and the winds came and went.. 5 days with no power..

mtnfolk mike

mtnfolk mike

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hey folks. hows it going. California recently had some gnarly wind storms roll through. they started wednesday.. the gusts were ranging from 60-100 mph in certain areas.. it came down really hard on us here in Santa Cruz co. especially the mtns. where we live.. it was crazy.. we had all sorts of havoc going on.. loads of trees down, roads closed, schools closed and nearly most, if not all of the local buisness's were down as well.. nothing got violent at all luckily..
it was definitely an eye opener as far as being prepared.. we had more than 27,000 people in our county alone without power, for many days.. our power went out early wednesday and just came back on a few hours ago.. 7,000 people are still without power too..

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/major-california-windstorm_2011-11-29

we lose power quite a bit here during the winters and are fairly well stocked as far emergency supplies and food goes.. here are some of my thoughts on the whole ordeal.. it was an experience for sure..

we keep a milk crate in our hall/coat closet that is stocked for power outages. it has candles, a spare flashlight, headlamp, battery powered lantern, batteries,some chem lights and a small shorwave radio..

-electric stoves suck, yes we have one, we ended using our camp stove. which we usually have lots of propane canisters for.

-as with everyone else, we had to go out and get ice for our food.. we bought lots of it, because it was going waaay fast.. we couldn't fit it all, so we had to pick and choose.

-its good to have extra gas. all gas pumps were down here in the mtns. and i was forced to head into Santa Cruz which, still had power, its about 20-25 min. away.. the lines were crazy..

-batteries and candles were crucial.. we went through a lot of them..

-we buy coffee whole bean and usually grind it every morning, so we ended up having to buy some ground coffee.. now i will always have some on hand..

-thank goodness for wood heat too.. its been cold..

-cold showers are not fun.. i had to take a few..

anyhow.. we are all good and glad to be up and running.. though it was kind of nice, bringing things back to the basics again.. my wife and I were loving it, ours boys, not so much. they were over it by the 2nd day..

Mike and family.
 
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Glad to hear everything is getting back to normal over there.
We got it easy were I live.
Reading your post I realize I am not really prepared for more than a couple of days without power....thanks for your after thoughts on it.
 
Glad to here your safe, lost power here for three days.
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a few pictures my wife caught the next day. Temple City was not fun to be in that day. Ill skip the rant on being prepared...
 
Glad you guys are safe. That looks like my neighborhood in Florida just after the hurricane passed through. The wife ceased complaining about my stockpile of canned goods, camping gear and cases of water under the bed. Many had to evacuate but we camped in.
 
Glad you guys are okay brother - just one more reason for being prepared as you never know when things will really go south.
 
I probably shouldn't 'cos I lost a cousin when a tree was blown down on her car, [It killed her, her husband, and her daughter], but I must say my inner child still loves all that. It always will.
 
not fun, interesting though, we had like wise weather, 136kph were clocked in calgary, we were up to 110 at times, its was quite the couple of days. Also, oddly warm temperatures. Where we would normally be at -20 to -30 we are at plus 6 and sunny.

should be an interesting winter...
 
Glad to hear you are ok, Mike. To bad about the damage done. That is never good.

Bryan
 
It was fun here in Los Angeles, CA also. It definitely woke up the liberals! Be prepared.
 
Glad to hear ya ok Mike.

The winds have have made an impact over here also, this pic was taken on Sunday and is of a main trail !

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right on guys.. thanks..:thumbup: those winds were pretty wild.. great pic Pitdog..

all is returning to normal, there is still lots to clean up, all over the county.. it was definitely a learning experience.. we got a lot out of it... the misses and i were quite enjoying the simplicity of it for a bit too..:)
 
My family was without power for five days in an ice storm in Alabama in 1992. I worked for Alabama Power Company and usually had to got to work for days in our storm center during such occurances, but they could not send a truck for me for a couple of days, and I could not get out of the steeply graded neighborhood. My wife, son, daughter and I hung out in our den with the fireplace, without electronic entertainment had to actually talk to one another, prepared meals over the fireplace. My daughter was 11 years old then ,and to this day says this was one of the best childhood experiences she ever had.
 
We went a week without power in Irene and then again in a month later in Albert. Being prepared is a lifestyle for us. I guess some of that Y2K still holding on. We're on a 1/2 mile of dirt drive to pavement and nobody is going to help us but us.--KV
 
I would add a good reliable generator with plenty of extra gas, oil for top up and for oil changes during extra long outages (like we do here that sometimes go on for days), and spare spark plugs. This is important for people who have deep freezers full of food, and rely on water pumps on well systems.
 
Damn I knew the storms were serious but that is some crazy crazy damage. glad you guys are alright out there.
 
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