Storm prep, this is getting ridiculous!

[jami w.]

QUOTE="soundmotor, post: 11440188, member: 5761"]I was asking for what you all do and I told you how we get by. So far I've got "just deal with it", MREs, canned food, and a generator that runs the house, is that it?
thats all i do, not much else i can do. well i can still make coffee. gas stove boil water on stove top and use funnel to pour into top of my coffeemaker, and listen to a battery powered radio while having a romantic dinner for one (mre)

 

[AdamAnt316]

As I've detailed in other threads, we have a 10KW (peak) generator, manufacturer unknown, which is nearing its 25th birthday. I believe it was purchased from Harbor Freight back when they were still largely a mail-order firm. It uses a 16HP Briggs & Stratton "Vanguard" engine as its power plant. Other than failing to start during a freak October snowstorm storm we had six years ago, it's performed admirably every time it was called upon. It is connected to the entire panel, using the main breaker as a manual transfer switch.

The generator will be ready, and I'm sure we have plenty of milk and bread. Of course, most of the weather reports say we're only going to get a few inches up here in north-central MA, so it's probably not much to worry about. In case it is, though, we'll be ready...
-Adam
Winter weary

 

[jcamero]

Pretty lucky here is SE Wisconsin. We have not had a "major" snow event in 7 years. That year we received almost 2 feet. How I prepare? Make sure the car/suv is gassed up, A gallon of gas for the snow blower. Milk, Coke-A-Cola, frozen pizza's, Strawberry Pop Tart's. I also put the spare snow shovel in the house. Power outage? No standby generator, we have a few flashlights, and candles. Been lucky with power. The last outage was construction related, and only a few hours. I showered by flashlight. What sucked was we have an electric stove, NO COFFEE!

 

[danrclem]

I have a generator, inverter, kerosene lamps, candles, flashlight and batteries, wood stove, gas stove and plenty of food and drinks. What more could a man want.

It's snowing right now but I don't think there's going to very much accumulation.

 

[MannyE]

Not cold but hot. To answer your question, here's what I do...

For the hurricane aftermath, I have a Honda generator that runs on gasoline and I keep it and about 20 gallons of unleaded regular in a shed outside. After the storm, assuming I still have a house, I put the two freezers, the two fridges and the wine cellars and a phone charger on it. I also power a small a/c that cools down the garage so I don't kill everyone I see.

This makes sure I don't lose my expensive ( I don't know about you guys but even $14 dollar bottles add up if you have 100 of them) wine and my mead and any frozen meat I have stays that way. And I can make calls assuming I still have a house.

Once I know my house hasn't been destroyed, I leave. I rent a hotel as close as possible that has power, and wait it out until my RING doorbell and/or neighbors tell me the power is back.

Life is too ****ing short to sweat and not have internet.

 

[rjw1678]

I have a whole house standby generator that is fully automatic, the longest I am without electricity is 20 seconds. In winter I have plenty of gasoline for the snow blower. A full tank of gasoline in the WRX and good winter tires(if winter time). Enough food for a couple weeks. My chain saw with enough gasoline mixed and ready to use.

 

[ConradH]

We live in terror of power failures because we rely on a sump pump to keep the underground lair dry. I've got a generator, but need to be here to hook it up. No whole house deal. When we had the February rain and melt the ground was frozen and the water had nowhere to go. We were pumping just under 4000 gallons per day. I would have had maybe two minutes to deal with a power failure before things started getting wet. Right now things are pretty stable- only pumping about 700 gallons a day. I've got some excavation and new drainage scheduled for the very near future. Other than that, storm prep is fairly simple- get enough firewood in the garage for a few days and stock up on bread and milk. No problem cooking on the wood stove if it comes to that.

 

[robgmn]

To the OP: safety, safety. safety.
Ditch the oil lamps and use LED. The draw on the generator would be insignificant. You could even go with rechargeable battery-operated LED if you want, and charge them off the generator.
Ditch anything else possible that uses combustion and creates carbon monoxide in the house.
Crap happens and people die from that stuff (CO and fire), even when they are careful.

 

[Archguy]

Once I know my house hasn't been destroyed, I leave. I rent a hotel as close as possible that has power, and wait it out until my RING doorbell and/or neighbors tell me the power is back.

This part I don't understand. As soon as there's a credible threat of a hurricane, all the inland lodging is booked up for hundreds of miles. How do you pull this off?

 

[jami w.]

Pretty lucky here is SE Wisconsin. We have not had a "major" snow event in 7 years. That year we received almost 2 feet. How I prepare? Make sure the car/suv is gassed up, A gallon of gas for the snow blower. Milk, Coke-A-Cola, frozen pizza's, Strawberry Pop Tart's. I also put the spare snow shovel in the house. Power outage? No standby generator, we have a few flashlights, and candles. Been lucky with power. The last outage was construction related, and only a few hours. I showered by flashlight. What sucked was we have an electric stove, NO COFFEE!

main reason ill only live with a gas stove

 

[MannyE]

I book hotels about a week away from the storm in places like Sarasota, Tampa, Sebring or Melbourne. If nothing happens I cancel. I have "eaten" one day (200ish bucks) once when the storm whose name eludes me right now didn't hit about 4 years ago. Only mistake was with the last one where we decided to stay and it suuuuucked. I would have paid $500 in missed hotels to avoid the humid mess we dealt with.

