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What would you do if you lost power/electricity for 24 hours?
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We'd cheat and fire up my husband's generator. If we didn't have that, we'd use the hurricane lamp we have along with candles for light. We'd cook either on the propane stove in the holiday trailer, the barbeque, or chop up some wood and cook outside over a fire. We have a wood stove for heating and could put a pot of water on it for hot water. For activities, I have enough unread books to last several weeks of no power.Twenty four hours wouldn't be a hardship.
while living in San Francisco in the 90's there was a huge storm. The winds were clocked at 100 mph over angel island in the Bay. Hundreds of thousands lost power. We were without power for 72 hours. We lost all the food in the freezer. Since the heat fan was electric, we lost heat. We had gas for cooking, so we cooked as much of the meat as we could and ate. We dug out the feather beds and comforters. We had a gas water heater so we could still shower. We wore sweaters and coats if the house got too chilly. We bought ice and kept milk/eggs/spoilables in our ice chest. We went to work or school during the day. They were using generators. Luckily San Francisco hardly ever gets below 32 deg. so it got chilly but not frozen. Living in New England, severe blizzards frequently cause us to lose power. 2 years ago NH had a huge ice storm where my inlaws lost power for 4 days. That's when you worry about frozen pipes bursting and causing water damage to the interior. It's when you go seek warm shelter at night because it is too cold to live in your house without any source of heat. especially when 1 of you has kidney disease.
We've had experience with a loss of running water (in St. Lucia, during a powerful, non-stop pouring rainstorm) and a loss of drinking water, in Iowa's various floods.In St. Lucia, I tried collecting rainwater from the roof/gutters. A local woman told me NOT to drink rainwater from the roof, as the shingles were asbestos. Glad she took the time to warn me!
No water is tough. Everything starts to feel really dirty--countertops, dishes, bodies. We used a lot of paper plates and paper towels, which felt very wasteful.
In the hospital in St. Lucia, there was a cistern, patients were allowed to flush their toilets once a day. Hoo boy did that smell after a while. I was surprised they kept the hospital open with no running water for a week.
No electric means no water for me, so if the power outage was local, I'd probably take the dog and head out to my parents' house for a while. If it was statewide, ditto, because my dad has a generator.If for some reason I was marooned at home with no water and no power, I would probably take the empty five-gallon bottles I keep in the garage to Mud Creek and fill them with water for flushing. I always have drinking water on hand, and I'd have to do some creative cooking on the charcoal grill because I'd blow myself up with the propane one.
I lost power last fall for about 20 hours. It went out right after dinner, around 8 p.m., and didn't come back on until the next afternoon. My popsicles melted, and I threw away the fish sticks I had in the freezer, but everything else was okay.
I had water, and I took a shower by candle light before going to bed, while the water in the water heater still was retaining heat. In the morning, I dressed by light from the windows, and went to work, where the power was still on.
I was worried about getting back in my building that evening, as you have to punch in a code into an electronic keypad, and that wasn't working. Fortunately, the power came back on before I got home at 6:30. If the power had still been off, I'd have walked downtown to eat at a restaurant.
If it happened again, I'd eat the popsicles first thing.
I'd read. I have tons of candles and a lot of flashlights in the house. For food there's a lot of canned soups and veggies in the pantry. I'd rather not have electricity than water, but if we lost water as well, we've got enough in the house for about a week.It's hard to imagine Tokyo without electricity. I lived in Japan for several years, and Tokyo seemed like it was made of electricity. But if anyone can survive it, it would be the Japanese. They are the most polite, law-abiding society on Earth. Probably only the Amish are better-behaved, but then the Amish don't have electricity in the first place.
The Trigger Effect!! That's the movie I was trying to remember a while back. Yeah, they needed meds for their kid and couldn't get it because there was no power to work the ATMs and computers, etc. What a nightmare.
Read, play cribbage with Honey, bake a cake (Gas oven).
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I camp a lot- usually in cabins with no power, usually for a week at a time. I can make anything on an open fire. A few years ago there were those huge rolling blackouts in our area- I think parts of NY and Ohio too? Anyway, our power was out for about three days, I think?. All the neighbours got together and had a huge barbecue to use up all our perishables, used coolers, had bonfires outside, all the kids played games. It was actually really fun. I got to know all my neighbours.
Helena, that sounds like a BLAST! We have very nice neighbors on one side that we talk to and visit with whenever we see them, but we have a CRANKY old Mrs. Kravitz and son next door. There is a husband too; every time we see him he's pulling out of the driveway and leaving again. He must have a couple of other wives and families somewhere to keep up with. :)
(We ususally make up absurd stories about why he is always leaving.)
