AAR- Windstorm + 5 Day Power Outage
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:59 am
So, last Tuesday we had a bit of a wind storm here in Anchorage, with the highest gust being recorded in the 130mph range up on the hillside. Anywhere else, they would probably call that a hurricane or some such, but here in Alaska it gets classified as a wind storm. I was working outside on the ramp at the time, and can vouch for its severity. Now, a fall storm like that isn't at all unusual for this area, but something different about the wind direction of this one ended up killing a bunch of trees. A whole lot of trees, as a matter of fact. Many of which came down on houses, cars, streets, and power lines. Power at our house went out sometime that evening while I was at work, and by the time I was able to head home after 1am, most of the street lights and traffic signals were also out. I actually had to turn around at one point and reroute because the street I normally take into our neighborhood had several trees down, blocking it completely.
We were one of somewhere over 40,000 households without power. As it turned out, on Sunday evening we were among the last to have power restored. I know there are still people without power because I can still hear a generator running not far from here. It may be powering a traffic signal though, now that I think about it. Anyway, it sucked, but it could have sucked a whole lot worse, especially if it had been winter or even later in the fall. I think we would have still been okay, but a lot of people would have had frozen/burst pipes, etc. by the time they got their power back.
Anyway, here are some of the things I managed to do right...
First, several years ago I correctly identified our biggest vulnerability as a reliance on BOTH electrical power AND the natural gas distribution system in order to keep the house heated. My solution was to buy a completely self-contained, stand-alone kerosene heater of 23,000 BTU capacity and plenty of kerosene. This was more than adequate to heat my relatively small house, and represents the best $100 or so I have ever spent on preparedness. I only had to run it 2-3 times a day to keep the house comfortable.
Second, I had a backup means of cooking in the form of a Coleman propane stove and plenty of propane. The stove is almost identical to the one that we use at our cabin, so my wife was already comfortable with using it.
Third, I already cut down the last of the trees on our property last year. It was growing up among the power lines, and I didn't want to risk leaving it there. I still lost power because almost nobody else thought to do the same thing with their trees ahead of time, but at least I didn't wind up with any downed power lines in MY yard. And the worst damage that we suffered was the loss of a few shingles from the roof which I have since replaced. That and the cover for my snow blower went AWOL.
Finally, it was only really a factor during the drive home from work that first night, but I was really thankful for the Hella driving lights that are installed on my Jeep and wired to come on with the high beams. They made the drive home with very few working street lights a whole lot safer, what with all the downed trees and the constant peril of a moose crossing the road in Anchorage. And since there was almost no other traffic, I was actually able to use them.
And other things that I didn't do right...
The big one is that I have procrastinated for years on buying a backup generator. If I'd been ready with one, we wouldn't have had to dick with the kerosene heater at all, and the biggest inconvenience would most likely have been loss of internet service. We're going to bite the bullet once the generator buying hysteria here dies down, and get a decent one and have a transfer switch installed.
I had battery powered lights and extra batteries, but my supply was barely adequate. I will be increasing my stock of these items in a more systematic way once the local store inventories have recovered.
And I made the stupid assumption that the power would be back on in a few hours as usual, and took no action the first night to relocate the food in the fridge and freezer, so we lost some of it.
Some other things worked out okay through no particular planning on my part....
The big one is that the gas fired hot water heater kept working throughout. I had been under the impression that it needed power, so the wiring I saw leading to it must have been a ground. This was a huge factor in keeping the house livable.
Second is that my brother recently moved from right across the road from us to another part of town. He never lost power, and the stuff that we did manage to save from the fridge and freezer is over at his place.
And third was that we had multiple offers from friends and family to go crash at their places that still had power. Since we were able to keep the house heated, and we had hot water for bathing and the ability to cook, I decided that this would be more trouble than it was worth, but it was good to have the option.
