LDS AVOW - SOMETHING TO CONSIDER WITH ALL THIS COLD WEATHER

I snagged this from an LDS-AVOW mailing.  It is good material to think of:

Surviving a Real-World, Potentially Deadly Power Outage This article is about the six-hour power outage we experienced in much of South East Idaho on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013...during sub-zero weather conditions. I'll relate it as it happened, in a timeline fashion. I'll integrate "lessons learned" throughout, but will also include a summary lessons paragraph or two at the end. A caution: my tale is a lot more boring than it might have been...because we well prepared. Things could have been a lot different...we're grateful for the counsel of our religious leaders to prepare for such events, and to our friends in the Prepping Community, including LDSAVOW.com, that offered the great advice that inspired and taught us to be prepared.     5:22 am, Wednesday, December 4th, Somewhere in Southeast Idaho I wake up suddenly, completely in the dark...unusual for our bedroom due to the many LED lights on various electronics.  Somewhat confused, but sensing something is wrong, I search my senses and surroundings for what might have caused me to wake up so suddenly. Ah, there it is: a faint beeping coming through our closed bedroom door.  I start to get up...and realize that it's dark. Really, REALLY dark. Pitch black, in fact. Ah, I've got power outage. Fortunately, I've prepped for this. I reach over to my nightstand, open the top drawer...and right there is my tactical flashlight. (I keep this away from my family at all costs, so they don't drain the batteries on me; pain and peril be unto any that drain The Dad's TacFlash batteries!) I turn on the TacFlash, and LO and BEHOLD...there is LIGHT! I choose the dimmest setting, which is still quite bright from this high-lumen light. I shortly also consider the need to arm myself...is there a threat somewhere in the home? Could someone have tripped the breaker hoping to defeat the security system (fat chance, I have it all on backup batteries)? I spend about 60 seconds listening and decide: NO THREAT. If there had been, I was prepared to find my self-defense weapon completely in the dark, even if my TacFlash had failed. (I'll leave out the details of what/where/how...just know that if I had needed a self-defense capability, it was at my fingertips.) I investigate that beeping sound; turns out to be my oxygen concentrator--when it loses power, it alarms quite loudly. I note that my alarm must have been going for awhile...the volume is down considerably from "full-charge." Amazing that the alarm managed to wake me...we keep the oxy concentrators in a room down the hall and run the oxygen lines to our bedroom; this is to keep the noise levels bearable to allow us to sleep. My wife's oxy concentrator isn't alarming at all...gotta remember to check that battery after all this is over. I turn off and unplug off both concentrators...when we regain power, I don't want to stress either the electrical grid, our in-home circuit breakers or the circuitry in the machines. Next order of business: Is this isolated to our home, or is it wide-spread? Quick look out the windows tells me that the outage is affecting every home that I can see...because there aren't any lights nearby, except an occasional car driving by. Boy, those stars sure look bright! I do see some light reflecting into the sky to the northeast...that is probably the town's Police Department's lights driven by a generator, and/or the County Sheriff's Department, ditto. To the south, I do see a lot of light in the distance...several miles away. I presume this is Idaho Falls...but it doesn't matter, power at OUR home is off, and it is COLD outside. Dangerously cold, in fact. Next, I check my smart-phone to add some situational awareness. Hey, it is MINUS 3 degrees out there...that's cold!! Ah, my home security system tells me that power dropped at precisely 5:11 am--that's a handy feature I didn't know the system had. (Note to self: It took 11 minutes for those alarms to wake me...should I rig an in-room alarm to warn of future power losses? Having lost my younger brother to severe but untreated sleep apnea...we take that problem seriously in our home. File for future action.) Temps in the house are still normal...I'm glad I spent time this fall adding some insulation, caulking & adjusting/replacing weather-stripping around the hacienda! That buys me some reaction time. Yes, such simple things are a part of prepping and self-reliance! No regular internet/email...my home wireless network is deader than a doornail. Cable TV is also deader than a doornail, meaning I'm not going to get internet, VOIP telephone or any TV station info. OKAY, time to get out one of those cool little Eton crank emergency radios. It works...but the batteries don't seem to hold a charge for more than 15 minutes: (NOTE TO SELF: gotta test, perhaps replace batteries in all of the emergency radios. Still, I get enough radio to know that several stations are off the air...meaning that at least part of Idaho Falls is impacted by the power outage.) My wife stirs, asks what the problem is. I explain the power outage, the inside/outside temps, the info I gained from investigation/observation and the smartphone...and she yawns and says she's going back to sleep. I decide that she's got the right idea; there's nothing to be done right now, except be glad that we've improved our home insulation, caulking and weather-stripping. Besides, most power outages around here resolve themselves within an hour or so. Thus, I add a comforter over our bed (smart purchase, that), say a prayer for the power company maintenance troops no doubt already working to fix this problem...and crawl back under the covers to enjoy the sleep of the well-prepared. 