Hope you are safe and warm
The ice storm on Thursday night was the worst since 1990. I wish a quick recovery to everyone in the path of this storm.
Where I lived it poured, it was windy, but it didn’t all freeze until later. I drove on Thursday night. I drove on Friday morning. I had power and heat at home. This weekend I saw some damp basements, including my own. I saw sump pumps running, including my own. I saw sump pump run-off freezing on the sidewalks and streets, including my own. I got off lucky.
In my memory, black-outs, snow and flooding became an opportunity for neighbors to band together. City dwellers (and some suburbanites) have strength in numbers. When power is out or streets are impassible, neighbors find neighbors. As a child, blackouts meant ice cream binges. Barbeques were fired up to save the meat. Neighbors with gas stoves cooked other perishables, those with candles and extra blankets shared them, and the neighbors with camp heaters housed the little children overnight. During the flood after a hurricane, my father ran important errands in his truck. To the kids, disaster meant no school. It was a party. I think the grown-ups had a fairly good time, too.
In my life, I have been lucky. I know no one who has been badly hurt or killed by foul weather. The multi-day electricity outages occurred outside of very cold weather, local flooding never swamped our heating system or caused structural problems, the heat outages lasted less than a week and caused no broken pipes. I have done my share of wet-vac basement clean-up, shoveling snow, knocking ice off branches, packing food into coolers (to animal-proof it) then leaving it outside, doing without phone, light, television and internet.
When the weather turns frightful, what is a homeowner to do? What do you do?
My friends in Maine and New Hampshire are so much more prepared than I am. They say: install a generator; use a fireplace, pellet stove, or wood stove. They say: live in one room for the duration; it will be a mess, but everyone can stay warm.
Their advice is to not depend on the grid. Are my friends right? Should every home be ready for power failure?
Comment
Permalink
Email
Pretty tough to get urban homes off the grid. No room for geothermal, inadequate rooflines for solar, and installing a windmill would get you shot. Though, I can't figure out why no one ever buried the power lines around here. I come from a much stormier place, and below-ground lines help a lot. We don't seem to have any problem installing a hundred cables and a dozen manholes per street corner when it comes to for-profit Internet services, but doing the same for electric utility wires is apparently impossible.
All that said, I remember a weird flood I survived in Somerville years ago. The water came up to just barely below porch level in the front of the house, though back yards were spared through some accident of topography. There was no getting in or out, until a resourceful college kid started doing kayak runs--yes, a kayak--into Davis Square for essentials, in return for a small markup. The whole street kept him busy, and most of the freight was beer.
It helps. One doesn't need to carry it to extremes, but in New England a good fireplace (rumford type ideally) will solve a lot of problems.
I also keep a number of filled kerosene lanterns on hand for light - there is a good place online in san diego that sells them.
Marcus,
You are right that city folks can't manage independence. I had an electrician try to sell me a generator. Sometimes I wonder if it is a good idea.
Everyone,
Today, a friend told me that she once connected to her neighbor's water line (with permission) by using a garden house. Her brother-in-law routed the water through her washing machine intake via the outside spigot. Does anyone know how that works?
Rona, generators are pretty common down in hurricane country, where they can be a lifesaver.
Up here, you can get generators powered by natural gas. They pop on automatically after 15 minutes of power outtage. It's a good idea of your 'hood goes dark frequently, but they get really expensive if you overbuy. In other words, if you wanted to run all your lights, appliances and air conditioner, the required setup would be prohibitively expensive. But a generator can be practical if all you want is to keep your furnace thermostat and your kitchen working, plus lights in a few rooms.
Very easy, the washing machine hose takes the same size connector as a garden hose, as long as there is positive pressure and you shut off the main it feeds into the system as if the garden hose were now the main. Incoming and outgoing pipes are the same, it just matters where the pressure is coming from and being released. The garden hose and laundry pipe are now the intake and pushing the water through the plumbing system releasing the water through an open faucet. The big concern is closing off the main so that the greatest pressure is coming from the garden hose.
Not sure why the neighbors' water was better...unless one was a well and the other was town water.
Generators are great in a pinch, make sure you have enough fuel, and be careful on placement - exhaust fumes can kill. Also lock it up, in storm situations, they are frequently stolen.
NF,
Thanks you! I knew a reader would know how the garden hose trick worked. The reason the water was needed is that my friend's house and the house next door get power from different junction boxes. They have wells, therefore electric pumps. History is that one electric service can go out while the other stays on. They share.
I heard about several neighborhood where there was a line between the haves and the have=nots.
Doesn't need to go to a washer. Or even to shut off a main, in truth, though its probably a good cautious maneuver. Basic hydraulics - pressure at one point is the same as at all points. So any place you can do a reverse hookup will work. Think is, there are backflow preventers on many things to prevent contamination of the water supply, and those would have to be defeated.
Most of New England does not need a generator - our outages aren't long enough to justify the price if you do a calculation usually. A good fireplace will provide heat, and water to flush toilets from snow melt if stuck (otherwise can be brought in). Light from lanterns. Much more cost effective.
Hurricane country can have the grid down for months. Though remember, a hundred years ago the whole country was off grid and survived. Discomfort is annoying, but survivable. Lack of heat is not.
People who are leaving there houses because of lack of heat should do their darndest to get the water out of the pipes before the house goes below freezing though. That can be an incredibly expensive mess.
To add to what marcus said, if you have faith in the gas pipes, you can also get a furnace that doesn't require external electricity. Or have someone who understands rig it up to run off a car battery.
Costs aside a natural gas generator is great, but they do cost real money.
When I was growing up in New England, we had a fireplace and a gas stove that could be lit with a match, so we could keep the living room warm and cook some food. We used candles for light, but nowadays I'd probably go with battery-operated lanterns for safety. We got through power outages just fine, though I don't remember any lasting more than 24 hours. If I ever move back North, I'm going to insist on a house with a woodstove or fireplace and a gas range.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
Recent Posts
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com