Anyway, the biggest hassle of the last week was one which I hadn't really given any thought to in the past: Laundry. We ended up going to friends' houses in order to do our laundry once it became clear that the power was going to be off for a while (and oh by the way borrow their internet connections). If I had even a minimal generator this probably wouldn't have been necessary, since I have a gas dryer and it only needs 115V to run. Saturday night when I was at work, some friends insisted that my wife take their genset since their power had just come on, but since we aren't really set up to use it (hardwired appliances or inaccessible plugs, and no transfer switch for the house), she ended up just using it to watch TV. I'll probably start a separate thread on generators once I am ready to get serious about one.
We were one of somewhere over 40,000 households without power. As it turned out, on Sunday evening we were among the last to have power restored. I know there are still people without power because I can still hear a generator running not far from here. It may be powering a traffic signal though, now that I think about it. Anyway, it sucked, but it could have sucked a whole lot worse, especially if it had been winter or even later in the fall. I think we would have still been okay, but a lot of people would have had frozen/burst pipes, etc. by the time they got their power back.
Anyway, here are some of the things I managed to do right...
First, several years ago I correctly identified our biggest vulnerability as a reliance on BOTH electrical power AND the natural gas distribution system in order to keep the house heated. My solution was to buy a completely self-contained, stand-alone kerosene heater of 23,000 BTU capacity and plenty of kerosene. This was more than adequate to heat my relatively small house, and represents the best $100 or so I have ever spent on preparedness. I only had to run it 2-3 times a day to keep the house comfortable.
Second, I had a backup means of cooking in the form of a Coleman propane stove and plenty of propane. The stove is almost identical to the one that we use at our cabin, so my wife was already comfortable with using it.
Third, I already cut down the last of the trees on our property last year. It was growing up among the power lines, and I didn't want to risk leaving it there. I still lost power because almost nobody else thought to do the same thing with their trees ahead of time, but at least I didn't wind up with any downed power lines in MY yard. And the worst damage that we suffered was the loss of a few shingles from the roof which I have since replaced. That and the cover for my snow blower went AWOL.
Finally, it was only really a factor during the drive home from work that first night, but I was really thankful for the Hella driving lights that are installed on my Jeep and wired to come on with the high beams. They made the drive home with very few working street lights a whole lot safer, what with all the downed trees and the constant peril of a moose crossing the road in Anchorage. And since there was almost no other traffic, I was actually able to use them.
And other things that I didn't do right...
The big one is that I have procrastinated for years on buying a backup generator. If I'd been ready with one, we wouldn't have had to dick with the kerosene heater at all, and the biggest inconvenience would most likely have been loss of internet service. We're going to bite the bullet once the generator buying hysteria here dies down, and get a decent one and have a transfer switch installed.
I had battery powered lights and extra batteries, but my supply was barely adequate. I will be increasing my stock of these items in a more systematic way once the local store inventories have recovered.
And I made the stupid assumption that the power would be back on in a few hours as usual, and took no action the first night to relocate the food in the fridge and freezer, so we lost some of it.
Some other things worked out okay through no particular planning on my part....
The big one is that the gas fired hot water heater kept working throughout. I had been under the impression that it needed power, so the wiring I saw leading to it must have been a ground. This was a huge factor in keeping the house livable.
Second is that my brother recently moved from right across the road from us to another part of town. He never lost power, and the stuff that we did manage to save from the fridge and freezer is over at his place.
And third was that we had multiple offers from friends and family to go crash at their places that still had power. Since we were able to keep the house heated, and we had hot water for bathing and the ability to cook, I decided that this would be more trouble than it was worth, but it was good to have the option.
Anyway, the biggest hassle of the last week was one which I hadn't really given any thought to in the past: Laundry. We ended up going to friends' houses in order to do our laundry once it became clear that the power was going to be off for a while (and oh by the way borrow their internet connections). If I had even a minimal generator this probably wouldn't have been necessary, since I have a gas dryer and it only needs 115V to run. Saturday night when I was at work, some friends insisted that my wife take their genset since their power had just come on, but since we aren't really set up to use it (hardwired appliances or inaccessible plugs, and no transfer switch for the house), she ended up just using it to watch TV. I'll probably start a separate thread on generators once I am ready to get serious about one.