Power Outages...Have you had one lately? What did you do and for how long?
By mtdewgurl74
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
United States
February 9, 2009 10:41am CST
Hi, I live in Kentucky which recently was hit by a ice storm that crippled Kentucky. And Obama called for disaster relief for us. I myself and those who live in my holler we out of electric from January 27th to February6th 2009 We had trees down everywhere,lost water,phones,electric and in most cases heat. Felt like we were back in the ice age..There were 27 deaths just from the ice storm alone. People who were on oxygen and had no way of getting to hospitals slowly suffocated to death and in some cases froze to death because of no heat and some had trees fall on their homes and were killed.. We have about 100 trees down just where I live in my holler lucky for me they weren't close enough to fall on my home they brushed the backside of my trailer which was scary enough. We couldn't get out of our holler because of the ice it was solid sheets of it on my hill and the road which is black topped. Lucky for us we already heated with Kerosene and had a extra heater to loan out to my husbands brother and his family who heated with electric. I cooked on top of the kerosene stove and glad I kept a stash of emergency candles which we used every one. Lucky for me I knew how to be very frugal. We couldn't save the food though. We lost almost everything in our refrigerator and big chest deep freezer. Hundreds of dollars worth the food. I am just glad Obama sprung into action and sent relief funds for all of those who lost everything and to help in their time of need. It took longer to get trees and debris and everything cleared away so they could work on lines because another storm hit again and undone most the work they did. Lucky we had snow which we melted for washing up and doing the dishes and cleaning. We always have a stash of 6 jugs of water for emergencies thankfully so we had something to drink. It is a experience I am not likely to forget anytime soon. No phone,no cable,no computer,net,electric,no car,no radio.no water..talk about withdrawal symptoms...So have or did you go through anything like this, this winter? or other times? I can say our electric company wasn't ready for storm and it took them awhile to get things done. I am just goooo glad to have all my stuff back on/..
5 people like this
11 responses
@moneymommy (3418)
• United States
9 Feb 09
We had to suffer for 5 days without power when hurricane Ike hit. This didn't happen in winter so we weren't in the cold. I couldn't imagine being in the freezing cold without power. I feel so sorry for all those people that have been effected. It was a complete nightmare being without power for 5 days and it was so hot out. It was hard to sleep at night. I knew the storm was coming so I didn't go food shopping before hand so I didn't loose any food in my freezer. I did stock up on canned goods and bottle water. We had a grill on the back porch to cook on and boil water. So we where pretty well prepared. It could of been a lot worse if we weren't.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
10 Feb 09
I find it terribly hard to accept how backward your power supply is. It would be totally unacceptable for our power to be out for a day, let alone 10 days. Maybe 10 hours would be the worst. How do people cope? What about the frail aged or the sick or the very young? Surely many die under these conditions? That's appalling!
What on earth do you do to pass the time, or keep warm . I imagine you eat a lot before the food goes off but when it has spoiled, how do you manage to eat? Would most people be prepared to an extent for emergencies like this?
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
12 Feb 09
Did I mention that other states were out as well and that there were over 700,000 people without power?
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
12 Feb 09
We had power off for over an hour yesterday do to a storm but thankfully the electric came back on..I was so relieved. While growing up there were times I lived without electric for a year and we cooked on wood/coal burning stove and in summer they would get a bottle of gas for the gas stove but we saved money i n the cooler months by cooking on the wood/coal stove. Lucky for us though we usually had a well or a spring of water to use. I hated it because I got very comfortable using electric and taking it for granted ...but it wasn't as hard on me as it was others. It was like camping but camping in my house. We were usually in bed by 8-8:30 at night and awake by 4-5 a.m every morning.
1 person likes this
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
12 Feb 09
Hi mtdewgurl74 I am glad that you have survived this storm. These incidents do make us value life more and appreciate the luxury of life that we have such as electricty, the internet, things we did not have in the past or that our grandparents have learned to live without.
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
12 Feb 09
You are right about that..thanks for the response ronaldinu I appreciate it.
