The violent result of mixing warm and cold air masses set it’s sights on the Pacific Northwest last Tuesday and the result put me in the frame of mind of Calvin and his tiger Hobbes. I no longer watch the news or weather on teevee so I was clueless as to what was about to unfold but it mattered not one bit.
I woke up Tuesday morning about 11:00am and things seemed pretty normal. I let the dogs out and went about my normal pre-work routine. When I got out of the shower I felt a gust of wind hit the house and the dogs started their alarm bark. When I let them in I saw that a recently drained rain barrel had blown over and startled them. Wind is normal this time of year.
I bit later I looked out the front window to see a 150 foot tall Ponderosa Pine bent over about 40 degrees. I’ve lived here for 22 years and I’ve seen that tree sway mightily but never like this. I left for work and except for a few light branches and whirlwinds of leaves everything was normal. Upon arriving at work I learn that a big wind is coming. I thought it was already here but I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.
About 30 minutes later I’m staring out the front window of our facility as my job involves quite a bit of “hurry up and wait”. Three of us are at the window as the roof on the 15,000 sq. ft. across the street rolls up rather neatly and flies half a block to the north. The wind dies off and the sky clears about four hours later. I finish my 12 hour shift managing to successfully cool down our latest crystal despite two brief power interruptions and head for home at 3:00am.
It turned out that my employer’s neighborhood was in one of the only pockets that maintained electrical services in the metro area of 300,000 or so. The occasional passing car and my own lights were the only light I could see driving toward the center of a city of 291,000 people. I leave the freeway to meander one of dozens of routes I take throughout the year to wind my way home on tree lined streets in rich and poor neighborhoods alike.
The damage was immediately apparent in my headlights but thankfully I could only see what my headlights illuminated. My route was blocked at nearly every turn by downed trees, power poles, power lines and a tremendous assortment of debris. I finally arrive at home where damage to my place was minimal but I must have passed 5000 downed trees on my way home and it was clear that my neighborhood was not spared. I grabbed a flashlight out of the console and did a quick once around to find only about 40 feet of fence damaged including 16 feet that looked like a car went through it.
The power was out and it was abundantly clear it was going to be out for quite some time, maybe weeks! I started digging through the shed to get my generators out of storage and grabbed the Coleman lantern and stove and few other goodies that would be needed. I headed inside to warm up and await daylight. My wife was in bed but awake and began giving me a rundown on the carnage. Despite knowing what was in store, the vision that emerged from the darkness too my breath away. It looked every bit as bad as the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo that wiped us out in 1989.
My skyline was forever changed in every direction. Nearly every evergreen tree was gone or in need of being removed to prevent more damage. Houses and cars were smashed. Two houses were cut cleanly in half by 3.5 to 4 foot diameter Ponderosa Pines. One tree fell with such force it destroyed the subfloor and joists before coming to rest on the concrete foundation. It was a brick house too! Nearly every power line was down with many power poles broken or leaning. Phones and cable were gone as well.
Hobbes and I agreed to enlist my wife’s help in surviving this apocalyptic world. She started making a list of things we might need while I set about afro engineering a fix for the fence to contain the pups. We’ve never chained them for more than a few hours in their lives and we weren’t going to start now. If I had had two more cedar two by fours, two sacks of concrete and a box of screws I could have rebuilt the fence to “good as she ever was” by the end of the day. (prep deficit #1) I briefly thought about going to the hardware store and grabbing what I needed but it would be an hour trip each way and I’m sure the store would be pandemonium. An afro engineered solution would have to do.
When the inside house temp reached fifty five degrees, the list maker declared that it was too cold to make further progress on the list until her writing hand was warmed by the familiar warmth of the gas furnace. I killed the breaker for the furnace just in case and hard wired the furnace to a 30ft piece of Romex and ran that through a hole in the side door and attached a male plug to the other end to plug into the waiting generator.
I start pulling on the rope to fire up the generator but I’m getting no love. The list maker is colder now and I’m sweating my ass off trying to get this thing started. I break out the starting fluid and she fires on the next pull………..for about three seconds. FUCK! It occurs to me that I put them away after running them both (along with the snow blower) last spring with gasoline that contained ethanol. DOUBLE FUCK!! A quick check of the other generator produces the same results. Now I’m racing the soon to be gone daylight to rebuild the carburetors because once the ethanol evaporates out of the gas it turns into glue! I’m really hoping not to tear any gaskets or lose any small, no-see-um parts as I don’t have spares. (prep deficit #2).
I ended up rebuilding two carbs in record time with a few tools, a can of spray carb cleaner and a small diameter wire. Both machines fire on the second pull and we have heat! Praise ME I guess since I don’t believe in Jeebuz!
