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Longest you have been without power

W

Wile E

Well-known Member
Okay,
Just wondering here.

1. What is the longest timeframe you have been without power from your electric service company?

2. How frequently do you lose power in a year, for more than 5 minutes.

For me......Longest I have been out, 3.5 days. (not too bad)
The power goes out at my house about 10 times per year that last more than 5 minutes.
 
Longest was 24 hours(1978). Out about 3 or 4 times per year. About once In 2 to 3 years that we need to hook up the standby alternator. Dairy farming area supplied by a co-op. Farmers on the board. They work their tails off to keep the power up.
 
5 days after a bad ice storm.

Winter is the wrong time to be without power.

You'd think I'd own a generator after that ordeal, but I don't.

We used rain barrels in the house for water - transfered from barrels in the pickup truck, filled elsewhere.

Oddly enough - it was normal 20/30 degree weather and with just the sunlight coming through the windows during the day, and closing shades at night to trap it - the house remained over 50 degrees. Wasn't so bad in that regard.

Fortunately it wasn't during one of those sub-zero freezes.
 
Northern Ohio in 1979 in the blizzard 9 days, no generator living in the basement with Kerosun heater (vented) and snow for water. Nice
Only 100 sq ft of the roof of the house was visible. Snow in the hard wood forests was to the top of the trees in the center of the woods. There was 6 ft of snow on the flats and blowing 78MPH for 7 days. Jim
 
Jan or 2007 we where with out power for 7 or 8 days temps well below freezing. Cause was an ice storm and many in the area where with out power for a week or more. Also in 2003 May of that year was with out power for 2 or 3 days due to a tornado
 
3.5 days -- The Great Halloween Ice Storm of 1991.

Had to drain our hot water heat system and go stay with the in-laws because they had a wood stove for emergencies.

Seldom lose power here... aside from those momentary blips that make the clocks without battery backup go wonky.
 
I think about three and a half days 6 or 8 years ago, wind took down 4 or 5 poles s west of me and another 5 big poles sw of the first poles.
Seems like it's off more frequently every year. probably 6 or 8 times, was off twice last winter but I've had a generator for about 4 years now, infact I just put my 5 gal. can in the truck and came in to get my billfold to get some gen gas. Drained the tank Saturday and had just enough to start it.
 
Old- That same ice storm hit us too. Was without power for 15 days. Woodburner stove and kerosene lamps. Roads were blocked for a few days due to trees down.
 
Yep it was a mess. In 2003 I had to use a Cat 950 loader which is a 40,000lbs machine just to get to the end on my driveway and up to my parents place. Tree all over the driveway and my 841 ford was not big enough to push some of them out of the way but that Cat was
 
We were without power for two weeks in 1999 & 2003. I had a Troy Bilt generator, but it was a pain when fueling and running extension cords.

In 2011 we had Kohler standby generator installed runs on NG or LP. In October 2011 that storm Sandy hit the east coast. Power was off 26 hours, but the generator kicked on when the electric was off. My neighbors were calling asking why my lights were on. My neighbor across from me had a generator installed in 2012.

One of my neighbor's was telling me he was visiting his daughter that's a doctor and her husband is a doctor. The power was off and they couldn't even flush the toilets. They were on well water. The husband went to a motel. He didn't take his wife. He doesn't want to buy a generator. They're from Syria. It was one of those planned marriages. I told her dad she should've married an American he would've treated
her a lot better. She was good looking.

Hal
 
Being without power in the winter is a real PITA, especially when you have 120VAC pellet burner, well pump runs off 220VAC and you need a light on in the living room so that you are not sitting in the dark. To go to the bathroom you need a candle or flashlight. My portable genny powered the fridge, freezer, pellet burner and 1 light last winter when the power was out for 3.5 days. (extension cords everywhere)

It is sort of an achilles heel, to have modern living you need electricity. But when the electric is out you are screwed, unless you have a generator.
 
Some years back our local REMC utility was powerless for like 6 days but a country boy can survive ya know. The coleman stoves and lanterns and gas grills sure got a workout. Now in the RV that's a whole different story. I can go without utility hook up 120 VAC electricity indefinitely thanks to my Solar Panels and battery storage and the fact I can use LP Gas for heat and refrigeration and hot water. However when dry camping (no electrticity or water or utilities whatsoever) in remote areas such as Utah or Colorado on BLM lands I can only make it like 7 to 9 days before its time to take on fresh water and dump our sewage holding tanks.

