Lost Electrical Power overnight, no biggie

[Hugh R]

Power went out in the middle of the night for about 8 hours, about 1,000 homes affected locally. Living in earthquake country you plan a little, if you're smart.

Backup batteries on the alarm clocks worked. I usually wake up on my own at about 6:00AM, but they are there. Pulled out an LED flashlight, ran an extension cord from the Honda eu2000i in the garage, fired up first pull, (I run it and load it with a halogen work light once a month) to the coffee maker. Have a gas water heater, so took a shower, the trophy wife plugged in to the generator to use her hair drier. Have a UPS on the filters and air pumps on the aquarium, so they are good for at least 24 hours.

A neighbor, who lives on the street, had already opened the neighborhood security gate using the "just in case" directions I'd emailed to all 25 homes on the street years ago.

I keep 5 gallons of fresh gasoline for the Honda with fuel stabilizer on hand. Plus I keep a full 80 gallons of gas in the RV which can power it's internal 5,500 watt generator for a few more days, if I want to plug in the refrigerators, etc.

I also keep a couple of 5 gallon tubs of dehydrated 10 year life food on hand, a 90 day supply for about $300 and a 20,000 gallon swimming pool.

Am I paranoid? I don't think so. I think I'm reasonably prepared. I went through the Northridge Earthquake with no electricity for about a week.

[look 171]

Lucky you do not have an electric car. This way you have no excuse not to go to work.

Sorry about the power outage. Everyone on my block has been running their AC none stop. You can hear the noise from all the fans in the condenser as soon as you enter the neighborhood.

[Hugh R]

You're in LA somewhere. I'm in Santa Clarita, supposed to be 105 today, 95 now. I have lots of oak tree shade and without A/C it might get to 80 inside at the worst. Without electricity, as a fall back I can go in the pool.

Earthquake planning? I believe my house is the closest house to the I-5/state highway 14 interchange that fell during the Northridge Earthquake. About 1 mile. Ikea particle board wall units that were bolted to the wall and the 1/2" or so, particle board was ripped away from the wall, like it didn't even exist. Two brick chimneys on the ground.

I was lucky, the day before I'd driven the, no longer owned, DB4 Aston Martin out to our beach house in Oxnard. My bolted down 7,000 lbs 1930's era Diebold safe fell where it would have been. It had been lagged to the wall studs with 2-1/2" bolts. They got ripped out like nothing.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I expected you to post a picture of a fully powered up RV in the driveway.

[look 171]

I remember the "big one" and sure felt it. I was taking a break from college and construction was going well, so that very same day I decided to go home and take my parents to breakfast and hang out a bit before my father went to work. As soon we sat down in a restaurant in S. Pasadena, we were popping out of our seats. Even 30 miles away, we felt the power of that puppy.

I am in Mt. Washington (between Pasadena and downtown LA). We also have lot of trees to shade us from the intense heat, but its still a killer. We have a whole canyon to ourselves, with that amount of dirt, vegetation is better the concrete jungle reflecting heat back at your face. Stay cool in that pool with a cold beer is the way to go Hugh.

[Hugh R]

BTW, this is how "prepared" people secure a 50 gallon aquarium.

Sounds crazy, but if you don't live here, you may not get it.

Plastic-coated steel cable top and bottom through the wall to the atrium with turnbuckles. The cabinet below is back reinforced by a piece of plywood that is glued and screwed and bolted to the wall.

[cstreit]

Nice. We had a power outage so long we actually moved into the RV for 24 hours. That's a perfect standby for you.... Keep it ready just in case. I keep the tanks filled and the batteries charged....

[Seahawk]

Back in the 60's on the small ranch I grew up on in California, my Dad had a contingency plan for the two big emergency concerns on our ranch: earth quakes and fire.

We had a big diesel Onan generator to power the well (two) water pumps that supplied water across the ranch.

In the case of fire my Sisters and I each had to know how to man the hoses and keep the roofs wet on the barns and the house. We had our stations. Each station had the right hoses and nozzles to reach the structures we needed to keep wet.

We also had two goats that we moved around the perimeter of the ranch to keep the vegetation down and create a buffer zone from the fire.

As a final back-up, we had a gas powered trash pump to use the pool water to keep the house roof and structure wet.

For earth quakes, the generator also powered the refrigerator and freezers in the house. TV as well.

So it should come as no surprise that here on the Potomac in Hurricane country, I have two generators, gas supplies and enough emergency stuff to last quite a long time.

I'm also on a well, so all I need is power to keep the water flowing.

We've lost power for a week at a time here more than once, so "prepping" is reality.

[GH85Carrera]

When I put in a tornado shelter the folks left behind a list of items to get to survive a disaster. The list must have been how to survive a nuclear disaster. I have the few logical items but get real, we will not need two weeks of food and water. Even in the worst tornado of all time just a few blocks away is modern civilization. I can't think of any remotely likely city wide disaster like Katrina did to New Orleans, or the earthquakes did to California. We sure will not have a tsunami.

It is good to be prepared but zombies are not real.

[Hugh R]

Glen,

I agree, but when I can get 90 days of dehydrated rations through my son for $300 what is not to like? With a shelf life of 10 years, my amortized cost is $30/year. At that price-point, I really don't care. You live in OK, so I don't know your terrain. Where I live in Santa Clarita, CA. I'm surrounded by hills/mountains. During the Northridge Earthquake the ways in and out were time consuming as regards to traffic and roads, like hours to get out. Food and water supply were a good thing, but tough. Not that we would have died mind you. But running water for things like toilets and showers would have been nice.

[GH85Carrera]

No majors hill around here.

Assuming our house is still here after a tornado we have plenty of food for days. I do have a water well but I have never bothered to get a generator. Several neighbors had generators. I have the only well in the neighborhood. I can provide everyone with water with just a bit of electricity.

Non of that is likely to happen.

[Danimal16]

Hugh, any wasted water or non-potable water can be used to flush the john. Just pour in about a half of a gallon for non-solid and a gallon or more for the solids.

BE SURE TO ISOLATE your water heater from the fill line. That is fifty or more gallons of drinking water.

[BRPORSCHE]

Hugh,

Didn't realize you are in Santa Clarita. I was there Friday night and should have taken you out for dinner if I knew you lived nearby!

[Hugh R]

Tom.

Next time. And I'll be buying. I've had a number of Pelicans at my crib in the past. Some of us go skeet shooting nearby.

[71scgc]

In 2007 in Oklahoma, I was without power for a week due to a hellified ice storm.

Long term outages do happen there.

Carter

[GH85Carrera]

Yep they do. We lost power from an ice storm but my office (8 miles away) was fine. We came down here and hung out. The power was out for less than 12 hours at our house. I just called the house and when the answering machine picked up, I knew we had power at home. We have mostly underground electric line in my area. If the power goes out at my house I can call a dozen different friends and go to their house or check into a hotel. It will not be survival mode time. The entire city will NOT have a power outage.

The biggest tornado ever recorded hit last year 25 miles from my house.

2013 El Reno tornado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We did not even get a power blip in our part of town.