Preparing for Winter V

Nelliegrace

I watched the live reports on Hurricane Helene, worrying about someone in Dothan, Alabama. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=46kevrFMugo
This was fascinating, without the hysteria of the media, by part 2 there were some very tired presenters. 

Several things struck me, the moment when the web cams, 15ft up poles, monitoring the sea surge, were submerged. The advice to shelter in ground floor rooms furthest from hazards such as trees which might fall, and the advice to people as tornadoes were seen to be near them, to go to their safe room, downstairs, in the middle of the house, protected with the bed mattresses, and put on their cycle helmets to protect their heads. Desperate times. 

It was raining here, all night, a yellow weather warning. Nothing to grumble about. 
We heard from our blog friend. Their power is back on. They didn’t have to resort to the camping toilet.

https://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/after-hurricane-helene/

Cherryfudge

Thank you @MrsCD and @Primrose, it did make me aware that keeping warm/hydrated outside the house could be costly - we spent nearly a tenner on hot drinks with the heating being off about 12 hours. The library was a nice space to use and I renewed my ancient library card so I've got some reading matter.

A couple of work-arounds that helped were charging my phone in work (I justified that because I need to use it quite often to report things at work) and DH remembering that family members nearby are away. We got their permission to use their place to cook dinner (yay for hot food!) and generally have heat and light over the evening.

Once our power was back, I did a bit of research into log stores and have seen one that might work for us: if we'd needed wood yesterday, most of the it was drenched from the torrential rain the day before. I also want to get another power bank as the one we have isn't really enough to keep two phones going over 24 hours - and it's amazing how often we feel we need our phones, when you consider how recent a thing they are! I also want to keep them going in case we need to call for help, especially medical: they aren't a complete indulgence.

What came home as well is that it's easier to cope with a loss of power if there's a warning that it's likely to happen: flasks of hot water for drinks, prep some hot water bottles and wrap them up, get torches or candles out, etc. We didn't have any warning and at least it was daylight but we missed hot water for drinks the most. I also had to nudge DH to layer up clothing as I didn't get cold but he did. It also brought home that life is easier with a car: as a none-driver I walk a lot but that would have restricted where I could get to in reasonable time, e.g. to pick up the free hot drink.

The company who fixed the problem also go round the houses and make hot drinks for people, which is brilliant and seems to be a free service to ease things while we wait (I think the residents have to provide everything but the hot water).

Rosetta92

Hello Everyone, I have been reading along with interest. Thanks for all the great ideas. Cherryfudge I agree about power cuts being easier with notice. We are registered as a vulnerable household with our suppliers so if there’s a planned outage we get advance notice by text message, and updates on expected reconnection. Doesn’t prevent unexpected emergency power cuts but every little helps.

MrsCD

Do you have a gas camping stove, @Cherryfudge? You could heat hot water quickly for cups of tea or hot chocolate, and tins of soup, beans etc, make an omelette to have with bread and butter to fill you up etc. I've filled flasks in the past with the leftover water from boiling a kettlefull to use later in the day.

Cherryfudge

MrsCD said:

Do you have a gas camping stove, @Cherryfudge? You could heat hot water quickly for cups of tea or hot chocolate, and tins of soup, beans etc, make an omelette to have with bread and butter to fill you up etc. I've filled flasks in the past with the leftover water from boiling a kettlefull to use later in the day.

I don't, though the side of me that's gadget girl is getting interested! From what I can see though, it might well set off smoke alarms or CO detectors. Reminds me of when our cooker broke and my teenage son brought the BBQ to the back door because he was so desperate to have something cooked that wasn't microwaved!

Floss

Cherryfudge, I completely understand the thing about knowing - I woke up to no water 2 weeks ago tomorrow as there had been a break in the aqueduct pipes bringing our water from N.Wales. Mine was off for about 7 hours and was low pressure for another 2 days until all was repaired. I was woken by the company's text and there were several more through the day to keep me updated, and eventually everyone got £60 compensation.

Cherryfudge

I was wondering about compensation, @Floss. I don't know exactly when the power went off but it was about 12 hours. 12 hours seems to be the point at which a £75 compensation kicks in so I need to find out who noticed first and reported it, and what time it came back on.

No water is a big nuisance - you don't how often your need it till it's not there.

Floss

The worst bit was that I was hungover & wanted a shower...and it was quite a big area so the leisure centres & gyms were out of the question too.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

I don't, though the side of me that's gadget girl is getting interested! From what I can see though, it might well set off smoke alarms or CO detectors. Reminds me of when our cooker broke and my teenage son brought the BBQ to the back door because he was so desperate to have something cooked that wasn't microwaved!

Just a quick warning - barbecues give off carbon monoxide to lethal levels, even after they are completely out!

never ever use a bbq anywhere except right out in the open, and leave it there afterwards!! 

People have died because they put an extinguished bbq in the porch area of their tent… you can imagine how dangerous it could be to have one near your house…

Nelliegrace

I am going to put a wool blanket under the bed sheet, on top of the mattress cover on my side. I don’t like the bedroom too warm at night.