I put tools away, wash up, change intro some toasty sweats and sit down to listen while my wife reads her list of things we need and don’t have. Item #1 is bread. That’s it! She couldn’t come up with anything else. Neither could I. I point out that we can make our own bread in the propane oven or dutch oven on the charcoal grill we have and not have to brave the unprepared sheople as they lay waste to the candy, soda and potato chip isles the length and breadth of the county!
Stay tuned for part two, The Stupid, It Burns!……….if we survive that is.
This is what my drive home and neighborhood looked like.
IS , you were having a good time trying to be Mr he man.Tell the TRUTH. I was in Wyoming near Laramie when I80 was closed. I end up playing in the snow with little bb.We had a great time.
During hurricane hugo I open my back door a watched trees being blown away. Moments later I heard a big explosion. Then no electricity for 11 DAYS. Miserable.
Inspiring story IS. You were only missing bread (but still have the ability to make it) and wood to fix a fence.
Pretty Damn good.
Damn, IS, you’re all man. That little laundry list of obstacles might have defeated an average person. Well done
What a mess – Looks like South Florida after Hurricane Andrew went thru the place a few years back.
I/S
If that isn’t a mess it will do til the mess gets there.
I know that you will be one of few who will meet that head on and survive in comfort. Sadly the beautiful view will be affected for another 8 to ten years or longer. We suffered damage similar to yours a few years back when hit with a killer ice storm. Twenty six people died in this state and there will be a few more years before the ugly is corrected by mother nature with tree growth and regeneration.
Interested to hear part two of the saga.
I also have had fun in the snow on i80 in wyoming before. All my life i thought cheyenne was just a 50s tv show title until they shut the gates. Hell of a way to drum up springtime hotel business.
Bb you often mention quality time you are able to spend with bb jr. I think its admirable you take your son so many places.
bb jr. is a cat.
When is part two going to come in – This is the most fun I’ve had on TBP since 1956 – Thanks
A portable Kerosene heater, like a Dyna Glo, will serve as a source of heat, light and you can cook on top of it. Also, it doesnt make smoke like a fireplace will if you want to avoid zombies coming to your home. A carbon monoxide detector can run on batteries and make sure you have some air coming in.
Good story, IS. Your wife sounds like mine. Any temp under 74 is “BRRRR!” (her word exactly).
IS…that was a very nicely written story.
And the theme/lesson? Excellent.
You are in the same league as HSF.
I love reading stories at TBP!
Thank you
Happy Thanksgiving
Excellent – you’ve survived so far and are learning from the experience.
THIS is how you get better – by learning as you go. I don’t look forward to my next test, but think I will survive it – as long as it doesn’t outlast my beer supply.
@admin. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I didnt think he was playing with a pussy but i wondered if it were a veiled reference to something pussies like more thwn catnip…
Excellent, truthful story. After living in SO FL for 68yrs, Mrs Ragman and I moved to the mountains of western NC. We have had to change from preparing for a hurricane to preparing for cold wx and a power outage. Can’t wait for the next episode.
Wow! Glad to hear that you and the “list maker” are okay and that your home was spared.
One thing to think about, particularly with your neighbor’s home being bisected by a pine tree, is to de-centralize your preps.
The other thing is that every month, without fail, you need to rev up the generator and let it run. We lose power a fair amount as we are at the “end of the line” for power (and our DSL over the phone line). Our big generator is hooked up ready to go but in the house, I have tons of flashlights and several of those hurricane lamps/candles. We also have a big fireplace for heat (when it gets below 45F, lol).
Hope you guys will be okay, you’re in our thoughts and prayers!
Old Virginian , little bb is my companion on the road. I take him most of the time. As I go down the road
Listening to take radio we have some great conversations about politics , history , theology , current events and the burning platform.
Best pet I’ve ever had.
LONG POST, SKIP IF YOU DON”T CARE / PREPARE
Perhaps we should collect / share these stories? Here’s one from a mailing list I’m on:
***************************************************************************************************************
AVOW: Another Voice of Warning Newsletter Dec 6th 2013
Please feel free to forward this notice to all of your Family, Friends and Associates.
Greetings!
Surviving a Real-World, Potentially Deadly Power Outage
This article is about the six-hour power outage we experienced in much of South East Idaho on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013…during sub-zero weather conditions. I’ll relate it as it happened, in a timeline fashion. I’ll integrate “lessons learned” throughout, but will also include a summary lessons paragraph or two at the end.
A caution: my tale is a lot more boring than it might have been…because we well prepared. Things could have been a lot different…we’re grateful for the counsel of our religious leaders to prepare for such events, and to our friends in the Prepping Community, including LDSAVOW.com, that offered the great advice that inspired and taught us to be prepared.
