Thread: What lousy weather!!!!!!

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Power Outage

Just when you think it’s cold and things are tough, the power goes off. Thursday night we went to the grandkids Christmas play. The roads were covered with ice, and it was cold we had planned to have one of the grandkids come over for the weekend. Friday morning I was hearing what I thought was ice, and snow falling from the roof. I got up early and could not believe what I was seeing. Trees had fallen down from the weight of the snow, and ice. I wanted to move a couple of cars that were under some heavy branches; I didn’t want to take a chance on the roof’s caving in.

I saw a top part of a tree lying over the power lines. We called the power co. they said they had a big power outage but we still had power. My wife went to work that evening, and just as I was in the bathroom the power went out. I have vertigo so it’s bad when I cannot see, I had my cell phone and it gave enough light to get back to the kitchen. I got the flash lights out then the candles.

The generator was in the garage a good distance away, didn’t learn from the outage last summer when it was really hot to have it close by. We made it through the night the house didn’t get below 50 degrees. The survival mode kicked in and I pulled the generator though the snow, and ice to the basement. I couldn’t find my tools in the dark garage so I got a screwdriver, and a hammer. I put a hole in the basement garage door to run the power cord through. We had extension cords running through the house first to get a light in the basement, and then unhooked the furnace line to the power source. I made up a plug to run that furnace, and then hooked up the freezer. We ran another line up to the main floor hooked up the refrigerator, ran another line to the other furnace at the far end of the house. We had gone for groceries the night of the play so we had food. I was making scrambled eggs on an electric griddle just when they were getting close the power went off. I overloaded the multiunit outlet. Those were the best scrambled eggs I have ever had. The other light was still on in the basement so I reset the multiunit. The generator is a 6500 unit from sears but you just can’t imagine how much power it takes too run everything in a house. The next morning after checking every few hours on gas to operate the generator I was like a zombie. I made up a 220 plug so we could run our pump for water. I went back to town for more gas then around 2 pm I got something to eat. We were without power for two nights, and 2 and half days; it seemed like a lot longer though. We just kept thinking how are the other people making it with kids, and no power source.

When the guys came in our yard to cut the tree I was one happy camper, I tried to give them $20 to get something hot to drink (it was bitter cold) for there help but they insisted they could not take it. Sometimes we take for granted when we flip a switch and the lights go on. I don’t know how many times I would try to wash my hands only to remember no water with out electricity. I sure feel sorry for the other people who have been without power a lot longer then us.

Richard

These pictures are from a cell phone camera.
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