Power Outages (Vienna, Culpeper: credit, hotel, house)

[AnjiSmith]

I read on here that there are long power outages during freezing weather. What are you supposed to do to avoid freezing to death, get a portable generator? Sorry, new to freezing weather...

[yamota]

well, I wouldn't start a bonfire inside the house if I were you

[oneasterisk]

Hopefully you have a fireplace. Wear layers and cover your head to conserve body heat. We're lucky to have a gas stove so we could still cook while power is out. We're in a pretty populated area so power doesn't stay off for long.

My coworker out in Culpeper lost power for a few days. He said what saved him was that he had a wood burning stove and also spent the money on getting a generator hard wired to his house. He said the generator was the best $2000 he ever spent.

[Denton56]

I live out in the boonies in western Loudoun and we don't lose power. Our neighbors heard all the horror stories about losing power when they built their house 7 years ago so they bought a big generator. They've never needed to use it.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it. A hurricane once knocked out power for a couple of days in Vienna. We went to a hotel. No big deal. You can stay in a hotel for many days for the $2,000 you would spend on a generator for something unlikely to happen.

[Hesky]

Well I have personally never lost power for more than a few hours, and the Winters here are seldom cold enough to worry about freezing to death without power. I wouldn't worry too much about it in this region.

[mlv311]

No need to worry. I've lived here since 1989 with a 4 year break and have only lost power a handful of times and for short periods (less than 5 hours). If you have very small children and you lost power for over 24 hours, then you can look for a hotel. Otherwise, I think it's easy to manage by dressing in layers.

[mississippimagnolia]

We lost power a lot more often when we lived in the south...severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms knock out power a lot in the deep south.

Even with unreal amount of snow we had this winter, we didn't lose power. At least I don't remember that we did. (It might have gone off for a couple of hours.)

You won't freeze to death if you are in a house. It will get cold. But remember, people somehow managed not to freeze to death for hundreds of years before they had electric and gas heat. And in much harsher climates that Virginia. If you have a fireplace, you just camp out near the fire. If you don't have a fireplace, you can dress warmly and use blankets.

[oneasterisk]

I also have to give credit to Dominion Electric. They are very responsive in this area. I've never lived in MD, but from what I hear on the news BGE (Baltimore Gas Electric) has a much harder time dealing with outages.