John T
 
We have been out of power from hours to over a week. We loose power 3-5 times a year.I am putting in a transfer switch and getting a 8,000 watt generator to run well, gas furnace, micro wave, frig,and lights in rooms that are used the most.
 
Being without power is bad but in todays world try going without a working sewer or septic system for any period of time! To me that was the worst. Esp to overcome with a "Make Do" solution. I can haul water , run a genny or use flashlights. But try getting rid of a quantity of waste water!
 
7 days last year. Had 6 days in the spring, so 13 days out in the whole year. Generac 15kw propane sgood.
 

Ten days in 1982. Seven days in 1975. Since then we've been lucky. Maybe a few hours at a time but that's about it.
 

15 days following the Ice Storm of 98. First few days weren't too bad, then the temps dropped to below zero. Lotsa fun. Power goes out here 3-4 times a year for a few hours to a day or so.
 
Didn't have power for about three years after I was born. REA hadn't come yet. Power company here in Fort Collins is excellent. Very seldom have a skip. Only time it has ever been off for more than a minute was several years ago when a small tornado came thru just before dark and ripped the barn roof off and threw it thru the power lines going to the house. Guys had it repaired in less than three hours.
 
I think it was seven or eight days back in the 70s. Had cows to milk too. That was a mess,but we survived. I bought a generator after that.
 
The first 22 years of my Iife we was without eIectr power of any kind, after that we had 8 years power for a coupIe hrs a day from a gen set. I did not experience 24/7 grid power tiII i came to Canada in 1980.
 
Twelve years.

I was born in 1934 and we didn't get electricity on the farm until 1946.
 
Born in "44, home farm got electricity in "47. Here, 42 years, very occasional outages, under a couple hours, except Jan "75 3 day blizzard, out for 17 hours, thru one hand milking.....got thru 17 most recently fresh out of 28 cows...fingers gave out! Bought a pto generator within two years.
 
The nine years I had my farm, back in the day. Had a Army surplus generator (variable voltage) to charge 2 Large cat batteries to run a few lites and the stereo (12v TV). Miss those days. Cost about $15 per month for fuel for the generator and a kerosene fired fridge.
 
In 2011 because of ice storm. Three hours short of being two weeks. A gas generator. Had to fill it at 11:00 PM and better be standing beside it with gas can in hand at 4:30 AM.
 
We have lived in our current place out in the country for 10 years and have had at least three outages that lasted a week or better, and numerous shorter outages that were generally less than 24 hours. On average I would say we have about 6 outages a year that are longer than 5 minutes.
 
1. 6 days this summer
2. About 20-30 times per year depending on the year. Plenty more momentary interuptions. Used to be less but the computerized utility breakers only try 3 times kicking the power on before they trip out requiring manual reset. Before it would just burn the tree or squirrel or bird off the wire and fix itself.
 
Here in SW Ohio the worst was when Hurricane Ike hit us on early September 2008. We had sustained winds of over 110 mph. Blew roofs off everything, trees down all over. Widespread power outages, no one could pump gas, the restaurants we almost all closed. We didn't have power for 12 days.
 
14 days after the famous Columbus Day storm in 1962. It was a legitimate hurricane, that came through western Washington and Oregon from the south. There were miles of electric lines that had rotten poles and deferred maintenance, and they looked like pick-up-sticks on the highway after the storm. We had lots of canned food, and a good Coleman stove, so we got by OK. I even shot a pheasant, which mom cooked. No water, but neighbor had a shallow well and a little gas operated pump, so we rigged up hoses to his place. At 9 AM and 3 PM, he would honk his car horn, then start his pump- we had our storage vessels ready, and would fill them. When we had them full, we'd honk our car horn, and he'd shut the operation down. Good neighbors, from Nebraska. Pete and Lizzie Henry, RIP.
 
I agree, thats why I keep my backhoe is serviceable condition. 6 days or so twice in 40 yrs plus a few hours every year. Pretty good service.
 
Wind storm 2011 put trees on power lines, 8 days. Good thing it was warm. I just stayed in at my other place in the country. Good thing I had electricity there.
 
