How do you deal with a power outage

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beaverpond
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How do you deal with a power outage

Post by beaverpond »

I was wondering how different parts of the country deal with a power outage.

A friend of mine living in Alabama was without power for 6 hours and she used to live in Maine for most of her life and I think the freakin' heat down there turned her brain to mush as to what she should do.

Up here if we know we are going to be without power for an extended period of time and it is winter, we can stick our freezer items and fridge items in a snowbank....or....we can set everything out on the porch in a series of coolers.

If it is during the summer months and are on a public water supply, we fill up the tub with water and toss in a block of ice or several bags of cubed ice and use a bunch of ziplock freezer bags and put everything in the tub and ice as needed. This also gives us the ability to use these items and keep them cold.

Now if we are not on a public water supply, then we use water buckets for sporting events that are 5 and 10 gallons in size to get from friends and family who have power and fill up our tubs and add ice.

No matter what season it is, battery operated candles and flashlights is always a good idea. If you can afford it, a generator is a good idea to plug in some basic essentials or even better yet to have it as a back up system for your house. My parents have it set up to run the well, septic, fridge, and a few lights in key places throughout the home.

So, what do you do differently in your area than we do here. Maybe something you have read here gives you some ideas of how to do things differently. Maybe you have some ideas to improve on what we do that could be shared.
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by jdpirate »

Find a friend or relative who does have power and stay with them (especially if they live nearby) ;)
Don't open the freezer or fridge...most stuff will last a few days or more if the appliance is not opened....or coolers with ice if you have enough for summer....winter--just stick them someplace that is cold. Candles, flashlights and battery operated lights are necessities.
When I was in my house and we had an ice storm I was without power for 13 days....but...since my stove/oven and hot water heater were gas I could cook and take showers there if needed. The house was cold but I bundled up when there. Otherwise I was working 12 hour shifts and slept at my brother's house at nighttime (if not at work). My house was broken into on the night after the storm hit (I wasn't there) so it was not safe to stay there alone at night.
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by beaverpond »

Our local fire depts do not recommend candles anymore unless they are property ventilated and kept away from anything that will catch fire. We have seen a number of fires in recent years and even more deaths because kids were left alone and did not have the most basic of information when dealing with candles.

Many fire depts in our area started handing out battery operated ones to help keep kids safe.
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by Annalee »

We have a generator.....Life saver.....Summer especially.....you can put more clothes on, but you can only take off so many.....plus I cook with gas....I would have never survived as a pioneer woman!! :s_rofl : :s_no :s_no
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by ncnascarlady »

It depends on how long the power will be out. Food in your fridge and regular freezer will last for 6-8 hours if you stay out of it. Food in a deep freeze will be fine for up to 12 hours if you stay out of it.

Me...if the power goes out in the summer I grab a couple of cool wet washcloths and put them on the back of my neck, under the boobs and behind my knees. Then I pray for a cool breeze :lol:

In the winter we move all the birds Into the living room, close the insulated drapes and add wood to the woodstove.

For lighting I've got LED battery lanterns, oil lamps and a whole bunch of those silly head lamps. I've got jar candles and candle lanterns that we only use in dire need.
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by alenigma »

I recall hurricane Hugo. He hit us pretty hard! I lived about a mile from my parents. My first ex and I were apart. I went to the ice house in town(where they were not affected by Hugo's wrath) and purchased 3 cubic feet of ice. We put that ice in my parent's freezer. This was when I learned that most convenience store employees couldn't do simple math!!! It was Late August, 1989.
I had a 1975 Toyota Celica with a killer sound system. I took the speakers out of the back seat an aimed them at the house. My neighbors, black and white, enjoyed the musical distraction. I was a bachelor at the time so I didn't have much food to try and keep. I only had to drive 5 miles to get to civilization.
My phone never quit through all of this. I had a Western Electric black rotary dial with handset. When you called me it rang. Most people were using the new tech of wireless phones and had thrown-away the old, out of date kinda thing I was using.
Because all of the windows were open, I could hear all of my neighbors utter something when the power was restored. It was a surreal moment! Yeah, Hugo, '89!
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by alenigma »

The convenience stores nearby had electric battery powered adding devices that the younger employees couldn't operate. I drove a little further into town and found some areas that had power. All I needed was a couple of hot dogs and a 12 pack! I'm not too hard to please. The BIG ice storm of 1979 was different.
I can recall coming home from a bar and the streets were not slick - yet. But power lines, phone lines, and cables were coming down. Along with Pine trees. I went out behind the house to smoke and I could hear the trees breaking. I had to dive to the side when I heard branches breaking overhead. When I saw what had fallen, I was thankful because it would have crushed me! We were the only house in the area at that time heating with a woodstove. So the next 3 days weren't too bad. We still had city water and I was half-way through a Tarzan book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Life was so simple and sweet back then...
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by beaverpond »

We had an ice storm back in '98 that left us and many other without power for days to weeks and some for over a month. Everybody in Maine was without power, unless you had a generator of some size. The company I worked for had one for all their stores, we were the lucky ones and made a killing. Nope, did not raise prices either except for gasoline, heating fuel, and diesel as we had issues getting into the tank farm with all the storms at the time. We had to put limits on how much we could allow people to fuel up at any given time, meaning 50 gallons and the same thing with home heating fuel as well in a given week until we could get a delivery ourselves and our tank held 30,000 gallons of k-1 and the same for heating oil and diesel. All our gasoline tanks were 15,000 gallons each and we had three at three different grades.

We had to call in our orders and it took about an hour vs mere seconds with our handheld scanner, not our issue, our supplier could not use their computer system to its fullest ability.
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Re: How do you deal with a power outage

Post by alenigma »

Can you imagine....if computers all failed....You wouldn't be able to make a purchase unless you stopped at a bar! OK, maybe a liquor store.
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