Ice Storm, Day II

[Flack]

Oklahoma's infrastructure is pretty resilient when it comes to wind and even tornadoes, but man does an ice storm tear things up (technically, "down"). I went to bed on Sunday like any other night, and woke up Monday morning to a layer of ice with sleet dumping down. My power flickered off and on a dozen times before I finished breakfast. Around noon, our cable (internet and television) went out, never to return. Unfortunately, the weather just got worse as the day went on. It got colder, not warmer, and the ice piled in trees began breaking branches, taking power lines with them. As of right now there are about 140,000 people without power. I'm not one of them, but my next door neighbor is. Our street is apparently wired to two different power circuits, so when his power goes out mine is sill on, and vice/versa. Last night around 9pm we ran a heavy duty extension cord from my workshop over to his house so he could get his heater up and running. If his power doesn't return soon, I'm sure we'll be doing the same for his fridge. My dad's power is also out, but he's one of the few people I know with a generator. (It's not really worth owning one when we only get a storm like this maybe once a year, maybe less). So for the time being we have electricity, heat, and internet through our phones. Everything important has been turned off or unplugged from the wall. This morning the ice is coming down even harder than yesterday, so I don't expect internet (or my neighbor's power) to return anytime soon.

[pinback]

If there's a problem, yo, you'll solve it.

[Casual Observer]

If there's a problem, yo, you'll solve it.

Ice Ice, Baby.

one of the few people I know with a generator

Any Rochesterians here remember the big ice storm of what 1990 or something? That was crazy, no power for a week and trees down everywhere. The worst ice storms are where they hardly ever happen. I used to live in Virginia which gets ice storms several times each winter. If the storms happen regularly then you don't really lose power because all of the dead branches are already off of the trees. In Rochester they had a once in a decade ice storm and every power line got fucked.

Speaking of generators, if I had stayed in Cali I would likely be using one right now due to the fact that Pacific Gas and Electric would rather shut off customers than fix their equipment so it doesn't start more fires during a wind storm.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Any Rochesterians here remember the big ice storm of what 1990 or something? That was crazy, no power for a week and trees down everywhere. The worst ice storms are where they hardly ever happen. I used to live in Virginia which gets ice storms several times each winter. If the storms happen regularly then you don't really lose power because all of the dead branches are already off of the trees. In Rochester they had a once in a decade ice storm and every power line got fucked.

Sho thing. I was working at the Hilton Big M and didn't have a driver's license yet. My dad had to drive me home. We saw an electrical line ahead of us come loose due to the ice storm on the street we were driving back on. Back at home we were without power for over a week and Jolt Country BBS in dial-up form was off-line for a week as well. A tragedy!!

[Flack]

Well good news, we lost power about four hours ago. Our local power company has an app that texts you when there's an outage in your area along with an expected time for repair. The former isn't really that useful; fifteen minutes after my power went out, the power company texted me to tell me my power was out. Duh. The line for "estimated time for restored service" is blank, which is awesome. Also, the website says they're having difficulties due to high traffic.

I was willing to buy a generator earlier today. Home Depot apparently had six in stock yesterday, and there are currently 225,000 people without power. I know the right thing to do is buy one when there's NOT an ice storm, but it's tough to pull the trigger then. I'll definitely have to do that and keep it out in the garage. That'll give me something to swear about when it doesn't start in five years, the next time I need it.

I found one of the kids' Gameboy Advance in the junk drawer while looking for matches for candles, so I'm getting a few rounds of Paperboy in.

At noon I was wearing a t-short and shorts. I'm currently wearing pants, a shirt, and a hoodie. By bedtime I expect to be wrapped up like a mummy. Good times. I guess the good news is I can start putting the contents of the fridge out on the back porch.

[AArdvark]

I got pix!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

We can't help you with your power issues but for as long as your phone works remember there are several HUGO GAMES available at http://textadventures.online/ !!!