5:22 am, Wednesday, December 4th, Somewhere in Southeast Idaho
I wake up suddenly, completely in the dark…unusual for our bedroom due to the many LED lights on various electronics.
Somewhat confused, but sensing something is wrong, I search my senses and surroundings for what might have caused me to wake up so suddenly. Ah, there it is: a faint beeping coming through our closed bedroom door.
I start to get up…and realize that it’s dark. Really, REALLY dark. Pitch black, in fact.
Ah, I’ve got power outage. Fortunately, I’ve prepped for this.
I reach over to my nightstand, open the top drawer…and right there is my tactical flashlight. (I keep this away from my family at all costs, so they don’t drain the batteries on me; pain and peril be unto any that drain The Dad’s TacFlash batteries!)
I turn on the TacFlash, and LO and BEHOLD…there is LIGHT! I choose the dimmest setting, which is still quite bright from this high-lumen light.
I shortly also consider the need to arm myself…is there a threat somewhere in the home? Could someone have tripped the breaker hoping to defeat the security system (fat chance, I have it all on backup batteries)? I spend about 60 seconds listening and decide: NO THREAT. If there had been, I was prepared to find my self-defense weapon completely in the dark, even if my TacFlash had failed. (I’ll leave out the details of what/where/how…just know that if I had needed a self-defense capability, it was at my fingertips.)
I investigate that beeping sound; turns out to be my oxygen concentrator–when it loses power, it alarms quite loudly.
I note that my alarm must have been going for awhile…the volume is down considerably from “full-charge.” Amazing that the alarm managed to wake me…we keep the oxy concentrators in a room down the hall and run the oxygen lines to our bedroom; this is to keep the noise levels bearable to allow us to sleep.
My wife’s oxy concentrator isn’t alarming at all…gotta remember to check that battery after all this is over.
I turn off and unplug off both concentrators…when we regain power, I don’t want to stress either the electrical grid, our in-home circuit breakers or the circuitry in the machines.
Next order of business: Is this isolated to our home, or is it wide-spread?
Quick look out the windows tells me that the outage is affecting every home that I can see…because there aren’t any lights nearby, except an occasional car driving by. Boy, those stars sure look bright!
I do see some light reflecting into the sky to the northeast…that is probably the town’s Police Department’s lights driven by a generator, and/or the County Sheriff’s Department, ditto.
To the south, I do see a lot of light in the distance…several miles away. I presume this is Idaho Falls…but it doesn’t matter, power at OUR home is off, and it is COLD outside. Dangerously cold, in fact.
Next, I check my smart-phone to add some situational awareness.
Hey, it is MINUS 3 degrees out there…that’s cold!! Ah, my home security system tells me that power dropped at precisely 5:11 am–that’s a handy feature I didn’t know the system had. (Note to self: It took 11 minutes for those alarms to wake me…should I rig an in-room alarm to warn of future power losses? Having lost my younger brother to severe but untreated sleep apnea…we take that problem seriously in our home. File for future action.)
Temps in the house are still normal…I’m glad I spent time this fall adding some insulation, caulking & adjusting/replacing weather-stripping around the hacienda! That buys me some reaction time. Yes, such simple things are a part of prepping and self-reliance!
No regular internet/email…my home wireless network is deader than a doornail. Cable TV is also deader than a doornail, meaning I’m not going to get internet, VOIP telephone or any TV station info. OKAY, time to get out one of those cool little Eton crank emergency radios. It works…but the batteries don’t seem to hold a charge for more than 15 minutes: (NOTE TO SELF: gotta test, perhaps replace batteries in all of the emergency radios. Still, I get enough radio to know that several stations are off the air…meaning that at least part of Idaho Falls is impacted by the power outage.)
My wife stirs, asks what the problem is. I explain the power outage, the inside/outside temps, the info I gained from investigation/observation and the smartphone…and she yawns and says she’s going back to sleep. I decide that she’s got the right idea; there’s nothing to be done right now, except be glad that we’ve improved our home insulation, caulking and weather-stripping. Besides, most power outages around here resolve themselves within an hour or so. Thus, I add a comforter over our bed (smart purchase, that), say a prayer for the power company maintenance troops no doubt already working to fix this problem…and crawl back under the covers to enjoy the sleep of the well-prepared.
8:30 am, Wednesday, December 4th, somewhere in Southeast Idaho
I finally wake up…probably because my nose is cold! That’s the only part of me sticking out from under the covers. I recall there was a power outage and that cold-nose-test tells me the power is still out.
House temps are down to 64 degrees…that’s cold for us, we keep a pretty warm home.