Born in 1940, farm got hooked to REA in 48, but suppose that doesn't count.
About 17 hours, small tornado Aug of 13. Tree in neighbor's woods took out our joint use service drop.
Actually 6 homes in a row here on the lake shore were dark, but we are the only full-timers, others are weekend cabins. Took a ride into town around 2 AM. They had big feeder down, about 200 homes dark, so understood where their first goal was. When they got to us the next afternoon it only took a couple hours to get everybody back on line. Have a small generator on transfer switch, powers well pump & half the house. Fired it up around noon to pump water, cook a meal, & cool down the frig & freezer.
Main cause of outages here is trees taking line down in windstorm, or a drunk takes out a pole. Only about 4 or 5 outages in the 12 years I have lived here.
Willie
 
Four days after the Halloween ice storm in 2011. After that we put in a 20KW propane whole-house generator and 200 gallons of propane tanks, and wouldn't you know it, the power has never gone out since!
 
2006 came home from OKC Oka on sunday after thanks giving rain near all the way in. froze on the last part of the trip next morning 1/2to 3/4 ice on everything we had power here but the town of Wessington Springs all power out there . they were out for 6 weeks only one main line into town and almost all the poles were broken. in that part of SD there were about 1 thousand broking poles we were lucky the main storm missed use i live 70 miles east of wessington springs
 
(quoted from post at 15:32:22 11/10/14) We have been out of power from hours to over a week. We loose power 3-5 times a year.I am putting in a transfer switch and getting a 8,000 watt generator to run well, gas furnace, micro wave, frig,and lights in rooms that are used the most.
Click to expand...

Don't get a transfer switch, get a sliding lockout. When you get a transfer switch you plan carefully which circuits you need, then after an outage you find out which ones you really need so you call the electrician to come back and put in another bank of switches. So when you get a quote, double it.
 
Spring of '98, we had a doracho blow through here. Trees and power were devistated. We were out a week that time. Daughter's graduation was cancelled. We have powr interruptions probably monthly. Major failures probably yearly - several hours to days. Have a small generator that I can set going. We have to rotate loads, but we can survive. Is a pain, but I can refrigerate, run furnace, and pump. Costly to run a gasoline generator. Son moved to Nashville, MI last fall and got hit by ice storm, was out for 5 days. Fortunately I still had power, so he ran my generator.
 
I know it was in the 70s, musta been the same blizzard, power was out over into the 3rd day.

The second day they sent those fairly new fangled things around, couple of snowmobiles came around to check on people.

Asked the folks if they needed anything.

The gravity flow wood boiler was heating the house, the windmill was working to feed the cistern to water the cattle, we could get a bucket of water from the basement cistern and heat on the wood stove for our water use.

We were fine.

The fellas on the snowmobiles looked kinda disappointed they couldn't do anything for us....

I remember seeing them come up the driveway, was 5+ foot drifts they were going over where the driveway would be.

A whole lot of power poles got broken down on that one, and the drifts were frightful from the winds that wouldn't let up.

The 70s were rough ones for blizzards around here, had a number of bad ones that decade.

Don't think we have been without power for more than 2-3 hours, and not even once a year at that, around here. The local REA coop does well.

Paul
 
33 days, One of my transformers had kittens on boxing day last winter. The electrical safety nazi's just felt the need to shut me down that long..I wasn't allowed to run a genset either, average temp was minus 30.
 
We have no electric in the deer shack in northern Mn. except a 12 volt battery for a few lights. Everything is propane, lights, fridge, furnace & cook stove. We don't miss it because it is set up to do without. My youngest son is there alone now & coming home tomorrow. I stayed 16 days once years ago.
 
Right about a week several times. I've got a 19 KW diesel generator that will take care of the farm when it does off. I usually wait a couple of hours just to see, but then I fire it up. I hate to wait too long as the block heater on the generator goes off with the power and I have to be able to get her started! Th block heater just stays plugged in all winter as the power is a bit unpredictable. The winter is worse and there are lots of heated waterers around here. It would be worse to take care of all of that frozen up than anything else.

Power outages usually run about one a month with usually one or two a year that is 24-48 hours. There aren't many farms on this leg so it isn't a huge priority. I'm about 30 miles from KC but still have the same power company. The folks in the city certainly get priority. Then won't know what to do without their computer or heat.

It hasn't happened in several years, but for a long time we would loose power on only one leg of the line. Not completely, but enough that all of the ceiling fans would just barely turn. The power company kept telling me it wasn't possible until I proved it to a lineman.
 
