More later.
Nastional news seems to have reported this as a 20,000 household power outage.
We were hit with near hurricane force winds (71 mph) and trees went down on the power lines. ours stood, but the news services forgot a zero. It’s 200,000 people in Spokane, a city of 500,000, including police, fire, and hospitals with no power, and a total of 300,000 out of power including widespread damage to trees, houses, roofs, and cars.
We just got power back on.
We’re surviving, but now our basement drain quit working.
Toes crossed that you managed to stay warm and that there was little or no damage to your property.
Being without power in summer is bad enough but in winter it is truly the pits!
Ouch! You need that power-your-house-from-your-Prius module.
It can’t hurt to call your Toyota dealer about it. Maybe Toyota will homologate the device worldwide, or maybe they bless one of the plug-out makers.
Interesting idea.
Now the basement floor is full of water because the floor drain and drain from utility sink/washing machine quit working and clogged. I injured my foot yesterday, lost a toenail—not the big one, thank goodness, so I am trying to treat same and keep it out of polluted water, but we cannot get hot water yet because we cannot get the hot water heater to light, and are heating everything on the stove, and now we are in danger of a sewer backup if that drain line has frosen.
This is typical of what has happened hour to hour of the last seven days. But at least our trees are standing, the fence held up, and we think we have no roof damage. Others were not so lucky, and we are talking really massive trees, rootball larger than a man is tall.
Speculation finally started that may have been the cause.
Are the tanks and fish going to make out OK?
It sounds like you were not so bored as some feared. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
I know little of plumbing, but you do have a lot of pumps around. If the basement water is just water and not backed up sewage, I would think it’s kosher to dewater into the street. Good luck. I hope inertia, of various non-classical sorts, preserved the aquaria.
I will make some hot tea and try to will the heat to you and Jane.
CJ and Jane, also to Lynn and to Patty — I’d emailed Patty in case she could phone you or come by. It is very good to know you’re OK, and I’ll email a follow-up to let her know you have power again.
I have personal experience regarding how large trees like that can act in a Tropical Storm or Hurricane. It is most impressive and highly expensive to fix. Tropical Storm Allison, 10+ years ago, was not kind to my neighborhood.
Here’s hoping all’s right with your household soon, humans and cats and fishy folk.
It’s good to know you and Jane are OK and you have power again. — Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s unconscionable that hospitals didn’t have diesel generators that kicked in at the first flicker! Police too, but I could see firestations leaving their trucks outside, and only needing small generators for communications equipment.
Sending positive thoughts your way. Power outages in winter are the worst. Hope you and Jane have a good Thanksgiving!
Paul — It’s likely much like it was for Houston after Hurricane Ike, or New Orleans after Katrina. A hurricane can quite effectively throw one of the largest, most modern cities on the planet right back into pre-Industrial / pioneer times, without electricity or running water. We did have natural gas. But this affected everything from hospitals and other emergency services to major businesses to people’s homes. People who had started that morning trying to evacuate the city were still out on the highways in traffic jams. Man-made disasters are bad enough, but Mother Nature can incapacitate whole regions. We were without electricity, (reliable, safely drinkable) running water, for nearly two months. Cell phone service was restored sooner. Internet access and cable TV varied, again up to nearly two months before they were back. Priority for repairs was given to hospitals and emergency services, grocery stores and pharmacies, of course, and then to businesses and then to residential. They worked in a mostly linear path, sweeping across the city to restore services. Some areas looked like a war zone from fallen trees, destroyed buildings, and so on. Until services were restored, we had National Guard as well as county and city police acting throughout the city, such as armed marshals at grocery stores, and National Guards at food, water, ice distribution points, and helicopter (police and National Guard) flyovers at night to guard against looters. It was actually remarkable how well most ordinary people cooperated under all this. Also, most people did fine with the police and military presence, because for one, most of them lived nearby, and people understood the necessity of making sure everyone got access to services. However, yes, it pointed out how badly any cities (not just in America) need to be prepared for a major natural disaster on a regional level like that. I would be very surprised if any city, including mine, is any better prepared now, however. Be it noted: People pulled together, helped each other, cooperated, and most people obeyed the law and kept safe. That says that anyone who would try to exploit (or create) a situation like that doesn’t understand how people (specifically Americans) behave in a crisis like that. Also, the help that came in from all over the country, even internationally, was very much appreciated. And on top of it, there were Katrina refugees who stayed in Houston, who went through this too. That shows how near-coastal towns, how the coastal region, has cross-cultural contact, mixing, and how people merge and help out after events like these. Texas had an invusion of Louisiana natives and then some Texans likely relocated along the coastal states or upwards into the interior. So a mass event like that leads to migrations and blending of cultural, regional groups.
I left a text on Jane’s phone last night, or at least, it was the number I had for Jane… it’s probably outdated, and so never got to her…..
I hope the aquaria survived…..