 

[Archguy]

Understood... I find it impossible to sleep when it's 95 degrees with 95% RH and no A/C (and no breeze, of course). Only the sounds of the neighbors' (very loud) generators switching on and off all night. Well it's sort of like a living hell, that's all! BTW, I used to spend a lot of wintertime in 33141. That's more like heaven, in Dec & Jan.

I realize that this particular narrative isn't helpful to our friends up north just now

 

[Bill Ferris]

Not cold but hot. To answer your question, here's what I do...

For the hurricane aftermath, I have a Honda generator that runs on gasoline and I keep it and about 20 gallons of unleaded regular in a shed outside. After the storm, assuming I still have a house, I put the two freezers, the two fridges and the wine cellars and a phone charger on it. I also power a small a/c that cools down the garage so I don't kill everyone I see.

This makes sure I don't lose my expensive ( I don't know about you guys but even $14 dollar bottles add up if you have 100 of them) wine and my mead and any frozen meat I have stays that way. And I can make calls assuming I still have a house.

Once I know my house hasn't been destroyed, I leave. I rent a hotel as close as possible that has power, and wait it out until my RING doorbell and/or neighbors tell me the power is back.

Life is too ****ing short to sweat and not have internet.

Yeah Manny, you tell them how us Floridians are seasoned veterans in adapting & prepping for mother nature`s abuse..
Like you commented several times :if our house is "still standing", and our generator is functioning for the fridge`s food, booze, and most of all important in Southern latitudes, the Air conditioning !!

As of Sunday I finally have a custom modified/created SS exhaust system for my 25 kw whole house standby generator..

No more rusting out factory POS $ 1,000.00 gouge factor rip off standard replacement muffler for this old fart !!

 

[MannyE]

Yeah Manny, you tell them how us Floridians are seasoned veterans in adapting & prepping for mother nature`s abuse..
Like you commented several times :if our house is "still standing", and our generator is functioning for the fridge`s food, booze, and most of all important in Southern latitudes, the Air conditioning !!

As of Sunday I finally have a custom modified/created SS exhaust system for my 25 kw whole house standby generator..

No more rusting out factory POS $ 1,000.00 gouge factor rip off standard replacement muffler for this old fart !!

LOL! Good job! Now I know where to go next summer! I'll bring booze and vinyl!

 

[slow_jazz]

Unless your running a central air conditioner you can get by with lot less than 15kw.

 

[Alobar]

curious what everyone else does

Just throw another log on the fire.. Fortunately while we do get wind, ice, and snow, because of that perhaps the local utility chose to run the entire area (about 7miles) completely underground. In fact the last utility pole of any kind is 3 miles away. We rarely lose power here and if it does go out it usually is back within 15 to 30 minutes.

Perhaps one thing that helps make our electricity so reliable is that we are not connected to a large grid. Just 2 small towns, about 4000 people total and all run from hydro. Just very stable reliable power without anything from a large grid going down taking large areas with it.

 

[gadget73]

My generator won't run everything in the house, but its set up to back-feed the panel so I can run anything I need. Basically if I need the generator, I switch off all the breakers, get the generator going, then turn on only what I need. Basically thats a few lights, the fridge, the pellet stove, and the well pump. Generator is a 5.5 KW Generac.

Honestly unless its going to be out a while, I don't bother. The pellet stove has a fair size UPS that will run it for a few hours, and I have propane lanterns for light when needed. I bought the generator probably 8 years ago, I think it has 10 hours on it. Maybe 1 of those was actually powering the house, the rest were "make sure it still runs" tests.

 

[soundmotor]

QUOTE="soundmotor, post: 11440188, member: 5761"]
thats all i do, not much else i can do. well i can still make coffee. gas stove boil water on stove top and use funnel to pour into top of my coffeemaker, and listen to a battery powered radio while having a romantic dinner for one (mre)

That sound's sad. You're welcome to come by!

 

[soundmotor]

As I've detailed in other threads, we have a 10KW (peak) generator, manufacturer unknown, which is nearing its 25th birthday. I believe it was purchased from Harbor Freight back when they were still largely a mail-order firm. It uses a 16HP Briggs & Stratton "Vanguard" engine as its power plant. Other than failing to start during a freak October snowstorm storm we had six years ago, it's performed admirably every time it was called upon. It is connected to the entire panel, using the main breaker as a manual transfer switch.

The generator will be ready, and I'm sure we have plenty of milk and bread. Of course, most of the weather reports say we're only going to get a few inches up here in north-central MA, so it's probably not much to worry about. In case it is, though, we'll be ready...
-Adam
Winter weary

I've been thinking about similar feed set-up off the main box and may do that this year. It would be a lot simpler.

 

[soundmotor]

What sucked was we have an electric stove, NO COFFEE!

~20 years back we got hit with the queen mother of a storm (in April) that left 2 feet! No power for nearly a week. I had no idea what to do. My wife & little ones bailed for my mom's place an hour away and I stayed burning logs in the fireplace to keep the temp above freezing.

Coffee however was Job 1 and non-negotiable. I took 3 tuna cans set up in a triangle and put tealights in that space, lit them, and put a saucepan with a couple inches of water on top of the tuna cans. It took awhile but eventually got hot enough to run through a filter and into a thermos and coffee was made.