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Thursday at 11pm, an hour after the ice storm started we lost power. I walked out onto my porch in time to see a transformer up the street go, then another.
Over 200,000 people in my area were without power. Ours was returned 4 days later, but many will be without for more. The sheer destruction of the trees and lines being ripped to the ground by the weight of the ice was mind boggling.

All I could save from my fridge was the milk, which I kept cold by sitting it on my computer desk, my cats water dish froze, as well as my pipes. Batteries and heaters were gone in a 20 mile radius...
I have a little Honda generator that I borrowed to get the heat tape and a radio working. Luck was on my side when I found the last pro pain heater after scaling the 3 tier shelves of Lowe's...lol

To those that read, please prepare yourself. If you must stay, stock up on batteries and lights, Find an alternative form of heat
and a good supply of it. If you do not have a generator yet, it's a damn good idea to find one.

Hi,

That was a horrible storm, my In laws got it as well. They live in Vermont and had to go to my BIL's as they all lost power. My BIL thankfully has a woodstove.

Sorry about your loss of food and frozen pipes. When I lived in Vermont we had a wall mount ventless propane heater. Granted they are not my favorite choice for alternative heat but in the event of a huge storm you can stay warm. In fact I have one installed here even though I live in the south we sometimes get terrible ice storms.

Generators are spendy items, but if you can afford one they are great to have. Do not know what size ours is but it will power up our furnace or AC,. LOL, I do have a list of what I can not run together.

Throughout the year I always check on whats on sale in the camping section of Wal Mart..it's easier to use those Coleman camping lanterns than candles and safer as well.

Anyways, glad you are safe! Thanks for letting us know!

Merry Christmas,

Yanita

I love my wood stove!

Jim

I would love a pellet stove at least...I am just way friggin paranoid about fires...lol

I had a apartment fire many years ago, so I am very OCD about that subject. Everything that isn't being used needs to be unplugged, smoke detecters every 10 feet, waking up in the middle of the night to check that there is nothing on the stove...I sleep with a fire extinguisher next to my bed.lol

Well it will be a safe bet that a bunch of used generators will be for sale in the spring. People buy them up after a storm, use them untill the power comes back on then sell them. Greg

During the ice storm in southern Missouri 2 winters ago, they were stealing generators from the train crossings... Evil people!

When I stopped into some stores, it seemed like "every man for himself"

I was disgusted by some of the actions.

Walking around lowes with my heater I had people following me...lol

Hi,

Nothing wrong with being anal about preventing fires. When I was researching pellet stoves I found that the newest models also required electricity. The ones that I was looking at were Harman brands, thermostatically controlled, self feed hoppers, blower etc...so once again you still need electricity.

Yanita

My heart goes out to those in such a pickle. No easy answers here but some things to keep in mind..always prepare for the worst. I read that some folks may be without elec. for several more weeks!! (shudder...) On the bright side..if it's freezin' cold outside I'll just set my beer on the porch. That gas grill works fer cookin' 24/7/365 days out of the year. And there's a lot to be said for a kerosene heater. Nope..it probably won't keep yer pipes from freezing unless ya really crank it up. This is when a gas stove/range shines. Anyways I'll keep ya'll in my prayers. Audie...counting his many blessings...

Ohhh yes..a thought on pellet-stoves. Went down to Falling Waters, W.Va. this past weekend to take my daughter Christmas shoppin' for my grandkids. She has a pellet-stove in her new 6000sq.ft. (rent...$1750. a MONTH!!) home and...yeah..you read that correct...6000sq.ft. home...anyways... she was commenting on the cost of pellets. It seems a bag of pellets fires the stove up for 24hrs. at a cost of $5 a bag to keep the house just above freezing. And it won't work without electricity to feed the hopper and run the fan. I'm not sure how many b.t.u.'s this unit puts out. It's about the size of a standard round Kerosun heater. Anyways I did some math and figgered out it cost roughly $5 a day to run the pellet-stove and keep ice from forming on the inside of the windows. (brilliant..eh!) Now, I can run my kerosene heater for 24hrs. and use 3qts. of kerosene to heat my 600sq.ft. home toasty warm...78/80 degrees. Cost? $2.25 a day to heat my home and the furnace will never kick on. Ever. Call me crazy but do I see a problem with logic here? HAW!HAW!HAW! Audie..the frugal Oldfart...

If she is TRYING to heat a 6000sqft house with a pellet stove (the biggest I've seen are 30,000BTU) she might better save the price of the stove and just burn the bag in the middle of the floor! The stove is going to be running full tilt trying to heat that much space. Greg

Aye Greg...yer trying to apply logic and thought to an un-employed 28 (?) yr. old. Yup..I can just see you screwing up yer eyeballs and asking....."WTH is she thinking??" "With 2 children no less?" "Trying to heat a 6000sq.ft. home with an obviously undersized pellet-stove!" "DUH!" Hmmmmm..welcome to my world Greg! Obviously... natures rule of selection is not a realistic fact...and Darwin was an idiot. ROTFLMBO! Audie..the Oldfart...

Now tell me the truth Audie, you don't honestly think you're the only one with dumb kids do you? Greg

Greg...my friend..even I couldn't be so foolish. Audie....