Do you have a fireplace? The things that saved us in the Blizzard of '93 when we were without power for almost four days were the fireplace and a gas water heater. Our oldest arrived in Birmingham, barely, for Spring Break. He was a freshman on The Hill and just wanted to watch the SEC basketball tournament and visit with his high school friends. He got to do neither.
Loss of power from fallen limbs brings forth the thought of why such an essential utility as electrical power is not underground, or at least the main lines.
We have a small generator for hurricanes, just big enough to run the well pump, the fridge, and a couple fans. They’re not that expensive and handy to have when the power goes out.
Boy, all that sucks. Although we are located far inland in North Carolina, when we moved into our new house in Chapel Hill years ago Hurricane Fran paid us a visit, trees down everywhere, no power for a week.
Fortunately now we have solar. And a backup battery. So we wouldn’t lose power. And the fallen trees would just mean we had more solar. And more firewood. Not a bad outcome unless the trees landed on our house. Which happened to a co-worker, she closed on her new house the day before Fran and it was flattened the next.
My kindergarten teacher was out on her (screened-in) front porch during a thunderstorm. Tree was knocked down by the storm and fell on the porch, killing her. (Kindergarten was in her home and we frequently had class out on that porch way back when.)
My power flickered several times yesterday evening. Luckily, it never went out. I understand that there were outages around the NWA area. I could have let the dogs under the covers, but I didn’t need to do that.
Fortunately, DFW was spared this storm cycle; it is cold here and we did get a few picturesque snowflakes last night, but not for long and nothing stuck.
2 years ago in that “Snow-maggedon”, I was mostly without power for 72 hours. After a stretch of about 15 hours, it started cycling on for an hour or two, then off for 4 to 6 hours. Problem was, temps were in the single digits.
I live in a condo, and my car was under a carport so not snowed/frozen in. More than once, I went out there, cranked the car up, drove around the corner to a spot where the sun would come through the windows (greenhouse effect) and used the heater. Meanwhile, bundled up in 3 layers of clothes. I probably looked even more like the Michelin man than usual.
Was very happy to have electricity back full-time on day #4.
I understand that to be the case from personal experiences where following a significant amount of neighborhood tornado damage including my home, I had my utilities reconnected underground. My question is more related to why the major electrical systems now in use aren’t placed underground in a similar fashion to those nationally underway in many communities for fiber optic installation. I appreciate the cost factor but I don’t understand why only new residential or commercial developments seem to be in consideration for underground installation leaving an existing electrical system subject to periods of interruption.
That’s awful about your kindergarten teacher. Another coworker of mine had a tree fall directly on her bed or her daughter’s bed, I can’t remember which, right after they had miraculously gotten up.
When Hurricane Fran happened to us it was called a once in a lifetime thing. Now it seems to happen once a year. Or more.
Can’t recall the year but one of those years we had a major ice storm and power was out all over the state. We didn’t have power for I’m guessing 4-6 days and those ice cold showers sucked big time. I was screaming the whole time.
That is the #1 reason when I was looking for a house, I made sure it had a fireplace and a gas hot water heater. No matter the weather, I can have warm water and a fire in the fireplace kipping things warm. I mean everyone may have to sleep in front of it, but more bodies equals more snuggling warmth.