Use the smartphone to call Rocky Mountain Power…they estimate power to return about 12:30 pm. Okay, power has been off for 3+ hours, and is likely to be off another 4 hours…time to implement the Family Emergency Response Plan — Power Outage.
My son and I dig out the cold weather gear, get prepped and head outdoors.
First priority is to get the bigger generator running. Our analysis told us we’d be able to run about 80% of our household systems on that particular genny…time to find out if we were right!
Step #1 is to head to the circuit breaker box. Shut down ALL circuit breakers including the MAIN. Engage the generator interlock device, which will prevent us from shocking any electrical workers with backwash power from our genny.
Next, I pull the specially-designed genny-to-house cable from its position on the wall hook over the circuit breaker box.
My son heads for the fuel shed to get gas…it is too cold to use our “standard” genny fuel, which is propane. That tri-fuel generator mod was worth its weight in gold, as it allows me to run the genny on propane, natural gas or gasoline…but we don’t yet have a natural gas hook-up and outside temps are low enough that I’d have trouble starting the genny on propane. So, gasoline it is! Sure glad I treated that 18-month old gasoline with Pri-G!
Son meets me in the shop with the fuel. My very strong son opens the garage door manually, naturally…then wheels the gennie out to our pre-established location for power outages.
I plug the interface cable into the house plug…sure glad we had that installed back in 2012…makes genny hookup a breeze, now. The other end plugs right into the four-prong outlet on the generator. My goodness, things are going smooth…my wife is going to be SO proud of me!
Time to pour in the gas…but now things start getting messy. First, my son didn’t install the dispenser spout correctly…and our first attempt to fuel up resulted in a very wet generator housing…and a gasoline-soaked sleeve on my coat. [Until I get a shower later that day, I will REEK of gasoline odors!] Okay, tighten that spout and let’s try again. UH-OH! For no apparent reason, the metal spout strainer end comes clean off. Okay, we can live with that, strained it when we stored it. UH-OH!! Second refueling attempt causes the long nozzle to sheer clean off from the nozzle base; more gas is spilled.
We move the generator away from the spilled gas–sure glad I bought the LONGER genny-to-house connecting cable– and get some shop rags to clean off the gas. Fortunately, I also brought along a large-mouth funnel, so we can still pour the gas safely, and on the third try, we finally get it right. The genny is fueled…now it is time to hit the start key (we have an electric start due to my back problems).
Here, I’m saying a silent prayer. Just back in early October, I did a functional check on our genny…and the battery was dead. I mean, it was DEAD-dead, non-recoverable, dead and gone. I ordered a replacement battery…AND a float charger to keep that battery charged! Fortunately, it came within a week, and all is well.
I crank the genny for perhaps 3 revolutions…and it starts right up! Boy, that sounds nice!!! We stow the fueling supplies and head indoors.
As I head indoors, I look back at the genny…and realize that is just sitting in the yard, with no security measures at all. UH-OH! Another mental note to install an eye-bolt into our concrete foundation, and then get a strong chain and lock to make it harder to steal. [Don’t laugh…during every major disaster, many generators are stolen outright. Happens EVERY time!]
Back at the circuit breaker box, we now have generator power coming in…but need to start flipping circuit breakers back on. We start cautiously, communicating with my wife inside the house, via cell phone.
First circuit breaker on: electrical outlets in Family Room, as they provide power to the natural gas fireplace. IT WORKS, my wife happily annnounces. Great news…we’ll not freeze to death, I guess.
Another key circuit breaker is for the house furnace…and this is a biggie. Despite all our other preps, we’d not gotten around to testing out the full load capacity of our generator to run our entire household. In theory, it should work…but the proof is in the pudding!
EUREKA! The furnace is running, and hot air is coming out of the vents! HURRAY!
Eventually, we end up putting every single breaker “on,” and all seems kosher. (In reality, it wasn’t, but more on that later.)
Sure glad my friend and prepping mentor, Christopher Parrett, posts often about the value of pre-winter, under-load generator function checks…if not for him, I might have slacked off and had more problems this morning.
8:58 am, Wednesday, December 4th, 2013…still in SouthEast Idaho
We now have heat and power, and the freezer and refrigerator are running just fine. We also have television…except that the cable (TV, phone, internet) is still out-I guess Cable One is being hit by the power outage, as well. Okay then, back to the portable hand-cranked emergency radios; I tune in AM 590, one of the local talk radio stations, which I’ve found to be the best local news station. (Note to Self: need to install a standard TV antenna somewhere on the property, with a switch-over capability for just such emergencies.)
