Emera Power Outages October 2017 (Bangor, Old Town: 2015, city hall, neighborhood)

[slyfox2]

We were scheduled to have the generator put in the end of next week, ironically. We were out for about 49 hours, starting Monday Morning at 8:00 AM.

On Sunday, I filled up two big plastic bins with water for toilets. I put water in various containers so we would have drinking and tea and cooking water. We found that the water will leak out of the bathtub so we would need to get a stopper for it.

I did not crack the septic tank cover which I was going to do this morning. So.... if the outage kept up, we didn’t have the sewage didn’t back up into the house. Our sewage water has to be pumped up hill to the sand mound drainage field.

We have three of those LED lanterns and multiple flashlights. Our cook stove is propane, and we have a wood stove for all our heat, so we cooked dinner and were warm. People with electric heat or pellet stoves or heat pumps were not as fortunate.

What I missed most was listening to music, so I guess we’ll get out portable FM radio CD player out of the garage, so we have it when we’re not running the genny.

We did get to play board games and eat in front of the fire together, something we don’t often do anymore with all the electronic entertainment. Aliens did not land and take away our freedoms.

It was just a normal Maine weather event, though a bit longer than most. Its actually lots of fun to prepare for it. The longest we lost power before was about 36 hours, and only one night. But looking at the current Emera outage map, we are lucky to get it back this early. Lots of people on MDI and elsewhere north to Millinocket are still without power and all of them don’t expect to be back until Saturday.

[svband76]

Anyone know the extent of power outages for Bar Harbor/business area? I was there last year this time and although not as crazy as summer with tourists, it was still surprisingly busy. I enjoyed my ice cream while freezing my butt off one afternoon..

[HoustonTexasEngineer]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

We were scheduled to have the generator put in the end of next week, ironically. We were out for about 49 hours, starting Monday Morning at 8:00 AM.

On Sunday, I filled up two big plastic bins with water for toilets. I put water in various containers so we would have drinking and tea and cooking water. We found that the water will leak out of the bathtub so we would need to get a stopper for it.

I did not crack the septic tank cover which I was going to do this morning. So.... if the outage kept up, we didn’t have the sewage didn’t back up into the house. Our sewage water has to be pumped up hill to the sand mound drainage field.

We have three of those LED lanterns and multiple flashlights. Our cook stove is propane, and we have a wood stove for all our heat, so we cooked dinner and were warm. People with electric heat or pellet stoves or heat pumps were not as fortunate.

What I missed most was listening to music, so I guess we’ll get out portable FM radio CD player out of the garage, so we have it when we’re not running the genny.

We did get to play board games and eat in front of the fire together, something we don’t often do anymore with all the electronic entertainment. Aliens did not land and take away our freedoms.

It was just a normal Maine weather event, though a bit longer than most. Its actually lots of fun to prepare for it. The longest we lost power before was about 36 hours, and only one night. But looking at the current Emera outage map, we are lucky to get it back this early. Lots of people on MDI and elsewhere north to Millinocket are still without power and all of them don’t expect to be back until Saturday.

unfortunately our newly built house has propane/electric hybrid everything so essentially nothing functions without power. our oven, pellet stove, well pump, etc... Even though i will soon have a generator im looking at ways to de-modernize some of our things.... like a mechanical propane oven, swap out the pellet stove for a wood stove (not going to be easy though), ill have to look into a better means of pumping water up from out well to supply the house too...

Ive got a large RO unit though and its full of 14 gallons worth of drinking water still pressurized and on tap.

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by zalewskimm

Anyone know the extent of power outages for Bar Harbor/business area? I was there last year this time and although not as crazy as summer with tourists, it was still surprisingly busy. I enjoyed my ice cream while freezing my butt off one afternoon..

Bar Harbor never lost power at all. We went in for batteries, water, and groceries (yesterday when we were still out of power) that we forget to get before the storm. Since there is a major hospital there, they have top priority. However there are some side streets, just not the business area that lost power due to trees downing.

Southwest Harbor just got power last night at about 10:00 as did Bass Harbor. Their business section got their power back at around 9:30 yesterday morning.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

Bar Harbor never lost power at all. We went in for batteries, water, and groceries (yesterday when we were still out of power) that we forget to get before the storm. Since there is a major hospital there, they have top priority. However there are some side streets, just not the business area that lost power due to trees downing.

Southwest Harbor just got power last night at about 10:00 as did Bass Harbor. Their business section got their power back at around 9:30 yesterday morning.

Interesting, thank you..

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

An EMP would stop civilization and ....

It is interesting that people want to focus on an EMP while ignoring the device that would have caused the EMP.

An EMP in Maine strong enough to hurt electronics in Maine would come from a nuclear detonation in Maine [or else really close to the borders of Maine].

It is kind of like being run over by a truck, and worrying about the whether you inhaled any of the diesel fumes as the truck went by.



If there were a nuclear detonation in Maine, we would have a lot of more pressing issues to deal with.

Hannaford in Old Town yesterday was tossing out a lot of their produce and red meat [they had filled two 20-yard roll-off containers heaping with red meat]. We went by to collect pig food and we ended up loaded up to the roof of our van with produce. They only have enough generator capacity to power their freezer and cash cage, but not enough for the rest of their store. We made a trip up to the Bible Seminary in Charleston and dropped off most of it today. The roads from here to Corinth were all cleared.

[kellysmith]

A deep well hand pump was invented by a local plumber in Houlton. I think he sold the rights to an outfit out of state. They are not cheap, but if getting water from a well is your objective when no power is available, these work. A typical shallow well pump uses a vacuum that allows air pressure to push the water up a pipe. The limit is around 33 feet if the pump creates a perfect vacuum. The deep well pump lifts the water and can lift water up to 300 ft. Not cheap, but will provide water from a deep well using muscle power.

https://www.bisonpumps.com/

[Northern Maine Land Man]

There is also something called a "water thief" that you can make for about $5. It will work unless your water level is below your anti torque collar on your well pipe.

[HoustonTexasEngineer]

http://www.brumbypumps.com/uploaded/Brumby_brochure.pdf

these brumby pumps are pretty slick too

[American girl]

We were out from 8 a.m. Monday to 8 p.m. Tuesday. We have a portable generator so no problem for us. We were surprised how fast the recovery time was. During the ice storm of '98 my power was out for nine days. No generator back then but wood heat kept me from freezing. As you might imagine the bloom is off the rose after about 36 hours.

What really frosts me about Emera's website is their requirement of your account number to report an outage online. So there you sit in the dark with your cell phone and they want you to type in your 16 digit account number. Really? Really?