8:30 am, Wednesday, December 4th, somewhere in Southeast Idaho I finally wake up...probably because my nose is cold! That's the only part of me sticking out from under the covers. I recall there was a power outage and that cold-nose-test tells me the power is still out. House temps are down to 64 degrees...that's cold for us, we keep a pretty warm home. Use the smartphone to call Rocky Mountain Power...they estimate power to return about 12:30 pm. Okay, power has been off for 3+ hours, and is likely to be off another 4 hours...time to implement the Family Emergency Response Plan -- Power Outage. My son and I dig out the cold weather gear, get prepped and head outdoors. First priority is to get the bigger generator running. Our analysis told us we'd be able to run about 80% of our household systems on that particular genny...time to find out if we were right! Step #1 is to head to the circuit breaker box. Shut down ALL circuit breakers including the MAIN. Engage the generator interlock device, which will prevent us from shocking any electrical workers with backwash power from our genny. Next, I pull the specially-designed genny-to-house cable from its position on the wall hook over the circuit breaker box. My son heads for the fuel shed to get gas...it is too cold to use our "standard" genny fuel, which is propane. That tri-fuel generator mod was worth its weight in gold, as it allows me to run the genny on propane, natural gas or gasoline...but we don't yet have a natural gas hook-up and outside temps are low enough that I'd have trouble starting the genny on propane. So, gasoline it is! Sure glad I treated that 18-month old gasoline with Pri-G! Son meets me in the shop with the fuel. My very strong son opens the garage door manually, naturally...then wheels the gennie out to our pre-established location for power outages. I plug the interface cable into the house plug...sure glad we had that installed back in 2012...makes genny hookup a breeze, now. The other end plugs right into the four-prong outlet on the generator. My goodness, things are going smooth...my wife is going to be SO proud of me! Time to pour in the gas...but now things start getting messy. First, my son didn't install the dispenser spout correctly...and our first attempt to fuel up resulted in a very wet generator housing...and a gasoline-soaked sleeve on my coat. [Until I get a shower later that day, I will REEK of gasoline odors!] Okay, tighten that spout and let's try again. UH-OH! For no apparent reason, the metal spout strainer end comes clean off. Okay, we can live with that, strained it when we stored it. UH-OH!! Second refueling attempt causes the long nozzle to sheer clean off from the nozzle base; more gas is spilled. We move the generator away from the spilled gas--sure glad I bought the LONGER genny-to-house connecting cable-- and get some shop rags to clean off the gas. Fortunately, I also brought along a large-mouth funnel, so we can still pour the gas safely, and on the third try, we finally get it right. The genny is fueled...now it is time to hit the start key (we have an electric start due to my back problems). Here, I'm saying a silent prayer. Just back in early October, I did a functional check on our genny...and the battery was dead. I mean, it was DEAD-dead, non-recoverable, dead and gone. I ordered a replacement battery...AND a float charger to keep that battery charged! Fortunately, it came within a week, and all is well. I crank the genny for perhaps 3 revolutions...and it starts right up! Boy, that sounds nice!!! We stow the fueling supplies and head indoors. As I head indoors, I look back at the genny...and realize that is just sitting in the yard, with no security measures at all. UH-OH! Another mental note to install an eye-bolt into our concrete foundation, and then get a strong chain and lock to make it harder to steal. [Don't laugh...during every major disaster, many generators are stolen outright. Happens EVERY time!] Back at the circuit breaker box, we now have generator power coming in...but need to start flipping circuit breakers back on. We start cautiously, communicating with my wife inside the house, via cell phone. First circuit breaker on: electrical outlets in Family Room, as they provide power to the natural gas fireplace. IT WORKS, my wife happily annnounces. Great news...we'll not freeze to death, I guess. Another key circuit breaker is for the house furnace...and this is a biggie. Despite all our other preps, we'd not gotten around to testing out the full load capacity of our generator to run our entire household. In theory, it should work...but the proof is in the pudding! EUREKA! The furnace is running, and hot air is coming out of the vents! HURRAY! Eventually, we end up putting every single breaker "on," and all seems kosher. (In reality, it wasn't, but more on that later.) Sure glad my friend and prepping mentor, Christopher Parrett, posts often about the value of pre-winter, under-load generator function checks...if not for him, I might have slacked off and had more problems this morning. 