Tornado...no power...NiMH

Got hit with Tornados in my area last night about 11 PM.

We went to the basement for shelter...then the power went off. My wife and I each had a CMG Infinity (her's: Ultra, mine: Blue-Green) on a lanyard around our necks...very handy when the power dies!

Later, after the storm passed, we went outside to see what had happened. The Infinities weren't bright enough so I loaded up my PT Surge and my UK 4AA AS2!

Neither one would work!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

How come? 'Cause I put in NiMH AAs that I had previously run in a PT Tec40! The Tec40 had deformed the batteries so much that they simply wouldn't make reliable contact in the Surge OR the UK! Although, the batteries have been working fine in my digital cameras for months.

So...I put in some from my stash of emergency alkaline AAs (always check for the sales at Walgreens, etc.). Those worked fine and both lights put out bright beams of light while we examined the damage (about 3 really large trees down...18" diameter trunks).

So...moral of the story:

1. Have Infinities around for power outages!
2. Surge and UK 4AAs are great, bright lights!
3. If you like NiMH AAs...be careful of using PT Tec40s!
4. Research on CPF pays off in the end!!!

where are you exactly?

we got horrible storms here, but no nados.

a friend of the family had the top of their house ripped off!

i don't use rechargables (except for my ultrastinger), so i don't have to worry about that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The negative end of a lot of rachargeable batteries does not stick out far enough to work in some lights. When I use NiMHs in my Tec 40, I have to drop in some aluminum foil so that it will make contact because the negative end of my rechargeables doesn't stick out far enough to make contact in the Tec 40.

Rothrandir said: where are you exactly? we got horrible storms here, but no nados. a friend of the family had the top of their house ripped off!

...in Ely.

I know since it was dark (at 11 PM) it was hard to identify whether we actually had tornados or not (they saw them on radar)...but I figure based on the number of roofs ripped off in Cedar Rapids...it hardly matters what we called the storm. The Channel 9 news tonight called it a F2 tornado.

A sub-set of Murphy's Law says, "When the s**t hits the fan, the rechargable batteries will be dead!." That's the reason I do my runtime plots with NON-rechargable bateries.

wow, you're close!

there are some branches down in my neighborhood, but nothing real bad.

Now you know why I started the Disaster Lights topic in General Flashlight Forum. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Glad to know you are okay.

Rule of thumb: Exclude rechargable batteries for disaster situations.

As long as your house didn't get damaged, your fine.