What did you learn from the ice storm?

[Jimxj2000]

I know several people, myself included, lost electric power for several to many days.

Given this forum I would assume all had a wood stove or fireplace of some sort.

What did you learn? What worked well? What didn't work well? What did you wish you had on hand before the storm?


A few things we learned:


A canning pot is great for heating water. I would put it on the stove with about 3-4 gallons of water at 5am. By 7 it was near boiling. I would then put it on the cook stove in the kitchen and wrap a towel or two around it. This gave us hot water - in the kitchen - throughout the day. My wife loved having hot water. We did a similar thing with smaller stock pots for in the bath rooms.

Things cook fast when using a frying pan on the top of the wood stove.

You can use cooling racks (metal) to hold things an inch or so off the top of the stove to warm them slower.

I wish we had a dutch oven for cooking.

Obvious one, but some people miss it. If it is cold outside you can keep everything in the fridge and freezer good by bringing in ice or re-freezing stuff outside.

Generators are nice, but take a lot of gas. The gas stations may be down for several days.

Have a battery powered alarm clock. Even better would be a clock you can see at night. It was hard to know when to get up to check the stove and get ready for work without the alarm clock to see at night. (Several co-workers noted this too. It impacted quality of sleep more than I would have expected.)

If you have young children, have things ready for bed, and the floor clean by 4 pm. After than all the outside light is gone and Legos are hard to see in the dark.

LED flashlights are great. They run for ever, don't get hot, and the kids can use them as night lights.

Have some 5 gallon buckets on hand. (We did, but they were full of gravel. We now have a pile of gravel in the basement.)

You may need more batteries and candles that you would have thought.

Online banking is hard to do without power.

Have a cell phone charger for the car. We only had them for the house. (It makes relatives nervous when they can't call you for a couple days.)

Have a battery powered CO detector and radio.

Keep things in perspective. Once we realized that eating, keeping warm, and flushing the toilet can be a full days work things went better.


Any others?

Thanks.

 

[FWWARDEN]

I learned that when when your water comes from a well, ya need to break down and buy a generator. Heat is great, but washing your face and cleaning dishes is a lot easier if you don't have to drive five miles to fill up your water jugs.

 

[Vic99]

I learned that it is actually fun at first when you have a stove and rely on candle power . . . but that can get old fast. I missed not having ceiling fans to circulate air, but cand still definitely get by.

Can't post on hearth.com unless at work.

Yes, candles don't last as long as you might think.

I also learned that during an ice storm all the pine that I could ever want falls down in the neighborhood . . . and even a bit of hardwood.

 

[Prada]

When the forecast calls for really bad weather.......fill the bathtub. That will provide water for washing and flushing the john for some time. Save your jugs of water for cooking, drinking and brushing your teeth.

Buy a Dutch Oven for your stove and keep it on hand. It can be used anytime for saving fuel but it's indispensable during power outages. I've even baked in a Dutch Oven.
Buy an old fashioned coffee pot that can be put right on top the stove.
You can cook anything on a stove top. Lay some tinfoil on it to protect it from splashes and spatters.
Don't take your food outside to keep cold, instead go out and chip some ice chuncks off and put it in a open cooler. Place the open cooler in your frig so when the ice melts the water will be contained.

Make SURE you have a manual can opener on hand. I threw my electric one out the back door during one power outage and have never bought another one.
The new LED flash lights are great because they last so much longer. Keep several on hand.
Kerosene lanterns are still excellent light sources. Go on Ebay and find one that has a reflector behind it and mount it on the wall in unlit rooms away from the stove, ready to use and out of the way.
Cell phones have alarm clocks on them and they light up. Keep that charger for the phone in the car and ready to charge your phone when needed.

If your house is really drafty, hang blankets over openings like windows and doors.
If the house is feeling too cool, section off part of it so the stove only has to warm a smaller area. Be careful because pipes could freeze quicker when doing this.
Keeping a Kerosene heater around is a good idea for areas that may require more heat to keep pipes from freezing.

Keep a large metal container outside near by the house but away from anything combustible to dump your ash in. Rake your ash out on a regular basis but leave any hot coals in the stove during a reload to help heat the house and restart your fire quickly.