Enjoy! They will be there when the Gameboy's battery runs out. (But they will not be there when your phone's battery runs out.)

[AArdvark]

In 1992 we were without electricity for 8 days. That's a lot of cold showers and no lights. Good old caveman days.

[Flack]

Welp, it's 9pm and still dark. The battery pack I bought from Amazon that The Happiness Engine mocked has done a good job of charging phones and MiFi devices. Tomorrow I'll have to take the car out for a spin and recharge the charger.

[Jizaboz]

Damn dude. Here I was debating what time I’m going surfing tomorrow here in NC and you are dealing with an ice storm. Hope the power comes back soon!

[The Happiness Engine]

My parents have a generator that I think is plumbed into their natural gas line. Usually ends up running the neighbors' critical things for about one week a year.

[Flack]

Damn dude. Here I was debating what time I’m going surfing tomorrow here in NC and you are dealing with an ice storm. Hope the power comes back soon!

My wife bought a generator online from a Home Depot in Texas and left this morning to go pick it up. We're being told that repairs may stretch into next week and we're tired of sleeping in the cold and recharging our phones in our cars. I came into the office today with a suitcase full of laptops and other electronics to recharge.

[Flack]

Wife made it home with the generator around 4:30pm. We had it assembled and added oil and gas by 5:30pm. We had run one extension cord to the attic for the heater and a second one to the kitchen for the refrigerator (lost cause). We were hooking up the third one when every single light and television in hour house turned on.

The generator is still sitting on the back porch "just in case," but as of right now, we are back to sipping juice from the man.

[Jizaboz]

Nice! And yeah now you have a backup if this happens again!

[Tdarcos]

I had a UPS at University Park twice over the almost 10 years I was there. With one, maybe two limited exceptions, I only needed it for the 3-4 second temporary "burp" you get a couple-three times a year. At a cost of about $10 a year, the convenience was worth it. a sudden 1 second power-loss mandated reboot can mean 30 minutes of getting back to where you were.

[bryanb]

I'm sorry you had to go through this, Flack. Still, it's good that you're prepared for the next disaster now. Whenever I lose power for an extended period I tell myself I'm going to be totally ready for the next time it happens. I'll have a generator, solar panels, more battery-powered devices, and more emergency food and water in storage...but when the power comes back I suddenly lose all sense of urgency and nothing seems to actually change.

[Flack]

Yeah, I definitely would never drop a grand on a generator while the weather outside was nice (or I would have already done so), so I suppose that was a positive outcome. The other good thing about the generator is, it's too heavy for me to lift it by myself, which limits its loanability.

Funny enough, I was just looking at some solar-powered USB charging blocks. I have two decent USB block chargers, but as I just learned, in an extended outage it becomes a game of charging the charger so that you can charge other stuff. I looked at one solar-powered charging block on Amazon that sells for $50 that seems nice until you dig into the details. One minor detail is it seems to take 84 hours to charge the device by solar power. In the end it depends on just how many things you plan on charging. I quickly found that the number one thing was my phone, and then there were a lot of second tier devices (tablet, GameBoy, flashlight) that were next in line. The biggest hassle was the laptop. I was able to charge mine in my car and with my MiFi device I was able to get online, but the trade off between the lengthy charge times barely seemed worth it.

[Tdarcos]

...but when the power comes back I suddenly lose all sense of urgency and nothing seems to actually change.

No, as lazy as I am, I really hate losing my train of thought or whatever I'm working on, so I always ran a UPS for the few seconds of power I'd need. In fact, one time we had a major power failure when I was at my sister's place, so I saved and shut everything down, and waited. Meanwhile, my sister is worried about her fish getting enough air. so, i disconnected everything from my UPS, moved it, and plugged her air pump into it, which considering a fish tank air pump uses maybe 3-4 watts, a typical UPS (or whatever $200 will get you), good for 20-30 minutes for 300 watts, will sustain a 4W pump for probably ten hours or more. Anyway, it worked. It kept the pump running until power came back.