How Are You Handling The Power Outage?

[Doc Tinker]

For you in the west... Here in the northeast we are experiencing a California Style Power Outage. I thought it was a local thing, when I left work this afternoon, but every traffic light I encountered was not working. Traffic was really backed up. Half way home, they started to talk on the radio about how large spread the power outage really was.



Kind of makes me think on the big New York City outage, back in the early 60s.



I waited until it started getting dark, to crank up the generator. Don't have a lot of gas in the can, and none of the stations around me are open, so I'll have to keep the generator operation to a minimum. I'm running the computer long enough to satisfy my internet/TDR adiction.



I'll run the freezer for a while, along with the whole house fan, so it will be somewhat comfortable for sleeping tonight.



I heard that some areas might be a week before power is restored. Hopefully I'm close enough to the city to have priority.



Some of the communities around here have lost water supply, because they don't have backup power. There's a well house a 100 yards from me and the diesel generator's running down there. My TT has a full water tank, just in case though.





Doc

 

[Whitmore]

Hang in there Doc, every thing will be OK, try not to open that freezer door unless absolutly starving :{



Cheers, Kevin

 

[moparguy]

Doc, I was just about to fire up a thread on this subject, never considered you would be affected.



Guess it'll be a while before those affected will have a opportunity to respond.



Good luck guys.



Ronnie

 

[MCummings]

I have no power at all, no back up power, the house is hot and humid. I am in total darkness, I hope they get power restored soon! The only thing I have is my cell phone.



It's really creepy.



Merrick Cummings Jr

 

[ETOBICOKE]

Left work a bit earlier than usual to make a dental appointment, was at home brushing my teeth when the power went off. Fortunately I have a generator, but only have a limited amount of gasoline. Have been running the generator for about a half hour every two hours or so. Was able to watch television at dinner time, cable is no longer working now at 10PM. Found some rabbit ears and now get two stations: an ABC affiliate from upper New York State and CHCH from Hamilton, no local Toronto Stations are on the air. Well at least my beer is still cold! Going to shut things down soon for the evening. Mayor of Detriot is saying power may be off in some areas for 48 hrs or more.



Neil

 

[The patriot]

We got a flicker in the power at a little after 4PM eastern time, but I still have power. I'm in south jersey.

My MIL lost it for a while, but she has it back now.

I was watching Cavuto on fox news when it happened, and they had the story pretty fast.

I hope everyone behaves... especially in the cities.

I'd hate to be stuck there.

Eric

 

[Jeff H]

Turn the channel on the tv.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Getting out of Lansing was interesting. Was real glad I was in my truck and not on my bike today. How hard is it to remember that an intersection just turns into a 4 way stop when the light is out? Evidently VERY hard for most people! Traffic was nuts. Out here in the sticks we lost power for a few hours but we got it back pretty quick. Lansing is still down and they are saying it may be so for a few days. I have lots of friends who are sitting on the front porch guarding their property. Last I knew water service was down as well. It's times like this that I love living in the country - we're all pretty self supporting out here. I have enough gas on hand for the generator to run the sump pump, fridge, and freezer for several days. Enough fresh water to last at least a week or two, and enough food to last the same. First thing my wife did when she got home (she got here a few hours before me) was to empty the hot water heater into jugs for fresh water.



One thing for sure is that my job (computer consultant) should be interesting when everything starts coming back online. Going to be busy for a while.

 

[JaMan]

Out of Power not out of Breath! When it's fixed thank a Lineman!

 

[Champane Flight]

God forsaken

The problem has been there for years, transmission lines have not been upgraded to take care of the population, most have been in service since 40s! As long as the power companys make their money, who cares? Keep plenty of candles and batterys handy.

 

[nickleinonen]

i handled it just fine i think. that was the easiest work day i had ever had. i am now working 1600-0000 shift at work. went in, just finished up the job briefing and got my job and pop, no more power. no power = no work. so we all pretty much sat on our butt's all night long, and the kicker, they were pleading with us to get people to stay overtime for when the power comes back on, so they could finish servicing the units [locomotives] on the inbound track. i stayed for about 30 min and then decided to go home instead [they had enough people show up for night shift]. got home, and there was a full tank of hot water for a nice hot shower by battery lantern... didn't really bother me at all this power out did, except that my alarm clock went off at 7:00am and the clock said 9:00am... i guess i need to put a new backup battery in it...

 

[Doc Tinker]

My power came back on at 7:45 pm on Friday. I'll have to go in to work tomorrow to bring the database server back online so payroll can finish their jobs, so I'll get paid on time.



Doc

 

[Doc Tinker]

Seeing as the local bank was closed, I went north about 20 miles to make my house payment. On the way, I stopped for fuel at a gas station that had a line of cars a mile long. I pulled right in to the diesel pump and waited for a lone Power Stroke to finish using the pump. There were a lot of long faces on the people at the gasoline pumps, when they saw me come and go so easily



Sure love the diesel. Too bad my generator isn't a diesel. I had to stand in a different but shorter line when I got the genereator can filled.



Doc

 

[FreeBMW]

here is Grosse Pointe, MI (suburb of detroit) we got power back today around 6pm. they were saying we were going to be out until sunday but thankfully its back tonight. now to get to rightaid tomorrow and pick up my pills and get to the BP for some fuel.

 

[Andy Perreault]

It's times like these when those of you with RV's with generators have it made compared to your neighbors. If I had one, I think I'd keep the fresh water and generator fuel tanks full at all times so it's ready as a "back up house" at all times. Just move the stuff from the household freezer and fridge and you've got it made.

No problems out west here, but you never know.

Andy

 

[BillH]

We were real lucky, about a 20 minute brown-out was all. But, the lone gas station in town had a L-O-N-G line of out of towners trying to gas up.



Sure was glad both our vehicles were filled as my wife had a post-op appointment on Friday due to arm surgery the previous day. 130 mile round trip to the Doctor, but all is well.



BillH