We are sooo soft aren't we! I would go insane, but then again we do have a generator, a wood burning stove and a kettle grill so we would get by. For us it gets nasty when we remember no power means no water or sewer. Still many have gone through worse most of their lives.

I had a 5 day power outage last May, about 2 weeks after moving into my new house, which is entirely serviced by electricity (including HVAC, and a well water pump). I lasted a few days, then decamped to my SIL's condo. Yes, I sprung for a stand-by generator, and added a propane tank in my yard to fuel it - it was installed 4 months ago, and I hope I never need it. As a matter of fact, I just bought one for my sister too, who lives in an area with frequent power outages of a day or two, even though her house has propane heat........The need to go out and get, then hook up, then start a portable generator can be problematic. I don't need to run every electric thing in the house like nothing's happened, but I do want a generator to automatically turn on so I don't have to go out in the horrible storm to set up the generator that I need because of the horrible storm. Also, I know it will kick in if I'm on vacation when the power goes out, so my pipes won't freeze.

I'm glad everyone's safe.

Glad you have electric back now and can start the cleanup process.

Kath, i cant remember where you are located.. Ive been watching the news of the snowstorms in the CA mountains. I lost power for five days a few years ago and that did it for me. I got a generator.

I’m glad you’re up and running now.

Glad your power is back on. A question or comment is your hotwater heater electric? Those of us who have natural gas have hot water heaters that do not rely on electricity will continue to have hot water.

My friend in Alabama posted a list of things that should be on hand for emergency's. The one that I have but never thought about was a manual can opener. On my NWS site I see people listing things that they have purchased for emergency's to put in their freezer not realizing that if the electricity is out that extra food could spoil although there are methods to keep the freezer cold.

Glad all is OK now too 🙂

I often think about how reliant we are on electricity for so much of our daily lives. Thankfully, I know how to make do without, as does Kathsgrdn, clearly.

Dedtired, I'm in Central KY. There are line workers from 11 different states here now helping. A lot of downed power lines. Trees everywhere.

Maufleur, yes, it's electric. My whole house is electric. My freezer food was fine the first day but then I didn't trust it and since my friend offered I took it all over to her house. I did throw out a few things like slices of quiche that were in the door and had thawed. Websites also said you could keep a lot of things in the fridge, but when I went to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with peach preserves it smelled funky and so I threw it out. I had a peanut butter only sandwich for breakfast this morning.

I have a friend who was without power also until this morning. Yesterday I bought a pack of those hunting body warmers, 8 of them. I gave her half of them. I tried one last night and they didn't work so good. I'll keep the other three and use them in my pockets, maybe, but as far as warming my body or even a part that it was near, it didn't do much of anything.

Isn't it the biggest relief when the power comes back on? I have never experienced one as long as yours but one years ago just overnight killed a bunch of my koi because the water wasn't circulating. We recently bought a smaller generator and it would be used just for the two ponds. We are so spoiled when you think about how people lived in the centuries before electricity.

Lily316, I agree. I lived for a while in southeastern KY with no running water. It wasn't fun. I've also thought about getting a wood stove, which would keep me warm, heat water for bathing and I could cook on it. It wouldn't solve the refrigerator problem though. It would be much cheaper than a generator and being cold was my main discomfort.

I'd have been tempted to head for a hotel. Nothing in my house works without power and that includes me.

We experienced a 3-day outage one year and I hope to never do that again. Dec. It was the entire community, nobody had power. We had a small generator, about enough to share with the neighbors to chill down a freezer or refrigerator, charge a phone, run a small heater to warm a room slightly. No one could buy gas. Or ice. We did follow the health depts recommendations and tossed just about all in our refrigerators

On the same grid as our hospital, our power came back on first. Many were using our shower, our power.

We could cook on our gas grill and the whole block ate well. We all shared and cooked whatever was in our kitchens rather than lose it. The young woman next door proved to make the best darned omelettes on a charcoal hibachi. Her boiled coffee was excellent too.

We were not very well prepared, not campers. I now have a battery op radio (the only one on our block was a neighbor in her 80's :)), 3 battery lanterns that throw quite a good deal of light.

We had calls, offers of room and board. Roads leading into and out of town were all but closed with downed trees but we could have made it to family in DH's big 4 wh drive truck = however, two households of our neighbors were quite a bit older and DH chose to stay. Gotta love the guy, even if I don't always like him very much ;)

Secondary was we had a tree laying on our new roof, and my chimney was gone.

