Well, the power's out

See ya later! (Hopefully sooner rather than later LOL)

Our power came back on about 30 minutes ago. And we're up to about 7 inches now.

Barely a cloud in the sky here in Ohio.

Beautiful day here today. Sunny and warm. We had a free rally at our church today. A lot of fun, food and music. They had a free raffle and I actually won something this time. Two beautiful candles! I love candles. One is Warm Vanilla and the other is Wildberry and Cedar. They are from Aromatique and are so nice!

Just saw your report tonight . Sure hope the outage is over very soon. Thinking of you guys and sending electric power vibes

no power here either up over a foot!o can't wait to have heat and water!

so awful,,....

My mom in eastern PA texted me around 10pm her time saying she had no power. Hope it comes back on soon, for her and everyone else! Brrrrr!

I am in NYC......I almost wish the power was out here so that the bar downstairs would be forced to shut down! But then again if I didn't have power I wouldn't be able to be on TCS

Hope your power is back on by now, Laurie.

I hope your power comes back on soon hun x

Checking in for an update . No news. I sure hope your power has come on .

stilll no power for us

Well, I have been texting back and forth with Laurie. They still have no power, no water, no heat and no cell. Power is out in the entire area . They had to drive at least 15 miles from home to try to get service. I guess texting works. They are going to their storage garage to see if they have a small propane for indoor heat. They can't start up the generator to the RV, because Baloo is under the RV and the fumes would be a real problem for him. And something about having to use their car battery for jump start something. I am extra worried for them because the RV could get very, very cold quickly.

Just wanted to post and let you all know. Truckloads of vibes and many prayers to Laurie and Gary that the power issues gets resolved very quickly.

Sorry to those who lost their power. We did not and we only got about 3 inches if that. Now the sun is shining and the snow is melting. I just hope we don't see snow again for a long while.

My mom still has no power, been about 24 hours now. She got to charge her cell phone at a sports bar where she went to watch football this afternoon. But no electricity, no heat, no hot water, but her gas stovetop works so she can boil water for tea. And to put in the turtle tank. I'm worried about the turtle, Slider, who is a red eared slider, I hope she doesn't get too cold.

Also, my mom got a text from her boss saying the power is out at work, which is about 11 miles south of her, and not to come in on Monday unless she hears from them.

I hope Laurie, Gary and kits can stay warm!!!

Originally Posted by Feralvr

Well, I have been texting back and forth with Laurie. They still have no power, no water, no heat and no cell. Power is out in the entire area

. They had to drive at least 15 miles from home to try to get service. I guess texting works. They are going to their storage garage to see if they have a small propane for indoor heat. They can't start up the generator to the RV, because Baloo is under the RV and the fumes would be a real problem for him. And something about having to use their car battery for jump start something.

I am extra worried for them because the RV could get very, very cold quickly.

Just wanted to post and let you all know. Truckloads of vibes and many prayers to Laurie and Gary that the power issues gets resolved very quickly.

Click to expand...

Please tell Laurie and Gary that I'm sending some that they get their power on soon. I saw on the news that NJ is under a state of emergency for the time being because so many people are without power. Hope they'll be OK.

Thanks Lauren, for updating, and thanks all for the vibes.

Update:

Power. Probably not back on until the end of the week.

Water. No power, no water (well pump). RV park is going to see if they can get a generator to run the pump.

Cell. Verizon tower near us obviously out. Something changed, because we went from having "NO SERVICE" to at least being able to text and access internet from home instead of driving out, but the phone part of the service isn't strong enough to have a conversation.

Power/heat. The RV is usually great when there are power problems, because we have a generator. There are two electric systems in trailers/RVs. One is the shore line, which is regular electric. We plug the RV into 50 amp service, and have "landline" electric. The other is a 12 volt system, which is like on a boat - it runs off of deep cycle marine batteries, and it runs the lights and the starters (the things that start anything that can be run on propane, like the refrigerator, the heater (which is ducted), and the hot water heater. The fridge and hot water heater can also be powered by the landline electric (when it's on LOL).

