What's the longest anyone has been with out power, in their home?

[NJmaverick]

Mine went out Tuesday night, and I understand PSEG is thinking about maybe starting to fix the problem sometime Friday. So how long has anyone been with out power. Does anyone have a list of refrigerated and frozen foods, that may be able to survive a multi day thaw? Anyone have any other helpful hints for dealing with a multi-day power outage?

[Midlodemocrat]

1. People here were without power for weeks after Isabel went through.

Your best bet is to get a generator. They're very loud, but you could plug your fridge into it at the very least.

One thing is not to open either the fridge or the freezer. The frozen stuff should be fine, but opening the doors breaks the seal and stuff will spoil very quickly.

[NJmaverick]

2. Thanks, I have kept the doors closed

I unfortunately don't have a generator (over the years, it's never really been a major issue). Lucky me, my neighbors have a real noisy one though. I figure to run a fridge and a freezer, I would need a heavy duty one. Plus if I go gasoline, there are all the maintenance issues, and the gas getting old. I would think my best bet, if I go the generator route, is to get a natural gas one and have it hard wired into the circuits. You are talking big $$$$ then and my area really isn't prone to the sort of frequent outages too justify the expense.

[Midlodemocrat]

5. I can run half of my 3500square house on a 5500 watt one.

It's wired to the house. We did it when my dad was here because we needed to have power for him in the event of a big storm.

You'd be amazed at how much you can run with even a small one. They're not that expensive, either $500 or so.

[madinmaryland]

11. THAT's HUGH!!1!! You own a McMansion!!

:hi:

[Midlodemocrat]

43. Is not. We just used up every single bit of available space.

So, I essentially have no storage. It's okay. Keeps the clutter down.

[NJmaverick]

12. Thanks, I will look in to getting one, although I suspect they are sold out

in the area, but it might help with future outages.

[mikeytherat]

3. After Isabella we were without power for 21 days

21 days. Although our house was built in 1993 and all our utilities are underground, it is at the back of our subdivision, and we tie into the electrical grid near an older neighborhood with above-ground utilities. It was not fun, but we got really good at gassing up the generator. Thank (insert deity of choice) that we have natural gas for hot water!

mikey_the_rat

[NJmaverick]

10. Wow that's a long time

I couldn't imagine that sort of time frame

[sammythecat]

53. Good grief.

We went 2 1/2 days back in the 90's and I thought THAT was epic. I can't imagine 3 weeks!

[Duppers]

59. same here

Isabelle spun small tornadoes in our York Co. neighborhood. It was a couple of days before we could drive out because of the fallen trees.

[MorningGlow]

4. Thank goodness, not long--about 12 hours

But folks in the western NY area can tell many long-winded stories of the "ice storm of '91" that was soundly ignored by the national media. While we had our power restored fairly quickly, some people just a few miles away didn't have power for more than two, sometimes three, weeks. It was bad--REALLY bad. :scared:

[TZ]

6. 2 plus days from Isabel....

And I did end up throwing a lot out..Power was out EVERYWHERE around me and I had to eat....

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. 5 days in the 1994 Ice Storm in Maryland.

I'm thinking it was longer for Hurricane Wilma and Hurricane Frances down here in Florida, but I can't recall how many days. Wilma might have been for a week. Frances was probably 3 or 4 days.

[nytemare]

32. Another Maryland-Florida transplant!

I lived in MD until I was 8, but was stationed back at Belvoir during said ice storm. That was nasty, and it's hard on your calves to walk on.

I am in O-town, and I think Charley was our worst power outage. Some places in our area were without for 10 days or so. Frances and Jeanne were about 2-5 days for most.


:hi:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

46. It's hard to walk, period.

I literally had to climb up hills that were covered in six inches of ice.

[nytemare]

63. I can't count how many times I fell.

One night, I was trying to go to the little shopette, and you must think about walking when it is icy. I had the decision to step up onto the curb, or walk up the handicapped ramp. I decided to walk up the ramp, and halfway up, I just started moving my feet back and forth and I wasn't going anywhere. I had to move my legs really fast to get enough momentum to go up the ramp. The ID checker lady was laughing hysterically. That was fun.

[Iggo]

8. About 2 days, back in 2000 or 2001.

Some kind of utility truck backed up into and knocked down the main power pole in my neighborhood. We'd get a few minutes of power here and there as they scrambled to get us back online, but it sucked tremendously.

[KitchenWitch]

9. 44 hours.

Some sort of accident took out a substation once and it took our whole neighborhood in Minnesota offline for 44 hours.

[skygazer]

13. Get a generator

One of the best investments I ever made. They have small, relatively quiet ones that are capable of powering your essential appliances.