Have you natural gas service to your house? You might consider a whole-house generator (Generac is one brand) that runs off the natural gas. It does a monthly test, so will raise your gas bill a little bit each month due to the testing. It’s automatic, when the power kicks off, the generator starts using a battery to spark the fuel, and the system switches the house circuits over to the generator. When the main comes back on, the system switches back to the mains and shuts off the generator. They’re somewhere in the $5,000 range, if I recall, and that doesn’t include getting new gas service……
Generac is no longer the best brand, I believe. It’s going downhill and they are selling off old stock. We’ve got a General Electric (natural gas) and there is another very good one.
Natural gas to the house doesn’t work if it has electronic ignition. Mine has an old-fashioned standing pilot light. 🙂 🙂
Oops, should have said “waterheater”. (Much is bearable with hot water for bathing!)
So does ours.
I believe the natural gas generators use an internal lead-acid battery….the people I know who have them told me that’s how the gas is ignited…..I can’t speak for a waterheater, although I imagine that once you got the generator running, the waterheater’s electronic ignition would also work……..
I suspect the drain problem may be localized to the lines running into the floor drain — you’ve been flushing toilets without a problem, etc.? Usually if the whole house sewer line goes kaput, you know in a hurry, as the drains closest to the problem begin backing up, and raw sewage smell is unmistakable. Water and sewer lines are all required by code to be installed below the frost line, so I doubt anything is frozen underground. If you must work in that sump, rubber boots or at least a bread wrapper over the afflicted foot! Hindsight and all, perhaps the storm would have done Jane’s work for her and knocked over that multiply cursed juniper thicket by the corner!
I remember Ike. A week without power, followed four months later by a week without power due to an ice storm. My trees came down two months later before one landed on my house! Both had problems, but one was discovered as they cut it down. Prior owner had topped them leaving weak, water maples.
We only got the remnants of Ike in the form of a windstorm. First and only time I have experienced one. I do have photos somewhere. I live near the Ohio River. We get some rain if a hurricane comes up the gulf coast, not a major storm.
We lost a few fish. When I have time, I’ll tell you how we saved the tanks and a number of the fish.
Hurricane Bob was the last time I went for a week without power. In modern houses it is most unpleasant. You have my sympathies.
We had 71 mph winds, trees over 40 feet and 75 years old went down, taking power lines with them…
We did get the water heater lighted.
We joked that we, with no heat, no light, no internet, no power, no hot water, no phone and no end in sight, were one toilet flush away from the Middle Ages, but even that went when the sewer line clogged. We actually hit the year 1215 mid-afternoon.
jane hopes for a real bath tonight. I get a shower in the morning.
And everything drains.
Delighted to hear that this has finally turned into a draining experience.
Eh? There must be more to the story. That sounds suspiciously like there’s a pump somewhere in the line!
Glad to see you’ve rejoined the 21st century. I had only heard about the storm you guys had yesterday and was about to start asking if anyone had heard from you. A whole house generator is on our wish list, though we haven’t had a long power-out in several years now. (knocking on wood). Will wait for the details when you have the leisure to sit down and tell us about it.
Oh no! Was rather concerned how everything was going for you two since wasn’t seeing anything after the initial report. So very sorry for the overall annoyance/misery, the poor toe (!), and your lovely tanks. And the basement. No at all fair having to deal with lingering mementos. Huzzarh that the house is standing and your lovely fence,and that you and the kittehs are safe. Hope you are able to celebrate tomorrow.
Being thankful just for rejoining the 20th Century? After all that one wonders if our couple wouldn’t want something very quick and easy, like a pizza?
I can most definitely relate to that. Wihtout utilities after Hurricane Ike, we were basically living back in the 18th to 19th century: No electricity, no phones (land lines or mobile phones), no cable or internet. The city had emergency radio broadcasts reporting the water was potentially or probably unsafe to drink without treatment, though we had running water and hot water where we were. (Many throughout the city did not.) We had natural gas still, though again many did not. I cooked meals for us on my grandmother’s 1950’s era gas stove and oven. Trips to the grocery store, when groceries were back in, had only limited power for part of the day, initially, and going in and out, you lined up and went past an armed constable or marshal, to show your receipt and pass through. (But the security was a necessity everyone sensible recognized.)
There were a host of everyday things that we take for granted, that all went out the window, unavailable, until city services were restored. But imagine you were living in an entire modern, high-tech city that was now functioning with no utilities, no internet for commerce and banking, and so on. It changed how you cooked, how you ran your day, how you shopped for necessities only, laundry, innumerable things. It was very much like living in Colonial or Pioneer / Old West pre-Industrail conditions.
Indeed, our current lives are “hanging by a thread”, and we do nothing to ameliorate the danger.
I remember one summer, when I was living in LA, we were totally surrounded by fire–from the Pacific in Ventura Co. in a grand arc through the San Gabriels, San Bernardinos, Cleveland National Forest, to the Pacific below San Clemente. I5, 10, 15 were all closed. There was no way in or out of the city except by sea or air. Fortunately it didn’t last long enough for us to run out of food. Markets haven’t had “stock in the back room” since I was a teen. Corporate America has embraced the “Just In Time”, JIT, concept in a big way.
Scary! Glad everyone is okay (with the exception of some of the fish, sorry), and hope everything gets back to normal as soon as possible. I realize it’s going to be a long haul to get there.