Longest power outage?

[Will_C]

Five days after the flooding of Sept. 2011. Only had a 2000 watt Honda generator, but it was enough to power the freezer, the refrigerator, a few lights, and the TV. No need for the computer, as both cell and landlines were out for most of that time. We were able to get water, as areas 6-10 miles west never lost power.

Will

 

[s219]

4-5 days after Hurricane Isabel (2003 I believe). Was fairly hot and humid weather, and tough to be without AC.

 

[tomd999]

Hiya,

13 days after the great ice storm of 12/12/08 in New Hampshire.

I had to drive my wife to work in the ER, all medical personal were on call as they issued a state of emergency. When I came back down our road, there was a moron out of his car, dragging wires off the road out of the way. I was sure he was going to grab a live one before I could stop him and I would have seen him fry.....

Tom

 

[KTurner]

4-5 days after Hurricane Isabel (2003 I believe). Was fairly hot and humid weather, and tough to be without AC.

We were without power for, if I remember right, 8-10 days after Isabel. Isabel was barely a hurricane when it arrived here with 74 mph winds. We lived in Newport News, VA at the time, in a well established neighborhood (20-30 years) with all underground utilities and across the street from one of three local hospitals. Newport News currently has 180,000+ people with a density of 2,600+ per sq mile, so we were not 'out in the boonies' by any stretch of the imagination. My father in law was in the next county ~5 miles away and I think he was a full two weeks without power.

"More than 15 million people lost electricity services in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, the area hardest hit, and 3 million were still without power Wednesday, September 24, a full week after the storm." - US: Millions still without power a week after Hurricane Isabel - World Socialist Web Site

Keith

 

[Ken]

We were without power for a week and my brothers over two weeks, some even longer. We ran our 5000kw to power our heater, lights submersed water pump etc. This spring we put in a 20kw propane unit that runs automatic checks, also is serviced if needed. We are just too old to be dragging generators and cords around in the middle of a storm.

Triple R
What brand of 5000kw gen set was it.

My longest period of time of being with out power was in the Service on Okinawa .At White Beach are there were 4 100 KW cat generators all tied to main line and one was smoking like train engine. The crew unloaded a newly repaired unit and connected the ground and Phase wiring and Hand cranked the pony motor then the main engine allowed to warm up then checked the frequency to make sure all was good and when the breaker was closed there was none running.
a phase to ground fault and all units had stopped instantly.

So hand starting the pony motors getting the main units running again and then tied to main took maybe 15 minutes With every Officer on the base tripping over every other officer to ask what happened.

Rechecking the newly unloaded unit the ground and one of the 3 phase wiring had been interchanged.

Learned never to trust others work and to be sure proper connections made before closing a breaker.

Only teasing you about the 5000kw unit .

ken

 

[Tollster]

11 days, fall hurricane of 2011, if I had known how long it would have been, I would have saved the generator fuel money, and the hassle, packed up and left on vacation..

I think we spent about 200 dollars to save 60 dollars of food in the fridge and freezer..

 

[s219]

We were without power for, if I remember right, 8-10 days after Isabel. Isabel was barely a hurricane when it arrived here with 74 mph winds. We lived in Newport News, VA at the time, in a well established neighborhood (20-30 years) with all underground utilities and across the street from one of three local hospitals. Newport News currently has 180,000+ people with a density of 2,600+ per sq mile, so we were not 'out in the boonies' by any stretch of the imagination. My father in law was in the next county ~5 miles away and I think he was a full two weeks without power.

"More than 15 million people lost electricity services in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, the area hardest hit, and 3 million were still without power Wednesday, September 24, a full week after the storm." - US: Millions still without power a week after Hurricane Isabel - World Socialist Web Site

Keith

At the time we were living in Williamsburg, just up the road. I remember a huge disparity in outages, going from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some were out for hours, some days, some weeks. All depended on where trees fell I suppose. If I remember right, the storm was preceded by several rainy weeks, so the ground was soft and trees blew over easily. The forests looked like battle zones for several years after that.

My mother in law, across the James River in Surrey county, was without power for weeks, and the 6-7 foot tidal surge on her side of the river all but wiped out one waterfront community. She knew several people who lost their homes. Her neighbor was living in a mobile home at the time, and it got torn apart by the tidal surge and the pieces washed up about 300 feet inland. What a site to see.

