How long have you gone w/o electric?

[chaard]

This is the second storm this year where the power has been knocked out for hundreds of thousands of homes in St. Louis. It has taken a week to get everyone restored.

I was w/o power for 10 hrs. That's not bad. But people are getting tired of others blaming the electric co. for not getting customers back up. I think the electric co. is doing there best. They've brought in hundreds of crews from other areas to help and it has still taken a week.


The residents are up in arms. What has it been like in other areas? How long has it taken to restore power in a major city? As long as a week or more?

[dhvac]

we was without power this last weekend, only for 2 days but when you live in the sticks you know you will be the last to get service

thats why we have a wood burning stove (soon to be 2) and we keep water on hand, we have a well so no power = no water

also keep stock in oil for lamps and coleman fuel for lanterns

i do have a portable generator that i can hook up if need be but dont want to deal with that if i dont have to so we usually just ride it out

[icemeister]

Two years ago we were without power a total of five weeks after getting direct hits from back-to-back hurricanes. Of course, we weren't faced with subfreezing cold....just 95F tropical heat. Before that time, portable generators were not all that common but now everyone I know has at least one ready to go. Even a small generator will power a gas furnace, but it takes a big sucker and a lot of gas to run your A/C.

We learned that the initial efforts to restore power is always to the hospitals, shelters and other emergency support facilities, then to grids with larger populations. If you live in the sticks at the end of the line you're simply SOL.

[gruntly]

Wow... I feel bad for you guys...

The worst for us was that 18 hours a couple of 2 or 3 Augusts ago that took out all of N.E. N.A.

Caused by some unemployeed Ohio Electric Company guy I think.

[keepitsimplestupid]

4 days. Was able to rent a generator, though. Had to move power round robin for 3 refrigerators. It was definately because of a storm and it was a transformer that serviced 4 households. So, your near the bottom of the list. Gas and water weren't affected.

Nat gas: Never
Water: No more than a day.

[coordinatesales]

I live near one of the major sub stations and a power company line crew supervisor lives around the corner so I've only had to go a few hours without power here. Now when I lived in the country, we could go 2-3 days without. The biggest problem then was no power, no well pump and therefore no water either.

Around here, people complain when the power company trims trees away from the lines and then complain when a tree that wasn't trimmed brings down a line and they loose power.

[madhat]

Many years ago, we were without power for three weeks, due to an ice storm. My company deliverd a Genset to a cell site a mile from my house. They had power, so they parked it in my yard, and I got to use it. If the cell site had of gone down, I would of had to move the Genset to the cell site, and hook it up. It was well worth being on call for this.

[jimmbo68]

Try going with a standby generator.We've been installing
the Carrier 16 kw model. Powered by natural gas, and sold with automatic transfer switch.Installs in about 4-6 hours.

[Carnak]

A month and a day, others here were over 3 months waiting for power to be restored after a major hurricane.

It took me two weeks to get a generator.

Instant Amish, no power, no water, no streetlights, no anything

Some people live worse than that eveyday of their lives.

A gen is no good if you do not have the fuel. Amazing what you can do with 20A of 120V.

Big gens are only for the short term, run one of those for an extended period of time and it will break the bank.

[The Penguin]

we lost power for 23hrs lasty snow storm hit

some were out for a week
the nice thing is that the rich area lost power for 3 days and they did their nuts jumping up and down - did not help

we lost power after they did and got power back before thay did ( the rich part of town)
It sure made me smile

[coordinatesales]

I jinxed myself. I posted earlier and was thinking about the reliability of our power. I go home for lunch and no power! Hopefully it'll be back on when I get home this evening.

[ralphtheplumber]

The worst was about 2 weeks, when I was a little kid.

We lost power for a couple hours last spring during those tornados, but I ended up inheriting a generator a few weeks after that.

I figure that as long as I keep it maintained, gassed up & ready, the power will never go out again.

[karsthuntr]

When I was a kid, every Easter we had an ice storm and lost power for 1-2 weeks. This happened 6 years in a row, always Easter weekend. We lived in the sticks, we had wood stove for heat, coleman stove for food and bottled water, to flush tolets and cook with.