Thoughts from a CPF member on the chaos here in MA....

Since I'm typing this from my cell, while sitting in my car (we haven't had power since saturday,I have to use my car charger), I will keep this brief.

For those of you who have friends or family who give you crap over your flashlights,let me just say that I'm here to tell you your day of vindication is at hand! Lol! Now that we've had no power for quite some time, and,from what I hear, won't have any for actWeek or more, I have suddenly become VERY popular! I've had people drive literally an hour, just to borrow lighting! To say we're in a world of s**t right now is probably a understatement. Theren almost no gas stations open locally, and the ones that are are overwhelmed, with fighting breaking out over places in line. Its like people have completely gone off the deep end.....but, I digress.

I had ALL my aw's and imr's charged and ready to go by friday, and the lights I have are more than up to the tasks placed before them, which has included debris clearing, daily use, and at one point, an ad hoc search and rescue for an elderly neighbor who went missing at the height of the storm (she was found). Once we get power restored, ill post some pics of the damage, and list the lighting I've used. The two items I wish I had are a decent headlamp and more led lanterns. For anyone who lives around here, keep your spirits up and stay focused!

I had a very similar experience during katrina in 2005. Sure glad I had all my preps with food, water, and flashlights being the most important.

Sounds rough. All the best mate. Glad you and your family have enough lights to keep you going.

Yup, same thing happened here (I wrote a thread on "five nights with no power" or some title like that).

As soon as people realize that the gas supply has been cut off, they all suddenly decide that they all need gas RIGHT NOW!!!

If you can, I recommend that you hunker down with your supplies, lay low and stay away from the gas stations and grocery stores for a few days at least till things settle down a bit.

At least we had nice weather when it happened here.

Good luck to you and others out there. Watch yourselves out there.

My thoughts are with everyone there! Stay warm! Few years ago we lost power for a week, I had a few incandescent flashlights/lanterns around, and burned through alkaline cells quickly from them being left on! The LED lights lasted longer and would work fine with the alkalines that no longer lit the incandescents....I am moving this week to central Florida from northern California! So I will be in the path of hurricanes and will have plenty of chances to use my lights

This is exactly why I have a DC adapter for my battery charger. You never know when the wall plugs might not work. Stay warm.

Colinsdad said:

I'm typing this from my cell...

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For a minute there, I thought you were in jail, lol.

I was lucky this time, my power stayed on but that's not the case when most bad storms come across our way. So as always I was ready with 20gal of fuel for the generator and all batteries fueled and ready for action. But we never lost power, 1/2 the town did but finally this time my lights weren't effected. As far as people giving me crap over my lights, they don't because they know one day they'll be asking to use one of them for one reason or another. It's already happened a few times and now my immediate family embraces the Flashaholic me..

Just got power back after 3 days and was out 6 days during Irene

The questions of why anyone would spend 100 bucks for a flashlight have been quietly put to sleep
at my house

Hope you get your power back quickly - I have a well so it is worse without water

for hanging out in your comfort zone, making sense of the space, a loooong running Red led, not too bright, running on batteries that are too depleted for the use in other, brighter, shorter lived lights.

I try to keep a good battery stash around. Even just alkaline AA's are good to have as they'll run anything in the right flashlight body. You can pick those up for really cheap during sales.

Stay safe man. Water, food, light, and a weapon with plenty of ammo, are all necessities in your situation.

Hope you guys have power by now. We got power back in Foxboro and Plainville yesterday, but pretty much had about 3 days 3 nights of outage. Had to get hot shower at other towns

I had to be at work getting generators running and it's just incredibly dark (and cold) running cables, prepping servers inside the building. This time I'm bit more prepared. I carried a slingback with a bottle of water, some cereal bars, 6x CR123s, 6xAA eneloops and 2x AAA lithium primaries while working during the power outage.

Since I had my jacket on, I clipped my Preon2 inside my jacket as a backup, used my Quark X AA2 and Fenix TK21 to navigate around dark and "spot" certain debris for colleagues outside clearing the spot for the generators.

Of course colleagues laughed at me for being silly and having so many flashlights with me...but when darkness came, my quark X was gone (people had to go to the bathroom in the dark)...and they used it in max mode all the time...needless to say the first set of eneloops didn't last at all. Only 1 dude had a coleman LED flashlight (runs of 3xAAA). The rest had nothing.

I ended up lending them the TK21 (easiest interface) and used the Quark for myself. It was hard explaining how to use the flashlight when everyone's exhausted and pissed off lol.

I'm just blown away by the amount of light the Quark X puts out on max...colleagues were stunned and asked me, "how many LEDs in there ?" "just ONE ??"

Well, on a side note, I'm just surprised how unprepared some people can be. Perhaps they have different priorities.
I would think after hurricane Irene (we lost power for 4 days at work)...they would be more ready..but nope. Some of the people who work at my building were low on gas, no batteries, no flashlights, no water

Guess I'm just more particular about preparation. I certainly appreciate these flashlights even more now.