(We ususally make up absurd stories about why he is always leaving.)
it is snowing wet and heavy snow and windy today. the lights are flickering on and off already. power outage expected. hard to have a barbecue when it is 32 degrees and snowing with a wind chill that makes it feel like 20 degrees or less.
It really was a lot of fun, Amelia- I had one neighbour at the time who was a real freak, peeping tom, ass grabber, hugger, always trying to kiss the ladies, he tended to stay indoors when the menfolk were around so us little ladies were ok. We’re very lucky, we have great neighbours and should there ever be an emergency- we’re completely covered: cops, EMR’s, emergency room nurse, two firefighters and one train engineer. Perfect :) I wonder if your neighbour does have another family? You should totally follow him one day!
would i know it would only last 24 hours? first i'd freak out, then i'd ration my laptop battery time. i cook on gas and my heater runs on gas so i could still use those. otherwise i'd survive on bread and sprinkles.
I'd panic and scream for my mom because I'm still afraid of the dark. And then go through internet-withdrawals. And then probably break a bone tripping down the stairs or something.
Michele wrote: "it is snowing wet and heavy snow and windy today. the lights are flickering on and off already. power outage expected. hard to have a barbecue when it is 32 degrees and snowing with a wind chill th..."
We always BBQ year round. Honey just puts on his parka and gets on out there! Rain, snow, wind, whatever!
We always BBQ year round. Honey just puts on his parka and gets on out there! Rain, snow, wind, whatever!
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Well, it's only because Jenn bought him this BBQ cookbook for Christmas one year and now no one else can cook meat properly. :)
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What are sprinkles? These things?
yes! they come in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or black and white.
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on bread, with butter. i will eat any that fall off the bread separate.
janine wrote: "on bread, with butter. i will eat any that fall off the bread separate."From the floor?
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Lobstergirl wrote: "I had to make sure she wasn't talking about Kevin."BunWat wrote: "Kevin on bread with butter. Would we need the butter?"
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
I love that Kevin's last name is Sprinkle. :)
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Read by candlelight. Or maybe drink a pina colada and take a walk.
Our power's been out for hours, maybe 24. During the big ice storm the cable was out for 8 days, trees fell in our yard, a big branch fell on my van. But the power was only out for a few hours. We have a generator that we could run for a short time. We also have a woodstove with cooktop and a fireplace. Did I just answer this question for emergency preparation?
Last time the power went off here I had some big candlesticks that I read by.
Larry wrote: "janine wrote: "on bread, with butter. i will eat any that fall off the bread separate."From the floor?"
from the plate.
nasty,early spring snowstorm on the 1st (april fool from motner nature). lights flickered a lot but never stayed off. yay! losing food from the 'fridge and freezer is the biggest pain.
janine wrote: "Larry wrote: "janine wrote: "on bread, with butter. i will eat any that fall off the bread separate."From the floor?"
from the plate."
I like how when I ask you goofy questions and you answer them as if they were serious.
The last time we lost power for any length of time was within the first year of moving to Wisconsin so I'm going to say...1998? Whatever year the Bulls were playing the Pacers in the playoffs. Anyway, a huge storm uprooted trees, etc., and knocked power out for a couple of days. I listened to the Bulls' playoff games on a transistor radio. I don't remember the event as all that horrible, though. Kind of fun, really.LG, I don't know if you were living in Chicago at the time, but do you remember that blackout in the mid-nineties, mid-summer, when all those people died because of the heat? I was living in Roscoe Village at the time and tried to sleep in my backyard because the temps were so fucking hot. I remember sleeping, looking at the moon, waking, and seeing how far the moon moved.
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http://www.hagelslag.com/shop.html"
Minimum order 45 EUR=$64 hmmm. I think I'll just get them from the grocery.
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well, there was the time we lost power during the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco. listened to the news on my handy transistor radio on CBS because they were using their generators and were taking phone calls from the public about what was going on in the chaos.
Lobstergirl wrote: "Yes, I remember the heatwave. My apartment didn't have any kind of air conditioning and I would put my clothes and sheets in the freezer to get them as cold as possible before putting them on, or ..."Huh. Maybe you didn't lose power in your neighborhood. We did in Roscoe Village. I can't even remember worse heat, though, yes.
Lobstergirl wrote: "janine wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "I'm going to have to try this hagelslag."http://www.hagelslag.com/shop.html"
Minimum order 45 EUR=$64 hmmm. I think I'll just get them from the grocery."
hm. that is A LOT. i just linked to them because they have the best brands.
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/30/1349577...
I've never been to Tokyo, but when I visualize the space, I visualize almost a stimuli overload fueled primarily by electricity, so the pictures of the city dimmed, if not darkened, are fascinating.
What would you do if you lost electricity for 24 hours? Do you have candles? How would you cook? What might you cook? What would you do? Have you ever lost power for 24 hours before? How'd you handle it?