Ice Storm

[treue]

Tom,

In Oklahoma, we’ve had two major ice storms in the last ten years. The first was in January 2000. Lots of fallen limbs. The maple flattened the west fence and that cheap shed that I didn’t like anyway. Power was off for several days. The 308 was in a hangar at the airport: the shop was only half-finished. I borrowed a generator for the last few days with no power. Tikki the cat got to stay with a friend who still had power.

In January of 2007 the storm was worse. The same 80-year-old maple dropped some fat limbs on the rear of the house. I’m still trying to get a carpenter to fix the back of the house, even after we moved to a new house. The 330 was in the now-completed workshop, but was spared any damage from the same maple that was also in range of the shop building. The local partial-service Sears received a large lot of special-order generators, but we had to drive 40 miles south for gas since no gas station in McAlester had electricity with which to run their pumps. Until we got the generator connected, we kept Tikki and Gillette-the-cats warm with hot water bottles, since we always had gas-fired hot water. We drove to Tulsa three days after the storm and bought a chainsaw. After a few days of running various appliances directly on the generator, I figured how to connect it to the house circuit. This is dangerous since, if one does not open the main breaker any time the generator is running, a lineman can get electrocuted from one’s little 5600-watt generator. The best way is to install a transfer switch between the power grid, a generator and the house. Dremel makes a great little bit to sharpen your chainsaw teeth in about 15 minutes (buy several). I also learned how to pull a salvageable tree back to vertical with a come-along and lash it there until it heals. The maple became firewood. Maybe the carpenter will finally show up after his spider bite heals. The new house has trees that are less than 15 feet tall, buried powerlines and I have enough gas to run the generator for a day. A chipper-shredder helps clean up those pesky fallen limbs and trimmings.


Tom

[Stephanm]

Glad to hear that you and your family are OK Tom

I know what Tom is talking about with the sound of trees breaking. We had a ice storm that put an ice coating of about 1-2 inches on every tree branch and when a large limb couldn't take the weight anymore it popped like a huge cannon! THese were not mere cracking noises, they were BANGS!

My thought was that Hollywood should spend days shooting some stock footage as there is no way to duplicate such beauty and destruction.

[T308]

My thought was that Hollywood should spend days shooting some stock footage as there is no way to duplicate such beauty and destruction.

Indeed. When i saw Tom's photos I thought of Dr. Zhivago.

Looks like your Directv dish survived, nothing worse than being stuck in the house with no TV!

[tyang]

Thanks for the support guys. I got so tired of being cold, I just wired my generator to the furnace so I can get some normal heat. The wood burning stove was fine, but we were always chilled. At least now, our house is warm. The power company does not expect our power to be restored until Tuesday! Tomorrow morning, I'm going to go for broke and try to see if there is enough power in my generator to at least run the well pump for a little bit. Don't worry, the main breaker is off, so I won't back feed the system. When this is all over, I'm going to work out a much more eloquent way, but for now it's all about shade tree engineering.

When I was at the ER they told us that they were swamped with people slipping and falling, and chainsaw accidents. Since my wife broke her leg from a fall, I've been staying away from my chainsaw. We've decided if the trees have to stay there until the Spring thaw, it won't bother anyone. At least there's one good reason to live in the sticks,..no one will care!

Savor your hot running water, I know I will whenever I get it back!

Tom

[330GT]

Tom's story reminded me of 2 years ago when a tree hit our house in a windstorm (http://www.tomyang.net/cars/phpBB3/view ... f=2&t=1784).

After that, we took several precautions. As our utilities were all overhead (and the tree that was leaning but didn't fall would have taken them all out), we buried everything in conduit. At the same time, we installed a 10KW natural gas powered generator with a 200A whole house automatic switch. Now, when the power goes out, the generator starts in about 5 seconds, stabilizes for about 10-15 seconds and the switch transfers the house load over. Presto, the lights come on.

Of course, since we did this over a year ago, the generator has run about 10 hours for its weekly exercising and only 10 minutes for the single power failure since. The best insurance against a power failure is to get a generator, seems to work everytime! When we bought the portable 4KW one several years ago after a 3 day outage, we didn't have a long failure for 3 years.

The gas utility installers (we had to upgrade our service) mentioned that the gas line to our neighborhood crosses an earthquake fault line a few miles north of here. So if a big earthquake hits, there may not be any natural gas to run the generator (nor heat the house). I guess you can't prepare for everything.

[tyang]

I bought my 3500 watt generator on a whim when I found it on sale at Home Depot in the Fall. I figured it was a good excuse to get one for the Fall Party since we were in the field across the street w/o power. Who knew it would not only save us, but also my neighbor. The first full day w/o power, we found out Howard's basement was flooding without any way to pump out the rising water. My wife and I decided it was more important to pump his basement out with our generator than for us to surf the Internet! We then started a scheduled swap of our little generator between us for a couple days. By the second day, Howard had enough of "roughing it" and managed to find someone willing to wire in a much larger genny to his house. The only problem now is his generator is THIRSTY! I'm burning about 5 gallons every 8 hours. He's easily burning twice that or more. I'm learning what works for me, and will have it down to a science next time!

Tom

[Tom Wilson]

So how is Deb feeling? I would imagine a broken femur is no picnic...

[tyang]

Hi Tom,

It's a good thing it wasn't a femur, but the fibula instead. She's doing O.K.. I don't know if there is ever a good time to have a broken leg, but breaking it during the Holidays is certainly not a good time! A fall like that could have been worse, so we're lucky.

Thanks for asking.

Tom

[8339]

Tom, I'm so sorry to hear Debbie broke her leg! Any other good news Christmas cancelled? My brother lives in New Hampshire and is iced as well and no prospect of electricity until later this week. Bring on the global warming!!!!!!!!!!


Richard Garre

[josh]

This article was pretty neat.. using an acetylene headlight for emergency lighting.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008 ... -blackout/

[tyang]

The latest is I hooked up the well pump and furnace to my little 3500 watt generator and she's holding her own. It's not my proudest moment of electrical wiring, but it's safe and we can take a hot shower! I'm the hero in my house. It's nice to know I don't need a big honkin' generator to power up our bare necessities. Power is not expected to restored until early tomorrow. It's 50 degrees now, but we're expecting 30s tonight and a wintery mix of sleet and snow tomorrow. I guess I'm not going to get to work on 3553 for another day or two!

Thanks again for everyone who sent their condolences!

Tom

[lukek]

All the best wishes in your wife's recovery. We certainly take civilization / conveniences for granted. Which reminds me....I gotta look around for recession specials...Maybe I can pick up a place in the country, too. Your pics were inspirational in that regard...

[tyang]

Day seven without power from the grid! They claim power will be restored by 12 noon, but I'm not holding my breath. There are supposed to be 200 customers still without power, but I bet my road with its seven customers will be the last ones to power up.

My family have gotten so used to living on so little electricity, we won't know what to do with it all when it returns...oh yeah, I'd love to wash some clothes!

Tom

[sam231]

So next year's TY Party is going to feature presentations on chain saw repair & maintenace and winter survival techniques....sounds like fun! Always wanted to know if you could mount a plow on a Ferrari.

I hope you get back on the grid soon. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Sam

[330GT]

So next year's TY Party is going to feature presentations on chain saw repair & maintenace and winter survival techniques....sounds like fun! Always wanted to know if you could mount a plow on a Ferrari.

I hope you get back on the grid soon. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Sam

You don't need a snow plow on a Ferrari. Just use a 355, it's plenty low enough.

Also, perhaps splinting and bone setting needs to be on next year's agenda.