8:58 am, Wednesday, December 4th, 2013...still in SouthEast Idaho We now have heat and power, and the freezer and refrigerator are running just fine. We also have television...except that the cable (TV, phone, internet) is still out-I guess Cable One is being hit by the power outage, as well. Okay then, back to the portable hand-cranked emergency radios; I tune in AM 590, one of the local talk radio stations, which I've found to be the best local news station. (Note to Self: need to install a standard TV antenna somewhere on the property, with a switch-over capability for just such emergencies.) While we were busy outside, my wife went throughout the house, unplugging every excess appliance she could, turning off power strips for our electronics gear, etc. Her purpose is two-fold: Minimize the power draw on our generator, thus preserving valuable fuel. Setting up for the eventual switch back to main power--it helps the power company if we all shut down unnecessary draws when the system comes back on line. Having taken care of first things first...assuring our own safety in still-below-zero conditions...it is time to start thinking BIGGER. Time to start thinking of OTHERS that may be in need.     Reaching Out to Others -- What Works,  What Doesn't Now that we had assured a warm home for our family...our thoughts turned to our friends and our church congregation. I made calls to my stewardship/fellowship families, to invite them over if they needed the warmth. Had to leave messages for all, none answered phones. Never heard back from them; I'll have to follow up at Church on Sunday. My wife also called her stewardship/fellowship sisters in the congregation...extending the same invitation. In parallel, my wife called several other congregation members, focusing on single mothers...all good friends, but more importantly, friends that may not be as well-prepared as we are. Just in case, right? All report being okay, with backup heat and/or options to shelter with family. I also called a couple of single brothers living in apartments...extending the same invitation. One indicated he was going to go do errands in Idaho Falls-that seemed pretty smart To our surprise, not a single person accepts the invitation to come over to drink hot cocoa. Most had heard power company notifications that power would be restored by just after noon, and are "warm enough" that they're not worried. In retrospect, I think we probably should have started the generator about 7:00 am, and THEN called around with invites. By 9:30 or so, most with a potential needs had already found alternate accommodations of one type or another, or felt they could make it to the announced 12:30 power-return time. Also, I think most were simply unwilling to leave their homes. From their perspective (one told me so), it was better to bundle up under every comforter in the house, than leave a house/apartment unattended and have pipes freeze and break, without a chance to fight it. THE OPSEC ANGLE: Those that know me, know that that this was a pretty serious breach of self-imposed OPSEC considerations; I don't like anyone to know the prepping gear we have, or don't have. In the event, however...we simply wouldn't risk that someone out there was getting cold, with potentially dire consequences. Would it be different if we were talking about food? While I usually talk a very hard line on the "sharing" question during TEOTWAWKI, particularly with food, this experience is causing me to reconsider just how hard line I, or my wife, could really be during an extended situation. At least a dozen people who previously didn't know whether we had a generato...now do. It will be interesting to see how that impacts our future prepping activities...if at all. Frankly, I was quite disappointed no one came over! It was a perfect morning to enjoy hot chocolate and board games and it would have been even more fun to have some friends over to enjoy it with us. 10:20 am, December 4th, 2013, SouthEast Idaho Breakfast is done, board games are played. Time to start checking systems & performance. The generator is using less fuel than I expected. Fuel gauge has hardly budged! After listening carefully, I note that the house's furnace fan is running a bit more slowly than "normal" (e.g., on full grid power). Takes more time to spin up, and then runs just a bit slower than normal. If this went on for long, we might have to check the fan motor for impacts. We have a unique hybrid natural gas/heat pump system. Cooling is all heat pump; most heating is done by heat pump, so yes, we have that "cool air" warming our house most of the winter. I really don't like the heat pump in winter...I seem to get more colds and sinus infections then. Fortunately, the natural gas kicks on at about 25 degrees F, and the outside compressor stays off. That gives us nice warm air during cold spells. What this tells me, though, is that