No electricity(subtitle:I never would have survived in "olden days") UPDATE:12/5 WE HAVE POWER!!

[yoopermom]

Thanks everyone for making me feel better. The neighbors invited us over to use their shower and it felt like heaven. Oh, to be clean!

Terri

 

[eileenjez]

We lost power during Hurricane Florence but thankfully we had bought a generator so we had our fridge and freezer going. Our water heater has a wrap on it so the water stayed hot for 3 days and then just turned warm. Short showers. We had a switch installed on the house so now if power goes out we just plug in the generator and flip on the circuits we need and we're set. Not quite a whole house but most of it.
We also lost power during the '94 earthquake in Northridge. Used the pool water for the toilets, the grill for cooking outside and lanterns for lights. It was so quiet you could hear when another shake was going to happen. I'll never forget the sound on the Earth's plates hitting together and I hope never to hear that again.

 

[Klayfish]

The 2011 October snowstorm? We also lost power for a whole week for that one, too, and it was hell.

Maybe it was 2011. I know it was something like Oct 29th. I remember leaving our home that night because power was out and it was still snowing. We lived on a country road. I'm not the type to get "scared" at all, but that drive was a bit scary. We had to turn around a few times due to trees that had fallen across the dark country road. Nearly got stuck once. Drove to a hotel 40 miles away that had power. We really did try to have fun once we returned home. No lights, no water, no sewer, no gas, no heat. It really was quite the adventure. The kids really loved the glow sticks as night lights, they did it for several days after power came back on.

 

[Moliphino]

Maybe it was 2011. I know it was something like Oct 29th. I remember leaving our home that night because power was out and it was still snowing. We lived on a country road. I'm not the type to get "scared" at all, but that drive was a bit scary. We had to turn around a few times due to trees that had fallen across the dark country road. Nearly got stuck once. Drove to a hotel 40 miles away that had power. We really did try to have fun once we returned home. No lights, no water, no sewer, no gas, no heat. It really was quite the adventure. The kids really loved the glow sticks as night lights, they did it for several days after power came back on.

Wikipedia says it started the 29th. I remember the night of the storm we all slept downstairs because we could hear loud cracks all night as trees and branches broke. The power had already gone out earlier in the day. We couldn't leave the house on Sunday, since the road was blocked by downed trees. We stayed a couple nights in a hotel, slept at my aunt's house another night when they got power back and showered there until we got power back on Saturday. We also have a well, so no water at our house without electricity.

 

[KPeterso]

This past summer, the power went out for about 30 hours. It was very hot and the halls in my condo community were pitch black. Another night, and I was going to have to go to a hotel so I could get some decent sleep before having to work on a Monday morning. Power came on sometime during the night from Saturday to Sunday. i woke up and the first thing I did was turn on my fan to get cool air right on my face. I run pretty warm so this was misery for me. One of the highlights of the extra warm weekend was sitting in the parking garage where I live with the A/C running in my car while I charged phones.

My old house in IL had some major faults with the power. The wind would blow (or not even) just once and the power would go out for awhile. It got very annoying. I know there was a time when I was in college that it was out for like 3 days in November and my parents were so cold. I was quite happy since I was several states away at school and missed out on that fun.

 

[RangerPooh]

November 2007, we had finally convinced my parents that they needed to move out to where we were living. They had been living in our old house and we wanted to sell it, it took a lot of convincing and finally telling them that they were going to move. Dad was planning to move just before Christmas, which was fine, and mom came out earlier. Thanksgiving week arrives and so does a huge storm. The house was located in a small coastal town on a peninsula in WA state. Downed trees cut off road access off the peninsula. They also brought down the power lines. There was no electricity for 5 days! Unfortunately dad lost all the food he had just bought that was in the fridge, but thankfully we had a gas stove and fireplace to keep him warm and fed. He and the dog practically went stir crazy. Puzzle books and walks became less interesting for both of them. And when it's dark from 4pm to 8am it makes for a long night.

 

[yoopermom]

Thanks everyone, for keeping up the conversation and keeping me entertained.

One thing I've learned from this experience is to explore who the utilities are before buying a new property, as well. We've been here 25 years, but the first 20 in houses that were serviced by Wisconsin (now Public Service). HUGE electric company, with fast fix rates. Our current house is just far enough "out there" that we have a (relatively) small cooperative that provides electricity, and with the huge territory they cover, and few customers to pay for upkeep, maintenance, improvements, etc, well....we're still waiting on power (day four).

It's small potatoes, but I'm worried once it does come on about our satellite tv and internet, since both dishes are on the roof, and are probably blanketed in snow. Can't wait to find out!

Terri

 

[wgeo]

My parents live up in your neck of the woods - they said they got around 20 inches or so. They got hit a number of years ago when a straight line wind storm came through because they live very rural with a very heavily wooded lot. So when all the trees went down they were out of power for a few weeks I think. They don't have a whole house generator but they've got a decent size one, and they heat their house with wood (with propane backup) so they were ok. Biggest complaint was how sore they were after spending so much time cutting wood so that they could leave their house.

This current storm is similar - they didn't lose power for very long at all, but the plowing to get out of their house took a few days - a number of stories about stuck plows/trucks blocking the road etc. I don't think they've had TV or Internet for days though because they can't get the snow off the satellites.

 

[yoopermom]

wgeo-how nice to know that misery loves company so to speak (or that other "crazy" people choose to live up here )

I'm now starting to feel like the weakling last chosen for dodgeball, according to the electric company's website they are down to only 33 homes in our county without power, of which four are the ones directly around me. Why do I feel like we will be the *last*? Not an award I'd choose to get!

Terri

 

[DVC-Don]

Back a decade or so we had two bouts of no power, one for 3 days another for 5. We had a standby generator installed after that ran off the natural gas coming into the house. Anytime the power goes out for 20 seconds, it starts up. Some houses here have the traditional portable generators that make a ton of noise and they can only run the furnace and a couple of circuits, but ours runs the whole house, even the AC in the summer. One time we lost power just before Christmas and we did not turn on the outside Christmas lights cause I did not want to rub it in to the other neighbors.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I had the opposite of losing power from a snowstorm. I was living in Puerto Rico when Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989 and we were without power for about 5 weeks. Even though it was very uncomfortable without A/C or lights, I think I'd much rather it happen in warm weather than in cold weather. We basically got up at sunrise, went about our business as best as we could and went to bed at sunset. Not too bad except we ate a lot of PB&J and canned stuff. That got old.

 

[yoopermom]

Now that we have our power back on (as of last night), I am SO happy!!!!! The next few days will be dish and clothes washing, grocery shopping, house cleaning, etc. (Not to mention TV watching and internet surfing, haha.)

Overall we had it so much easier than many, and I feel for all of you that were out for even longer periods, in harsher conditions. I hope that's our "big one" for this lifetime!

Terri