How normal could you live?
When the lights go out and phone service and internet stop working, just how normal will you live for five to ten days?
With heat indexes reaching 100 to 120 degrees daily.
Damaging Thunder storms every evening.
No place to buy anything for miles.
Trees down on roadways preventing normal travel.
We ask you again JUST HOW NORMAL WILL YOU LIVE?
Many people recently found out, here on the East Coast a few weeks ago.
Utility crews struggled to catch up with a backlog of millions of people without electricity for a fourth hot day Tuesday as frustration grew and authorities feared the toll of 24 storm deaths could rise because of stifling conditions and generator fumes.
That is the opening line for this story http://apnews.myway.com//article/20120703/D9VPLQP81.html about the recent sever storms that hit the East Coast.
Please re-read the last two words of the quote above. GENERATOR FUMES KILL!!!
Our aging electrical grid is vulnerable to the types of storms that recently raced across much of the Eastern half of this country. Most of the power grid in this country is above ground and therefor it is very likely to be damaged by storms producing very high winds.
Here in West Virginia where I live we were without Power, Internet and Land Line Telephone service or a period of 7 days. Again I ask the question…HOW NORMAL WOULD LIFE BE FOR YOU….
Because we were PREPARED it was really pretty normal here other than having to put fuel in the generator twice a day. Many people in the area did not do as well. One guy in the area lost about a thousand dollars in frozen meats. Another one in the area was lucky enough to find 2 small generators at a Wal-Mart store about 60 miles south of us. He set out the first morning of the power outage in search of a generator because he went to start his just to find the motor locked up. He told me during his search that one company was selling there USED RENTAL generators for two thousand dollars and up depending on size. After waiting in line when it was his turn he was told they only had one five thousand watt generator left and that the purchase price was four thousand dollars for a used rental unit that would normally sell new for about five to six hundred dollars. He said NO THANKS but the next guy in line said I will take it. Please keep in mind this was the first morning of the outage but at this time everyone was being told by the power company that repairs would take 8 to 10 days or more in most areas.
We did not personally venture out until day five of the outage and to our surprise we found that most big chain stores that were open (many were still without power)had pretty much normal selection of most everything except generators, fans and frozen foods. There were many fast food restaurants and convenience stores still closed because they had no power but the ones that were open were packed to full capacity with customers and much of what they normally have was not in stock. Many of the people at the gas pumps were filling gas cans(I guess for generators) not there vehicles.
We really did not need anything we just wanted to see first hand how bad things were. I am sure the first few days were much worse than what we personally saw and I am also sure that in some larger areas many items were not to be found anyplace. Locally we only have little country stores and the only one that had generator power does not have gas pumps so gas was at least 30 miles away for us personally but we had enough to get thru without needing to go re-stock until after everything was back to normal.
Sorry or the delay in getting this up but work has been consuming all of my time lately and with missing so many days because of no power on the job I have been trying to get caught up.
Happy RF’ing Till Next Time
73′s
Dave
W4DMH
Ham Radio Works When All Else Fails
Date: July 27, 2012
