Thread: Power Outage and Hurricane Ike

I was without power for 8 days after Hurricane Frances. Trees fell on power lines all over the place and they couldn't get the grid up until everything was cleaned up. Some were without power for over 2 weeks.

I heard the news this morning and it said some people wouldnt get it back until the end of the month.

This is why i live in NJ

Generators were like gold here for a while.

2 weeks!?

Jesus christ, please no!

It's weird.. my house and a couple of neighbors as of last night were the only ones without power in my little neighborhood.

When I called again this afternoon, they said that the power lines in my area have been fixed and that my house is without power because of a "transformer overload."

Basically put, we're the only house on the block still without power and because there are still 110,000 households without power in Bloomington, our measly problem is at the bottom of the list in terms of when they will fix it.

Kind of funny.. The girl basically asked me to lie to her and say that we had branches on our power lines so that she could write a ticket for our house so that we could get bumped up the list which of course I did.

At least my girlfriend has power and I'm able to sleep there, I feel bad for my roommates/friends though.

Originally Posted by ReproMan

Generators were like gold here for a while.

Can you rent generators?

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

Can you rent generators?

I would imagine some places rent them out. You couldn't find them anywhere around here though.

Unless you already have a genny you're shit out of luck in that situation cause if the owner hasn't already rented all of them he probably has loaned them to friends and family.....

The power was out for 3 hours last saturday on my block but I didn't really notice. My solar backup system switched over instantly and kept my fridge cold, my tv on and my microwave worked too. I could have even gone online cause my computer and cable modem are on the backup circuit too. When the earthquake hit a couple years ago we had no electricity for 18 hours after that I was determined to have some kind of back up be it solar or generator. Those little Honda gens are perfect for keeping a fridge and tv going. just buy heavy duty extension cords and run them to the appliance....

When we arrived at Katrina the power was (obviously) already out. We ran on Generators for 2 weeks before power was restored.

Now, this past winter when the ice storms hammered oklahoma, there were people who had no power for nearly 6 weeks. Some of the more remote locations were without power for over 2 months! My wife was fortunate and only went 5 days. Of course all of this went down during this deployment so I was unable to help other than to offer up my prayers.

Yes, backup generators are so important to have. They are also the most coveted asset during times of power outage. People will steal them at gunpoint if they're desperate enough, and some are.

my friend was deep in this, finally talked to him today. he had no power and couldnt charge up his phone, he told me i should pack an emergency kit just in case . So thats what i did today! there is a lot of stuff u can hand crank these days, awesome no batteries

Originally Posted by mannydasher

my friend was deep in this, finally talked to him today. he had no power and couldnt charge up his phone, he told me i should pack an emergency kit just in case . So thats what i did today! there is a lot of stuff u can hand crank these days, awesome no batteries

I got a solar powered universal charger, it has adapters for almost any cellphone and a USB port I charge my Iphone on...if his car worked he could have used a cig. plug to charge it....I have a small inverter I can charge or run my laptop in my car with... I just set up a charging system for a guy that recharges one of those large APC ups', I installed a switch that bypasses the AC charging circuit and charges the batteries directly with solar. His only priotrity if the power goes out is his computer system....all I could think was wow...

i would get more solar powered stuff but they have been so inefficient. they dont draw in enuf power