Lessons Learned From 9 Days Without Power

by Dennis A.
The Survival Mom

It was mid-July a few years ago and very hot. At about 4:30 P.M. and shortly after I returned home from work, the weather radio goes off and announces a huge line of super cell thunderstorms producing tornados, softball size hail, heavy rain and straight-line winds in excess of 70 M.P.H.

Less than an hour later, the monster hit. I yelled to my wife and daughter to get into the basement, NOW! Fortunately they listened to me and went downstairs. I thought, “I’m not going to miss this one,” and stood at the glass window. While I was standing there enjoying the trees bend 90 degrees and listening to things hitting the side of the house, all of a sudden our heavy, full size trampoline started to levitate upwards. It lifted 5 feet, 10 feet, and then 30 feet straight up and then took off like a Harrier jet toward me. I went scrambling down to the basement with my family. I did not see any funnel cloud, and to this day I can’t see how a straight-line wind could do something like that.

The storm lasted maybe 30-45 minutes and during the course of the storm we lost electrical power. No problem, I’m a “prepper”; I’m very well prepared! I made my way to the next room in the basement where I have my flashlights, candles and battery lamps perfectly stored in nice boxes. It was pitch dark. Based on the severity of the storm I figured the power would be out at least until sometime the next day.

Now, it was time to put my action plan to the test. I got out all my heavy duty 12 gauge extension cords, electrical strips, Coleman battery lanterns, etc. I fired up the Coleman 5,000 watt generator on the first pull and plugged everything in: the refrigerator, the chest freezer, the TV and satellite box.

The next morning, walking outside through the front door I sure could tell a severe storm came through. Debris, shingles, branches, lawn furniture, and more was everywhere. I wondered where the trampoline had landed. We lived in a subdivision and we eventually found that thing 75 yards away where it had struck the side of a house and caved the wall in pretty good.

Nine days without power

Day One: I had a long list of thing to do. I needed to call in to work and take a couple of days off, call the insurance company, clean up all the mess, cover the holes on the roof until I could get a roofer out, etc. It was awfully hot outside for 7:00 a.m. and the highs for the day were forecasted to be in the high 90s and lower 100’s.

My wife called me into the house to show me the news on TV. It turned out that we had experienced a very widespread tornado and storm damage covering three states. Our entire regional area including St. Louis was 80% out of power. My gut feeling told me what we were going to be without power for a number of days. I thought, “Oh well. I’m a prepper. I’m ready!” A quick check told me that I had about a weeks worth of gasoline for the generator.

Later on that morning we took a little drive around our village to see what was up. Nothing was open, and I mean nothing. No Wal-Mart, no Kroger, no McDonalds and no gas stations. There was very little traffic and all the stop lights were out. Returning home around noon we walked into a very hot house. Should I open the windows or keep the house closed up?

It wasn’t long before I had to make a decision. It was 98 degrees outside and 82 degrees inside and climbing. To make a long and miserable story short, I decided to keep the house closed up. At its peak the house would only get to 89 degrees inside max, and a couple of degrees cooler in the basement. The heat generated from the refrigerator, freezer, coffee pot, and TV, I’m sure contributed to a lot of the heat. Even with a couple of fans blasting away directly at us, it was miserable trying to get any sleep until it was just about time to get up and the temperature in the house hit its low.

Day Two: One long continuation of day one: hot! At least I had all the conveniences of home: satellite TV, refrigerator, freezer, lights, coffee pot, etc. No one else in the subdivision seemed to be as well off. That night around 9 p.m. my wife and I went for a drive to see if anything was open yet. Everything was still closed. Driving back into the subdivision I got an eerie gut wrenching knot in my stomach as I was approached my house. The entire subdivision was totally black, except for my house. It looked like Christmas from the outside. The entire subdivision was totally silent, except for my house, where the blaring sound of a generator permeated the silence. I realized that I had a big red and white circle on my back! We got inside, closed the curtains, and repositioned the lights. There wasn’t much we could do about the generator noise.

Day Three: The days are getting hotter along with the inside of the house. I had to report to work, and the roofer was expected to drop by later. The roof was repaired by the time I got home, the wind turbine replaced, and the vent pipe repaired, all for a very reasonable price. I was surprised that I didn’t get gouged!

I was getting 24 hours run time out of the generator at 50-75% capacity and the oil needed to be changed. Remember those big red and white circles on my back? The neighbors on both sides of me came over shortly after I returned home from work and asked if I had any ice and/or bottled water to spare. Along with everything else going on, we had a water boil order and we had been advised not to directly drink the water.

I was willing to help but I didn’t let it be known that I had 10 cases of bottled water and two 55-gallon plastic food grade barrels full for emergency use. I only had a small amount of ice in a few ice trays but I gave them what I had and refilled the trays. I also gave them plenty of ice cold bottled water from the fridge. I’m learning many of the people in the subdivision are driving 50-100 miles to get air conditioned motel rooms to escape the heat and sleep. Some are asking us to please try and keep an eye on their property.

That evening we had some good news. The local Quick Trip gas station got an emergency generator and was open for business. The bad news was that we couldn’t get anywhere near it! Traffic was backed up two blocks to get gas and it was a mad house! They were out of ice, milk, bread, bottled water and other commodities. I parked a couple of blocks away and found that they had plenty of cold beer. Just what the doctor ordered! I grabbed a case of my favorite beverage with a smile ear to ear and headed home.

It was so hot and miserable that we had been eating very light but that night I broke out some pork steaks and brats and barbequed them while my wife boiled potatoes for potato salad on my propane Coleman gas stove outside.

We invited a few of our neighbors over to share. I shut down the noisy generator for a while to have a moment of some normalcy. It was 101 degrees Fahrenheit at the moment and the case of ice-cold beverages didn’t last long. One of the neighbors hopped into her car to get more. Everything is cash only at the QT.

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March 2, 2012

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