No Power

Richard Cranium · Post by **Richard Cranium** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:59 pm

I've lost power at home. It went out Thursday evening at about 5 pm. So far it doesn't look like we are going to get it back for at least another 5 or 6 days.

So what is the longest you have ever been without power at home? My record so far is 10 days, that I remeber, and this one looks like it's going to tie that or even beat it.

I'm glad I have a generator big enough to power the hot water tank, at least I can shower.

RC

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:22 pm

WTF? How can they let it go out for that long? The longest it has been out here was less then a day. Even when someone crashed into and snapped the power pole in our front yard we sill had power back in a couple hours.

Richard Cranium · Post by **Richard Cranium** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:41 pm

Krom wrote:WTF? How can they let it go out for that long? The longest it has been out here was less then a day. Even when someone crashed into and snapped the power pole in our front yard we sill had power back in a couple hours.

Well, we just had a big storm and the area had over 1 million customers without power the following morning. By the next day it was down to 300,000 to 400,000. The area I'm in got hit real bad. Just driving down the road you can see miles and miles of power cable on the ground and half a dozzen or more power poles broken.

It might be a cold and dark Christmas.

Here are a few photos just off the end of my drive way. http://www.tcfw.net/storm/

RC

Topher · Post by **Topher** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:54 pm

Yup, that's pretty bad. I detailed my misadventures in Redmond here. I feel guilty now because we got power back Saturday morning and I've been playing Xbox the whole time.

Technically work is open today, but there's absolutely no one here combined with the storm and holidays.

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:12 pm

Ouch. I lost power that day for only 4hrs. About 12hrs was the longest time for me so far.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:32 pm

During the Ice Storm of 1998?? Some people in Northern US and parts of Quebec were with no power for weeks. The storm had toppled like 40 massive Hydro towers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Ice_Storm

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:35 pm

I was out of power for about 3 hours once. Does that count?

VonVulcan · Post by **VonVulcan** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 5:42 pm

Yea, I remember the ice storm, we were out for about 6 days... this time? Well, the power blinked twice, on each occasion, the house was dark for about 3 seconds...

Sorry Richard.

Kiran · Post by **Kiran** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:03 pm

The bizzard of '93 knocked us out of power for a few days I think. I was about 7 years old at the time and I just remember my dad using the grill to cook our meals and using our gas heater for heat. I also remember how happy e veryone was when we finally got power back. Took forever for them to finally clear the roads.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:13 pm

Do you have a crack in your windshield? It is very dangerous to drive with a crack in the windshield - the windshield can break any time if you're driving faster.

I have never experienced a power outage more than a few minutes here, but there had been a flood in middle Germany this year where some people were left w/o power for days, too.

I hope I will never experience something like that. Particularly in winter (though I bet it's way colder over where you live than it is ever here. I live near the warmest area in Germany. My father in law even has Kiwi fruit in the garden).

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:35 pm

Diedel wrote:Do you have a crack in your windshield? It is very dangerous to drive with a crack in the windshield - the windshield can break any time if you're driving faster.

lol, i was going to say "nice crack in the windshield"

anyways, back on topic. longest i went without power was when Hurricane Opal struck GA back in 95 ( i think its 95) anyways, i was out at a outdoor like adventure camp and the main building lost power for about a week and a half. the place had a backup generator but a hooooge tree smashed it into the ground. we were cut off pretty much. the only road in and out had a nice stream and bridge that collapsed.

Hey Richard, whats that first pic? wires arcing on the ground?

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:49 pm

Diedel wrote:Do you have a crack in your windshield? It is very dangerous to drive with a crack in the windshield - the windshield can break any time if you're driving faster.

That's very common in most areas of the US. Lots of gravel on some roads -- trucks pick it up w/ their tires and sling-shoot the stones at windshields. It's less dangerous than it looks (besides beeing annoying if the crack is in your field of vision), the US has stricter standarts for windshields and a lower speed limit..

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:54 pm

ZOMG RC DID YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A CRACK IN YOUR WINDSHIELD??!!?!one!!1oneeleven

:mrgreen:
I think he knows.

Windshields won't just break apart because they have cracks in them, even if you drive fast. They are made from laminated glass to avoid that type of breakage. Though I'm sure he will replace the windshield because one can get a ticket (in most places) for driving with a cracked windshield.

So what fell on the windshield RC?

dissent · Post by **dissent** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:14 pm

Hey, RC. Take care of yourself up there!

Longest I've been without juice was back about '98 or so. I think it was out 2-3 days. We had about 14 inches of rain over a 24 hour period and the local transformers were all flooded. The park across the street was turned into a huge lake for about a week or so.

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:19 am

That's bad... Last time we've had an outage was three years ago.. I was driving in the city at night, and I saw all lights -- everything -- blink off and on again in half a second.

