Storms in California and outages
Lars
last year
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moss after the storms in california
Comments (1)Hey, Douglas. The easiest way to do this is to slice one inch wide strips from the exposed sides of the holes. Move the strips over to fill the hole. The edges will grow together just like a skin graft. Sandy...See MoreKitchen tips for storm power outage
Comments (26)We've had 2 this year -- first one was worst but taught me what to do. We had no power for 5 days and day 4 the generator ran out of gas. Until then we were in good shape as I had listened to advice on what to have on hand (see link below) and it worked well. That was in the Fall and winter might be easier from the standpoint of having ice on hand -- we just didn't open the fridge once we really lost power. The ice cream did not fully melt in the freezer that last day so we didn't lose any great amount of food. Water for the toilets was one big issue. Afterwards I went out and bought 4 five-gallon kerosene containers and would fill them immediately before any storm, just in case the generator goes on the clink. Cell phone saved us as our internet was out for 5 days. I had to charge that in the car -- so a full tank of gas is really important too. We have an electric kettle for boiling water and the backup give us limited power and lights. That does it for coffee, tea and anything instant. With no power or generator I'd haul the gas grill out and use that for boiling and any semi-emergency cooking. If you have gas you are lucky. We have electric only but micro is on backup so I cooked ahead and put food in microwaveable containers. We ate on paper plates with plastic utensils. It's the one time we'll eat canned fruit and packaged applesauce. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches turn out to be power-loss-proof. Follow up was that we also had too many trees near our house and spent the past month having many of them removed. Two of them turned out to be rotted in one or another section -- a disaster waiting. So that's perhaps something to think about after the snow. It immediately made a huge difference in the ability of the ground to dry out on one side and relieved the fear of anything falling. We still have 2 trees to go but they are secondary. OTOH, it left us with 5 years of firewood and a big bill. We seem to be getting your storm tomorrow so fingers crossed here. Here is a link that might be useful: supply list...See MoreStorm Damage in California
Comments (11)What a mess! We have definitely had a brutal winter in California. While we were on our vacation, snow and wind caused a large tree on the power company's easement which runs through our property to break in half and fall on the power line. The power line snapped and I am not sure how long that live line was arcing and sparking before our nearest neighbor noticed smoke coming from the direction of our house. He called the utility and they came out on their snowcat to plow the road so that their trucks could get in and fix the line. The highway the runs though my area has been closed off and on for months due to mud and rock slides. The road people thought they had it pretty much fixed and were near to re-opening the road when this big boy slid down the mountain and landed on the road: Needless to say, the road was closed again and is now open on and off to controlled traffic. No idea when it will re-open for good....See MoreIssues after power outage
Comments (6)The blackened GFI outlet definitely needs to be replaced. Lights shouldn't be on a GFI circuit but it's possible. Do you know what is on which breaker in the main power panel? So you're sure power is getting to lights that aren't working? Some of those GFI out lets are pretty cheaply made and will go bad even in normal use. If there was a surge, they can easily fry, I would think. Note that a GFI outlet will protect other outlets downstream of it in the circuit, so you may have one bad GFI outlet and several downstream of it that also don't get power because it comes through the GFI. If you're not comfortable troubleshooting and replacing outlets and checking wiring, you'll need an electrician....See MoreLars
last year
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