Took us weeks to clean up all the debris that washed in with the tidal surge:



That's the high water mark, about 300 feet inland. Back then nobody in the family owned a tractor. Now a couple of us have them, and it has made subsequent storm cleanup manageable. Though none was this bad.

 

[MossRoad]

Since we bought the generator about 18 years ago.... 4 hours! :laughing:

Hey, for you folks with larger generators... any of you figure out how much those multi-day outages cost you in fuel? Just curious. Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[5030]

Triple R
What brand of 5000kw gen set was it.

My longest period of time of being with out power was in the Service on Okinawa .At White Beach are there were 4 100 KW cat generators all tied to main line and one was smoking like train engine. The crew unloaded a newly repaired unit and connected the ground and Phase wiring and Hand cranked the pony motor then the main engine allowed to warm up then checked the frequency to make sure all was good and when the breaker was closed there was none running.
a phase to ground fault and all units had stopped instantly.

So hand starting the pony motors getting the main units running again and then tied to main took maybe 15 minutes With every Officer on the base tripping over every other officer to ask what happened.

Rechecking the newly unloaded unit the ground and one of the 3 phase wiring had been interchanged.

Learned never to trust others work and to be sure proper connections made before closing a breaker.

Only teasing you about the 5000kw unit .

ken

I think he meant 5000 watt. 5000KW is a helluva big standby.

5000KW is 5 MILLION watts.

 

[boggen]

it pays to go on camping trips... err have stuff to go camping with, but for when power goes out. living rural. having stuff run on LP or natural gas. can go a long ways, (more so heat) in winter.

winter power outage = nice vs summer.... you can toss your fridge items outside in a laundry basket, and possibly freezer stuff as well. *been there done that*

i think only a day here. maybe only a few hours.. but really can't remember, have lugged out generator so many times in preparation for power outages. and then power comes back on with in a couple hours normally.

 

[dragoneggs]

Many times for 12 hours to a day at a time... a couple times in my life we went 5 days. I run a 3000W Honda that I connect to my service panel with a mechanical interlock. Not quite roughing it as we can manage the refrigerator, plasma TV, selected lights, blower on our LP fireplace insert, etc. As bogged says, for us campers, a power outage is no big deal with a full LP tank, a generator and some spare gas. It actually slows us down a little and gives us time to reflect how lucky we are in so many ways!

 

[bcjmmac]

3 weeks back in the 70s/big ice storm took out ~33% of the power lines. Luckily it was late Oct or Nov so not too cold (we used wood stoves at the time IAC) but we had to milk the cows (~20) by hand, pump water by hand, etc. After that we had dad buy a PTO generator & have things rewired so that it powered "essentials". Never used it when I was at home and I don't think it was used for ~20 years.

 

[boggen]

a propane grill is nice, or a charcle grill. but having some stones even just some concrete blocks setup into a small circle, that you can toss a "grill" to cook over a fire is pretty cool. nice spot to burn leaves and like, (not garbage), but serves for a cooking area. open a can of beans, vegetables, etc... and toss can on the grill and let the stuff warm up right in the can. having some allunium foil. to wrap other foods in to cock on grill helps a lot.

my mom found a "tripod" grill that raises / lowers with a chain, it kinda of a pain holding the grill as ya move food around. but allows you to adjust height and in that heat going to the food. it all folds up into a little package. nice for setting a couple small logs out for a fire, and letting them burn down some, and then toss it over the fire to cook with.

ya don't need much wood, say 3 to 4 logs 4" to 6" in size. cooks a big meal. being able to lower/raise the grill, lets ya adjust things as things burn down. if you have a ring made out some rocks. to hold the logs, it cooks much better. (focusing heat upwards) vs letting heat blow out the side via wind.

==========
having a wood burning stove, with actual cooking top, to put a couple pans on is also awesome. i have seen a lot of 55 gallon metal drum wood stoves. but most of them all have round tops, a little piece of metal and a little bit more welding, for a flat surface on top. and away ya go with warming some food up / cooking food.

==========
i have not done it, but you should be able to hook up a smaller vent-less wall heater (setup for LPS / propane), to a standard propane 20lbs tank (tanks for cooking grills) for heating a room or like in a pinch. ya don't need the 110v fan or anything.

