Well, it's been a nerve wracking week. Forecasts for my area were for 20" of snow and 1" of ice. That much ice would wreck the power grid. And temps won't be much over freezing for at least 10 days. That had everybody wound up. Not good at all for us Tarheels, we're not used to that! You couldn't find a generator or fueled heater anywhere. One place had a waiting line for propane that was 6 hours long.

I've never had a generator, but am reconsidering that. We had a kerosene heater that we hadn't used in MANY years but I can't find it. I think it may have disappeared in one of the wife's "purges", also years ago.

Anyway, the storm will be past in a couple hours and I've got maybe 2" of sleet and no ice accumulation. If some chucklehead doesn't hit a power pole trying to drive on the ice I think I'll be OK.

Bushy, how have you fared?

I don’t rely on gas for cooking or lighting in event of a power failure, although the cooktop in my house is fuelled by LPG. I have keorscene powered lights which will also function on Shellite Lantern Fuel, and I think, also 91 octane petrol. I also have two wood fuelled BBQ and two LPG fuelled BBQ using gas bottles. And if needs be I would light a fire in the backyard for cooking. I also have four coolers to put bits and bobs in to keep cold with ice…and won’t open the deep freeze.

I’m pretty well self sufficient…at least for a few weeks…then I start worrying about food.

Here in the ole Rocky Mountains, we haven't seen crap for snow. Its unbelievable. One of our most popular ice fishing lakes, which should by this time of year have around 22-44" of ice... had a boat out fishing on it last week. Ridiculous! Open water late January... /smh

Words cannot describe how odd it is here, the lack of snow yet seeing back east and especially down in the southern states, get slammed by snow.

That said, I have 2, 100lb bottles of propane in the boat shed (non-enclosed), 2 30lb'ers on the camp trailer I could go get if needed, and another 4 or so 20lb'ers used for bbq's, deep fryer burner etc etc. I have fittings if in an emergency, to supply our home boiler and keep the heat on... but we also have a couple propane indoor safe "Buddy Heaters" that just hook directly to a propane bottle. Those we normally use for ice fishing heat... but in a pinch it would easily heat the house enough to keep pipes from freezing and buy time.

The home boiler (hotwater heat / hydronic), is a really old system from the late 1970s but it works great and is cheap. It only needs power to a circulation pump to run. I rewired it a couple years ago to replace the hard-wired line with a normal 110v plug and a new socket plug on the wall it just plugs into. That way in an emergency I can just plug it into a generator and we'd have heat. The dryer vent hose runs through the utility room and outside the house, if it came to it I can run the extension cord from a generator, through the outside vent and into the utility room.

All simple and relatively cheap things to prepare for now, after a big event has already happened is too late.

The good thing about winter disasters is you dont need power to freezers and fridges. Your frozen food stuffs stay frozen. In an indoor fridge just freeze some ice blocks in a bucket outside, then bring them in and stick them in the fridge.

-DallanC

Unfortunately we don’t get snow or anything even closely related to extreme cold where I live…the biggest problem we get is nasty thunderstorms that take out the electricity system. Blackouts and no power are quite common through Summer, with some areas being without power for weeks depending on the strength of the storm that ‘broke’ the power system. We are lucky in that our power lines etc are all underground where I live, but we are still at the mercy of storms that take out other areas.

Most of the really nasty thunderstorms only seem to last around 30 minutes around my place…probably because of the terrain (big hills immediately South of our settlement), but when they hit, boy do they hit hard. After the thunderstorms we then get the humidity…absolutely woeful. I feel sorry for those that rely on a/c…no power no a/c, so they suffer.

Yesterday was 39°C (102.2°F) here for most of the day. I sat in front of a fan with a spray bottle…made life bearable. Today it’s down to 32°C (89.6°F) which is quite comfortable, with rain pending. Weird weather.

I was chatting with a mate on Long Island NY yesterday and he received 12 inches of snow overnight (25 Jan), with snow still falling at 2 inches per hour. Another mate in Toledo OH was snowed in as well. It looks like Bushy isn’t doing too bad, with Sunny days and the temp hovering around 0°F, although the Ozark copped a heap of snow which is less than 100 miles from him.

Tell ya what Mike...A generator hard wired to the house has been a real blessing around here. It has litterly paid for it's self. It's a Westinghouse 10 KW duel fuel.

Bushmaster wrote:

Tell ya what Mike...A generator hard wired to the house has been a real blessing around here. It has litterly paid for it's self. It's a Westinghouse 10 KW duel fuel.

I'm glad you had that ready! I need to look into one but I figure if I get it it'll never snow again here... My daughter in AR didn't lose power but her water line between the well and house froze up for a bit.

Our roads are still pretty bad, sheets of ice. Whoever was supposed to clear them totally failed. A friend who lives on the road I take to get out of here has been sending me pics and video of the accidents occurring in front of his house. And we've got a little more snow coming this weekend. At least you can drive on snow!