I too am amazed how many people are not prepared for mother natures worst, she is an unforgiving mistress. I have a 7kw generator properly connected with a transfer switch and a minimum 100 gallons of fuel. My 3000 gallon cistern is never more than half empty, enough food for several weeks in the cellar. Most of my lights run on 123's or 18650's and I have plenty of both. Power outages here usually happen during blizzards accompanied by temperatures as low as -40 and lots of snow. I have friends that ridicule my level of preparedness and I could care less. As was posted earlier I have ALL the resources necessary to take care of my loved ones.
Hope everyone down there is doing ok, keep your batteries charged and your powder dry..

simplec6 said:

Stay safe man. Water, food, light, and a weapon with plenty of ammo, are all necessities in your situation.

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Amen to that!!!! :thumbsup:

simplec6 said:

Stay safe man. Water, food, light, and a weapon with plenty of ammo, are all necessities in your situation.

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Don't forget knives and multitools

MrLi, I am not too far away from you! I live in Cumberland, RI. I was actually at patriot place at Bar Louie on Saturday night. The power went out and the emergency lights came on, but I whipped out my HDS 120 for additional lighting.

I felt safe knowing that I could provide light had there been any emergencies.

S1LVA

Wow! Thanks for all the kind words, it means alot!

Since, because of a divorce/leaving military service, my son and I were forced to move in with my folks, as there weren't any other housing options available. Now, let me preface wha by saying I love my parents to death but sometimes they drive me absolutely crazy sometimes! case in point:

I gave my father a pre on to as a birthday present this year but he decided that he needed something with a lot more lumens, so that he could checkout things in the yard. So, I gave him my first generation catapult s s t 50, all set to go with aw batteries. I come home from work the other night only to find him swearing at the flashlight, saying it was a piece of junk
in it didn't work for more than 45 minutes. Come to find out he was doing even the most mundane tasks with that sucker cranked up on high the whole time! My mom for her part wasn't much better she managed to blow through an entire package of d size batteries with
the only l e d lantern they had! So, I had to do a little bit of teaching about functions with both the lanterns in flashlights, explained that there's more than just 1 mode! luckily for me my employer opened a couple days ago so I was able to bring my lithium ions in to be charge
dwhile I worked. My girlfriend however was a much different story.

I'm very lucky to have found a woman who's in much at home in the outdoors as I am, and I've turned her into a bit of a flashlight fanatic herself! She has a Steve Ku 38 dd, lumapower Incendio v3 and some cheapo "Tank " lights she picked up off ebay, so she's pretty skilled at using flashlights. I was surprised to find out that, not only did she have the batteries charged but that she had plenty of spares leftover even today... prepared indeed! I was more concerned for her physical safety as she was in springfield then Iwas with mine in a suburb of springfield. Just in case I have plenty of 12 gauge buckshot and birdshot as well as ammo for my 9 millimeter and 45 auto. Between the tornado in june in this disaster now the springfield police have certainly had their hands full ....so full in fact that they had to call national guard
out this past monday. From what I've been told lowes and the home depot were both burglarized for generators... theres such a shortage that its created a huge black market for
them here. I'm lucky in that we heat our house with 2 wood stoves so heating and cooking,as long as we've had food, hasn't been a problem. Ive joked with my parents at this is just like camping except were in our house not out in the woods in the middle of nowhere. My dad who is a vietnam vet didn't really appreciate that he would just assume have heat hot water
and all the amenities of modern life...lol!

Anyway, we've been notified by the electric company the power should be restored this weekend, barring any further storms. My friends and family who used to pick on me about having this quote unquote huge flash lite collection have just dropped it and said that "well I guess in your case you'd rather be safe than sorry, and I understand why you have the supplies and gear that you do" I hope this situation is not lost on our fellow c p f members
.... when your spouse boyfriend girlfriend or whoever asks why you're buying another light just show on them this story, and just explain "I'm getting prepared."

I did not loose power at my residence here in MA this storm. I already did my time during the ice storm Dec 08. No power for 10 days. The wood stove made it possible to live at my house. So many people cannot stay warm or cook food because they have not and will not prepare themselves. I think people who have some camping experience and skills are the best suited for natural disasters.
What would happen if some terrorists took out the electric grid for a month? That would be a big problem.

S1LVA...Honestly I thought Pats place would still have power lol. Glad you're prepared too.

Colinsdad, sorry to hear bout your tough situation and still haven't gotten power yet

Lou Minescence, I learned the hard way during last year's storm when it comes to heat source during winter. I got myself a butane canister-type portable stove. It isn't much, but I live on my own, and at least I can go ramen-diet, make hot water and heat up my can foods lol. Got myself more canisters for this winter.