 

[jaotguy]

4 weeks during the big ice storm

 

[charlz]

I think he meant 5000 watt. 5000KW is a helluva big standby.

5000KW is 5 MILLION watts.

No wonder he got tired of dragging that thing around

 

[charlz]

a propane grill is nice, or a charcle grill. but having some stones even just some concrete blocks setup into a small circle, that you can toss a "grill" to cook over a fire is pretty cool. nice spot to burn leaves and like, (not garbage), but serves for a cooking area. open a can of beans, vegetables, etc... and toss can on the grill and let the stuff warm up right in the can. having some allunium foil. to wrap other foods in to cock on grill helps a lot.

my mom found a "tripod" grill that raises / lowers with a chain, it kinda of a pain holding the grill as ya move food around. but allows you to adjust height and in that heat going to the food. it all folds up into a little package. nice for setting a couple small logs out for a fire, and letting them burn down some, and then toss it over the fire to cook with.

ya don't need much wood, say 3 to 4 logs 4" to 6" in size. cooks a big meal. being able to lower/raise the grill, lets ya adjust things as things burn down. if you have a ring made out some rocks. to hold the logs, it cooks much better. (focusing heat upwards) vs letting heat blow out the side via wind.

==========
having a wood burning stove, with actual cooking top, to put a couple pans on is also awesome. i have seen a lot of 55 gallon metal drum wood stoves. but most of them all have round tops, a little piece of metal and a little bit more welding, for a flat surface on top. and away ya go with warming some food up / cooking food.

==========
i have not done it, but you should be able to hook up a smaller vent-less wall heater (setup for LPS / propane), to a standard propane 20lbs tank (tanks for cooking grills) for heating a room or like in a pinch. ya don't need the 110v fan or anything.

In the hurricane areas tending a big fire or woodstove probably isn't the most pleasant since it is likely aready hot. Something like the Prep Stove Prepstove Home - Prepare Your Food with Nature might be handy though. Enough to cook a meal or boil water without a big fire or using a lot of wood.

 

[grsthegreat]

feeling better now after hearing about the weeks and months others have been without power.

Our longest has been 3 days. We usually have power outages lasting 4-6 hrs 2-3 times a year ... always in winter.

Have had whole house generator for 16 years now. same unit. still going strong

 

[HEC]

Five days many years ago , and my dad brought me his gen. so we wouldn't lose all our food in the frig. and freezer . My neighbor used it to so his food wouldn't spoil . Needless to say I bought a gen. after that episode . Normally we only lose it for a few hrs., not days as we live in a different area now .

 

[Country Geek]

Designed my house in 1998 and moved into it out to the sticks in 1999. At that time, Hurricane Fran and her extended power outages were a recent memory and Y2K was coming. So I had a generator sub panel with cutoff switch put in powering the essentials (well and septic pumps, fridge, gas furnace, lights in main living areas, etc) and bought a 5kw generator. At that time they were pricey, IIRC about 3x today's price. It was the times.

So naturally you can guess what happened. No significant power outages in 15 years. I live near a nuke plant and just up the road from me is one of the alarm sirens. Turns out those sirens have even higher priority than hospitals when it's time to restore the power. So when the outage is caused by something between the siren and the main grid, they are ON IT. If we ever get an outage caused by something between us and the siren, however, I suspect we'll be waiting and the generator will FINALLY look like a smart purchase.

There have been two outages worth mentioning. One was only for a few hours after a massive ice storm and the power came back as I was getting the generator set up. The other one was for about 18 hours and the power came back as I was driving back from the gas station with jerrycans for the generator. In fact during one major ice storm, family members from in town came and stayed at my house because I had power and they didn't.

But I'm still hedging my bets. I'm putting in a geothermal HVAC system (I have another thread on it) but I opted for gas backup so I can still heat with my generator if it becomes necessary.

 

[woodlandfarms]

When we first bought our house, that winter we had 7 days out (last on the line to get fixed). It was a freak ice storm and the area was hard hit. That summer we bought a generator. And then the county buried our power lines. Thus, the generator (A 5k put put) has really never seen use. I am afraid to sell it but it really is just sitting there in the way.