Topic: Life without power...

[lilbuddy]

So yesterday at like 730am the power at my house went out from then till today at about 1130. Now im used to not having power cause i have a cabin that doesnt have lights and you gotta use lanterns and stuff for light but when you have no power and know you dont have power its really weird. I kept coming into my room and hit the switch and then nothing then id just curse and then get a flashlight. Not onlt that its weird walking out to pitch black.. crazy.

Who had no power? Im in Chico and i heard that like 42,000 customers in the city and 100,000 customers with surrounding cities had no power for most of the day. Theres still some parts of chico that dont even have power.

I know mrs w started the thread that has the weather and i havent looked but this one is about power. Obviously people who are still affected cant really speak up..

[red]

mine was sporatic last night.

[Lady Di]

When we had the 3 hurricanes hit us back in 2004 we were without power the first time for 5 days, second time for 4 days and third time for 3 days.
And that was in 90+ degree weather.

But we did have a generator to be able to at least run the lights, the fridge and ice machine and such but it wasn't powerful enough to run the AC. We also ran an extension cord to the neighbors behind us so they could run their friedge. It really brought the neighbors together, at least in our neighborhood.

LB is it cold where you are? I think it would be a lot more dangerous to be without power in the cold.

[lilbuddy [OP]]

LB is it cold where you are? I think it would be a lot more dangerous to be without power in the cold.

Cold is a relative cold... but id say no, its not cold at all right now anyway in chico. its been in the 40s-50s.

[Lady Di]

Cold is a relative cold... but id say no, its not cold at all right now anyway in chico. its been in the 40s-50s.

That's cold but not too terribly bad. Mark and I would be in our coveralls though

Around freezing temps or below would be bad.
But yeah, we always do the same thing too when we have power out, you walk into a room and hit the light switch like DUH!

[Tallchevy]

Yesterday they were almost 1,000,000 PG&E customers with out power. I don't know how many are still out cause I don't work today.

[kneedownnate]

I was wondering how you chico/paradise guys were fairing with this, but I thought I heard that paradise had power yesterday?  Is all chico back now, or just your neighborhood and the ones which already had power?

[lilbuddy [OP]]

I was wondering how you chico/paradise guys were fairing with this, but I thought I heard that paradise had power yesterday?  Is all chico back now, or just your neighborhood and the ones which already had power?

Umm my friend that lives in paradise said she doesnt have power (and its snowing at 2000ft) and then earlier at like 8-830 from cohasset going wsst on esat ave almost that whole part didnt have power all the way till almost highway 32 would be my guess...

theres a lot of people that still dont have power. that sucks.

[*FFC*]

South Sacramento and North Elk Grove were all out on my way home from work on Friday.. it was sooo rediculous trying to drive through town with a bunch of morons who don't know how to use a 4 way stop when the lights were out.  I do not ever want to do that again.. I was 

[kneedownnate]

Just heard on the radio that some paradise residents won't have power until thursday probably 

[NorCalToy]

the power here has been off and on for short periods thru out the week. if it went off and stayed off it would suck becaseu the temp only been hitting about 35 as a high.

[46&2]

Most of Grass Valley and Nevada City have been out of power for the last day or two, I think almost everyone has power restorted though by now. We never lost power amazingly (since we are always the first to lose power because of how far out of town I live) but friday night our phones died and the Cingular tower got knocked out in the winds, so we have had no outside communication save driving to town to use a cell phone for the last two days. Phones are still out, phone company has been closed since friday so WTF, this sucks. i do have power though, and tonight i regained the internet for the first time in two days as well (gay sattelite internet).

Gotta figure out the phone situation tomorow

Oh and living in the boonies like I do, I learned a good generator is a worthy investment. Back before PG&E operated with any sense of time or urgency, we used to lose power for 3 to 5 days at a time in nasty winters. After about 3 or 4 winters of going through that we got a generator

[mudking82]

Having the power go out in cold weather isn't bad, at least in the areas I have lived.  Most areas that get cold, also burn wood for home heating.  Wood burning stoves give you better heat then anything else IMO.  You can also cook on it, if you don't have gas stoves.  And it is a benefit when it comes to refrigerated/frozen stuff.  Just throw it in a cooler, and drop it in the snow, no worries of going bad.  We always have oil lamps around too.  It certainly isn't as convenient as electricity, but you can manage pretty good. 