this 4000 Watt genset (6500 surge) probably isn't powerful enough to run the heat pump during summer, or warmer winter periods. Gotta do more detailed analysis on that, but it seems pretty evident. Another Limiting Factor (LIMFAC): The electric stove & oven indicate "on" when we turn the switches...but no heat actually gets to the burners. There's obviously some kind of safety feature in the stove/oven that requires a minimum amount of "juice" to start heating...and our generator isn't putting out enough juice. This suggests a quandry: this particular generator has an "eco" setting, which allows the gen to adjust its own throttle such that the energy produced equals the energy being demanded. HOWEVER...if the stove has a cut-out switch to prevent running without sufficient electricity already being present...then the generator never gets the "demand" signal, and never speeds up to deliver the required power. Hmmmm, this is going to require some testing; another follow-up item for "after." Our well pump seems to be operating...we've got water pressure, and we've used enough water to cause the pump to come on...but it seems to be delivering lower pressure overall. Again, another follow-up item. We do have plenty of hot water...the HWH heats with natural gas, electricity only runs the controls. I wonder: what are the long-term impacts/risks of running the well pump at less than optimum voltage?? Our small "pond" (really just a fancy little "water feature") is frozen solid. Meaning the fish inside are probably frozen solid! Will they survive? During the winter we place a stock tank heater in the pond, and that keeps the water from freezing. What I don't know is whether the pond froze up last night at -3, or did it freeze up once the power failure started at 5:11 am. In any event: it is't thawing until spring; the fish will either make it, or not. We notice the fireplace fan is vibrating a bit; under normal grid power, it's pretty quiet. Again...longer-term consequences? We hit the garage door opener...it lifted up about 12 inches...and then stopped dead. That's interesting; once started, I would have thought it would have worked all the way, since the "hardest" part of the lift is that first 12 inches. Not a big problem, we just popped the emergency release and our son lifted it up by hand. Real glad we have him with us...I no longer have the strength to manhandle a lot of these items. I'm starting to think that 18 year-old sons have greater value than I previously believed. (In other words...they can do something more than eat and make gasoline disappear out of the car's fuel tank!) The biggest problem that emerged...was exhaust fumes entering the house from the generator! Due to the breaker box location, our generator interface had to be placed in between the garage and the shop building. We expected this to provide plenty of airspace for dissipation of the exhaust; we were wrong. My wife is very sensitive to odors and fumes, so she picked it up first. By the time we shut down the generator, the fumes had become rather unpleasant to me and horrid for her. We're not sure how the fumes infiltrated into the house; my wife believes it was through the garage, I'm thinking it was backflow through the fireplace when it wasn't operating. Either way, it's not something we could live with for an extended period. We can't really move the generator...the main entry point for electricity must be at the breaker box, and that is fixed at the front corner of the garage. Can we rig a long exhaust line and pipe the fumes away? Would it help to have an exhaust stacker pipe? Would additional caulking and sealing improve the situation? How would varying wind conditions effect the infiltration? Much study is required here. We reverted to grid power about 11:45 pm. Friends in town reported having power back as early as 10:45, but we preferred to stay off-grid for a while, just in case there were further burbles. Shutdown went flawlessly. We closed the fuel valve and let the line run dry, which caused shutdown after about 3 minutes. We flipped all of the breakers off again, put the inter-tie guard back to "off," hit the main breaker back to on...and slowly flipped the other breakers back on, as well. Grid power held, and we had no further burbles. We were extremely pleased with our generator's performance, but as noted earlier, it wasn't quite able to handle the "entire" load for the full house. OTOH, it really didn't need to, either. Everything that was critical seemed to run well, though I'm a little concerned about the furnace and fireplaces fans running slower/louder. The biggest disappointment was the stove not operating, but the microwave worked just fine, so no big deal. The exhaust fumes were extremely unpleasant, at least after a few hours. The fumes would be a real problem in a long-term scenario. None of our CO detectors pinged, so there wasn't any real risk of carbon monoxide poisoning; still, eyes stung, throats seemed to get raw, and breathing deeply wasn't much fun once the fumes built up. Since we can't control the wind's direction, we'll need to address some type of physical fix for this. Maybe it will be as simple as which way we point the exhaust port; we should have tried some alternative positioning