Re: OT: Power outages across northern America

Not bloody liekly LN!!! But a very nice try.

I am in the Syracuse area (just north and a little west) and lost power at 4pm. DH had decided to come home early because he wanted to mow the lawn before we got fined (it's been raining every day for ..um...a while now), so fortunatley he wasn't on the road when everything went out.

Of course, with an electric stove, that menat no cooking dinner.....tried to call for delivery and after a couple of minutes found out that it wasn't just a neighborhood outage, but 84,000 miles of gridwork going out.

Power came back on around 10pm, but the stash was never left unguarded. DH and I had candles lit, a battery-run radio playing in the background and we spent most of the time just talking. DS went to be at a slightly later time, but he fell asleep with no trouble.

Again, nice try...

Larisa, who th> Power outages across northern America

LOL...well, it would be 8 weeks early, and with the traffic lights and such out, and silly people calling 911 for power information, he just got freaked. It would have been something that we could have used 911 for, but then the thought of DH, DS, me, all in the ambulance (because he would be too freaked to drive)..made it even worse.

I just chilled with some icepops and sat in front of our living room window (where there was a nice breeze) and talked to Rebekah, telling her that she needed to calm down and that everything was okay....she liked the icepops more than me talking to her...lol

Larisa

taria wrote:

Thanks for the explanation, Alice. :) I was really curious about how that worked. Goes to show how unfamiliar I am with how things work in the east!

Yepper no cell phones and some hefty buzzing on corded phones... no cordless phones either. There have been a couple of other serious problems for those of us here. The sewage processing plant in Wayne county (just being announced) has a serious back up and so none of the water is safe any more for those on the Detroit water system. (fortunately we are not). another problem that developed last night was that the county jail had some serious water back ups and they were desperate for a generator just to keep things secure and the sewage from coming up higher and higher. None of the major resources had a generator that could accommodate this kind of problem in an already overcrowded jail. Fortunately a citizen did have such a generator and took it to the jail and so none of the inmates had to be transferred at the last minute. And right now to add to all this it is beginning to rain! What a time to be working on the power! Out here for the most part with the state of emergency people are really pulling together. The Attorney General's office has already made it clear that the price gouging that has occurred is to stop and those that have or continue to are looking as serious fines and even possible jail time for this practice. Yesterday we had one business that was charging $175 for a case of water! Needless to say he was taken out of business before to long but some people felt they had little choice but to pay that horrific price for water. There are also curfews now in just about every county here that has been affected. The interstate highways here are just about grid locked with people trying to get away from the city by going north to find gasoline or to get out away from the affected areas. Some people have panicked a bit but for the most part things are going ok. Hospitals are up and running. Though people with loved ones in nursing home are taking family members home until the crisis is over. My sister takes care of a total care patient in the patient's home.. the power outage has caused some very difficult problems since she requires extensive respiratory assistance. When my sister came in this morning from work she said it was a nightmare last night. And she will be going back tonight. She is trying to convince the girl's mother to take her to a hospital where she can get the care she requires. Time will tell what happens there.

juliasb

AliceW wrote:

Ice cream melted in freezer on the top of fridge and ran down and out on the floor along with frozen blackberry... big mess. However stash is safe and sound. It has sustained not even a thread of damage but the stash does have the only thing that even closely resembles fruit or veggies... juliasb

taria wrote:

This is too late to help keep frozen stuff frozen, but one of the hurricane-preparation tasks is to take all the stuff off the shelves of the big freezer and locate it as compactly as possible in the bottom. When there is the possibility of several-day-long power outage, that is the best way to preserve it -- and not opening the door unless absolutely necessary. Of course, when the power does come back on, neighbors take turns having barbecues with all the thawed -- but not spoiled -- meat from their freezers. "I'm cooking tonight. I've got chicken, roast beef, and hot dogs. I also have to cook the veggie packages or throw them out. Should be enough for the whole block, if someone else brings the bread." And then tomorrow night someone else empties their freezer. I met more neighbors that way than I did all the rest of the year.