Everything is natural gas where I am.  Power can be out, and I can still take a hot shower, cook on the stove, and use my wall heater.  Or better yet, just start a fire in the woodstove.  Fridge/freezer is the only problem, but if it's cold, no worries.  Kind of fun too, like a free camping trip without taking a vacation in a sense.  And everything is so quiet. 

[topar]

Why did you guys lose power?

[dizzydevil]

get a good generator and set it up to hook into your electrical pannel, you can not run everything (depending on the size of the gen) but will keep fridge cold and give u a few lights.

[Hammerhead]

We were without power for twelve hours here in southern Utah.  I'm just glad I have a wood burning stove and gas lights on hand.  It might have gotten nasty cold at less than 20° outside...

Wasn't worried much about the fridge.  Just put the food on the back porch.  It's plenty cold out there.

I was thinkin' about hookin' my waterbed to my Toyota via an AC converter...  

[dizzydevil]

We were without power for twelve hours here in southern Utah.  I'm just glad I have a wood burning stove and gas lights on hand.  It might have gotten nasty cold at less than 20° outside...

Wasn't worried much about the fridge.  Just put the food on the back porch.  It's plenty cold out there.

I was thinkin' about hookin' my waterbed to my Toyota via an AC converter...    good thinkin

[fordh8r]

get a good generator and set it up to hook into your electrical pannel, you can not run everything (depending on the size of the gen) but will keep fridge cold and give u a few lights.

If you do this,    I'm told to be sure and shut off the main so the gen power won't feed back up the pole and fry a lineman with out him knowing you have a gen hooked up. Sounds odd that they wouldn't know you're running a gen but they may be further down the line a ways where they may not ever know other wise when they show up to make repairs.  Mudguts might be able to answer this more clearly since he's a line guy. 

[Doof]

i was without from friday morning till last night.... it wasnt to bad, i just a bad ass fire going that kept the house warm, and didnt eat much of anything due to no power and teeth pulled..... wasnt to bad though

[Thomas P]

my in laws in paradise are still without power, and pg&e said they wont get it back until possibly wednesday  i live higher up the hill in magalia and we only had it out for 9 hours but our power went out first and they were working on it before the other trees fell

[mudguts]

This storm was an ASS KICKER. We left Fresno on the 4th and just got home from Chico. We did jobs in Duram, Willows, Forest Ranch, Chico and Butte Meadows(where ol boy hooked us up with some burgers at the Bambi Inn  ) Hope everyone faired the storm with no major damage.

 

If you do this,   I'm told to be sure and shut off the main so the gen power won't feed back up the pole and fry a lineman with out him knowing you have a gen hooked up. Sounds odd that they wouldn't know you're running a gen but they may be further down the line a ways where they may not ever know other wise when they show up to make repairs.  Mudguts might be able to answer this more clearly since he's a line guy. 

That's correct. A qualified electrician will know the proper way to install a generator and to separate your service from the grid when needed. Back feed is deadly.

[Thomas P]

did you go come to paradise too?

[Shamb]

its times like these when you hate working for the cable company,
65% of our sysem went out last Friday and Chico was up to 90% out.

We're back up and running now.... not smoothly but running.

Alot of O.T.....

[kneedownnate]

Why did you guys lose power?

We had a pretty good wind storm roll through the area, supposedly up to 75ish mph gusts.

[mudguts]

Why did you guys lose power?

Someone stole all of the copper out of the transformers.

[lilbuddy [OP]]

This storm was an ASS KICKER. We left Fresno on the 4th and just got home from Chico. We did jobs in Duram, Willows, Forest Ranch, Chico and Butte Meadows(where ol boy hooked us up with some burgers at the Bambi Inn  ) Hope everyone faired the storm with no major damage.

You were up in my wheelin country!

The outpost burgers (down the street) are better