I survived Irene
Phew - that was a very strange and large storm. We lost power at 1:26 on Sunday. It had been a very breezy gusty day with wind speed picking up as the day went on, but the odd thing is that there was almost no rain. I think we got a half inch in our area and the sun was out off and all all day. Apparently there is a wet side and a dry side to these storms and we were on the dry side. But we heard a POP just before the lights went out and knew that a transformer had blown. We reported it and I knew that we would be sitting tight for a while, but my DH seemed to think a truck would be out in a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, because our entire town is on well water, there is no water when the power goes out. That means you can't even flush the toilet unless you pour a bucket of water into it. No showers - not even cold ones. Can't wash dishes or clothes or anything unless you have prepared by filling up containers with wash/flush water and stocking up on drinking water.
So it got to be towards evening and light was dim and I got out our propane camp stove to cook some dinner - heat some water. DH was in the living room, groggy from napping all afternoon, and I was in the kitchen trying to set this stove up on top of our range. I got the copper tubing connected tightly on both ends and opened the valve on the tank, and then on the burner, holding a match to it. Hiss hiss, but not flame. So I turn off the valves - recheck everything - try again - still no go. So I took off the burner grid so I could put the match right next to the burner, opened the valves and it finally ignites... only the burner didn't ignite, the copper tubing did and the flame backed up the tubing to the tank and then the propane tank was ablaze and somehow the whole thing fell forward onto the floor as I tried to grab at the value to turn the gas off. Suddenly the whole deal is on the floor ablaze and I'm scared out of my mind that it's going to explode. But I had the presence of mind to get the fire extinguisher and after a few anxious moments I remember to pull off the trigger guard so the thing could work and I blasted out the fire - covering my entire kitchen floor (very tiny) with that white gunk. At this point my DH, hearing the bang and my anxious squeal, got up and casually walked out to the kitchen asking - "are you alright?" - to which I shouted "NO!" and then he rounded the corner asking "do you need help?" and by this time the fire was out and the tank and stove were sitting there hissing under the white powder. I told him to take the thing outside and shut the damn valve off. That was about as close to a gas explosion as I ever want to get! Scared the crap out of me! I never want to use anything with bottled propane again.
To add emphasis to this, we later heard a story on the radio about a couple in a nearby town. They were going to do the same thing. They started to set up a propane tank on top of the range (because it's enameled metal and heat resistant). Like us they had an electric range. But at some point they decided to go out to eat instead. Apparently they had left a stove burner on - perhaps before they realized the power was out - and so then while they were out having dinner their power came back on, the burner heated up the propane tank and eventually it exploded. Their house burned to the ground!
I'll build a campfire in the yard before I'd mess with propane again.
We resorted to using charcoal in a Weber grill on the front step out of the worst of the wind. We cooked ham and eggs for supper and then heated some water for dish washing and sponge bathing. We ate out on our deck so we could see our food and the wind was still quite fierce. While we ate we heard repeated ominous cracks from our back yard which is full of tall black pines growing down the hill. Then finally one of them came down. The top of it landed about 8 feet away from our roof.
Later on we walked around the neighborhood and found out that we were barricaded in with downed trees and wires on both ends of our private side street off a back road. Those last factors added to the reasons why it took 51 hours for our power to be restored.
There are still thousand on Cape Cod and in other parts of Mass. And those poor people in Vermont!
I got really p.o'd listening to talk radio during the outage with people bitching and whining about how long it was taking to get the power back on and this was unacceptable. Then there was a political commentator who was going on and on about how there was too much hype about this storm and how it was no big deal in reality and that in parts where it was supposed to be the worst, the wind speed was only 16 mph.... and this was all part of a political agenda to make Obama look good in comparison to how Bush reacted to Katrina. Give me a break! A tropical storm can AND DID do a lot of severe damage. This storm did a tremendous amount of damage and cost many people all of their possession and sadly a lot of lives were taken. Just because one area didn't get as severe a beating as was predicted, doesn't mean that the "hype" was a political snow job, and people prepared needlessly.
It was not fun being without power, but I am very grateful for a lot of things, including the fact that I don't live in Vermont or any of the other areas so severely devastated.
I got on line again late yesterday afternoon and one of the first things I saw was that someone I know who lives in a nearby town posted a picture of a sprig of leaves on his patio with mock exasperation comments about "the devastation" on his Facebook page. What an ass! Others chimed in with "oh no the sky is falling" and "you better run to a shelter" etc. Just because he made it through unscathed is no reason to be an ass and downplay the tragic consequence for others.
