Thursdays Question of the Day 11.7.12

[Draco]

It's been a nutty past 2 weeks here on Long Island and many parts of the east coast with the hurricane and now the Nor'Easter which brought me about 6-7" of snow. Many people are still without power (Day 11 for most) or heat and I worry for them (My sister and her family's one of them.

I've been without for 4 nights, and I've been either playing my gameboy, or my neighbor visits me and we played Scrabble.

My question is.. what's the longest have you been without power, and what do you do without it in the dark?

 

[-_aj_-]

Ive never been without power for more than a couple of hours and its always been day time.

But Now I live on my own I have torches with spare batteries, and candles and plenty matches for them and my phone is fully charged for night time so could at least read or I have my nintendo or just lots of early nights if it happened here.

But now you say this three quarters of my estate was in darkness the night before last so atm I have everything at hand just in case 

 

[Winchester]

Probably for about a day or so, usually during the winter because of winds, freezing rain, etc. The last time the power went down,we made it through the day. I read books and puttered about the kitchen. When it got dark, we simply went to bed. I think we awakened the next morning around 4:00 or so when the lights came back on and the glare in the bedroom awakened us.

I don't mind the electricity going out during the day or even at night, if Rick is home. But I've a very nasty phobia of darkness and if the power were to go off at night and Rick wasn't home, I'd have to leave the house and go over to my sister's or something. I'm scared to death of the dark.

 

[duckdodgers]

Living in south Louisiana, the better part of two weeks.  It was after Gustav; we lost it for about a week after Katrina.
 

 

[catspaw66]

Nine days in the Christmas 2000 ice storm.  After dark I used a kerosine lantern and flashlights.  I had wood heat and could dip water out of the sand filters.

 

[jcat]

Thus far it's always been for just a few hours, because all our power lines are underground. We've got a couple of flashlights and candles around, but hopefully won't need them for long.

 

[swampwitch]

When we had ice storms (in Austin) we'd be without power for several hours, we'd just light candles and play board games, but here in our neighborhood we never lose power (knock on wood). I asked the electrician once when he was here why other parts of Victoria lose power all the time in the Pacific storms and hurricane-force winds we get in the winter. He said our neighborhood happens to be on the "main grid" with the provincial government buildings so if our power ever goes out, everybody's in a whole lot of trouble.

Sometimes I'm concerned about having an earthquake during a winter Pacific storm because that would be really rough.

 

[larussa]

The Summer of 2011 I was out of power for 5 days and it was terrible.  It was very hot and of course we had no a/c.  I was in bed at night when darkness came since there was no TV or anything else.  I had sent my food to my nephew's house so it wouldn't go bad.  It was a thunderstorm that blew everything out, I never want to go thru that again.

During the day it was normal but at night in the dark, I just went to bed.
 

 

[calico2222]

When I lived in Guam, Typhoon Pongsona came through and I was without power from 12/8 to 12/31.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Pongsona

Since Guam is so close to the equator, the sun goes down around 6-7 year round. So there wasn't much to do when you don't have power (or water, or air-con). I spent a lot of nights reading by candle light and drinking beer 

 ,

 

[margecat]

Five days, twice in my life, many years ago.  I think the cause in each case was an ice storm.  No electricity, no running water, and only a living room fireplace to keep warm and to cook with. Oh, and did I mention the special bucket we used, so we didn't have to flush the toilet?

  Such fun to be had by all. Right.  Seriously, you do become used to it, after a day or so. You learn to adapt, improvise and overcome, and how not to tip that bucket over first thing in the morning, when you're half-asleep.  We just used flashlights, candles and the fire for light.  You stay in bed as long as possible to keep warm.

Hmmm....just remembered another time without heat. A few years back, our heat pump died, during early February.  Due to many things, mostly installer incompetence, we were without heat for exactly one month. It was 44F downstairs; in the dark, you could see your breath.  Of course, due to bad weather and illness, I was home many of those days. I wouldn't leave the house to get warm in stores, as I couldn't leave the kerosene heater (took 5 days to get one, from 100+ miles away--none in the stores here) on, and I was worried about the cats being cold, so I stayed home and suffered.  I made small beanbags from dry rice, and heated them in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes, and put them under the cat blankets for them when I did go to work. I tried to get them to stay upstairs (heat rises), and made nests of cat blankets on our bed for them to burrow in.  I also wrapped a foil space blanket on the sofa cushions downstairs, and placed the sofa to face the sun, so it would retain heat for them. I put blankets over the windows at night, and over any sunless windows in the day. I blocked off doorways with curtains/blankets. I dressed in many layers, mostly sweatpants/sweatshirts. I put those handwarmers that hunters use in my pockets. These would be great if you had no electricity. They work very well for 8 hours or so. I also, to keep warm, cleaned and cleaned my house every day--warmth, exercise, AND something useful!