Power outage prep

[mirabella69]

The southeast coast of Massachusetts is expecting a big snowstorm (potentially a blizzard) with heavy wet snow predicted to cause power outages...
My first thought is what if anything can be done if the power does go out to insure my pipes under my home (heat tape protected) do not freeze.
Any and all advice would be appreciated by this single person mobile home dweller !

Thanks !
Mirabella69

[Greg]

Hi & welcome. With no power there is not a lot that you can do to be 100% sure. What are your plans for heat inside? If you skirting & insulation are intact with no holes you should be OK for a day or so if you can keep it warm inside. If you have access to a portable generator that would help. Should the "Worst case" happen I would at the least shut off the water at the main shutoff, that way if it does freeze and burst a pipe you will not have a flood. If possible you can bank the snow up against the skirting to add insulation.

I have seen first hand the devastation that can happen with this type of storm. I was there in Boston after Hurricane Bob when I worked for the tree company. Hopefully this storm will turn into media hype, they have already cut our snow totals for the storm in half here.

Greg

[1987Commodore]

Assuming you are on city water, not a well with no power to the pump, you could run the water occasionally to help keep ice from forming. Just a few minutes every few hours should be sufficient, unless temps get down into the single digits.

[mirabella69]

Thank you, both Greg and 1987 Commodore !
I had thought about turning off the water supply also....but will keep in mind running the water occasionally as well unless we hit the single digits tonight...
Mirabella68

[Greg]

One thing you DON'T want to do is let a faucet drip to keep the water from freezing. what happens is that you trade frozen water pipes for frozen sewer lines. What happens is the water does not drain fast enough to keep from freezing. If you have to let a faucet drip, put a pail under it and just dump the pail that way you do not have a continuous slow flow in the sewer pipes.

Greg