Diyers (and others) prepare for East Coast Storm 8-26

Here we are again, just another Storm of endless storms, something nature has sent our way since we left the caves.  According to Joe the Weather guy, the last one that ran up the East coast like the prediction for this one happened in ?1954? with Hurricane Hazel?

Diyer ‘Ray M.’ in Vermont is taking the threat seriously as most DIYers do…

Hardest hit may be the US Taxpayer, as our Government (Elected Officials) have effectively underwritten every potential failure or loss onto the backs of the taxpayers in exchange for political favors.  An example of this might be an expensive home built on an East Coast beach front lot and Federally insured at little cost. It’s not a matter of IF, it’s a matter of when the Home is damaged, and you pay the bill.

Algore is preparing for his September 14th stand, he’s working hard to convince our Kids and Grandkids that storms are new and caused by your human activities. We’ll see how his story is received.

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Post from DIYer Ray M.

The heart of Irene is to come right
up thru Vermont and into Canada.

We are or soon will be, as prepared
as possible.  I have sufficient sheets of plywood for the windows if that
looks like a necessity-the tractor run generator has been in use, so I know it
works–it will power everything we will need in case the power goes down.

They are predicting extremely heavy
rain–one estimate was 6-12″ in 24 hr period–we are ok with that except
for the damage it will do to our roads.  5″ in May, overnight, caused
major damage to roads, bridges etc.  Some repair work on them is still
ongoing.

The only variable for which I can not
plan– storms of this intensity also spawn tornados.  This area is not
known for tornados but we have seen several this summer fairly close and in
nearby states.  We do have some large trees fairly close to the house but
unless we are hit with extreme winds I am not worried.

Life is an adventure-so this should
prove adverturesome!!

Ray

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What folks often learn from a long outage is fuel conservation is key, to blaze through all your fuel in complete comfort while running every load your wife and family expects can leave you in suffocating heat, with food in the fridge and freezer going bad, it’s all so sad, and happens more often than it should. More frugal operators become the neighborhood meeting place, and have ice enough to blend Margaritas for all who drop by till the power returns.

Until you know the state of the roads, and whether the local stations can pump you more fuel, conserve generator fuel, and partition off one room in the house to cool, and run only what you need to run on the generator.

This is one of the reasons that mature DIYers who have lived through bad storms own efficient and smaller generators, big enough to do the job required, but small enough to offer good fuel economy.

One term I find frustrating is (whole house Generator), those who invest in large sets expecting to run every load at once, are sometimes out of fuel early and finding their way by candle light long before commercial power returns.

There’s no better teacher than hands on experience, but it can be painful..

I recall Jack Belk’s stories of attempting to run Magic Hot Springs on the commercial genset there, his monthly allotment of fuel was gone in a few days, and that lead to him building a three KW continuous duty gen set that allowed him to live in reasonable comfort at the off grid site.

G