Focus on the moments and think about your forefathers and how they lived.
Connect with your family. Play games and tell stories.
A Power Outage can actually create a beautiful memory if you let it. Who knows you may be looking forward for the next one

 

[drizler]

Get all your goodies gathered together sometime in the near future. Nothing dulls memory like time and by next Summer a lot of this stuff won't have much of a priority until it happens again. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice..... If you are living where there was just one of these outages and don't have a Generator keep your eyes open in the next few months. Craigs list and places like Sears will have whole rooms of them for sale used and repair units pretty cheap. You will find really nice prices on pristine units.

 

[Jim41]

I am on a well and in the past have filled the bathtubs with water to be used to flush the toilet. For the first two days I walked to the brook that flows through my back yard and filled five gallon buckets. Thought of the first settlers as I froze filling them up. Winter life must have been brutal before electricity. I did get a generator this time around which is well worth the money. Stay well everyone and have a Merry Christmas!

 

[Patapsco Mike]

I lost power for over a week, and my take home lesson was to take all the food in your freezer, put it in a big cooler, and get it outside. Otherwise you can lose everything.

I also learned that once you have no water, you stop enjoying yourself really fast.

I learned that my Coleman camping lantern and backpacking stove perform awesome double duty in such storms. Being able to see and eat will get you through anything.

I also learned that it's at times like these that you find out who your real friends are. Like my buddy John, who unplugged the generator from his house, loaded it on a flatbed trailer, and drove it to my house so I could run my well for a while and keep my freezer frozen.

 

[PunKid8888]

Yup I agree it was fun for day one, after that not having a generator ment worring about pipes freezing and no water to even rinse your hands. Luckly I had some friends come visit that brought a small one. A generator is a must if your on well wate

 

[youngstr]

I learned that 1200 bucks for a generator was money well spent when you don't have power for a week.

I learned that most people know absolutely nothing about electricity.

I learned that you become popular with your neighbors when they find out you have hot showers.

I learned that when disasters strike you need to be able to take care of yourselves and help others when possible.....because the government isn't going to show up with a convoy of trucks to bail you out.

Y

 

[eernest4]

I didn't get caught in a power outage this time but back in 1990 I got nailed for 10 days without power. A gas or propaine cooking stove in the kitchen saved my week. I still have that natural gas stove in my kitchen & i still cook on it. Its great for temp one room heat too. Like on those cold mornings when you sleep through the 4 am refueling & the wood stove is out.

a $140.oo 2 cycle 2 hp 500 watt generator from someplace like www.harborfreight.com will let you run 1 appliance & a cfl compact flouresent light from off of extension cords.

That one appliance could be your oil burner ,well pump,refrig,pellet stove .

Back in 1990 , I had one propaine lanterern & candles. Now I have an assortment of LED flashlights and an extra 8 pack of batteries in every size always on hand.
A battery opperated transistor radio is nice too. for weather & news.

In 2000, I bought a 4000 watt, 6.5 hp gen for $650.oo & never needed it yet. That does not mean that someday i might be very happy to have it available. Still have it & never put gasoline in it. Takes two guys to move it or needs wheels installed on it.

I picked up a 1000 wt 3.5 hp gen for $75.oo in 2006 , couldn't resist the price & this one I can even move by myself.

Lastly, I bought a 4000 watt 8 hp onan generator for $2750.oo with a 24 foot, 1983 rockledge motorcoach attached to it for no extra charge. The generator did not run but the motorcoach does. I have since fixed the generator so that it too runs.

so $140.00 for a little " pick it up in 1 hand" generator will go a long way towards making your next ice storm a lot easier to get through & it makes camping ever so much fun.

Never hook a generator into the house circuit breaker box unesle you have a power line back feed switch that will disconnect your circuit breaker pannel from the power line so that you do not energize downed powerlines & electrocute untlity workers but instead ,
run each appliance from an extension cord. The generator must be located outside to vent carbon monoxide to outside air.

You should keep a stock of emergency food ,water, medical supplies and at least 10 gal of gasoline in cans & your car at least 2/3 full
because when the power is out, the stores & gas stations are closed, too & you may need to drive pretty damn far to find a store with electricity that is open.

I never lost my water in my power outage, but the buckets , like the guy above said.

If you have a electric cook stove & you can't cook on your wood stove top, buy a coleman stove . I prefer propaine but the coleman fuel "gasoline" pump up stove is good too however,
the gasoline pod with the pump should be drained out & motor oil put inside it to keep if from rusting on the inside. The coleman fuel can gum up over time & never put car gasoline in it because if you dont drain it ,it will gum up & be useless by next year.

