Blizzard of 2010

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

[almost done by half]

I’ve thought about using some insulated sheeting around the thing to direct the sound away or up.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***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

[woodbutcher1963]

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.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Lesson learned: no matter how well you think you have prepared, mother nature can throw a monkey wrench into those plans in a heartbeat.***

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.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*** 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.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

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.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I also keep a siphon around to access the car tanks if necessary.***

I also keep an “Oklahoma Credit card” handy, just in case. ;-)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***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.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

**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.

[PapaBear3625]

We lost power Wednesday evening, finally got it back this morning.

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.

[almost done by half]

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.

[almost done by half]

I’ve seen some in which the owner added an auto muffler to the exhaust.

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

[NRA1995]

The Blizzard of 2010....creating thousands of shovel-ready jobs!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Linda Chavez on how to survive a Snowmageddon.

[PA Engineer]

I was mostly prepared. Need to add more snow blower shear bolts. Found some metrics that fit, but had to punch them out every time they broke.

For those that have the means I would suggest setting up an inverter/battery combo with transfer switch. Run ten critical circuits from the battery and use the generator to charge them. This will save fuel and reduce the need to run the generator constantly.

In the country wood stoves are a must. Fireplaces lose heat. There are many good stove inserts that are efficient and good looking. Our favorite stove is a Dutchwest (medium size) stand alone. We also have two Aspens which I would not recommend to anyone. Our fireplace insert is a Reliant and is fairly efficient.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

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.