[at-l] Storm's a'comin

[KGJ]

We rarely (knock on wood) lose power for any extended time (we're in Virginia) so I've never considered a generator.  But the thought of getting something small to run some lights, the TV, turn on the refrig a couple of hours, has crossed my mind.  But I've never done it just because of the concern of having another motorized thing around (maintenance, keeping gasoline, etc), and even the smaller ones aren't cheap.  We can burn wood to keep sort of warm, candles for some light, we're on "city" water.   We'll lose a couple of ice boxes full of food granted.  The only thing we scramble for is to try to save a couple of pieces of wedding cakes.  And our neighbors have had enough room for those.  
But, if we lost electricity for more than 3 or 4 hours, 4-5 times a year, we'd definitely have to look hard at a generator of some sort.  Maybe not whole house, but something. 


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Bullard 
  To: Art Cloutman 
  Cc: at-l at backcountry.net 
  Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 9:09 AM
  Subject: Re: [at-l] Storm's a'comin


  For those who own their own place (not rent) and suffer outages from time-to-time there are whole house generator systems. They run on propane, are wired into your main power panel and automatically fire up within seconds of an outage. Granted they aren't cheap ($3k or more installed) but if you live where outages are frequent like a friend of mine in the ADKs whose power goes out 4-5 times/year, it might be worth considering. Our power doesn't go off that frequently and I'm considering getting one.

  Jim Bullard
  http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/



  2008/12/19 Art Cloutman <Art at crystalacresnh.com>

    We were without power in the Lakes Region of NH for only three days.  My wife did not like camping in the livingroom.  I spent most of that time hauling firewood to keep the fireplace and wood stove cooking so we would not freeze our pipes.  Since we have a well and pup water into the house using electricity we had no running water.  Which of course means no morning shower, no septic system - (I didn't mind steping out into the woods but my wife could not manage that.  I hauled buckets of water from the lake to flush the toilet.  It was really nice to eat by candle light near the fire.  And I enjoyed reading by headlamp.  We do have a battery powered radio to keep in tough with the rest of the world.  But of course no email, no TV, and no telephone - we are out of cell phone range.  This morning there are still 35,000 homes without power, some will not get their power back until after the holidays.  It is particularly hard with several snowstorms on the way and temps in the teens.  I am glad that we are back on the grid and feel very bad for those that are still waiting for the lights to come on. 


      With a week passing since the ice storm there are now about 45,000 homes in NH without power. (population of NH is 1.3 M, so about 600,000 homes?) At the peak it was estimated 430,000 were without power. A dozen friends in the area have all been switched on -  with the last getting power last night. It's been quite a storm. Some were running out of wood, propane or tired of bunking with friends & relatives. Interesting that by Sunday there were more people in the shelters as folks tired of toughing it out.

      Last night was a minny ice storm, only 2 inches of slush turning solid after dark. Fridday we're set for gridlock (again) with a major storm that will bring 6-12 inches during the commuter hours. Last year, Dec. 13 storm, the commuter nightmare had people abandoning their cars in the roads, one brother-in-law made it home at midnight from work.

      I can appreciate & enjoy snow at times, for example tonight I'm going for a snow hike with GoldThumb (AT '97) on Uncanoonuc, west of Manchester, NH. But being in a metro area makes it a challenge sometimes. Every year we have to learn all over again about how to drive in snow conditions, how to avoid pedestrians who are now in the streets, how to cooperate about shoveling out parking spots. By January we'll have figured it all out I guess! --RockDancer


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-- 

    Life is Good!!!
    Art Cloutman

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