While we were busy outside, my wife went throughout the house, unplugging every excess appliance she could, turning off power strips for our electronics gear, etc. Her purpose is two-fold:
Minimize the power draw on our generator, thus preserving valuable fuel.
Setting up for the eventual switch back to main power–it helps the power company if we all shut down unnecessary draws when the system comes back on line.
Having taken care of first things first…assuring our own safety in still-below-zero conditions…it is time to start thinking BIGGER. Time to start thinking of OTHERS that may be in need.
Reaching Out to Others — What Works,
What Doesn’t
Now that we had assured a warm home for our family…our thoughts turned to our friends and our church congregation.
I made calls to my stewardship/fellowship families, to invite them over if they needed the warmth. Had to leave messages for all, none answered phones. Never heard back from them; I’ll have to follow up at Church on Sunday. My wife also called her stewardship/fellowship sisters in the congregation…extending the same invitation.
In parallel, my wife called several other congregation members, focusing on single mothers…all good friends, but more importantly, friends that may not be as well-prepared as we are. Just in case, right? All report being okay, with backup heat and/or options to shelter with family.
I also called a couple of single brothers living in apartments…extending the same invitation. One indicated he was going to go do errands in Idaho Falls-that seemed pretty smart
To our surprise, not a single person accepts the invitation to come over to drink hot cocoa. Most had heard power company notifications that power would be restored by just after noon, and are “warm enough” that they’re not worried.
In retrospect, I think we probably should have started the generator about 7:00 am, and THEN called around with invites. By 9:30 or so, most with a potential needs had already found alternate accommodations of one type or another, or felt they could make it to the announced 12:30 power-return time.
Also, I think most were simply unwilling to leave their homes. From their perspective (one told me so), it was better to bundle up under every comforter in the house, than leave a house/apartment unattended and have pipes freeze and break, without a chance to fight it.
THE OPSEC ANGLE: Those that know me, know that that this was a pretty serious breach of self-imposed OPSEC considerations; I don’t like anyone to know the prepping gear we have, or don’t have.
In the event, however…we simply wouldn’t risk that someone out there was getting cold, with potentially dire consequences. Would it be different if we were talking about food? While I usually talk a very hard line on the “sharing” question during TEOTWAWKI, particularly with food, this experience is causing me to reconsider just how hard line I, or my wife, could really be during an extended situation.
At least a dozen people who previously didn’t know whether we had a generato…now do. It will be interesting to see how that impacts our future prepping activities…if at all.
Frankly, I was quite disappointed no one came over! It was a perfect morning to enjoy hot chocolate and board games and it would have been even more fun to have some friends over to enjoy it with us.
10:20 am, December 4th, 2013, SouthEast Idaho
Breakfast is done, board games are played. Time to start checking systems & performance.
The generator is using less fuel than I expected. Fuel gauge has hardly budged!
After listening carefully, I note that the house’s furnace fan is running a bit more slowly than “normal” (e.g., on full grid power). Takes more time to spin up, and then runs just a bit slower than normal. If this went on for long, we might have to check the fan motor for impacts.
We have a unique hybrid natural gas/heat pump system. Cooling is all heat pump; most heating is done by heat pump, so yes, we have that “cool air” warming our house most of the winter. I really don’t like the heat pump in winter…I seem to get more colds and sinus infections then.
Fortunately, the natural gas kicks on at about 25 degrees F, and the outside compressor stays off. That gives us nice warm air during cold spells.
What this tells me, though, is that this 4000 Watt genset (6500 surge) probably isn’t powerful enough to run the heat pump during summer, or warmer winter periods. Gotta do more detailed analysis on that, but it seems pretty evident.
Another Limiting Factor (LIMFAC): The electric stove & oven indicate “on” when we turn the switches…but no heat actually gets to the burners. There’s obviously some kind of safety feature in the stove/oven that requires a minimum amount of “juice” to start heating…and our generator isn’t putting out enough juice. This suggests a quandry: this particular generator has an “eco” setting, which allows the gen to adjust its own throttle such that the energy produced equals the energy being demanded. HOWEVER…if the stove has a cut-out switch to prevent running without sufficient electricity already being present…then the generator never gets the “demand” signal, and never speeds up to deliver the required power. Hmmmm, this is going to require some testing; another follow-up item for “after.”
Our well pump seems to be operating…we’ve got water pressure, and we’ve used enough water to cause the pump to come on…but it seems to be delivering lower pressure overall. Again, another follow-up item. We do have plenty of hot water…the HWH heats with natural gas, electricity only runs the controls. I wonder: what are the long-term impacts/risks of running the well pump at less than optimum voltage??
