We had a storm come through here with Hurricane force winds Friday, 3/5 of the state is still without electricity and it's supposed to take a week to get power to everybody. I had to drive 60 miles to buy groceries yesterday and could NOT buy gas. There are trees everywhere. Now, there's another storm coming through. I went out and took some pics for the newspaper, but guess what, no newspaper this week... you can't print newspapers without electricity. Friday, I saw, swear to God, the wind pick up a deer and blow it about four feet. I also saw this really cool lightning, not sure what it's called, but there was this really big streak of lightning and when it was over, there were all these glowing balls where the lightning had been and they kind of all dripped down for a second and disappeared. So, when it's not storming it's been around 104 degrees - that's 40 degrees Celcius - and since most of the state has no electric, there's no A/C. So Friday, the only info there was was what came over 580 AM WCHS - at first there was total AM Radio blackout - lightning makes an audible crash on AM radio, but there was so much of it so often, the lightning strikes all ran together and sounded like loud static. FM Radio was all playing Justin Bieber or some stupid bullshit... finally the storm passed and I could get some info on AM...
Now there's another storm and 580 AM went off the air, but I do have some internet access. Been a crazy weekend. Most people in WV, lost power on June 28 and it won't be restored until July 6. Of course, that estimate was made before the storm that's coming through now. Some dude took this video in Charleston, it hits about 1;50 into the video. It got dark like night, then the wind kicked up, I wish I was running a video camera when that deer got picked up.
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
"Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!" said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.
Last Edited by on Jul 01, 2012 7:36 PM
Bad news Dave. I hope they get you all up and running before too long. I'll bet you can't buy a generator anywhere around there now. ---------- Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
Generators, no. You can't even buy a loaf of bread, there are no stores. Even Walmart's closed.
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
"Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!" said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.
I slept in the dark Friday. In the morning I saw about a dozen roof shingles were standing straight up. Climbed on the roof to lay most of them back down. I lost a screen door.
With no electricity for the pump there was no water for the wife's greenhouse, so I spent a few hours running city water to her business before the 100+ degrees killed all the plants.
Sunday night, power out again.
Monday morning, power is back. Internet is back fot the first time since Friday.
I have a bundle of new shingles to put on the foof tonight. (gotta get it done today before heading out of town for Kenny G's party) ---------- theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2012 4:31 AM
I hope everyone is ok. We got slammed here in the Columbus area. Our house has 3 big trees down and one hit the front of the house but miracuously only ended up wrecking the gutter. Our village looks like a war zone. I have been in major storms in TX and this one ranked right up there with a bonified tornado like storm. I was driving home on the freeway when it hit and I saw tree limbs as big as my van flying by like leaves. It was raining so hard you couldn't see 5 feet in front of the car. It took 30 minutes to go 4 miles due to this and having to go off road to get around trees down in the road.
We have been without power since 5pm friday. Growing up in the NYC area and spending the rest of my life in major cities, power outages never lasted long. Here they can last for over a week. With the cold winters and hot summers we opted to have a generator put in that runs off our gas line. It is all hands off automatic. It is large enough to power our house and my recording studio.
