Hurricane Isaac and Flashlights

[cland72]

For those of you concerned about waste management during a water or power outage, check this out:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FIAPXO/?tag=cpf0b6-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0024O0W94/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[ericjohn]

First of all, I want to sat thank you to all of my fellow CPFers for your kind words, concerns and well wishes .

I am staying at my parents house because it is safer than my house. I brought plenty of food water and *drum roll* flashlights. In my EDC bag, I have A 3D incandescent Maglite, An Eveready 1259 (in case a gas line breaks), An incandescent Mini Maglite and An LED Mini Maglite. I also brought over an Eveready e450 4D lantern, 2 Garrity Value Lites, a Garrity Mini Tuff Lite (my Mini Rugged Lite is stored high and dry in my safe deposit box), 2C Maglite with LED drop in, a UK 4AA Xenon diver's flashlight and also I bought my mom a 2D Incandescent Maglite. That's my power fleet.

Conditions will start to deteriorate around 7 o'clock tonight and get progressively worse for about 36 hours. Don't know if/when the internet and electricity will go out, ergo I don't know if I will reply to this thread again for a while. Again, I want to thank all of you for your kindness and for everyone else that is in my area, yall be safe too.

 

[fishndad]

Hope all is ok Eric.
Please post up as soon as you can, im sure mom and dad are comforted knowing your with them.

 

[madecov]

I hope all is well. Here in Houston we run the risk of getting hit by hurricanes also.
I keep a minimum of 20 gallons of water on hand and several cartons of MRE's. I just wish the wife would let me spring for a whole house generator.

 

[LightCrazy]

Till thinking about you!! I hope you folks made it through the night ok. Keep us posted. In the end you will have to let us know what lights turned out to be most usefull durin the emergency. Take care, Karl

 

[fishndad]

well whole house is great but anything would be better than nothing
Mine runs off all 3 propain natural and unleaded gas.
And we have natural to our house so being prepaired can be easy and not too expensive.

 

[DimmerD]

Power has been out since 7 AM, down power lines and telephone pole, large tree knocked it all over. No power and now no way out, pole and tree blocking only road. No biggie, plenty off flashlights, gas for the generator, water is well water and is better than bottled water. Got plenty of food, wife thawed a whole chicken for charcoal hickory smoked drunken chicken that I am getting ready to cook.

 

[fishndad]

Power has been out since 7 AM, down power lines and telephone pole, large tree knocked it all over. No power and now no way out, pole and tree blocking only road. No biggie, plenty off flashlights, gas for the generator, water is well water and is better than bottled water. Got plenty of food, wife thawed a whole chicken for charcoal hickory smoked drunken chicken that I am getting ready to cook.

Liv'in large

 

[Roger Sully]

Hope all is well with EricJohn.
Hey Dimmer, it sounds like he would have been better off coming over to your house!

 

[fishndad]

Hope all is well with EricJohn.
Hey Dimmer, it sounds like he would have been better off coming over to your house!

LOL!! sound like a party worth crashing
Hope yall like bud light.

 

[ericjohn]

UPDATE:

Me, my family, extended family and inlaws have come out almost completely unscathed. The Lord was really watching over us. Thanks to Him!! I also want to thank all of you cpf'ers for your kind words and support. Just got my cable and internet turned on today and my power was back on this past Thursday. My parents, who live across the highway from me still don't have power. I hope and pray they will have it back very soon. Most of my flashlights are scattered right now, but that is all right by me. They are helping my family. I used a 3D incandescent Maglite for the whole ordeal, with it only dimming slightly. I was running it on Duracell Procell Industrial batteries; damn they have a great energy density! I gave my dad my 2C cell Maglite, with the OEM LED retrofit. During the power outage, I had blew my last bulb on my favorite Mini Maglite. Today I bought 4 replacement (Xenon) bulbs. 2 for my personal EDC and 2 for my Camo backup. I had loaded my EDC with the new bulbs earlier today. Now later on in the day, I was sitting on the bed, unpacking the other 2 bi pins for my backup Camo. I had slit the blister packaging open with my SAK. My hands were shaking and the bulbs flew out. I was beside myself. I began searching all around the bed and floor for them. I removed mattress and box spring. Upon impact of me dropping the box spring, one of the bulbs fell out of my hair (haven't been able to get a haircut in a while.) Then I searched around the bed and after some cussing and saying "Why Lord" I located the other bulb. Immediately I loaded them into my camo Mini Maglite and fixed back the bed. Thought all of you would appreciate that story. Spent the last few nights sitting around and talking with the family by the light of a Mini Maglite LED in candle mode. I also used my 3D Maglite to navigate around a halfway lit grocery store to purchase some Little Debbies, among other dry goods. At around 5 AM on the 29th the storm was making landfall and the angry howling winds were at their worst. The lack of the fan blowing woke me up and I realized the current was off, immediately I grabbed my 3D Maglite (which was right next to me) and walked outside. I stayed on the carport and watched the trees and their branches saying back and forth. I thought to stand in the driveway, but I was too chicken. The eye stayed over us for hours and I got dozens of weather alerts on my phone until the service became intermittent. I am sure other interesting events took place, but I am getting tired and cannot think of them right now. Hope I haven't bored anyone too much.

