Posted: 9/23/2008 6:35:37 PM EDT
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After 6 days without power and 9 days without tv/internet, thanks to Hurricane Ike, I learned a few things that might be helpful to the rest of you. If you have children, make sure you have plenty and I mean PLENTY of things to keep them occupied. We are not the kind of people to drop our kids in front of the tv and and let them sit there for hours, but damn, we ran out of shit to do!! If you have a generator, make sure you have lots and lots of fuel. I had 50 gallons of gas but at some places we were limited to the amount of gas we could buy. I would try to fill up after every 15 gallons used. Also, make sure the bitch works. . . all of the time. I kept tripping breakers on this old beast I had. I will be buying a new unit very soon. You will need 3x the number of batteries you think you will. I ran out of 123A's in the first few days. Not a size you can just find at the open grocery stores. Also make sure you have plenty for you to do. I cleaned and reorganized my garage three times, I moved screwdrivers from one drawer to the other and back again. You can only sharpen your chainsaw blade so many times. Tell ya one thing though, my rifles are cleaner than when they were new!! You say to yourself, "Hell, I got plenty to do." Bullshit. Not only that, the shit that needs to be done, you won't feel like doing. If you have a swimming pool, make sure you also have a submersible pump. You can be rewiring in the middle of a rain/lightning storm. We lost power and the rain wouldn't stop. My pool crested at 4 am and at 5 am I was in the pool with a bucket throwing water out to the one drain that was still draining. Anyway, hope this helps someone. I just got my internet back about 2 hours ago and I am burning up my keyboard. |
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I too went through the Ike fiasco, however I sent the wife and kiddos to Ft. Worth to hang out with some friends. I will second the needing lots of gas, I had 35 gallons in cans, and two full cars. I thought the cars would provide me with plenty of "reserves", with the 6' peice of tygon tubing, but I was wrong. Having the truck in DFW area, I was left with my saab 9000 and a mustang cobra, which I found out would only allow me about 2.5 gallons to be siphoned out before I leveled out in my gas cans (the generator did love the race gas from the cobra though). I also had the forethought to pick up a small window unit that I installed in the bedroom. It was very nice to have a cool room to crash in. I did not run out of things to do, I got to play bucket brigade in the upstairs for about 4 hours, and the clean up after that. The food situation was a non-issue, the generator pulled through like a champ, and if it poopedout, I had plenty of non parishables to fall back on. Looking back, I fared pretty well compared to some. I kind of really enjoyrd not having power, but the interweb...... Matt |
I am with ya. I had purchased a small window unit back at Hurricane Rita. My daughter was 4 months old and we were not going to sit in 20 hour traffic. That sucker blew some cold air!!! The power, you are right, no problem, but internet and not only that, it IS football season. I have missed two weeks of ball that I will never get back. I also found out that newer cars have an anti-siphon device so you can't get a hose in the gas tank. |
True, but all of them should have electric fuel pumps. A simple pull of the fuel line near the injection manifold, hooked up to a longer line via a connector of the same diameter, and run it into your gas can. Turn on the ignition (not to try to start the car, just into the "run" position and most will run the pump and fill your can. SOME will not, some have a "where is my pressure" sensor that will shut it off after a short while, but the vast majority should run just fine. Our Jeep Liberty, my Tracker, the old Prizm and the Jimmy all did that way. Just don't tell the my wife....she just thought she got bad gas mileage  YMMV with vehicle. (simple primer here on how to do it: www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60074 |
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| Being out of power for 10 days, I can tell you I was 99% prepared. My half-dozen small, light headlamps are worth their weight in gold. Dozens of oil lamps worked great, and left lots of light to work in each room. Camping and backpacking stoves worked wonderfully. Be sure to have all three of the above mentioned items...and LOTS OF THEM!!!! |
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Our town got hit with the left over winds, and Ohio had over half a million people without power, some of them still. My neighborhood was without for 2 days (48 hours). I am evidently the only one for blocks with a generator...even though power was lost for almost a week a couple years ago, and many griped about their food losses then... We have gas water heater, stove, and furnace, so we had no loss of at least food/water comforts. I am going look into a natural gas powered gen set with an ATS in case something would happen while I am out of town, making it easier on the wife. We had plenty of batteries/flashlights. Many of my long runners (mostly LED/flourescent) are AA or AAA. 123 based lights are for "extreme" needs, not finding a can of soup. Also, make sure you either have several meals worth of propare in your grill tank, or an extra tank. at all times, esp if you have electric range/oven. Amazing how many people talked later about batteries dead, no lights, no candles, nothing. Even more amusing/amazing are the people who complained most about no TV/internet... One guy went off on the power company because he missed a Browns game... Simply amazing... |
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It makes you wonder what most people would do in the case of a real "Lights Out" event where the lights wouldn't be coming back on for months if not years! Fuel is definitely a problem. I can learn to live without light (we have a half dozen LED dynamo flashlights and I keep dozens of AAAs, AAs, Cs and D batteries in stock at all times. Plus half a dozen rechargables. But without gas, my generator is an anchor. No genny and water will become a luxury. How much gas did your generator use for the duration? |
I have 100 gals of gas dedicated to the genny for well pump use only, I will run the pump only long enough to fill my 10 aquatainers, then it all gets shut down till they are empty and repaet. Bulk propane and 1 lb cannisters for the camp stoves, lamp oil and lamps for light and lots and lots of firewood. |
Same here on the West Central part of Florida in 04 when those 3 hurricanes f*cked things up. One bad thing though was at night you could, and everyone else could hear who had the generators or not. My 5K worked great, had everyting including Sat TV and Internet. |
One thing I have found handy in situations like this is those 15 minute rapid battery chargers. That way when you are running your generator for short periods, you can also be racharging 4-8 AA's as well. |
Dang.
