Could you handle it? 12 days/nights w/out electricity

Pyre said:
When I lived in south florida, hurricane andrew knocked out the power for a month or so. It sucked but I would have to say the two weeks immediately after the storm when there was no clean running water was far worse than the month without electricity.
Click to expand...

Pyre,

Can you talk about how you dealt with that? That would be a major bitch I would think.
 
I could deal with it no problem but I don't know about the wife and kids, my daughter gets pretty cranky if she can't iron her hair. And the wife with no internet, watch out. Our whole house is elect., but I have a kerosene heater with thirty gal of kero. which burns 1.5 gal. every 12hrs., and a propane infared heater with 4-20gal. tanks of propane which will burn straight for three days each. A generator just to keep the fridge stuff good till it runs out. And a couple weeks of water on hand, not counting whats in the water heater and the pipes. And a bunch of five gal. buckets of water for flushing since we have a septic tank. And a couple weeks of food. All for a fam. of five. A coleman stove, a double burner propane stove and numerous backpacking stoves and I can heat water on top of the kero. heater for whore baths. And all the other numerous things one needs in case of an emergency. We would just hold up in our basement family room which is about 600sq. ft. with bathroom.

For the summer that's a whole other ballgame, I think I would rather be without in the winter, but I do have a generator and a window a/c unit.
 
Last edited:
Hurricane Rita, out for 2 weeks. Hurricane ike, out for 1.5 weeks. Like alot of yall have said, it wasnt so much the electricity, but the lack of running water and entertainment. Not to mention it was hot as balls too.
 
Hurricane Katrina knocked out power here for a little over two weeks. Luckily the running water was only out a few days. The good thing about power outages from hurricanes is that as long as you drink plenty of water and don't over exert yourself generally heat won't kill you. Makes many people miserable but I have never minded the heat.
 
dunno if it counts, but i lived quite comfortably for over six months in Lightning Ridge with neither power nor town water.
 
theedge13 said:
In our age of modern convenience, we take things for granted. Namely, electricity. I'm not talking about, lets go camping and be w/out electricity. Im talking about being without electricity as a crisis, not an inconvenience. The latest installment of Mother Nature's Fury, was unleashed upon much of Oklahoma recently. We are experiencing one of the worst winters i have ever seen (33 yrs old). More snow and such is predicted for later in the week...with that usually comes ICE, vehicle accidents, power outages, etc. Are you ready my fellow Okies (and everyone else that is getting killed this winter)? My grandmother wasnt. She is an 80 yr old widow, that depends on electricity, for her life (she is on O2). She just today got her electricity back on after 12 days and nights without. My parents live w/ her at the moment to tend her (their own home is 3 houses down), and even after the Christmas Eve crisis, they didnt get her fireplaced cleaned out (not that that would have actually helped the o2 situation, but would help them w/ warmth). Luckily, she was able to go to a nursing home and be cared for. My parents stayed at my moms business as it had Gas heat...taking showers at my aunts house once electricity was restored there. Long story short. Being prepared is a lifesaver. Mojos/smoke for any and everyone experiencing hardship in this aweful winter.

Chad
theedge13
Click to expand...

Sure. My diesel generator would kick on shortly after the power went off. No problem! :D Seriously this is why I'm a big fan of wood stoves and fireplaces. Gas stoves that can be lit manually to produce heat once power goes out are a plus too but unfortunately most newer ovens won't kick on if they do not have power. Our old one does though and that makes it a keeper that I'll get fixed each time something needs done rather than get rid of it for a new one. Living in tornado alley for 20 years has taught me that you need to prepare for the unexpected. A storm shelter, some food, water, blankets, a generator and lots of batteries and flashlights or better yet those crank type lanterns like the one sold by Essential Gear (E-Gear) along with a radio that will work independently of electricity are all things to have on hand for just those occasions. You can get a good 5000 watt generator these days for a lot less than just a few years ago when I bought mine and even if its gasoline its better than nothing. I suggest you have in on hand and start it up and run it a while a minimum of every three months to keep it running tip top.

STR
 
hollowdweller said:
Pyre,

Can you talk about how you dealt with that? That would be a major bitch I would think.
Click to expand...

Of course. The first week was the roughest. There was absolutely no water coming out the pipes. A lot of us had to rely on the national guard to drive in water trucks or to distribute bottled water which was few and far between. Luckily, we were one of the fortunate ones whose house wasn't completely leveled by the storm so we still had our storm supplies that we had gathered up before hand of which included a few 50 gallon jugs of water. We used those for drinking and cooking. Those were a real life saver because immediately after the storm we knew we had fresh clean water and if we ran out we could refill the empty jugs from a national guard truck. Some people who were not so lucky had absolutely nothing and they were hurting pretty bad. My parents had one of those big spa jacuzzi bathtubs which we had filled up with water before the storm. We used that water to fill the toilet reservoir so we could flush it. After that was exhausted it was out in the yard for us :\

Luckily, that didn't last long because shortly after that the water came back on. It was still contaminated and we had to boil the crap out of it before we could drink or cook with it but at least we were then able to take showers, wash clothes and...uh....not go in the yard anymore o_o and that was the greatest thing ever. The things I learned from that were 1) just how quickly three people can go through water even when you're trying to ration it and 2) how simply a shower, clean clothes and a working toilet can improve the quality of life especially in a natural disaster like andrew.
 