before we went back onto grid power. Fuel usage by the generator was truly a blessing; that eco switch really worked well. We finished with about 5/8 of a tank left. Not bad for a pretty high-demand temperature environment. Even so...we're going to need a LOT more fuel for any extended genny operations. What if we'd had a three week power shutdown, similar to what has happened several times over the last few years back East, between ice storms and Hurricane Sandy? Best case with our existing supplies, I figure based on this experience, is about 14 days. To be safe, we need about a six month supply of fuel. That's going to be a challenge. We're fortunate to have a tri-fuel genny (gasoline, propane, natural gas). Still, gasoline is very hazardous to store; propane stored in bulk is far safer than gasoline, but still presents storage problems if you're using above-ground propane tanks. You sure don't want to keep portable propane tanks inside; while relatively safe, if they ever go, it could be a biggie. Maybe the best option is a natural gas tap line; unfortunately, that won't be cheap or easy, as the natural gas line enters the house on the opposite side from the breaker box. Besides, you can't take natural gas with you, and in a true disaster scenario (even if natural), the line probably will be broken or service interrupted. Thus, I'm thinking hard about installing a farm/ranch-style underground gasoline storage tank.  Anyone out there got any experience with that? If so, I'd appreciate your views/advice here in this thread...OR you can pm me. Please!   Post-Mortems: There were a few missed opportunities during the power outage; here's a summary of them: I forgot all about testing whether/how well our oxygen concentrators would work on generator power. Given that they provided the first alarm indication of the power outage, and the immense value of those concentrators in ensuring that my wife and I do not achieve room temperature levels...that was a major omission. I'd expect they would have run fine, but I should schedule a planned "power outage weekend" to get a better handle on it. Our church congregation didn't implement any Emergency Prep responses or calling trees to check on all of our older or disabled folks, much less single sisters, those with small children, etc. Given that DW and I are our unit's Emergency Preparedness Specialists, I'm partly responsible for this not happening. In retrospect, I probably should have nudged clergy to start some type of formal response. OTOH, I'd guess that most folks at home did just what we did: call our stewardship families and friend plus anyone we knew personally that might need help. Still, there's some older folks that we probably should have also called. Similarly, we should have checked on our neighbors. My excuse that I didn't? Well, we don't have many neighbors, the only immediate one is right next door, and I knew they had their generator up and running before us! Still, we should have walked down the lane and checked on the other neighbors, too. Need to remember to do this next time. Need something a LOT more reliable for fuel nozzles for our metal fuel cans. These cheap Chinese imports are NOT ready for prime time. WARNING: we bought these "new" at the Army Surplus store on I-15, down below Shelley. Not worth a buck, much less the $12 we paid for them. Don't you make the same mistake; We'd have been better off with no nozzle and just a bigger funnel. Had the power outage lasted longer...or if it had recurred, as was rumored on radio...we should/would have developed a power rotation schedule. The refrigerator and freezer, for example, didn't need to be plugged in at the same time; we could have rotated them on two-hour shift changes.   This power failure mostly occurred during daylight hours. I didn't think to test our LED rope lights and our emergency battery power sources therefor...but should have. Also could have hauled out our solar panels and put them to work...it would have been interesting to see/measure how much energy they produced on such a cold but bright, sunny day. I earlier identified the lack of security protection for our generator; we'll get that fixed. Just as important, though, was the security of our fuel shed. We use one of those plastic sheds that would be very easily broken into. Need to identify a better long-term solution that will be more secure, possibly lower profile. We should have filled up our bathtubs with water once we got the generator running; that would have provided more convenient options for flushing the toilets, should the well pump fail or the genny fail...at least until the water in the tubs froze up. We had plenty of drinking water, but having some extra water for flushing would have been smarter.   We should have filled up our bathtubs with water once we got the generator running; that would have provided more convenient options for flushing the toilets, should the well pump fail or the genny fail...at least until the water in the tubs froze up. We had plenty of drinking water, but having some extra water for flushing would have been smarter.   Okay, folks...that's my story. How about YOU?? What's your "SE-Idaho power outage story?" RusherJim

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