are going to be able connect it. Just the simple things like
the fact that heavy duty extenstion cords don’t come with two plugs, or 220 plugs etc.

[Renegade]

8 hr/ gal. Only run it when you have to. Don’t need freezers in winter. Just put in snow tubs in garage or outside in large garbage cans . (Be careful though, in REALLY cold weather your beer will freeze when outside.) Usually bury beer in snow mound . Keeps it “ice” cold .