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11 power poles down

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Basil

Basil

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I'm sitting in the parking lot at Walgreens about 2 miles from my house. We have been without power at my house since 4:30 this afternoon. It is now almost 10:45PM. When I called the electric company there is a recording that says there are 11 Power poles down in our area and not to expect power to be restored until sometime Saturday. No idea how that many power poles went down. We did have a pretty good T-storm come through earlier.
 
Maybe that kid that crashed across the street from you took them out first.
 
Hang in there. Though being without hardware is terribly inconvenient, at least they anticipate power will be restored within a day.
 
I remember how miserable we all were a few years ago, when southern New England, NYC, and New Jersey lost power for over a week.

gak
 
It's now 6:30AM Saturday and we're still without power. I'm up at McDonalds getting some breakfast takeout.
 
just heard that it was 16 poles that were down. Also, we are not expected to get power back for another 24 hours. That will be 48 hours total
 
At least McDonald's has power. There is something reassuring about hot food when you lose utilities at home.
 
I got a Ranger 8 welder /generator in late 1999. Did not believe in the Y2K issue causing major power outage but it was an excuse to get a generator/welder.
I have it wired up to power the fridge and freezer, well pump some outlets and lights.
Got the manual changeover switch from Northern tool making it a legal setup.

Have used it several times to keep the lights on.

David
 
PAUL161 said:
Reason I had one of these installed. PJ
View attachment 50015
Click to expand...

We've talked about getting a generator but I have to consider that in 22 years living here this is the only time I can recall having such an extended outage. Usually our outages are fairly short. I did buy a UPS that I use to keep my internet, wireless, and cell phone micro-cell during an outage, but unfortunately it only keeps things on line for about an hour.

If this kind of extended outage were more common, the decision to buy a generator would be easy.
 
Sorry... lengthy generator story to follow.

The guy who built the house across the street from us installed a Generac unit similar to the one shown above. When the neighborhood lost power you would hear that thing kick on immediately.

Two subsequent owners of the house never even had reason to test the unit and it sat idle... until the end of last month. The third owner sold the house. The new fourth owner decided to delay by two or three days having the electricity switched to their name and turned on. Following closing, the electric utility cut off power to the house and immediately the (natural gas powered) Generac fired up. It ran for three days until the electric company switched billing and turned power back on to the house. All of us around the house took turns trying to contact realtors and the previous owner to see what we could do to turn the darn thing off. I guess the new owner is going to receive a healthy natural gas bill this month.
 
Many moons ago we bought and had installed a natural gas fired Kohler generator with a switch for full hose.
That was fun.
The seal for the meter is serialized, can't cut it, so I drilled with a pin vise, jeweler's screwdriver retracted the lock pin, did the work, re-installed and hot glued the hole from the bottom.

I think in all these years it has come on twice.

Before that it was three or four times a year with no power, and I got tired of the portable Craftsman generator and extension cords...and finding a gas station that had power.

Peace of mind, if nothing else.
 
As an F/Y/I there is a FB page called East Mountain 411 and it is very informative. I never thought about you being one of the in the dark folks. I just presumed you had PNM. You would have been welcomed in the guesthouse.
They said it was a microburst that took out one and the domino theory proved correct.
 
judow said:
As an F/Y/I there is a FB page called East Mountain 411 and it is very informative. I never thought about you being one of the in the dark folks. I just presumed you had PNM. You would have been welcomed in the guesthouse.
They said it was a microburst that took out one and the domino theory proved correct.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but the issue wasn't a place to stay, it was keeping the food cold! (I bought a bunch of ice and put it in the bottom freezer and also used large ice chest. In the end it wasn't too bad - more of an annoyance.
 
As most folks know, Eastern Oklahoma has some crazy weather in the Spring and early Summer. Power outages are not that uncommon. Last outage the generator ran for 4 days continuous. In the Winter, we get ice storms once in a while and tree branches drop taking out power lines. Haven't got our money back yet on the generator, but mother nature is working on it. I agree with Basil, lost food in the freezers, we have three, gets very expensive. PJ
 
Do you keep gas on hand to run the generator or is it a fixed unit running on Natural Gas?

I have about 20 gallons of gas which should keep me in power for a few days if I only run it 3 or 4 hours a day. My generator powers fridge, freezer, well pump, water heater (natural gas on demand heater), some outlets and lights. I keep the gas fresh by rotating it through the cars/trucks.

David
 
Where I live, SW OK we lose power every winter usually for around three or four days sometimes as long as a couple of weeks, once about five years ago we were without power for over a month. The secret is to have plenty of books, board games, oil lamps, a Victrola, and a fireplace. I can hunker down this way and last out the power outage, unless our water tower runs dry.
 
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