The area where I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, experienced exceptionally strong storms yesterday. I had no sooner arrived at home when the second wave of the storms struck, dropping hail and lots of rain, sideways. Since the forecast was calling for such storms, I didn't ride my Harley. There's no sense in taking chances.
When I got home, I discovered the power was out. I reached in the bottom of our pantry and pulled out our Disaster Supplies Kit. From that I took out two flashlights and inserted fresh batteries. I also got out the battery-powered radio. Since we heard in advance that the storms were coming, we had already taken things like our picnic table umbrella and hanging plants that were outside to the garage, so they would not become missiles in strong winds and damage our house or the neighbor's.
Then the NOAA Weather Radio began sounding an alert. I listened... a tornado watch was just issued. The radio stores previous alerts in memory, and I scrolled through them... all for severe thunderstorms. The phone rang, and I told the caller that I don't take calls during storms with lightning, and hung up. Lightning can easily travel through telephone lines and zap someone on the phone, or cause a fire, or worse.
I put our personal disaster plan into action. I drew the blinds and shades, so that if a branch broke off a tree and hit a window, we wouldn't have glass flying around to hurt us. I turned on the portable radio and tuned it to an all-news station to listen for updates. Because the power was out, I knew that my partner wouldn't be able to open the garage door with his remote. I kept an eye out for him and then opened the door manually when he arrived.
The rain had stopped, but more storms were coming. We grilled our dinner outside, and only opened the refrigerator once to get everything out that we needed. The news reports were ominous, with stories about funnel cloud sightings, downed trees and power lines. Someone in a neighboring county was killed while driving by a large tree that fell on his car.
Since the news reports indicated that the power outage was very widespread, our experience indicated that we probably would not have power restored for at least a day, if not longer. So we put our "power option" of our disaster plan into action.
Years ago, we bought a generator. I built a special pad for it and protective housing out in our woods, about 100m away from the house. I had a licensed electrician install a transfer switch, which disconnects our household power on four circuits from the main power coming into the house. I connected the wire from the generator to the special outlet for it at the back of the house. I then carefully turned the generator on and followed the instructions to energize the four circuits that are in the subpanel connected to the transfer switch.
Note: unfortunately, a lot of people die from using a generator incorrectly, such as by placing it inside a garage or basement, or outside the house but near an open window. Carbon monoxide from the generator kills silently and quickly. If you use a generator, operate it away from the house in a well-ventilated area. Connect it according to local ordinances and codes. If you want to power circuits in a house, have a transfer switch installed by a licensed electrician. That's important to do because power from a generator plugged into household circuits that are not cut off from the main power system can energize (backfeed) electrical lines and hurt repair workers attempting to restore power for everyone.
Our refrigerator, freezers, sump pumps, and other essentials came back to life. We had power for some lighting so we could see after dark. Considering it was so warm out, and since there were still tornado watches in our area, we decided to sleep in our basement, since it is our designated safe place for such storms and was cooler. I brought the flashlights, the portable regular radio, the NOAA Weather Radio (which would sound an alert if a Tornado Warning were issued even in the middle of the night), pillows and blankets, and we were all set.
We slept soundly. The power remained out this morning. Not wanting to leave a generator running completely unattended, I turned it off. My partner went to work and I went to a speaking engagement. When I returned home, the power was still out. Since it had cooled, I refueled it, and turned it back on. Power was restored about 5pm. I turned the generator off to let it cool and put other things away, including taking the batteries out of the flashlights (so they won't drain when not in use).
We were safe, sound, and okay. Our food didn't spoil, and water that entered the sump wells drained, so we didn't have any flooding in our basement.
Preparedness pays. You never know when. Get ready ... now... this is your warning time. Be safe!
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