Other suggestions - open your frig and freezer as little as possible. Fill up ice chests and put food in them.

I've been without power for over a week before. We keep a camp stove and oil lanterns around for those times, and have the generator for the frig (and the TV :) ). It's good to be prepared - with more and more people, it takes longer for crews to get all the lights back on.

[NJmaverick]

14. thanks, you know it does seem like the utilities are taking longer and longer

to repair problems. I bet it was part of the deregulation. The utility companies cut back on repair crews to save $$$$$

[KG]

15. 21 hours. Kate '85

refrig wasn't my concern, it was the former coal bin used to house the air handler and w/h filling up with water since the sump was no longer operational. about the time i finally came up with a generator, the power came back on. with a few inches to spare.

[Lars39]

16. 14 days, during an ice storm and recovery.

I learned to cook on a kerosene heater.

[NJmaverick]

17. That couldn't have been fun

Did your home have heat, during the outage?

[Lars39]

37. The kerosene heater was it.

We piled on the sleeping bags at night. It was really old by about the 3rd day. :)

[NJmaverick]

51. Were you worried about CO build up in the home?

[Lars39]

60. We didn't run it at night, and during the day we were in and out enough

that we aired the house out.

[sarge43]

19. New England, Lars39? n/t

[Lars39]

35. Middle TN :^)

[sarge43]

44. Those ice storms do get around. n/t

[sarge43]

18. Six days, Apr 15 -20 2007

Some people in the area went for two weeks. Big wind storm took out lots of trees which took lots of power lines.

If you have a warning, fill up the bath tub with water. Keep a cache of canned foods and bottle water (use them up within a year), batteries of course, (keep 'em in the freezer), a small propane stove isn't a bad investment. As you can see, surviving a power outage is all in the pre-prep.

As we have outages routinely, we just got a generator.

[NJmaverick]

23. Unfortunately it's cooling season now

the storms were the lead of a cool front, so the really heat wave heat was trapped inside (since there was no way to vent the heat). Plus I have seasonal allergies that makes me hesitant to open up my bedroom windows.

[Shakespeare]

20. Almost a week after hurricane Erin in 1995.

And it sucked ass. Temps in the high 90s and high humidity. I would have preferred a quick death.

[suninvited]

22. Same one I went the longest without power from!

Were you in Pensacola in 1995?

[Shakespeare]

28. Unfortunately, yes.

I was finishing up grad school at Univ. West FL at the time. I was hit and nearly killed by a drunk driver immediately after the hurricane (rode out the storm just fine--the aftermath is what almost killed me!), so I spent a week lying around dazed on pain killers and being very hot and uncomfortable.

I moved the hell away from there a month later. :7

[suninvited]

45. I was there for 21 years.

You really do have to watch out for the drunk drivers in Pensacola, I dont know why that is. Glad you made it through that ordeal.

I left shortly after Ivan. I lost my workplace and home in that one !

[suninvited]

21. About 5 days

in 1995, afer Hurricane Erin. The rest of the neighborhood was restored, so we could run cords to our neighbors house the last couple of days for the necessities. (NO A/C and this was early August in Florida)

We had direct damage to our lines in our yard, and it was forever getting a contractor out there!

Then about 3 days after Hurricane Ivan in 2004, while some of Pensacola was out for weeks after that one. I was lucky because I lived downtown in the banking district, so it was priority for the electric company to get that area up and running.

I was very prepared for both, and didnt need ice or refrigerator to exist.

Edit for spelling error.

[Zavulon]

24. Eleven days in August or September of 2003.

Some hurricane, can't even remember the name. All I know is that the entertainment highlight of the week was Orioles games on the radio in candlelight.

[NJmaverick]

29. Actually the candlelight baseball game on the radio

sounds kind of cool, in a retro sort of way.

[Zavulon]

33. And for the first 2-3 games, it was.

Again, though, eleven days - and I'm not even an AL guy. :(

[femmocrat]

25. About 48 hours.

It was in the dead of winter, though, so we managed to keep some things cold. We cooked on the wood-burner and read by candle-light. It was kind of fun, except for being half-frozen to death!

I don't think any frozen foods should be re-frozen, but if you cook them right away you could freeze the cooked food. (Hope that makes sense.) From Tues. to Friday is a long time, though, unless you have a turkey in there. You should probably pitch everything else.

[NJmaverick]

30. thanks, with the length of time, I think I will be tossing almost everything

better safe than sorry.

[BarenakedLady]

26. Blizzard of '78, over a week.

I was only 9, so it was more of an adventure than a hardship.

[FloridaJudy]

27. Two weeks in 2004

After Hurricane Jeanne. This was after we lost power for several days each for Charley, Frances, and Ivan.