Insurance stepped up and I had very little out of pocket. We got free TDAPs out of it too - our Health Dept trying to keep anyone doing any clean up safe. We were both overdue for a booster.

I think most medical insurance coverage covers routine immunizations, like TDAPs. Were you without coverage?

For those of you who have gas stoves, be sure to keep ground coffee and a french press on hand! I could boil water and still make coffee, a necessity for me. One of those sterno things would work, too.

Elmer, not without coverage but younger and self insured then. I was even paying for flu shots those years, one for each of us and one for our tech so he didn't become sick. Routine immunizations were not covered. But pretty good otherwise if ignoring the cost, 80-20% policies for three were running about $2400/mo. Later, Medicare and a supplement felt like gifts in comparison. They still do ;)

If you have a power outage when the weather is that cold, maybe invest in a large cooler. You can move .your refer food outside and not lose it. I keep lots of plastic water bottles tucked into every nook and cranny of my freezer. It not only keeps the freezer cold longer, but you can put them in the cooler if it's not quite cold enough outside. And the bottles provide emergency drinking water.

I bought a small Honda generator. Just big enough to run the refer or the freezer, lamps etc. I have four 3 gallon gas cans in the garage. It will run a long time on a gallon of gas - like 7-8 hours. It is easy to move from the garage to the covered porch, is quiet and easy to start. Some of the bigger models have electric start, as do other brands. I had a handyman install a thing in the wall that allows me to plug the generator into it and then an extension cord inside the house. I run the refer for a while, then the freezer, I can charge my computer and phone with it. I have a satellite internet now and can also run that so I'll have internet. I don't run any heat with my little generator (it's not big enough); the larger models can run a furnace). I have a wood stove and wouldn't be without it. We've had power outages for a week or longer here. I also store gallons of water to use for flushing because we lose our water, too.

Olychick, it wasn't cold enough consistantly to leave food outside without ice. I have a small ice chest but I think I gave the two bigger ones to the kids. I'd have to go look in the closet in the garage to make sure. If I was smart I would've gone to get ice as soon as the power was out for a couple hours and saved some of my fridge food. I do have some ice packs in the freezer but wanted to keep them in there to help keep that food frozen.

It sounds absolutely horrible. We very rarely get power cuts and were surprised to have one two weeks ago. The first in over a decade. It lasted 45 minutes which was longer than we expected. Luckily we have a gas cooker and plenty of candles. And water isn't pumped either. Although the heating is gas, the pump is electric so that doesn't help.

That's a really long time to be without power. It sounds pretty warm tho. I'm glad your alright.

Here in Colorado....you'd have to worry about pipes freezing. People & pets freezing. (single digits at night). We had a 4 hour power outage....once. After that we also got a generator. We also keep 7 gallons of water in the garage for flushing toilets in a power outage. Gas stove & 2 gas fireplaces. Gas outdoor grill. Our generator is gasoline powered, sits outdoors, with an outdoor plug. It can run the electricity for one item at a time. Hopefully we NEVER need to use it.

We experienced a three-day electrical outage once in our previous home which was all electric and on a well. The first time the power went out was a learning experience for us. We did have a woodstove though. We've never felt the need for a generator since moving to our current home. When we remodeled, we installed a gas cooktop and a wood burning insert in one of the fireplaces. And, the home was on a municipal water system so that was a relief.

However, this past winter, we had a super cold front blow through. My weather station recorded a minus 11-degree wind chill. The homes across the lake had a power outage that lasted 13 hours. Neighbors were reporting their water pipes bursting. We bit the bullet and are having a WH generator installed this Thursday.

Kathy, get a portable generator and be prepared for the next power outage. We have a few portable generators. Last time we used them was during a snow storm at previous home, we had 7' snow within 24 hrs. It's very cold here in zone 6a, pipes freezing is always the 1st thing to worry about. During last Dec's snow storm, many nearby areas had days of power outage, and many homes and business had frozen pipes to burst. We moved to a new area a few years ago, and we had 2 power outages (4-6 hrs each time) while we were traveling during winter months. We finally installed a whole house generator last Dec. I don't know how often you have power outages in your area, if it happens all the time, a whole house generator is great to have.

Kath are you in Ky? We got walloped with a crazy storm on Friday. Still no power 4 days later and I definitely see a generator in our future. I know we are spoiled and many people have living conditions much worse but I really want a hot shower!

Yes, bacino I am.

Small world!