Our small “pond” (really just a fancy little “water feature”) is frozen solid. Meaning the fish inside are probably frozen solid! Will they survive? During the winter we place a stock tank heater in the pond, and that keeps the water from freezing. What I don’t know is whether the pond froze up last night at -3, or did it freeze up once the power failure started at 5:11 am. In any event: it is’t thawing until spring; the fish will either make it, or not.
We notice the fireplace fan is vibrating a bit; under normal grid power, it’s pretty quiet. Again…longer-term consequences?
We hit the garage door opener…it lifted up about 12 inches…and then stopped dead. That’s interesting; once started, I would have thought it would have worked all the way, since the “hardest” part of the lift is that first 12 inches. Not a big problem, we just popped the emergency release and our son lifted it up by hand. Real glad we have him with us…I no longer have the strength to manhandle a lot of these items. I’m starting to think that 18 year-old sons have greater value than I previously believed. (In other words…they can do something more than eat and make gasoline disappear out of the car’s fuel tank!)
The biggest problem that emerged…was exhaust fumes entering the house from the generator!
Due to the breaker box location, our generator interface had to be placed in between the garage and the shop building. We expected this to provide plenty of airspace for dissipation of the exhaust; we were wrong.
My wife is very sensitive to odors and fumes, so she picked it up first. By the time we shut down the generator, the fumes had become rather unpleasant to me and horrid for her.
We’re not sure how the fumes infiltrated into the house; my wife believes it was through the garage, I’m thinking it was backflow through the fireplace when it wasn’t operating.
Either way, it’s not something we could live with for an extended period.
We can’t really move the generator…the main entry point for electricity must be at the breaker box, and that is fixed at the front corner of the garage.
Can we rig a long exhaust line and pipe the fumes away? Would it help to have an exhaust stacker pipe? Would additional caulking and sealing improve the situation? How would varying wind conditions effect the infiltration? Much study is required here.
We reverted to grid power about 11:45 pm. Friends in town reported having power back as early as 10:45, but we preferred to stay off-grid for a while, just in case there were further burbles.
Shutdown went flawlessly. We closed the fuel valve and let the line run dry, which caused shutdown after about 3 minutes. We flipped all of the breakers off again, put the inter-tie guard back to “off,” hit the main breaker back to on…and slowly flipped the other breakers back on, as well. Grid power held, and we had no further burbles.
We were extremely pleased with our generator’s performance, but as noted earlier, it wasn’t quite able to handle the “entire” load for the full house. OTOH, it really didn’t need to, either. Everything that was critical seemed to run well, though I’m a little concerned about the furnace and fireplaces fans running slower/louder. The biggest disappointment was the stove not operating, but the microwave worked just fine, so no big deal.
The exhaust fumes were extremely unpleasant, at least after a few hours. The fumes would be a real problem in a long-term scenario.
None of our CO detectors pinged, so there wasn’t any real risk of carbon monoxide poisoning; still, eyes stung, throats seemed to get raw, and breathing deeply wasn’t much fun once the fumes built up.
Since we can’t control the wind’s direction, we’ll need to address some type of physical fix for this.
Maybe it will be as simple as which way we point the exhaust port; we should have tried some alternative positioning before we went back onto grid power.
Fuel usage by the generator was truly a blessing; that eco switch really worked well. We finished with about 5/8 of a tank left. Not bad for a pretty high-demand temperature environment.
Even so…we’re going to need a LOT more fuel for any extended genny operations. What if we’d had a three week power shutdown, similar to what has happened several times over the last few years back East, between ice storms and Hurricane Sandy? Best case with our existing supplies, I figure based on this experience, is about 14 days. To be safe, we need about a six month supply of fuel. That’s going to be a challenge.
We’re fortunate to have a tri-fuel genny (gasoline, propane, natural gas). Still, gasoline is very hazardous to store; propane stored in bulk is far safer than gasoline, but still presents storage problems if you’re using above-ground propane tanks. You sure don’t want to keep portable propane tanks inside; while relatively safe, if they ever go, it could be a biggie.
Maybe the best option is a natural gas tap line; unfortunately, that won’t be cheap or easy, as the natural gas line enters the house on the opposite side from the breaker box. Besides, you can’t take natural gas with you, and in a true disaster scenario (even if natural), the line probably will be broken or service interrupted.
Thus, I’m thinking hard about installing a farm/ranch-style underground gasoline storage tank.
Anyone out there got any experience with that? If so, I’d appreciate your views/advice here in this thread…OR you can pm me. Please!
Post-Mortems: There were a few missed opportunities during the power outage; here’s a summary of them:
I forgot all about testing whether/how well our oxygen concentrators would work on generator power. Given that they provided the first alarm indication of the power outage, and the immense value of those concentrators in ensuring that my wife and I do not achieve room temperature levels…that was a major omission. I’d expect they would have run fine, but I should schedule a planned “power outage weekend” to get a better handle on it.