Also was staying in South Florida for Wilma in 2005. It took over 10 days to get the power back to the facility where I was living, and we got it faster than most.

In case of national disasters like that, the Red Cross is pretty good about getting ice to hard-hit areas. Living in Florida where hurricanes are the norm, I usually stock up on candles, flashlights, and canned goods that can be eaten without a lot of cooking (Vienna sausages, tuna, olives - even Spam), crackers and the like at the beginning of the season. You do not want to try grocery shopping when a hurricane warning is in effect, unless you're dying to see humanity at its most depraved.

Worse comes to worst, one can check into a shelter for a day or two. They invariably have generators - air conditioning! - and food. Of course, when your power goes out for something other than a disaster, your options are pretty limited.

[NJmaverick]

31. They actaully opened up a shelter, but I think I will pass

I just can't imagine that it would be any better.

[BOSSHOG]

34. The 14 days following Katrina

[NJmaverick]

36. You got hit by Katrina? that had to be pretty rough

with almost everything else disrupted, as well.

[BOSSHOG]

41. We live

50 miles northeast of New Orleans. Lost a lot of trees and had some minor damage done to the house. Hot as hell, very miserable. We left three days after the hurricane to stay with the inlaws for awhile. The neighbor and I started chucking stuff from the freezers onto our grills; what we didn't eat didn't stink. It was primitive living for quite awhile but we were so much luckier then those who lived just a few miles south of us.

[NewJeffCT]

38. During the infamous New England ice storm in the 70s

I think our home in central CT was without power for several days, but we ended up staying at my grandparent's house because they had a fireplace there.

[rug]

39. 25 hours. 1977 NYC blackout.

[Oeditpus Rex]

40. About 30 hours

Starting at 5:04 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989.

[DarkTirade]

42. I lived in Florida for 20 years. Lost count of the number of hurricanes that past by or near me.

:) Seriously though, I wasn't near the coast so it wasn't that bad usually. Never more than a couple of days.

[ScreamingMeemie]

47. 4 days during the great blackout of 2003.

We had a generator and then MrG got a bigger one afterward so we'd never get stuck like that again. I can run the whole house on it if need be. I keep things as long as they still have ice crystals on them. I also cooked up a lot of the meet and stored it in the basement. I cooked up 10 pounds of hamburger and we just stored it and used it in soups, sauces, and tacos.

[Initech]

48. Blackouts in my neighborhood are frequent and often.

There has been lots of construction too which has only made the situation worse.

[logosoco]

49. From Friday am to Monday pm...

Ice storm. If we had to lose power, I am glad it was in the winter. We kept things cold on the porch. Our well is electric, but we had snow and ice to melt to flush the toilet! Our "just for looks" fireplace kept us warm enough (we have since bought a kerosene heater!). I am on the look out for a propane camp stove. We have a wind up radio and flash light.
Two of our neighbors had generators and used them mainly for TV.
We learned a lot from this experience.

[Shell Beau]

50. 10 days or so when we had a hellacious ice storm.

Most recently it was 3 days back in April. We had some terrible weather come through.

[eyepaddle]

52. I went about six weeks once,

but that was because I lived with some dudes who were just as broke as I was!

[AirmensMom]

54. I think it was a week

or even a few days longer than a week, after Hurricane Wilma. Once things thawed, we took the BBQ grill out to the driveway, cooked everything we had, and invited the neighbors over to help us eat it. We were the only ones in the neighborhood without a generator. We finally did buy one, about 3 hours before the electricity came back on. :shrug:

[Bake]

55. I think it was a week, in the aftermath of Katrina

But we're in freaking MADISON MS, only like 175 miles inland ... we lost everything in the fridge (and we had just been to the grocery, too!).

Bake

[Sheets of Easter]

56. 2 days, after a surprise late-April snow storm.

[China_cat]

57. 3 weeks after hurricane Hugo

[BooScout]

58. 10 days in Atlanta's Ice Storm of 1973...

I loved it..........then I was only 13, schools were closed and we could play in the snow and ice to our heart's content.

[galledgoblin]

61. a day or two after an ice storm in spring of 2003, and

a day or two during that massive summer outage a few years ago.

that's out in my hometown though, where the power flickers. where I've been living for about 5 years now I've never had a power outage.

[frickaline]

62. 3 days ... got my whole area too

I thought I was going to have to go eat in a hospital cafeteria. I would have if it lasted any longer. They were the only ones in the area that had power.

[KamaAina]

64. Pretty much one entire winter

not a blackout, though PSEG is indeed involved.

When I moved into Jersey City, the juice was on, under the former tenant's name. The landlady told me PSEG wouldn't switch it to mine without an NJ ID. I had none, and no way to get one without taking off work. So it just stayed on, right up until they shut me (or him) off while I was housesitting in NYC.