 

[joustinghill]

I learned that $1000 I spent a few winters ago buying a generator and having it wired properly with a cutoff switch was the best possible use of $1000 EVER. Because of it I was able to stay in the house, take care of the horses, and mostly just be inconvenienced rather than in major trouble.

If you live in a heavily wooded area, own and know how to use a chainsaw. Do not put off buying a new chainsaw in November just because yours broke beyond fixing and Christmas is coming up, unless you like buying whatever POS chainsaw you can find at whatever store has power after you've abused your truck by driving it over logs and through the woods because your driveway is completely blocked.

48 hours of generator fuel on hand is better than 24 and means you only have to go out searching for gas every other day.

Don't use your emergency extension cords to power your Christmas lights unless you really like being out there with a flashlight disassembling the lights so you can use the cord to power the well pump in the barn from the generator.

Don't run the extension cord across the farmyard without marking it with buckets or posts unless you really like replacing 100ft 12g cords after they've been cut by a snowplow.

having flashlights with fresh batteries is good. knowing where they are and being able to locate them in the dark is better.

 

[Lanningjw]

I am sorry that you guys went thru the ice strom. Thanks for all the great recommendations, it means alot to me. They said we may have ice storm this coming weekend.
Thank, it means alot, Jim

 

[caber]

We lost power for 5 days last year due to an ice storm. Woodstove kept us warm. Our stove actually uses propane so we could cook. Only issue was water as we are on a well. Luckily, we have lots of water sources including a creek, pond and several springs. That made flushing possible. I showered at work and the wife and kids showered at her mothers. Even on day 4 with the option of going to spend the night at her moms, everyone wanted to stay home. We played board games and cards into the late hours by candlelight. Good point about the alarm clock - I prefer windups, so we had one.

Propane coleman lanterns are great for outside chores. It's hard to milk by flashlight.

Generators are really nice and we have one now. But make sure you are able to take care of yourself without one. Just in case something happens to it.

 

[velvetfoot]

Make sure your generator has enough ooomph to power your well pump.

 

[Prada]

Our Forefathers didn't have generators, flashlights or cell phones and did just fine. lol
We can too. It's just that we are very spoiled. The wood burner is the key to survival in these situations.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Mrs. Pantalones' sense of adventure wears off after about one night without power, but I can respect that.

If she wasn't so hot, I'd guess that Mrs. Pantalones is a friggin saint with how she kept everything going at home.

My fishie tank uses more juice than the blower on the insert. Fish know how to beg.

More dangerous than falling trees may be falling 1# chunks of ice that rain off the trees... if you are a 9# shih tzu.

Hippies make even more of a mess when there's no light... man.

The fire dept responds pretty quickly in my neighborhood, and the firemen love a good fire.

My neighbors are all pretty helpful and come together in an emergency.

My next door neighbor, Mike the fireman, must have installed a friggin firetruck pump to get the water pressure that he has out his garden hose. WOW

Birchtrees are really flexible, which helps them deal with ice weight, but will ironically mean they are bent way over and will get cut down in the spring.

 

[NHJAKE]

I to lost power for 4 days. Thank God we installed our wood stove 1 week priior to the strom!

Couple of things like others had mentioned first LED flashlights....just hide some with fresh batteries from the little ones....they just love to play with them.
Our stove is tiny but has a cooktop surface.....just perfect...pancakes, grilled cheese, Hot Dogs & Beans.
We have a decorative lanter(old style with a wick and glass mantel) we use liqued parafin so no nasty smell or fumes...they give off agreat amount of light.
Coolers on the deck for the stuff from the fridge....did end up loosing the frozen good.....we tried My wife informend me that we have $ 1000 coverage for lost perishables with no deductible we'll see how this turns out. And I have to have a sleep machine due to sleep apnea. So a boat battery & a $40 pwer inverter got me through the night, just had to go to friends (he has a generator) each day to charge it back up.

1 Always have flashlights & fresh batteries & A liqued lamp or Coleman Lantern
2 Keep warm water going on the stove
3 Coolers
4 Survival radio...mine is re-chargeable,batt,solar,crank.....gets TV Channles, Weather, And everything else(thought this was stupid when I got it for Christmas from Dad)

Remember a grenerator is nice but use it correctly! I'd rather be a little chilly than end up DEAD!

