YAY!! Power is back on! (Burke: motels, earthquake, budget)

[mako993]

Originally Posted by saganista

Never happened? Hurricane Isabel hit in September 2003. Maybe you missed it. Damage from that storm was severe, widespread, and long-lasting as well. The same has resulted from significant snow and ice events over the years. That's kind of what major storms do, you know. It's not like baseball. You can't just drag a tarp over the city and then go have a few beers till the storm blows by.

I remember that. Watched a transformer explode from my apartment window on the 11th floor at the time. My storm supplies at the time consisted of a bottle of Yuengling beer and a roll of TP, whilst everyone else in the grocery store was buying the place out

Consider myself lucky after having gotten power back after 30 hours this time here in Alexandria.

[car54]

We've been at our Eastern Shore home since school ended....no problems down there. At our Annandale home there is a whole-house generator system that should have handled things nicely....but the system failed to start when the lights went out at 10:37 pm Friday night.

Years ago, we ran a 30 amp circuit to my neighbor's house to power his freezer and maybe a fan and light or two. Neighbor was out of town also, so we were not aware that the generator didn't start until last night when we returned from the Shore to check the house for storm damage (about 48 hours into the outage).

The generator didn't start because "somebody" failed to put the master switch back on AUTO after the last test run about a month ago. The generator master switch has three settings, OFF, ON, and AUTO. It is normally left on AUTO, so the genny will start instantly, by itself, when utility power is interrupted....it was on OFF. This master switch is a massive affair that requires a firm grip and considerable effort and intent to move....the only "somebody" that messes with this switch is "me"....which was immediately pointed out by my lovely wife.

Bottom line: All edibles in the fridge/freezer and separate freezer are toast. I will especially mourn the loss of a huge ice cream cake whch was reduced to an ice cream puddle.

On the bright sight side, although my heavily wooded property sustained some tree damage....nothing hit the house or outbuildings...YAYY!

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by cdmurphy

I'm so glad that we have NOVEC instead of Dominion. We almost never have outages. During the storm we lost power for about one minute, then it was fine. Of course, it helps that our lines are buried.

I too have buried lines and NOVEC, in western Loudoun. We got power back late Monday afternoon.

In Vienna we had buried lines and the power went out constantly in the summer and more than a few times in the winter. Unless you have buried lines from your house to the power source, it doesn't appear to matter.

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by OrangeFish

Posting from a hotel as we bailed early on. Our power came back on Sunday night at 10:30 pm (47 hours without power). Already tossed the fridge and freezer food and am looking forward to doing laundry after we check out today.

We've spent three nights in hotels, because without power at our house we have no water. Power is finally back on so we're headed home in the morning! Yippeee............

[Muffy62]

Buried lines help if problems occur on the lines (less chance of trees knocking out lines/poles) but eventually the lines have to come above ground. It doesn't help if the substations goes out, then you won't have power until they fix it. Trees need to be trimmed but I seem to recall a news story about people not wanting their trees trimmed.

[chicagotodc]

Still without power, Pepco still says 7/6 11pm. I strongly suspect I'll be one of the last.

[choff5]

We bailed on Saturday to our lake house at Lake Anna. Called the number on Saturday morning and when the answering machine answered we knew it had power so we loaded up the big cooler and went. Son tells us the power at home came on at midnight on Saturday. Now will need to clear out the frig and freezer of stuff that thawed and has refrozen. We do have a problem waiting for us, a huge tree started to fall but is currently held up by another tree. Got to get it down on our terms as if it goes down on its terms it will block the neighbor's driveway and potentially take out the neighbor's fence. Had one smaller tree at the lake blocking the driveway but thankfully it was small enough that dh electric chainsaw could cut it in two pieces so we could roll the log off to the side.

[chicagotodc]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

Bets on a spike in babies in 9 months?

For sure.

[OrangeFish]

Originally Posted by Denton56

We've spent three nights in hotels, because without power at our house we have no water. Power is finally back on so we're headed home in the morning! Yippeee............

Glad you have your power back!

[Flamingo13]

Originally Posted by Denton56

We've spent three nights in hotels, because without power at our house we have no water. Power is finally back on so we're headed home in the morning! Yippeee............

Did you hear that some low budget motels were charging $500-$600!!!!!!!!