The stove was gas. The computer, TV, etc. weren't. That spring I finally found a place in NYC I could afford.

edit: spelling, clarity

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

65. 13 days, after Isabel. It ranks up there as one of the most unpleasant times of my life.

[crim son]

66. Four days, during a huge ice storm.

The stove was electric, the water our own, run by electric pump. Thank the Deity we had a small generator... many of our neighbors did not.

[Xipe Totec]

67. Over a week, but that was Beulah 1967

In Texas upon landfall, an 18 feet (5.5 m) to 20 feet (6.1 m) storm surge inundated lower Padre Island. The force of the storm tide made 31 cuts completely through the barrier island. Padre Island suffered significant devastation, and the island's sensitive ecosystem was altered by the storm. The highest sustained wind was reported as 136 miles per hour (219 km/h), recorded in the town of South Padre Island, across the Laguna Madre from Port Isabel. Winds as high as 109 miles per hour (175 km/h) were measured at the Brownsville National Weather Service office at landfall. Since the hurricane bent the anemometer 30 degrees from the vertical, it is possible the winds at Brownsville were underestimated. Gusts of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) were recorded as far inland as the towns of McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, and Pharr, some 50 miles (80 km) from the gulf coast. Beulah spawned a record 115 tornadoes which destroyed homes, commercial property, and inflicted serious damage on the region's agricultural industry. The tornado record from Beulah would survive until Hurricane Ivan set a new record in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Beulah

[eppur_se_muova]

68. Prior to the late 19th century, no one had power in their homes.

But I see that's not what you're asking. :)

[ForrestGump]

69. Fifteen years or so

My wife had control issues.

[ForrestGump]

70. Oh. THAT

kind of power.

Dunno. Maybe a week or so after the worst hurricane I've been through. I've had multiday cuts before, though, in different parts of the world.

[Coyote_Bandit]

71. Over a week in an ice storm

last December. 30 hours just last week after a storm blew through. Several other lesses outages between the two. Lots of continuing brief outages. I was unable to even leave my street for several days during the ice storm.

This has played hell on the electronics. Two cable boxes were burned out as were two surge protectors, a cable modem, and a wireless router. Lost two freezers full of food and most of the canned gods in the pantry froze and were lost in the ice storm.

I'm thinking I just might use that stimulus check that I still don't have to buy a generator. I wasn't planning on spending it but it seeme like it might be a good idea given my recent experience.

[kentauros]

72. Five days after Hurricane Alicia, 1983, Houston

We lived in Nassau Bay at the time (directly across the road from NASA-JSC) and survived with exceptionally minor damage. However, many of the neighbors weren't so lucky and we spent most of our days outside with our two chainsaws, hemp ropes, tackles and other tree-felling equipment (which we only had because we had lost almost all of our 80+ year old post oaks to a disease years earlier.) Sleeping without a/c in August was the worst. I maybe got 4-5 hours' sleep each night, thanks to the humidity levels.

[1]

73. three weeks. an ice storm hit southwest missouri jan. 12, 2007...

the storm knocked down nearly every power line in a 50 mile radius.

i got out and spent the first week at a motel6. i finally found a generator and moved back into the cabin.

when the power line to the cabin got pulled down by a huge branch, it yanked the wire all the way out of the breaker panel. apparently there two wires that go into that box (well three, one is a ground), one that carries a low voltage and one that is like 240v. when the line got yanked it shorted out the service disconnect breaker and shot 240v through every outlet. anything plugged in was immediately fried, the refrigerator, microwave, coffee machine, tv, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,

i live in the boonies and get my electricity from a small co-op, so i knew it would be awhile before they got to me. gas was only $2+ a gallon back then so making my own power wasn't so bad. i rebuilt the weatherhead going into the cabin and fixed the service disconnect breaker in the main panel. then i waited to get my coop out to reconnect me.

and waited. and waited... we all called and left messages. but my neighbors and i had to wait. so, you run into town to buy gas and haul water.

on day 15 or 16 they finally showed up to reconnect me. but... couldn't. the dropped powerline broke at the meter loop out on the pole going to the cabin. which was my responsibility to rebuild. that took two days (and about $300 for parts.)

when i finally could get them back to hook it all up it was feburary 2nd. heh, and the pressure tank on the well was frozen solid by that point. it was another week before i had running water. (thank god the inventor of the toilet had that great idea to put a tank on the back that you can fill to flush. that was pure genius.)

yeah, three weeks. and another six months to cut and burn the brazillion limbs and branches that were everywhere.


ah, country living...

[Liberal_in_LA]

74. 24 hours after the northridge earthquake

[lizziegrace]

75. 11 days

1994 ice storm in Mississippi