No power in Northeast.

[Roastie]

Well it's finally happened. A small taste of what could of been has left numerous people frozen to death, lines of cars going down entire blocks at the only gas station that is operating on a backup generator and people desperately seeking shelter from the 9 degree temperatures.

I can't speak for all of New England but Northern Central Massachusetts is pretty much out of luck. Half of the roads are blocked off by trees, and there are lines down everywhere. Personally I am writing this from the basement of a parents house where it has turned into sort of a shelter for tons of people since it is about the only place with power.

Yesterday afternoon my apartment had dropped to 47 degrees and I am sure is a bit colder now. Everyone I talk to is planning on buying a generator no matter how much the cost or whatnot. It's amazing how many people didn't plan for this. Hopefully power is restored by Wednesday but we keep hearing conflicting stories.

And to think those people that used to make fun of me for being paranoid are now the ones calling me and asking what they should do. I just wish I could gloat over it but honestly I don't have the time or think it would be the right thing to do.. of course once we get out of this mess.. then I will

 

[Mike-Mike]

I just got power back this morning. It went off Thursday night, came on for 3 hour friday and has been off until now.

 

[matt]

Roastie,

I think we are in the same town (at least same area). Central street has power as of last night.

But, you are right, it is a mess out there...

 

[BlkHawk73]

We were off from early Friday Am to Saturday afternoon. House got down to 50 degrees or so. Could cook (gas stove) but being on a well didn't bode well for having water. Father two houses away is on city water so that was an option. No worse than yeras back when it was a worse situation and lated for 9 days. just like camping in the winter. Just really darn sad so many ppl have no clue what to do when there's no electricity. They simply cannot fend for themselves. Can't say we were all preppeda nd ready to conquer but having some semblance of what to do, it all worked fine. never was hungry, didn't have any damage from lack of power/heat. You simply compenstae and adapt. That's just two things most cannot do.
We had propane heaters on low to take the chill away from the basements to prevent frozen pipes in all the family houses. That alone can raise temps a few degrees. Funny part is if outside temps were what the houses were, ppl would cheer about it being warm.
'Member when the NYC had thier blackout, ppl were hungry because they couldn't operate thier electric can openers. It's THAT mentality that is so freakin' sad.
The wife has stated we will get a generator now though. My brother has a 75kw one and can run quite a bit. Looks like a 8kw or 10 kw will reside here and easily be able to sustain the whole house if needed.

 

[coastie]

We were out from 3AM THurs to 11AM Sat. Wasnt too big a deal. We heat with wood and have a genny. Kind of funny my daughter was watching Alice in Wonderland on the laptop while we were getting dinner ready by oil lamp.

The saddest thing to me is the general lack of preparedness of most people. A neighbor didnt own a flashlight and had a kerosene heater but no kerosene. I have a small propane heater that I let her borrow but her grill tank is empty. I had to make a suicide cord to backfeed my buddies house. Went to HD and there was nothing related to any sort of generator wiring left. GOt lucky at ace and got one male plug. The Rochester HD has a waiting list for generators that as of last night was over 180 people. These people live in the Northeast!! What is wrong with them. Most people dont have a secondary source of heat. Very few people have generators. But everyone has the latest gaming system and flat screen TV.

Only bright spot is that this has awoken several of my friends. Hopefully they will stay awake long enough to figure stuff out.

 

[BlkHawk73]

My wife's a mgr for HD and her store ran out on generators early. Happens every big storm when power goes out. A few weeks later the ppl return them. They were to get a truck with more last night but it dodn't show until amost midnight. There were actually ppl waiting for the truck I guess to be sure they got one.
One woman came into the store asking about generaots. Was told they didn't have any, they'd sold them all. the woman then said how it was for her daughter in H that really needed one badly. Reply: "Ma'am, we're out, we don't have anay."
Do ppl really think places keep a few extra of everything hidden away in case a sob story comes along?

 

[theGringo]

One woman came into the store asking about generaots. Was told they didn't have any, they'd sold them all. the woman then said how it was for her daughter in H that really needed one badly. Reply: "Ma'am, we're out, we don't have anay."
Do ppl really think places keep a few extra of everything hidden away in case a sob story comes along?

It's a symptom of our modern disease of abject dependency. People think that their wants and needs should somehow be miraculously transformed into goods and services, made abundantly available at all times, and at affordable prices.