The problem? We need the batteries to be charged enough to START the generator. We haven't replaced any of the batteries for... we can't remember when they were last replaced. We haven't been traveling for some time, and the way they charge is via the alternator from the engine running (just like in a car). We do turn the engine over to run it, to keep everything going, but because of the cats under the RV, we haven't been running it nearly enough (plus I don't think they're holding much of a charge). And, of course, without power, we can't use the battery charger to charge any of the batteries (there are three, plus the engine battery, for a total of four).

Lights. We won't use the lights that draw from the 12v system, because even though they take very little power, we can't afford the drain. We're using flashlights and camping lanterns.

The other problem is that Baloo is living under the RV and using the shelter there - and exhaust (from either the engine OR the generator) is an issue.

We solved that problem today. We've put an "extender" on the generator exhaust that extends out about 15 feet, so even if there's some "blow back" of the exhaust, it's not too bad. We did put board insulation up all around the outside of the RV, which also helps prevent exhaust (and wind) from just sweeping through there.

We're able (so far, knock wood) to get the generator started by jump-starting the RV engine battery from the car. We don't run the generator longer than 2 hours at a time. But last night, with the temp down in the low 20s, we couldn't even get it started with the jump. (It is on right now, and we're busy charging everything - phones, laptops, headsets, D, C, A, AA batteries, etc.). We got it going this morning.

LOL, we switched to (mostly) rechargeable batteries for all the flashlights, clickers - things that use batteries - four or five years ago. They're great - except when you don't have power - you can't recharge them!

For heat, when not using the RV ducted heat (which needs the generator to start, because the batteries are too low to get it to start without the generator on), we have a portable propane heater that uses 1 pound propane canisters (little green bottles). Of course, on low, one canister lasts about five hours. In 30-degree weather that was enough to keep us at 60 one night. We went on the hunt for them yesterday, and found TWO. At least that kept us going last night, though we used both, because the outside temp was low-20s, not right around freezing. But everyone's out of these things!

We just located a Tactor Supply about 1.5 hours away in PA that has 12 two-packs. They're setting aside six of them for us. We can't head out until later this afternoon to get them, because Gary has to meet his Doc (the office there is without power) at 1:00 for scrip refills.

The good news is that it's supposed to be at least partly sunny all week at the worst, the highs are moving back up into the 50s, and the lows back into the 30s. The coldest (projected) night this week is tomorrow, at 31, so not so bad.

This storm actually did far more damage (here) than the hurricane did! I don't know how much snow actually fell - I think at least 10", though it was so wet and heavy it just kept packing down. The Oak out front had its branches literally hanging down, leaves on the ground. Thankfully none of the branches broke. The one in the site next to us did, and three small trees on the side of the RV broke and fell on the RV, but they were small, and we don't think any damage was done (haven't gotten up on the roof to find out, but no damage was done internally).

Hope everyone else without power is figuring out ways to stay warm!!!!!

Hi sweetie !!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO very sorry this power outage will last all week. That is just unbelievable and yes, much worse that Irene. Who would have thought ...... I am sending you loads and loads of "warm" vibes to all of you. I guess I am worried about you being cold. I know that cats will be fine in their built in furry coats. I just hope you and Gary will be alright. I am glad to hear you will have sunshine this week because that will help keep things bright and help with warmth too, plus help lifting up your spirits !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It sounds like you have a very good plan for dealing with this, good idea about the exhaust fumes. I am sorry you have to drive SO far to Tractor Supply. But you need those battery packs, for sure. Hang in there you two. I guess you will have to ALL do a lot of cuddling and snuggling this week.

WARM SUNNY VIBES

I live in CT and we lost power Saturday as well. We are not projected to get it back for 7-10 days! We'll probably be staying with my father-in-law as he has a generator and we have two small kids (ages 3 and 5 months) that we need to worry about keeping warm. But I am also worried about my 4 cats of course. Luckily, as you already noted, temps will be rising. We will of course be stopping in to check in on them and feed them etc., but do I need to worry about them being too cold? Anything I can do to make them more comfortable? Good luck to others in the same boat!