How long have you been without electricity?

Longest here was a week, after a particularly nasty winter storm.

In the early 70s I went 13 weeks without any electricity while I built a cabin in the bush about 200 miles west of Anchorage, AK. I went out there September 1st and it snowed within a week -- right on schedule. It was -30° F when I left.

More recently I was one day short of 6 weeks without power at home in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.

The longest I've been without electricity was two and a half months while volunteering with the USDA Forest Service. That was 25 years ago and I can't remember what flashlight I had.

The longest for me was roughly a week when I was living down in Paicines. At least the lights we had during the night on the 110 acres ranch were from up above (moon and stars) and the Maglites and SF.6Ps I had on my person. That was some 12 years ago. . .

After Hurricane Fran passed through this area in '96, I think, we were without power for 10 days. The neighborhood was a wreck with trees and power lines down. I was having fun, but my wife gave up and we got a motel room after about five days. The closest available room was in Greensboro, about 50 miles away.

Geoff

Mostly an hour and a half to two hours but that was during the day.

I had the power go out one night as well but I didn't count how long. I used a Coleman Graphite with a homemade LED bulb (just a PR bulb base with a 5mm LED soldered in) for light while brushing my teeth and washing my face then turned the light off since we were about to sleep at that time.

Power was restored by the next morning though; my mother later said that Edison was working on a transformer starting at 4am in the morning as she was leaving for work

It's a lot darker in my room during power outages though; normally, my room is never completely dark as there would be light coming in through the windows from my neighbor's porch lights and a street lamp across the street


Even when camping, I always have access to 120 volts as we either camp in established sites where there are electrical hookups or someone in my church's youth group brings along a portable generator.

During the day, not longer than two hours. I live in Italy, which is thankfully (mostly) free from natural disasters.

We did have a nationwide blackout that lasted several hours when an international connection broke down and the whole distribution network of Italy went **** up, but it was back when I used to sleep at night and wake up in the morning (the very thought! ), so I didn't experience it.

I'd guess no more than six to eight hours.
This was in Juneau AK. USA, and a winter storm broght some power lines down and broke at least one of the high voltage transmission lines from the Snettisham Hydroelectric Project many miles south of the city itself.

This was in the mid-1970s, so I have no good flashlight stories to tell of it. And *CERTAINLY* there were no LED flashlights available.

two and a half weeks during an ice storm in Tulsa, OK.

that's when I first stocked up on gensets. naturally there was none to be hand anywhere in town after a few days...

now I've gone overboard and have got four gensets. 6,500 and 2,500 Honda, 4,000 and 1,000 watt yamaha units.

Fallingwater said:

During the day, not longer than two hours. I live in Italy, which is thankfully (mostly) free from natural disasters.

We did have a nationwide blackout that lasted several hours when an international connection broke down and the whole distribution network of Italy went **** up, but it was back when I used to sleep at night and wake up in the morning (the very thought! ), so I didn't experience it.

Click to expand...

yes! I have been without electricity the same time...( I think we are talking about the same blackout too:thinking

At a place where I had electricity it was out for almost 2 weeks after a nasty ice storm a number of years ago.

We are generally without electricity for about 3 or 4 weeks a year total when we go to our cabin, it has no electricity, and we dont really miss it during those times.

Longest was only about a day or so. I guess I was lucky enough (or the Flashaholic in me was UNlucky enough) to always be in a pretty suburban area most of life where the local utilities were pretty quick about getting power back on.

Several years ago we lost power for 4 days...mid summer!!!
I now own a back up super quiet gen'.

2 and a half weeks, 3 years ago in the Philippines on a remote island. I had 4 AA NiMH batteries, a solar charger and a 2 AA Maglite (backup lamp in the tail!).

And look where I am now!

Earlier this year, we lost power for perhaps 36 hours.

This was in the Spring, and temperature was quite pleasant.



-- However --



About Ten years ago, an icestorm hit. In Winter.


We were without power for 24-and-a-half hours.


From 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. the next day.


We have City water, so that wasn't a problem.


Heck, even our gas-fired Hot Water Heater worked fine ! :kiss:


But not our furnace. :sigh:


We spent one VERY cold night, with our Hot Water Bottles,
which i refilled every 2 hours !

They worked GREAT ! ! ! :twothumbs ___ :thumbsup:


My elderly parents live with me.
They were my biggest concern.


Certainly not complaining about the outages --

Both times, there were Lots and Lots of houses who went without power
for Much Longer than we did.


BTW, just tonight, i've been reading an interesting CPF thread
on "Quiet, Gasoline-Powered Generators". :naughty:


Oh, but we were never at a loss for Light !

:wave:

_

After hurricane Isabel we were without electricity from our power company for a week. We did have a generator to run some lights, fan, fridge, well pump, and a small television.

..spent a couple months living in a palapa on the beach near a small fishing village in Mexico..had fire, bottled water (available from village, as was Fanta) fish from the ocean, 'cafe' and tortillas from a neighbor.
..sometimes I longed to have a refridgerator filled with milk and food to go to at night..but that feeling passed after a while. it was fun.

now I'm off grid solar, so I never have to do without electricity --
and I have an 18 sq. ft. fridge