However, I will now do my own self centered boast of my little personal achievement of making it through this temporary hardship without giving in to the temptation to soothe with food. I stayed on my no sugar/no starch plan and didn't get into any "comfort" foods or cookies, crackers, candy, chips etc. or other "survival" foods.
Now back to cleaning and washing and trying to get back to normal.
Meanwhile, because our entire town is on well water, there is no water when the power goes out. That means you can't even flush the toilet unless you pour a bucket of water into it. No showers - not even cold ones. Can't wash dishes or clothes or anything unless you have prepared by filling up containers with wash/flush water and stocking up on drinking water.
So it got to be towards evening and light was dim and I got out our propane camp stove to cook some dinner - heat some water. DH was in the living room, groggy from napping all afternoon, and I was in the kitchen trying to set this stove up on top of our range. I got the copper tubing connected tightly on both ends and opened the valve on the tank, and then on the burner, holding a match to it. Hiss hiss, but not flame. So I turn off the valves - recheck everything - try again - still no go. So I took off the burner grid so I could put the match right next to the burner, opened the valves and it finally ignites... only the burner didn't ignite, the copper tubing did and the flame backed up the tubing to the tank and then the propane tank was ablaze and somehow the whole thing fell forward onto the floor as I tried to grab at the value to turn the gas off. Suddenly the whole deal is on the floor ablaze and I'm scared out of my mind that it's going to explode. But I had the presence of mind to get the fire extinguisher and after a few anxious moments I remember to pull off the trigger guard so the thing could work and I blasted out the fire - covering my entire kitchen floor (very tiny) with that white gunk. At this point my DH, hearing the bang and my anxious squeal, got up and casually walked out to the kitchen asking - "are you alright?" - to which I shouted "NO!" and then he rounded the corner asking "do you need help?" and by this time the fire was out and the tank and stove were sitting there hissing under the white powder. I told him to take the thing outside and shut the damn valve off. That was about as close to a gas explosion as I ever want to get! Scared the crap out of me! I never want to use anything with bottled propane again.
To add emphasis to this, we later heard a story on the radio about a couple in a nearby town. They were going to do the same thing. They started to set up a propane tank on top of the range (because it's enameled metal and heat resistant). Like us they had an electric range. But at some point they decided to go out to eat instead. Apparently they had left a stove burner on - perhaps before they realized the power was out - and so then while they were out having dinner their power came back on, the burner heated up the propane tank and eventually it exploded. Their house burned to the ground!
I'll build a campfire in the yard before I'd mess with propane again.
We resorted to using charcoal in a Weber grill on the front step out of the worst of the wind. We cooked ham and eggs for supper and then heated some water for dish washing and sponge bathing. We ate out on our deck so we could see our food and the wind was still quite fierce. While we ate we heard repeated ominous cracks from our back yard which is full of tall black pines growing down the hill. Then finally one of them came down. The top of it landed about 8 feet away from our roof.
Later on we walked around the neighborhood and found out that we were barricaded in with downed trees and wires on both ends of our private side street off a back road. Those last factors added to the reasons why it took 51 hours for our power to be restored.
There are still thousand on Cape Cod and in other parts of Mass. And those poor people in Vermont!
I got really p.o'd listening to talk radio during the outage with people bitching and whining about how long it was taking to get the power back on and this was unacceptable. Then there was a political commentator who was going on and on about how there was too much hype about this storm and how it was no big deal in reality and that in parts where it was supposed to be the worst, the wind speed was only 16 mph.... and this was all part of a political agenda to make Obama look good in comparison to how Bush reacted to Katrina. Give me a break! A tropical storm can AND DID do a lot of severe damage. This storm did a tremendous amount of damage and cost many people all of their possession and sadly a lot of lives were taken. Just because one area didn't get as severe a beating as was predicted, doesn't mean that the "hype" was a political snow job, and people prepared needlessly.
It was not fun being without power, but I am very grateful for a lot of things, including the fact that I don't live in Vermont or any of the other areas so severely devastated.
I got on line again late yesterday afternoon and one of the first things I saw was that someone I know who lives in a nearby town posted a picture of a sprig of leaves on his patio with mock exasperation comments about "the devastation" on his Facebook page. What an ass! Others chimed in with "oh no the sky is falling" and "you better run to a shelter" etc. Just because he made it through unscathed is no reason to be an ass and downplay the tragic consequence for others.
However, I will now do my own self centered boast of my little personal achievement of making it through this temporary hardship without giving in to the temptation to soothe with food. I stayed on my no sugar/no starch plan and didn't get into any "comfort" foods or cookies, crackers, candy, chips etc. or other "survival" foods.
Now back to cleaning and washing and trying to get back to normal.
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