It was enough to reboot all PC's though.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:40 am

I'm sorry RC. Where are yah located? By the looks of things, I would love to live around where you are. I'm too close to the city & not far enough north right now (In the 'berbs of Philadelphia)

Richard Cranium · Post by **Richard Cranium** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:24 am

I'm just south of Seattle. It's a very nice area, normally, but right now it looks a bit like a war zone.

That first photo is one of the power lines that was hanging from the pole and blowing in the wind. It kept hitting the ground and arc'n. It sounded just like an arc welder. I was standing about 50 yards from it when I took that photo. That was about 6 pm but the worst of the storm hit over night.

I wish I took a few more photos. Those are with in about 2 miles of my house. We had a good number of trees down in our yards and several trees that I had to cut just to get out. Their is going to be a lot of free fire wood if you just want to get out and cut it up.

Yes, the wind shield is cracked in the car. A rock chipped it a few weeks ago and then we had a good freeze and that caused the crack.

RC

Kiran · Post by **Kiran** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:34 am

Seattle? Isn't that where Lothar and Drak live in or maybe somewhere near it?

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:33 am

Kinda. They live near auburn which is north and East from where RC lives; or a little south and East of Seattle proper.

There are quite a few of us Descenters here in the NW. Some I know of that are on Kali and other cyber holes that never make it here or .com.

Firewheel · Post by **Firewheel** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:16 pm

The longest I've ever been without power is about half a day. Fortunately, my power level is over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAANNDD, so that's not likely to happen again!

Richard Cranium · Post by **Richard Cranium** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:16 am

We just got power back last night at about 1:30 am. So, that was close to 5 1/2 days or 112 hours. We were burning about 15 gallons of gas a day in our generators at almost $2.60 a gallon just to keep the lights, fridges / freezers (two of each), some heat, and sometime the hot water on. It sure got expensive. Of course we shut down everything at night to conserve fuel but the house sure gets cold at night.

One of my generators blew off its muffler. I wasn't about to shut it down just for that. It’s the one with the remote twenty gallon tank so it could run 40 to 50 hours with out having to stop for fuel, in fact since the tank is remote it can be fueled while it’s running. My wife, daughter, sister and her two kids were relying on it to keep them warm when someone couldn’t be there to fuel and restart the other generator that has a much smaller tank. We just lived with the noise. Looks like the threads are stripped out of manifold so I’m not sure how I’m going to fix it.

We will be reviewing our disaster readiness plans as a family. This was just a small disaster compared to how bad it could have been. Hopefully we never have to experience another disaster as bad as this but chances are we will with the possibility of earth quakes, storms, terrorists, or a number of other possibilities.

Here are a couple questions for you:
Do you have a disaster plan for you or your family?
What do you think you need to have on hand for large emergencies or disasters?
Are you ready?

Now it’s time for us restock all of the supplies we used up like propane, food, firewood, and batteries.

RC

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:29 am

Disaster plan?? Heck what about your Zombie plan??!!
I mean sure, no power and downed trees are a headache and a major inconvience at best compared to trying to survive the sudden world over population of the undead
!!!! o_0

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:36 am

I was thinking the same thing, we don't really have a disaster plan, but when the world gets taken over by zombies I am going to run wild!

Though really the only disasters that could strike here would be a tornados, house fires and celestial objects. We are in a location that is free from terrorists, floods, forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes.

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:15 pm

Richard Cranium wrote:Looks like the threads are stripped out of manifold so I’m not sure how I’m going to fix it.

Heli-Coil

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:48 pm

Krom wrote:... We are in a location that is free from terrorists, floods, forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes.

Dude, are posting from the moon???

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:55 pm

I live in the middle of some corn fields, which eliminates forest fires, in northern Wisconsin which eliminates earthquakes, on high ground which eliminates floods, and miles from the nearest \"settlement\" which eliminates terrorists.

I supposed I should add ice storms to one of the possible disasters that can strike here. We have had those before.

Skyalmian · Post by **Skyalmian** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:00 pm

Duper wrote:
Krom wrote:... We are in a location that is free from terrorists, floods, forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes.
Dude, are posting from the moon???

No, he lives in the Land of Hilly Fruity Pebbles. It's very hilly and the trees looked like the cereal when I went through it in late September.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:05 pm

Grendel wrote:
Richard Cranium wrote:Looks like the threads are stripped out of manifold so I’m not sure how I’m going to fix it.
Heli-Coil

There are beefier types of inserts out there, too. I'd say that you cheapest solution (assuming you don't already have tooling) would be to drill & tap in the next step up for hardware size- redrilling the thru hole to allow the upsized hardware to fit. McMaster-Carr is your friend.