I have two times that come to mind. The first was in Houston (Spring Branch area). A hurrricane came through. My ex slept through it and got up in the morning and went outside using the back door and said, "Why is the power off? Everything looks okay."
I told him to look out the front door. There in the courtyard of our condo complex was debris, tree limbs, trash cans, carport roofs, etc. from neighbors as far as a mile away.
We were without water for 3 days and without electricity for 3 weeks. Our complex was the last in the city to be restored, I think.
We discovered quite quickly how much we depend on electricity. We also discovered how much people learn to help each other in these situations. We pooled our frozen foods - which would go bad quickly - and fired up the grills to cook and share foods.
The hurricane in Houston was in August, I believe. It was hot.
The second time that power was a problem was in December of about 1989. The whole country had a problem with cold that year, so everyone had trouble. I think that FL was probably selling power to other states when it was also hit. We had rolling brown-outs and black-outs. On Christmas day, I was supposed to be cooking a turkey dinner. The power would be on for about 20 minutes then off for an hour. I finally took all the food and went to my parents' mobile home. They lived across the street from the VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg, FL and somehow their power was connected. They never did get cut off.
Our home didn't have central heat, just one wall heater in the living room. We camped out there and tacked sheets up from the ceiling to the floor to keep the heat in that one room so we'd be comfy.
Coincidence, we went without power on Saturday at about 1 am my daughter woke me to let me know that the lights didn't go on and she couldn't see to go to the bathroom, it lasted 10 hours. All night my children were scared and heard noises that were probably always there. They slept in my room and it was crazy.
I was witout power for about 3 days once due to powerline breaks in an ice storm. This was not the most fun I have ever had but it is nerve wracking after a while.
Our dog shivers and shakes when there's a storm brewing. One cat immediately heads for the closet. The other cat - the one we think is a bit...well, mentally challenged - just goes about romping and playing like nothing is happening. She will sniff around the dog, and meow her questioning meow at him. And she'll look for other cat and do the questioning meow for too. But then she goes back to playing and getting into trouble.
This is my third move since then. This place goes off more frequently. The whole place goes off, even the street lights the longest here was about 4 hrs.
Several years ago - we had an outage that lasted a few hours - it sucked because I had just put diner in the oven - I couldn't put it back in the fridge either - so I had to throw all of it out!!!! BUMMER
The longgest time I remember us being out of power was back in 1989 when we were in Florida and it snowed and power lines were down and they closed the roads because it was so bad and it was unusual for them to get snow there so it freaked everyone out. the kids did not mind it bewcause my sister's oldest girl was 2 maybe at the time and I bribed her with paper and perminant markers to draw with to keep her under my covers in my room because it was so cold and she complained of being to hot while the rest of us froze out back sides of. We had no heat in the house when the A.C went out. we had central air and heat when it worked and we lived in a duplex at the time. I had a bad time keeping the kids shoes on her. She was the type at the time that wanted to go around bare foot 24/7. That outage I think lasted a week.
We were with out power for 4 days.My husband had put a generator in,and our water is gravity fed,so we had the comforts of home.The generator is big enough to power the whole house.Furnace,fridge,lights and t.v.The storm was during winter with ice included.
In 1989 w/Hurricane Hugo 4 days and Christmas that same year about 2 days due to an unexpected snow storm. My dogs got along just fine, it was me that was going "bonkers"!!!
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Comments: 17
I told him to look out the front door. There in the courtyard of our condo complex was debris, tree limbs, trash cans, carport roofs, etc. from neighbors as far as a mile away.
We were without water for 3 days and without electricity for 3 weeks. Our complex was the last in the city to be restored, I think.
We discovered quite quickly how much we depend on electricity. We also discovered how much people learn to help each other in these situations. We pooled our frozen foods - which would go bad quickly - and fired up the grills to cook and share foods.
The second time that power was a problem was in December of about 1989. The whole country had a problem with cold that year, so everyone had trouble. I think that FL was probably selling power to other states when it was also hit. We had rolling brown-outs and black-outs. On Christmas day, I was supposed to be cooking a turkey dinner. The power would be on for about 20 minutes then off for an hour. I finally took all the food and went to my parents' mobile home. They lived across the street from the VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg, FL and somehow their power was connected. They never did get cut off.
Our home didn't have central heat, just one wall heater in the living room. We camped out there and tacked sheets up from the ceiling to the floor to keep the heat in that one room so we'd be comfy.