Ice Storm!

[mudmucker]

Day 5 and still no power. House is about 42 F but I'm still in it. It's cold. Trees were still encased in ice last night but fortunately temps raised a little and melted things this morning.

Saturday night when I got home the house was at 39 F. Friend with generator showed up at 9 pm. I had the generator for 3 hours before he had to take it back. Everything was stone cold and it took 3 hours to get temps up to 52. I'll take it. That and it might have kept the pipes from freezing as it was about 15 F and temps in the house were sinking.

When I woke up the next morning it was back to 41. Man with generator came back again for a few hours in the afternoon and we were able to bring house temps up to 58 which quickly shot down to 52 but man, compared to 41 it was comfortable. We also bypassed the switch to the well pump and I was able to recharge the well and collect more water. The generator was a good one and we were able to run the well and the furnace at the same time for about 2 hours so I had hot water for a spell. I washed dishes and bathed. It was a bit sad to see the generator go and know it wouldn't be coming back. Temps today are better.

On my way out of my road I saw 2 electric utility trucks turn on my road and stop. I wanted to run out and hug them and tell them to keep going straight. So seeing that, was heartening and it looks promising but I'm not sure where they were going. And, on the major highway to work I saw a convoy of about 10 National Grid trucks heading west out to my area so that lifted my spirits. If I don't have power yet tonight I will be staying with friends nearby who do have their power back.

I learned two of the most important and useful tricks that I have learned in a long time and I will throw in with my other bag of tricks in being a resourceful, self-reliant, solo homeowner:

1. I learned how to bypass the main feed to the house and rewire the furnace so that it gets current directly from a generator. And I learned how to troubleshoot when things don't quite behave the way they should.
2. I learned how to rewire and bypass the main feed to the 220-volt switch to the well pump. None of it is difficult.

other things:
-I know what kind of generator I want
-The key to staying warm when your house is 40 F is to eat frequently, like every 2 hours.

[sundial]

Mudmucker, I hope you get your power turned on soon. It's no fun freezing in your own home. Did you have any structural damage?

[mudmucker]

Thank you very much. Fortunately no structural damage and no trees damaged the house, or conduits weren't ripped off from the house. There is one wire down on my property but I traced it back and it is only the cable. There will be alot of cleanup on the property though, downed trees and branches everywhere. No, it's no fun being cold in your house. But as I say, it could always be worse. But as I said earlier, new tricks to add to the bag and I am thinking of new and additional contingency plans for times such as this. No harm done....

[OakLeaf]

Mudmucker, glad you're OK. Wanna come show me how to wire my pump into the generator?

[mudmucker]

Mudmucker, glad you're OK. Wanna come show me how to wire my pump into the generator?

Thank you. I am so excited about this newly acquired knowledge I would love to share it with you

[bambu101]

This is what it looked like here in Western Mass:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...tegory=Weather

We have generators and kerosene heaters, and managed to stay warm, take showers, cook hot meals, and watch TV. We came home from getting more gasoline yesterday to find our neighbor scooping water from the brook to flush his toilets with (he had a woodstove, but no water). Some woman in town also nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running their generator in an attached garage with the door closed.

The ice is melting today with warmer temperatures, but the clean up is going to be a long process. The National Guard has been activated to help out.

I have lived in New England for 54 years, and this is the worst ice storm ever. It literally looked like a bomb went off.

[mudmucker]

This is what it looked like here in Western Mass:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...tegory=Weather

We have generators and kerosene heaters, and managed to stay warm, take showers, cook hot meals, and watch TV.

Wow. That's great. Excellent that you have the heat and hot water. Looks like temps will be somewhat reasonable the rest of the week.

I'm pilfering WiFi out of the building here at work from my personal laptop so I have access to TE.

I grew up in Greenfield. Where in western MA are you? Yes, I've been in New England for 48.5 yrs and I agree, worst I've seen.

[Tuckervill]

I think our schools will be back in session tomorrow. I haven't heard any reports of power outages, but there have been lots and lots of wrecks. My husband said the roads were not icy two miles out of town (towards his work). We managed to get out and get to the store, along with thousands of others (seemed like). The parking spaces were all sheets of ice, but the roads were all worn down. Black ice is a problem, especially when walking. All the concrete around my house is a solid sheet. Otherwise we're just fine. Although it hasn't gotten above 20 degrees, yet, and tomorrow we're expecting more precipitation.

I've been in bed almost all day wearing my wool, trying to keep warm, in my heatless upstairs!

Karen

[Crankin]

Bambu, after riding those hills in Blanford last summer, I can barely imagine what it's like with ice all over them! Glad you kept warm and washed.
There have been many near misses with generators hooked up incorrectly and people almost dying from poisoning. I think there have actually been a couple of deaths.
It was 58 when I got home tonight. This is very weird. The wind is howling, though and it looks like rain, ice, and snow showers for the rest of the week.

[sundial]

Crankin, that's miserable. Tuckervill, pile on a few dogs and it will help.

[Tuckervill]

Yeah, dogs aren't allowed in the bed! Cats make good foot warmers, though.

We dodged the bullet this time. There is snow in Kansas and Missouri to our north, and ice in OK and central AR to our south. Our schools are back in session today, but only in the two northernmost counties.

Karen

[mudmucker]

Yeah, dogs aren't allowed in the bed! Cats make good foot warmers, though.

We dodged the bullet this time. There is snow in Kansas and Missouri to our north, and ice in OK and central AR to our south. Our schools are back in session today, but only in the two northernmost counties.

Karen

Tuckerville, where exactly are you? That's wild.

Day 6 here, no power yet.

[Tuckervill]

Tuckerville, where exactly are you? That's wild.

Day 6 here, no power yet.

I'm in the extreme northwest corner of Arkansas, less than a mile from Oklahoma, about 25 from Missouri and about 70 from Kansas.

The weather is usually quite a story around here.

Hope your power is back on by now!

Karen

[sundial]

We dodged the bullet this time. There is snow in Kansas and Missouri to our north, and ice in OK and central AR to our south. Our schools are back in session today, but only in the two northernmost counties.

Karen

Our schools are closed, we had sleet off and on throughout the night but no snow. Still have power which is a good thing. I have had to fill my bird feeders twice--the cardinals are really busy.

Mudmucker, I'd love to have you over for a nice hot meal if you were closer. My gsds would keep you nice and warm too.

[bambu101]

Still no power here, and no sign of any restoration efforts in our immediate area. Some towns around us still have almost 100% outages, including Otis, and we are in day 5. Even with generators, it is getting old.

Crankin, the strangest thing about this ice storm was that the roads never iced up, just the trees. It was like mud season in April on the roads, but January on the trees. The roads were impassable because of snapped power poles, trees, and wires down all over the place, but not because of ice on the road surfaces.