 

[lecomte38]

I learned that my pellet stove is good for s##t without electricity!

 

[vgrund]

I learned that my Kohler 12RES automatic standby generator is worth about 3X what I paid for it during an 8-day outage.

The power went out at 1 AM and we didn't even notice until we heard the generator running at 7 AM.
Everything in the house worked as on any normal day: lights, heat and water.
We hosted a Christmas party for 50 people in the thick of the outage, running a double electric wall oven and many lights. Many guests did not even realize we had no utility power.
I did not have to run for gas and constantly refill a portable generator. It just worked.

Now, before you start thinking how smart I am I'll fess up. I'm just experienced. Some of you may remember my posts about dealing with our last ice storm. I learned my lesson last time.

If anybody needs a reference to a great generator company in NH, PM me. Very few sell, install and service annually and have deep expertise for the home market. I found a great, dedicated company that fits this description. No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer.

Victor

 

[Duetech]

That one missed us but there are others that have not. The longest has been 10 days. In those times we have found the word "need" has been terribly misrepresented in our day to day lives in the most innocent of ways. The major ice storm in our lives now is in the economy and for the most part it is here because what we need has been misrepresented mostly in innocent ways and has been forgotten. Once we know what we really need we should never forget it. Storms are for a moment but how we respond can last forever. We should focus so that which we need is ever available so that when the storms come we can remember and use them and when able to share with those who are caught in the most innocent of ways.

 

[myzamboni]

This is a great thread everyone. Some of the preparation taken for Ice Storms are the same preparations we take in case of an earthquake.

Personally, I'll take the earthquakes as the bigger ones seem to hit when the weather is warmer.

 

[potter]

Bought a 5500 watt Briggs and Stratton generator today.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

We are expecting a nasty ice storm in the morning here in Michigan!!

One thing nobody has mentioned yet......hot water heater!

You have fresh water in your hot water heater. If you have a 40 or 50 gallon water heater than you have nearly that much fresh drinking water.

Also someone mentioned that they use natural gas to cook with. Let me tell you first hand that just because you have natural gas to run you generator, stove/oven or vent-less heater don't assume you will have it in a power outage. During power outages the gas companies pumping stations might be down. This was case during the East Coast Blackout in Summer 2003.

Back in 1997 we had a bad ice storm and we lost power for 6 days.

Here is what I learned excluding what others have already said....

*have at least 2 gallons of water per person, per day, for cooking and drinking.

*candles, dollar store sells cheap ones

*First aid supplies

*extra blankets & sleeping bags (Have extras for invited/uninvited guests) ;-P

*French press for coffee (hay a guys gotta have his cup of Joe to function)

*Shotgun with #7 bird shot (criminals love power failures because most alarms won't work & bird shot will not go through the wall into the next room if you miss)

*Hobo pie maker, for homemade hot pockets and pies.

*MRE, meals ready to eat. saves time,less stress, high caloric, very mobile and compact. (I keep at least 72 meals on hand at any given time)

*Extra pet food and extra pet water

 

[Dill]

Make sure your 10 flashlights work and you have some batteries.
Ditto for the generator, one of our town gen sets lasted about 2 seconds.
Keep a gallon of saw mix and bar oil on hand.
Also keep lamp oil on hand, its been hard to find.
Get more wood under cover before the storm.
Cellphones are key, nextel however goes down every time we have a natural disaster.
Sap pumps and holding tanks are great for watering cows.
And just show up at the fire dept if you want to help, we'll put you to work.

 

[vtdavid]

Great suggestions all. We didn't experience the great ice storm of 2008 but have lost power in other storms. Stock include a couple of the crank up LCD flashlights, no batteries required! A few kerosene lamps with a couple gallons of lamp oil, stocked food, extra full propane tank for the grill, and of course the Alderlea T6 with the way cool swing out trivets for cooking or heating (could use the propane stove but isn't that cheating?). People thought I was nuts to put in a dug well rather than a drilled well but I can bucket water from my well! The freezers would be a problem - need to check into getting a generator to keep them going. Wouldn't want Minnie or Pearl to thaw prematurely. As of yesterday, my brother was 12 days without power.