About 36 hours. Only time I have left a tractor (AC-C) running all night! Not much load on it, just household stuff. It was still purring away in the morning.
 
9 weeks with out it, due to the Colorado floods in 2013. However we couldn't even get to our house with out making a 4 mile hike in on the weekends. A few months later our phone was restored, but once again we still couldn't get to our house. After six months we moved back in but with restrictions, don't ask. Our neighbor just got there power and phone 13 months after the flood, and we thought we had it bad.
Tom
 
6 days in March of 1991, ice storm in central Iowa, I would have been 12 years old. We were hand milking one cow anyway so that didn't slow us down but we had to haul water for the livestock from the creek. We took showers at grandmas house. Pretty sure we lost everything in the deep freeze and we got to play cards at the kitchen table, lots of family time that week.

These days the power only blinks a couple times a year. Two years ago the electric company put new poles in our area, power was out for 20 minutes at a time all day long and it lasted for months.

Nate
 
Longest period was just over 11 days after Hurricane Sandy. The year before we were out 5 days due to a terrible ice storm. Fortunately we had a generator. Hasn't been out too much since then. Before that it used to be out about monthly for minutes to hours. Sometimes for a day or two. The two bad storms really trimmed the trees -- at least the ones they didn't totally destroy! This is in suburban NJ and we are on a leg with just 6 homes so it doesn't get a lot attention. In rural NYS, were I grew up the power rarely went out.
 
16 days before Christmas 2006. 2 feet of snow and then an ice storm. Very cold for here. We had to run the waterplant with a big Cat diesel generator and a Cummins diesel intake pump the whole time, hauling fuel 3 times a day from town. Most trips with a backhoe to move down trees to get through. Sounded like a war zone with trees and limbs breaking. The power company would just about get power out there and trees would go down and they would start all over, 16 miles back to town and work back out. We got power at 6:00 pm Christmas day. We don't have grid power here at our cabin, we have a small 12v solar system and a 24v microhydro system. Wood heat and water is heated with a coil through the wood stove. No propane....James
 
Sunday morning until Saturday night 2013 Christmas week. That was fun especially when it went below zero, which was more than once that week.
 
I have all ready have transfer switch. We have been going over what we want to run during outage. We will run well ,LP gas furnace,Frig, Micro wave, and some lights. We cook with LP gas and if we need hot water we can heat water in micro wave or on top of gas stove. We have 3 modes of heat in house wood,LP gas and baseboard electric. In power outage don't need electric the wood do most of heating and Lp gas for if it would get real cold. Lighting in house is cfl or led and really don't need a bunch of lights on during power outage.I am debating on
getting a B&S 8,000 watt run - 10,000 watt surge or an Areins Honda powered 7,500 watt run-9,350 watt surge.
 
Yep- Fri/Sat/Sun weekend of Jan 10, "75- Super Bowl weekend, not that it mattered to us. Oldest son was 6 mo, afraid we"d smother him with 4 of us in bed, trying to keep warm. Had a lantern to milk cows by Saturday nite. Woke Sunday morning with elec heat back on. New Cargill hutches had snow to the eaves, had to shovel a path to the waterers and feeders, weaned pigs went in a week before.
 
Anyone here in Michigan remember Jan 01,1985.
I was out of power for a week. Near Kalamazoo.
pasted:
1/1/1985
A severe ice storm struck southern Lower Michigan as a layer of ice up to one inch thick downed tree limbs and power lines. There were three deaths and eight injuries directly related to the ice storm. Over 430,000 electrical customers were without power, some for as long as 10 days. Total damage was estimated at nearly $50 million.
 
Great Ice Storm of '98, out more than 4 days but less than 7 (don't remember exactly)

Typically lose power 4-5 times a year, usually during a Nor'easter, usually for a minimum of several hours, occasionally for a day or more.

It gets better for a couple of years after the morons at Bangor Hydro realize that skipping ROW maintenance is false economy, then slowly gets worse for the next several years. We're in a downhill cycle right now.

Sure do like my whole-house auto-start auto-transfer generator...
 
Hurricane Isabel, 23days. Generator started on the second pull,
that was a great sound. Shut it down 3 weeks later, that was a great sound.(We did not run it a night)

Later,
Doug
 
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