It's like people who call the electric company during an outage and complain loudly, as if electric power was a constitutional right.

 

[Boghog1]

I was fortunate didn't loose power for but a moment or two, helps that the town shelter is right down the street

 

[matt]

Boghog1: Welcome to NES. Glad you are warm.

I was fortunate didn't loose power for but a moment or two, helps that the town shelter is right down the street

Helps even more if you don't need it. My town's shelter is next door. I don't want to need to use it.

 

[Boghog1]

Ditto I don't want to need to use it, chances are even if I had lost power though I wouldn't need to use the shelter.

edit:
Thanks for the welcome, just realized that was my first post I have been lurking for a while

 

[kevin9]

62 hours without power: Lost it at 1:07am Friday, came back on a bit after 3:00pm on Sunday.

 

[MrsWildweasel]

We lucked out and only had a hiccup with our power. Son got called out with the National Guard. We heard form him late last night and he has been all over the state so far. They have been working at clearing the trees. He said he probably won't be home until Thursday sometime.

 

[Palladin]

Still no power.
Lost it at 10:45pm Thursday...my genset kicked on, by saturday morning I wa powering the houses on either side of me for their heat, HW and a couple of lights. Ran a 20A circuit to each house.

the neighbors laughed at me when I put this thing in 2 yrs ago....now they're sleepin at my house!

 

[lord1234]

Still no power.
Lost it at 10:45pm Thursday...my genset kicked on, by saturday morning I wa powering the houses on either side of me for their heat, HW and a couple of lights. Ran a 20A circuit to each house.

the neighbors laughed at me when I put this thing in 2 yrs ago....now they're sleepin at my house!

are you charging them rent?

 

[Palladin]

are you charging them rent?

sexual favors from MILF wives

 

[Joe G]

My wife's a mgr for HD and her store ran out on generators early. Happens every big storm when power goes out. A few weeks later the ppl return them.

What does HD do with the returned ones? I'm fine being without power for a while. The only thing that concerns me for a long outage is not being able to get water -- we're on a well. Even though the neighbors have a gen, I'm thinking it might be more prudent to buy one for the time we have a storm and they're out of state visiting in-laws. If HD sells them for less, I'll wait for the next flood of returns

 

[Roadblock]

Lost power at 9:30 on Thursday...staying with friends about 1/4 mile from work since Sunday. Expecting power back...next week sometime.

Will be better prepared next time...figures as soon as we move in we'd have something like this happen. We're converting the house to propane...just weren't able to get it done in time.

 

[rickster58]

My friend works for the Princeton Light Dept and they are working round the clock and still think it could be 2 weeks before the entire town has power. Some of it will come on today hopefully.

 

[doobie]

For those with PSNH... town listing

 

[Palladin]

My friend works for the Princeton Light Dept and they are working round the clock and still think it could be 2 weeks before the entire town has power. Some of it will come on today hopefully.

I'm putting up their wind turbines in June!!

 

[Chrisg67]

I closed on my house on that Friday, and we had lost power from 1am friday morning, until 7pm on monday night. since we just moved, we had no food in the house, luckily the pizza place was open down the road. If we didnt have the wood stove i dont know what i would have done, and our stove is electric, which was useless. only way to cook was ontop of the wood stove. Both of our cars were on empty since we didnt expect much of the predicted "ice storm" we live in New England, normally that is some ice on the ground, not chaos for days. fortunatly we were warm and protected. This storm has really opened my eyes so the "what ifs" since this could have been alot worse and im working on a plan of extended survival.

 

[Andy in NH]

My power:
Out sometime during the night of Thursday the 14th.

On Tuesday morning the 23rd.

The biggest problem we had was doing dishes and washing laundry. We eventualy took the laundry to a friend's house across town who had power.

Heat - no problem. I have a back up wood stove in the basement.

Food - no problem. We had plenty in the house. The supermarkets were open within a couple of days. We cooked on the gas BBQ grill.

Water - no problem. Those extra cases of bottled water I had stacked up came in real handy. We used 5 gallon buckets and water out of the stream to flush to toilets.

Light - no problem. Plenty of batteries, candles, and white gas on hand.

About half way through the power outage, we hooked up a generator with just enough juice to run some lights, the refrigerator, the TV / DVD, and the circulator pumps for the outdoor wood furnace.


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