I grew up in NJ and lived on the 3rd floor of a hundred year old house that had no a/c. It was hot as hell but now that technology is out that keep us cool/warm I am all for it! It amazes me how people around me live in over 500k homes and have no generator or just a portable one that runs on gasoline. They scramble all over the tri state area to find gasoline in bad storms(gas pumps are powered by electricity), their pipes burst in the winter, etc. For 6k we are running as if nothing happened other than cable, phone/internet being out (this just came on). We have had a stream of neighbors and friends that live in 3,000 sq ft plus homes to take showers, sleep in the studio, chill out for a few hours from the hot temps, and get water. We are on wells around here and no toilet or running water when the power goes out. I am glad our little 800 sq ft house and my studio are here to give relief but to be honest I don't get these people not having a whole house/wired to the panel, natural gas generator. We will most likely be without power another 3-5 days. I am recording little due to the studio being used by people and dogs for showers and sleep. I feel very blessed to be alive and well. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Our village of 3,000 people is only 35 miles from columbus but quite isolated and will be hooked up way down the priorty list. Today they said hopefully by Sunday all will back and running here. People are pretty stressed out. It is hot and that adds a lot to the stress. Garbage cans are starting to smell of dead meat from the emptying of fridges that are unpowered. It is a weird vibe to see how out of wack our society gets when electricity stops. I am getting to observe it all in a generator powered house/studio with air and all ammenities. I am very sensitive to vibes of a community. That is why I moved here because it is generally like Mayberry. Now it is showing signs of big city stresses/anger/frustrations/meanesses. Also when you go outside all you see is down trees, wires, and generators/chain saws/chippers making so much noise it is not fun to be outside. Our county was one of the worst hit in OH. Here is a picture of the front of our house and the yard. We have a power line down and fence crushed. It is nothing compared to the massive trees that have gone down and through homes here. They have opened up red cross centers. It is a great reminder to be thankful for all we have. Most of the world would love to live in an unpowered house in a place where you can have hope. I wish it would kick us into curing the world of poverty........ I am a wishfull thinker! Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Prayers from here for all. Yeah, we've weathered some bad hurricane stuff down here in Texas. It's always amazing how ill prepared we always are when something like that hits. I remember walking into grocery stores that were totally empty 24 hours before Ike hit...and we weren't in the target zone. The ol' saying that you don't miss your water til' the well runs dry is sure true. ---------- Ricky B http://www.bushdogblues.blogspot.com RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans at Amazon, Barking Rain Press & the blog THE DEVIL'S BLUES--coming Fall of 2012
thanks guys! I am living in the 1% club of wealth for the first time in my life :-) I wonder if these generators would be any good in Ca? If the natural gas line is out, no fuel. Here is the one we bought bonedog569. It was 6k and this is the first time it has come on since we got it 2 summers ago(it automatically cycles 1xweek for 15 minutes) but Judy and I agree it has already paid for itself. With temps hovering around 100 degrees since the power went out friday afternoon, we are more than satified with the investment. Those portable gasoline ones power very little. Most people run thier fridges and a few lights and a sump pump. Plus gas stations can't pump gas when the power goes out. Ours is totally hands off automatic. Lots of people have this brand here and all reports on them are good. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Walter - a friend in the Los Gatos/Watsonville area of California has installed a few generators up in the Santa Cruz mountains. People up there often lose power during storms, and still remember the earthquake in '89 which created quite a mess up there. Anyways he had a connection who was involved in upgrading Safeway supermarkets, so he got used diesel generators which had more then enough capacity to run a home and had low hours. I guess that the supermarkets needed to upgrade as they expanded. I don't think that the homes up there have access to natural gas lines.
He also installed some natural gas generators in some high-end condos down in the Monterey area. I think that this was one of the types that could pass all of the HOA regulations.
Just to re-surface this thread to let you guys know - you are not alone!!
Here in the UK we have had almost non-stop rain for the last 2 months, culminating in the most severe warning of floods almost ever..and this is our summer!
'The sky is crying' as the song goes and it's happening here too..
Thanks Nick. Weather sucks no matter where you go. It's crazy how this stuff can affect people and life and local economy. The newspaper I work for didn't have power and hasn't printed since it began on June 29. Newspaper doesn't print, Dave doesn't work and so on. I live in a quiet community. We produce most of West Virginia's tomato harvest (I love that), it's Mayberry incarnate, but we had a fistfight the other day at the grocery store. Over a bag of ice.
It was 100 degrees today here.
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
"I ain't gonna sing no 'Home on the Range.' No. sir. Not if it means I rot in here another month. I'm gonna sing what I'm a gonna be! A free man in the morning!" Andy Griffith (as Lonesome Rhodes, "A Face in the Crowd).