 

[LightCrazy]

Thanks for the update ericjohn. I am glad your family made it through ok. Keep us posted.

 

[DimmerD]

Thats great new ericjohn!
Everything is back to normal here, got power back Friday evening. I let my wife use my Titan T1A and when she gave it back I would only come on in high mode, no low modes at all. Tried another battery and that was it. I asked her if it ever flickered real fast and she said yes, I told her that's the battery indicator letting her know it need a fresh cell.

 

[ericjohn]

Again I appreciate the kind words and thoughts from all of you. I have AT&T Go Phone service for my phone and for a while (until 6 days ago) my phone service was very intermittent. I had to stand outside to send a text or make a call and then it still didn't always work. When all was back to normal I called tech support and they credited me $5. I purchased a 50 MB data package with that extra credit. Nice to be able to check my email, read the news and get weather radar/sattelite images without having to be in range of WiFi. The internet at my house (Charter) is back to normal, but my parents' house internet (also Charter) has been intermittent. A technician is coming to their house Tuesday. Gave my dad my 2C Maglite with Maglite LED retrofit, which I hope keeps and uses. I carried my 3D Maglite incandescent throughout the whole event not just for lighting but also protection. Another funny story; my barbecue pit (cheap, flimsy, chinese picece of garbage) had been standing near my front door throughout the whole storm and didn't move an inch. During the height of the storm, the only link to the outside world was WWL Radio and KIH23 (Morgan City NOAA Station) on a pocket radio and my Weather Cube. At one point the weather station was knocked out. Everything is almost back to normal here, except for intermittent cable/internet and tree limbs along with trash on the side of the road. Bought some more AA's and 2 6V lantern batteries for my Garrity Fisherman's Lanterns (G-Tech.) Thanks again everyone, hope to share more flashlight experiences with yall for years to come.

 

[DaveG]

Thanks for all the info,glad you got through it ok.

 

[Gunner12]

I'm glad you came out safe and not much was damaged.

Now, time to get a LED drop-in for the incan mag . Niteize has a PR bulb LED drop-in, but I'm not sure how bright it is.

 

[Stress_Test]

I'm glad you came out safe and not much was damaged.

Now, time to get a LED drop-in for the incan mag . Niteize has a PR bulb LED drop-in, but I'm not sure how bright it is.

I've got one of those that I use in a 2C Mag. It's brighter than I thought, maybe 20 to 30 lumens or so? Plenty enough for around the house use during an outage, and it will run a loooong time, even more so if you put in a 3D cell light! Mine even has a pure white tint, but YMMV.

They're dirt cheap, so get a couple while they're still being made. The part I like is that they can go into ANY light that takes a PR bulb, so that gives you lots of options.

 

[Gunner12]

The Niteize ones can do well in the 6v lanterns too, IIRC those use PR bulbs too right? Maybe a high power drop-in, like a malkoff, for the Maglite for times when you need lots of output.

 

[ericjohn]

@ Gunner:

yes the three 6V lanterns I use all take PR bulbs and all of the 6V lanterns I ever used took PR bulbs. My paw paw has always used that specific type of flashlight and everyone of them too had PR bulbs. I seriously think that PR LED drop ins should be more readily available, to power up an old flashlight...i firmly believe also that incandesent PR bulbs be used for as long as humanly possible. they provide a robust backup system in the event of electronic failure.

 

[Gunner12]

I hope norm doesn't mind, but here's the Niteize 2-6 cell PR bulb. I've seen them at down to $5 each so they could be a good option for almost all lights. Maybe you can grab one and see if you like it.

I don't have one myself, but I did take a 0.5w warm white LED and hook it up to a maglite reflector (probably similar output to the Niteize in output). It gives enough output for around the house and short-medium range out doors and should give lots of runtime. I left mine for over 8 hours on 2 partially used D cells and it's still going strong.