No electricity?... no problem; just go back to the old ways.
If you have electric heat then you planned poorly.
Gas heat here, I also have backup propane heaters, along with a wood stove that could be easily installed (preplanning helps).
Cooking can be handled easily using propane or white gas camping equipment. If I really need to nuke a dog then I could either connect one of the inverters to a vehicle battery or fire up the jenny.
I keep oil and oil lamps around to help get rid of the smoke; when nicotine addicted friends stop over ... but they work well for light also (and, at least, the Aladdin lamps give off an amazing amount of heat). (5 gallons of oil on hand minimum along with wicks mantles chimneys etc).
Small, intermittent, area lighting is easily handled by the LED tap lights scattered about.
For aggravatingly intense lighting fire up a dual fuel Coleman lantern or two.
Instead of computers or TV; read a book, 1200 or so on the shelves (or hook an inverter to a vehicle battery/fire up the jenny, for a break from the Victorian era).

In the summer the biggest issue would be keeping the beer cold. (In the winter freeze some 2 liter bottles of water and stick them in the fridge).

If the water fails the creek supplemented by filters will suffice for drinking. (Particulate filter (10 micron), 0.2 micron filter then charcoal filter).
If needed, I can get out the post hole digger and bore a 3' deep cat hole out back for sanitary purposes.

...When the power fails, neighbors sometimes stop by to ask why I still have lights...

Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
Worcester had a pretty bad ice storm last winter and I lost power at my house for a week or so. I actually rather liked it. I had oil lamps that cast a pleasant glow, a camp stove to cook my meals, plenty to read, and a guitar for entertainment. The best part was, my sleeping schedule returned to normal and I was actually tired when the sun went down and woke up when the sun came up. You'd be surprised how quickly your body adjusts it's circadian rhythm when artificial light is taken out of the picture. I spent my evenings relaxing in front of the fireplace and my mornings watching the sun come up. I think the only thing that was a little tough was the cold showers. I learned to get in, get clean, and get out in under a minute. With the house already pretty cold, getting out of the water didn't help any but I'm a pro at tolerating cold water now. :rolleyes:
 
I did just over 3 weeks when Hurricane Charlie came through. No electricity, no electricity to run the well, so no running water. It was hot as hell. I'd go to work real early and leave real late just so I could be in climate control for a little longer.

It's no fun at all.
 
Electricity around here is undependable, I keep a honda generator in the house where it is warm and dry. I still have an electric stove and electric hotwater heater, but in recent years our electricity prices have gone way up which has me thinking about upgrading these to propane. When I do then little would change in my living habits when the power does go down.

If prices for power increase even more, I may make the decision to go off grid and use wind/solar and a generator back up. Probably would end up using the generator less than I do now as my usage is low anyways.
 
When there is a big ice storm we can be without electricity for a week or two, the longest being 3 weeks without power. It wasn't much of a problem, though washing in cold water is a bit of a pain. It typically below freezing out there so ice to keep food cold is no problem. We do our cooking in the fireplace. A good set of cast iron cookware really helps there and keeps the house fairly warm. Then it is a matter of throwing some extra blankets on the bed and putting a sweater on the older dog so she stays warm.

Luckily we had water still working mind you. It be much more difficult if we lost the city water supply.
 
I lived on a 200 year old farm with an equally old house with no phone, electricity, or runnin' water for 2 years, and a few years later I lived in a mobile home in the middle of a junkyard for three years without any of the amenities the normal person has, I can remember my wife cookin' thanksgiving dinner for four on a kerosene heater.

We, for a total of 5 years lived like it was 1890, so my short answer is yes I think we could last as long as needed.
 
Wood Stoves and lots of candles.
Genset for the well.
Winter is a plus for food storage.

There's a BU Generator on the propane tank anyway that'll run a couple of weeks if needed. Or I could just go to the boat. She's totally self-sufficient as long as either the sun the wind or the diesel holds out :-)
 
The Powernoodle Compound was without electricity on two occasions for one week each in 2009, the latter being in freezing weather. I had a not-trustworthy Sears generator which got me through each time, and was able to power my furnace, fridge, freezer, sump pump, etc. My poor neighbors were freezing.

Since then I bought a spendy 5500 watt Honda, along with 1600 watt portable Honda, to supplement the Sears generator.

A suburbanite can survive without electricity. Its just not much fun.

eu2000.jpg
 
well, we did three weeks with no power in Miami after Hurricane Wilma. Survived that with no problems.
 
I don't mind not having power, I've been happy without it in the past. Our house is set-up to deal with that too. I have two open wells, a pond and creek, a gravity fed cistern in the basement (woohoo I can keep my beer cold!) and a couple years of firewood (we heat with wood most of the time..). The thing that I have noticed is that we go to bed earlier when I have been in long and short-term situations with no elecricity.
 
Went without electricity for 3 weeks after hurricane Ike staye at my parents house to clean up while they staye at my brother's home in Austin.
 
Sorry to hear about that,Chad !
As long as I have a fireplace I could stay for 12 days without electricity without problems - I have plenty of fire wood - actually fire wood for the whole winter :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top