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Ike had us w/o power for 7 days. Several observations beyond the basics like topping off all tanks, getting cash and ice, groceries, potable water, etc. Don't be w/o a generator and fuel. I like to have enough spare fuel in my cans to fill up my truck 1 time, if needed. For me that is 30 gals. If you can find a deal on a good genny like a Honda or Yamaha, get it. The cost will be made up in fuel savings alone. My EU2000i went 12 hours pulling a deep freeze, sat box and 40" lcd and a fan or two and some rechargables on 1 gallon of gas. But any genny is better than none. Also, some spare 30w oil and a spark plug. Extra headlamps are better than extra flashlights. ave extra dog food and treats on hand. Your friends and their dogs won't be as prepared. Things will get stressful. Prepare yourself and your wife ahead of time. Lukewarm beer can still taste cold enough. 2 bananas, 2 twinkies and 2 lukewarm beers make a pretty good breakfast.  |
| We went 11 days without electricity after Gustav. I learned a couple of lessons. I sure wish I'd have had a gas stove for cooking. I was able to use survival supplies (triox, MRE heaters), but others were cooking away their thawing frozen goods in style. Also, a gas water heater was helpful so at least a warm shower after chainsawing was available. In a true Lights Out without gas and water, it would have been MUCH worse. Also, the MRE and ice distribution centers were so far from me and in impoverished neighborhoods as to be nonexistent for my part of town. Plus, by the time I could have driven there through a hundred defacto 4-way stops (no traffic lights) and trees and wires across many major roads with sheeple and New Orleans evacuees (read as mostly parasites) driving around aimlessly, gasoline which could not be replaced would be wasted. It could have been worse than that if the governor had not authorized generators at state expense for gas stations to alleviate the fuel shortage when gas did begin to trickle back into the area. At first, gas deliveries were irrelevant due to no power for the pumps. Also, we had an 8pm-6am curfew to prevent any looting, and it worked well. The Katrina aftermath experience had educated our local government and it made a big difference. Still, I learned that I can live easily without working cell phones, the news, TV, the internet and football just fine and the simple things in life such as sitting around a fire (or candles) with the family and friends without modern distractions, and just talking, are some of the times I now savor afterward when everybody has returned to the false gods of the electronic age. |
Fuel pumps in most advanced vehicles do not work this way. They run for a second or two when the ignition is switched on, and then only start pumping again after the engine starts turning over (based on signal from crank or cam POS) Turning the key on and using an onboard electric pump will not work the way you think... they dont make em like they used to. Pep Boys has a cheap $30 universal electric fuel pump that runs off 12v that will transfer anything and work inline with your existing tubing, with use of a clamp at the filter.
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Yep. That said, you can also jump many of them at the fuel pump relay. I actually have a switch set up on my truck that does just that, not for fueling with the onboard pump but for bleeding the fuel system when I change filters. I have one of the 12v pumps hooked into one of the lines to the auxillary tank in my bed, with it I can fuel other vehicles or equipment from my tank, or turn the pump around and I can fuel my truck from tanks, other vehicles, etc. |
Another thing which might be obvious to mechanics, but not always to the rest, or those under the stress of a SHTF situation. The fuel systems are under pressure, and in many cases can stay that way long after the car is shut down. If you go unplugging hoses in the dark while under stress you can end up spraying fuel all over the place, including yourself. Just be careful. One strategy for reducing the pressure (in some vehicles) is to disable the inertia fuel pump switch (it's the thing that kills fuel if you are in a wreck, check your owner's manual for where it is and how to re-set it). If you disable this switch, then crank the engine, it will use up the fuel in the lines and drop the pressure in a few seconds. |