Our church congregation didn’t implement any Emergency Prep responses or calling trees to check on all of our older or disabled folks, much less single sisters, those with small children, etc. Given that DW and I are our unit’s Emergency Preparedness Specialists, I’m partly responsible for this not happening. In retrospect, I probably should have nudged clergy to start some type of formal response. OTOH, I’d guess that most folks at home did just what we did: call our stewardship families and friend plus anyone we knew personally that might need help. Still, there’s some older folks that we probably should have also called.
Similarly, we should have checked on our neighbors. My excuse that I didn’t? Well, we don’t have many neighbors, the only immediate one is right next door, and I knew they had their generator up and running before us! Still, we should have walked down the lane and checked on the other neighbors, too. Need to remember to do this next time.
Need something a LOT more reliable for fuel nozzles for our metal fuel cans. These cheap Chinese imports are NOT ready for prime time. WARNING: we bought these “new” at the Army Surplus store on I-15, down below Shelley. Not worth a buck, much less the $12 we paid for them. Don’t you make the same mistake; We’d have been better off with no nozzle and just a bigger funnel.
Had the power outage lasted longer…or if it had recurred, as was rumored on radio…we should/would have developed a power rotation schedule. The refrigerator and freezer, for example, didn’t need to be plugged in at the same time; we could have rotated them on two-hour shift changes.
This power failure mostly occurred during daylight hours. I didn’t think to test our LED rope lights and our emergency battery power sources therefor…but should have. Also could have hauled out our solar panels and put them to work…it would have been interesting to see/measure how much energy they produced on such a cold but bright, sunny day.
I earlier identified the lack of security protection for our generator; we’ll get that fixed. Just as important, though, was the security of our fuel shed. We use one of those plastic sheds that would be very easily broken into. Need to identify a better long-term solution that will be more secure, possibly lower profile.
We should have filled up our bathtubs with water once we got the generator running; that would have provided more convenient options for flushing the toilets, should the well pump fail or the genny fail…at least until the water in the tubs froze up. We had plenty of drinking water, but having some extra water for flushing would have been smarter.
Okay, folks…that’s my story. How about YOU?? What’s your “SE-Idaho power outage story?”
RusherJim
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Sorry that was so long, but then, you may spot something in all that of use to you. Either way, whatever preps you have made, TEST THEM BEFORE YOU NEED THEM AT LEAST ONCE. Fewest surprises, least fatalities.
Yours in preparation for the inevitable?
JtW [NOT RusherJim, I did not write this, see early credit line above]
IS,
We are right across the line from you and got hammered by the wind as well. There was a lot of damage that seemed totally random. Some of my neighbours shingles were in my yard, some of their fences were down and trees were toppled everywhere. Watched one guy with a massive busted cottonwood strapped to a similar sized cedar trying to figure out how to keep it from coming down on his roof. Good times. Yet – aside from the kids trampoline being tossed upside down and a bunch of planters being destroyed we had little to no damage at our place. We weren’t even out of power for long. Go figure.
I appreciate the comments. I had some pine 2×4’s to fix the fence but it’s a cedar fence. I keep a small supply of lumber and tarps for emergencies. I’ve even got two sheets of that rigid insulation and so xtra fiberglass insulation in the attic.
As far as my writing goes, comparing it to that of HSF does him a disservice. I rarely ever comment on his stuff because anything I could add would only detract from it. It stands on it’s own.
Up north here they add ethanol to the gasoline sometime in the fall and continue that until spring. I always use Stabil in my stored fuel (40 gallons plus what’s in the vehicles) but it never occurred to me to avoid ethanol contaminated fuel in my storage cans. I pull the generators out ever spring and they ALWAYS start in two pulls without fail but not this time. That ethanol evaporates and turns to glue in the small carburetor passages. Not really a huge problem but the added risk of damaging or losing parts is and it revealed a lack of preps in the small engine repair parts category I had not considered. I do have a number of sealants and gasket making materials but losing or breaking an essential part would be bad. Refreshing my stored fuel before that switch to the ethanol blend is definitely something I won’t forget for now on!
I’ve been worried about many of these trees over the years and I’m rather glad most of them are gone despite the mess. I haven’t seen a deciduous tree blown over or broken unless a pine fell on it. There are still two more that could hit my place in another storm but the property owner is now going to have them removed or so he says. Three of his trees fell on another house and he’s finding it rather expensive to deal with so.
