We survived 119 hours without power. (1 Viewing)

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Does that include WHC?

Did they have back up generators that worked for 5 days?


All the people with Electric cars that needed top ups were probably snookered.
Be a long time before I go electric, love my gasoline motorcycles and cars, they do what I want, when I want.
 
Longest i have been without power was around 30 hours during the 2013 ice storm. 119 hours: I can't even imagine it.
 
Does that include WHC?
No. As a matter of fact, I was there with the family on Thursday to warm and charge up and worked from the office yesterday too.

Did they have back up generators that worked for 5 days?
I didn't; my UPS lasted two hours ;-) but Cable internet was down anyways. Mobile internet and cell phone service. was affected for four days in the West Island.

WHC's servers were not affected; they also have backup power and generators if it's needed.

All the people with Electric cars that needed top ups were probably snookered.
Be a long time before I go electric, love my gasoline motorcycles and cars, they do what I want, when I want.
Gas pumps need electricity. Many of them were out of service during this "event" here, too.

Longest i have been without power was around 30 hours during the 2013 ice storm. 119 hours: I can't even imagine it.
While I didn't live in Canada, I also managed to be visiting for the big Ice Storm in 1998, but I can't recall how long we were out of power then, it was more of an adventure. We tried to go skiing in the US at that time but turned around halfway.
 
Gas pumps need electricity. Many of them were out of service during this "event" here, too.
We had to go to 5 different gas stations before we found one that was open/with electricity. Somehow our block won the jackpot and didnt lose any power at all during the chaos, even though everyone around us was in the dark.
 
No. As a matter of fact, I was there with the family on Thursday to warm and charge up and worked from the office yesterday too.


I didn't; my UPS lasted two hours ;-) but Cable internet was down anyways. Mobile internet and cell phone service. was affected for four days in the West Island.

WHC's servers were not affected; they also have backup power and generators if it's needed.


Gas pumps need electricity. Many of them were out of service during this "event" here, too.


While I didn't live in Canada, I also managed to be visiting for the big Ice Storm in 1998, but I can't recall how long we were out of power then, it was more of an adventure. We tried to go skiing in the US at that time but turned around halfway.

5 days would start to really suck. First and foremost I'm thinking cold water for showers, washing hands, dishes, etc, would be the worst. And if its too cold, the risk of pipes freezing and such. And if its not super cold, having to deal with fridge/freezers full of food starting to thaw and go bad. Otherwise, it's kind of a family adventure and story, probably kind of fun, in its own way.

From your experience, what was the worst part for you? It might be a good lesson for the rest of us on how to be better prepared for ourselves.

Fortunately, I don't think I've ever been out of power for more than a few hours at a time.
 
Glad you're back Frank. Here in Eastern Ontario we got hit hard as well, but nowhere near as bad as you guys. I never lost power and the people who did were only out about 24 hours

While I didn't live in Canada, I also managed to be visiting for the big Ice Storm in 1998,

We lost power for 9 days in 1998. Luckily my parents had a wood stove for heat and hot water and lots of snow outside to keep food cold.
 
5 days would start to really suck. First and foremost I'm thinking cold water for showers, washing hands, dishes, etc, would be the worst. And if its too cold, the risk of pipes freezing and such. And if its not super cold, having to deal with fridge/freezers full of food starting to thaw and go bad. Otherwise, it's kind of a family adventure and story, probably kind of fun, in its own way.

From your experience, what was the worst part for you? It might be a good lesson for the rest of us on how to be better prepared for ourselves.
This is a great question. We had a bit of a conversation over dinner about this yesterday after you asked, @rlm . All in all, I would say that while it was tiring, it was doable. The "advantage" to regional outages like this while living in a bigger city is that you may have multiple alternatives for where to find power, internet and other essentials. Also, water was not affected; it would be much more difficult had we had to melt snow or so to get water.

There is no "worst" part for us really this time around. There were inconveniences, but they helped reflect on our dependency on certain things and how we expect them to be available.

The part I felt worst about is losing about a half day of work, about possibly not being reachable for colleagues and family. The situation certainly affected sleep and zapped away a lot of energy (pun intended) and there were some personal projects/passions that suffered.

The biggest financial loss will be the following trimming/felling of some of the trees in our yard. It's nice to have trees, but it's a lot of expensive maintenance. We also had to shoot out some food from the freezer, since there was no time to cook and store it all before it went bad. Not worth an insurance claim (due to the deductible), but definitely a pity.
 
This is a great question. We had a bit of a conversation over dinner about this yesterday after you asked, @rlm . All in all, I would say that while it was tiring, it was doable. The "advantage" to regional outages like this while living in a bigger city is that you may have multiple alternatives for where to find power, internet and other essentials. Also, water was not affected; it would be much more difficult had we had to melt snow or so to get water.

There is no "worst" part for us really this time around. There were inconveniences, but they helped reflect on our dependency on certain things and how we expect them to be available.

The part I felt worst about is losing about a half day of work, about possibly not being reachable for colleagues and family. The situation certainly affected sleep and zapped away a lot of energy (pun intended) and there were some personal projects/passions that suffered.

The biggest financial loss will be the following trimming/felling of some of the trees in our yard. It's nice to have trees, but it's a lot of expensive maintenance. We also had to shoot out some food from the freezer, since there was no time to cook and store it all before it went bad. Not worth an insurance claim (due to the deductible), but definitely a pity.

Thanks for responding and reflecting on your experience.

Losing only a half a day of work is minor miracle in itself, and I certainly wouldn't have any guilt over that given the circumstances!
 
I feel for you @FM. I am glad you are alright.

I went through a very similar experience.

It happened to me back in 2007. I was without power for almost 8 days.

https://www.koamnewsnow.com/weather...cle_be419226-a062-5249-9205-2c8514d857dc.html

It really sucked. I had to borrow a generator just to run some space heaters.

I had to drive a long way to even find gas as the stations either didn't have power or were sold out of gas.

It is a pretty sucky experience, but also puts things in perspective.

Oh, and I moved from that area not long before the tornado wiped out the city.
2011 Joplin tornado - Wikipedia

The house I was in before I moved was flattened to the ground by that tornado.

Brad
 
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