The jackass that lives behind me is trying to save a spruce tree that is about to fall on my power line. It got blown halfway over and he’s using ropes and a come along to pull it upright. Trouble is, the roots are damaged and with more winter storms and a the chance of a snowload on the tree it may still take out my power lines. As soon as the insanity dies down I’m going to hire an arborist to certify his tree as a bad/damaged tree and then mail him a certified copy of the report putting him on notice that it needs to go. The dumbfuck NEVER waters his lawn so ALL of the healthy roots are on my property sucking the life, water and fertilizer out of my lawn. You’d think that if he wanted to save the tree he’d water it once in a while.
My wife “the listmaker” is a trooper. We make a great team. I can’t imagine life without her.
IS and james, we don’t have cold, hurricanes are our big potential problem. We prep a little differently than most. Instead of big propane or tri fuel generators, I’ve got a half dozen little 5000 watt jobs. if you have the storage space, it’s a cheaper option, and much more flexible. Instead of fuel, Depot sells 6 gallon cans in bundles of 6. I’ve got dozens in the attic, I can fill them when needed.
I think the best tip is having all the wiring done so you can kill the main and plug right into the breaker boxes. having all your plugs and cords sorted out in advance is also key. We were 24 days without power after wilma and because of the storms odd track, there was no gas within 150 miles. Ragman and MIA probably dealt with wilma, it was strange
I bought a 6000 watt Yamaha generator three years ago, installed a Tri-Fuel kit, then hooked it up to a alternate breaker box that will run the pump, furnace, freezer, fridge and a few lights.
It will run off of gas, propane, or I can hook it up like an outdoor grill to your natural gas. No need to worry about old gas turning to glue, or varnish. I’ve had to use it just once for a 20 hour power outage but I still fire it up once a month just to fire it up.
@IS… Congratulations and good story! We haven’t had to test our Preps here in Missouri, though a few tornadoes in Oklahoma gave us a good idea of what we would need, we HOPE.
Hopefully, a few other folks will take the opportunity to get started. My advice to anyone wondering where to start?
Put up enough food, water, blankets and preps to make it through three days. Then go for three weeks. After that, it gets easier.
There are a lot of lessons in that story. Thanks.
Good story… lots of good stuff there.
Been looking at an ex-military 10K generator. They’re pretty versetile. You can even rig them to be an uninterruptable power supply – they kick on when the power goes out automatically.
This one.
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The MEP-803A 10KW genny. Cost is about $5k, but the advantages are pretty attractive.
Can mount it to a concrete pad. Push start. Kitted out correctly, they’re quiet. It will run everything in the house at full load, no problems, because the military always under-estimates power output of these things by 25%. They’re designed to run 24/7 for long periods of time. Over-engineered – “robust” isn’t the right word. Runs on diesel and the aux fuel system lets you hook up to a 55 gallon drum if you want. No way someone will walk off with this if you leave it unattended. One and three phase power.
Downside: big, heavy, expensive. Spare parts sometimes hard to come by. No support at all – meaning if it shits the bed, you’re on your own.
The MEP-003A is air cooled. The 803 is water cooled. The 003A has advantages the 803 does not, and vise versa. The 803 can be fine-tuned to run sensitive electronics, while the 003 is more robust and easier to maintain, plus it costs less.
Either way, seriously looking at one of these… be nice to be able to go outside, push a button and have the whole house power up like normal. So long as the fuel holds out…
I’m curious I S. Where do you live in the Pacific Northwest that has a metropolitan area of 300,000 and Ponderosa Pine trees? Boise? Spokane?
I waited until I had time to read this one because first person accounts are my favorite form. You actually told a very compelling story with brevity and clarity. That’s a combination I wish I could master.
What I really liked was that at no point during this event did you panic. You made assessments of the situation, prioritized your plan of action, took charge and began to do something to bring order out of chaos. That was what allowed for us to flourish throughout time, not the typical hand wringing, angsty victimization type stories that proliferate these days. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, you weren’t trying to lay blame, you didn’t whine about resources, look for safe spaces, make demands, etc.
You just did what you had to do and instead of a disaster, it was an adventure. Instead of being a victim, you were the agent of change. That and having a wife who knows how to handle her end as well and not give in to the loss, but make plans for the future regardless of what life throws at you, there really isn’t much left anyone could require.
That was a really great story, glad I waited to read that when I had time to enjoy it.
If you use anything that consumes fuel that will be stored- chain saws, gennies, splitters, etc. always run them completely out of fuel then replace with pure fuel stabilizer- not a lot, just enough to get it running, Polaris makes a good one. Start it to run on that mix then cut the engine before it gets hot .Before you run it again, drain and replace with fresh fuel. Everything seems to have ethanol, higher test is always recommended.
I’ve been looking into the Lister type diesel generator. Low RPM.
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