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
21 Feb 09
We have power outages on a regular basis here in West Virginia too. We heat with coal and I cook on our coal stove as well. The stove has a glass front so we also have light after dark. I love this stove. It has been a life saver.
A few years ago when we had that big ice storm that put our power off fore about two weeks, we cooked for many families in our home. They would come and pick up the food and return the pot. We keep a food storage so we do not go hungry when trucks cannot get down this crazy mountain to the grocery stores. That particular time we even cooked for the National Guard that was working out of the Office of Emergency services office.
We also have oil lanterns and candles. We have two extra bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths so we had strangers living here during the outage.
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
22 Feb 09
Hey villageanne thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the response also. If I could give another best response yours would be it. I am sure those men were really grateful for all the good you done to help them out and so were the people. 
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
15 Feb 09
The last time we had a big power outage was several years ago. Our transformer got hit by lightning and it blew power to our house and I think a few of our neighbors. We went without power from about 2 or 3 in the evening until 10 or 11 that night. We just pulled out our candles and flashlights and tried to find something to entertain ourselves with. We mostly sat around and talked.
1 person likes this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
13 Feb 09
oh you poor dear
i prayed for you all. i heard about it on the news and agra said to me" now you see! arent you glad your not back there in the the snow and ice,etc. because im from southern Ohio and i miss it so. people just keep telling me how lucky iam. but i cant help it i love it there. I used to read a lot by candlelight or kerosene lamps when the power was out.but yes it would be terrible to do without mylot/and or internet. like when i went to my daughters during the big hurricane scare when i was in florida
i prayed for you all. i heard about it on the news and agra said to me" now you see! arent you glad your not back there in the the snow and ice,etc. because im from southern Ohio and i miss it so. people just keep telling me how lucky iam. but i cant help it i love it there. I used to read a lot by candlelight or kerosene lamps when the power was out.but yes it would be terrible to do without mylot/and or internet. like when i went to my daughters during the big hurricane scare when i was in florida@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
15 Feb 09
I would have loved to have had my lamps but I had loaned them to my mother and stepdad and they never returned them and when they tried to get to them where they were they couldn't get up the holler since it was sheets of ice. I tried reading by candlelight but it strained my eyes to bad and gave me ferocious headaches. I just hope the water comes back on some places down the road are without power again all week and we haven't had water again all week.
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
10 Feb 09
so sorry to hear that,
I have not had any big ones this year, but we keep getting these little power surges that knock out the power for 5 minutes or so and that is annoying especially when we are on the computer.
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
12 Feb 09
When the power went out I had been on the computer..peed me off cause I was in the middle of something lol. If I hadn't lost the food then I wouldn't have worried so much.. even though I was having withdrawal symptoms..and bored. It gave me time to miss everyone on here and gave me a break.
@faith210 (11224)
• Philippines
11 Feb 09
Hi mtdewgurl74! I am sorry that you all have to experience that and I hope everything is well now in your area. I have experienced a prolonged power outage and water shortage for several months which happened 14 years ago (I think). This was when a major volcanic eruption took place in our area and it has left much damage in our city. It was devastating to see but all the people in the community did their share in helping rebuild our city. I just hope that there will be no more major calamities that will happen to all of us because it really is very depressing to live those moments again.
Take care and have a great day!
lovelots..faith
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
12 Feb 09
Oh, I am sorry to hear about that..see just when we think we have/had we realize what we went through was nothing compared to what others may have had to go through. I am sorry about what happened and hope that it doesn't happen anytime soon.
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
12 Feb 09
The weather can be very cruel at times. We haven't had a winter that bad in about 15 years when we had over three foot of snow fall. Talk about high stepping it..and I hope it will be a long time before it happens like that again. Thanks for stopping by and responding to my discussion..I really appreciate it.
@fasttalker (2796)
• United States
9 Feb 09
I'm right across the river from you in Ohio and I have alot of family in Kentuky so I know you have had a hard time. We didn't get hit as hard as you did this time. We were out of power and everything for only 3 days. In 2003 we were in your shoes. We were cut off from the world for 17 days. The only positive thing is it taught us to be prepared for it a little better this time. We have a generator now and plenty of canned food in the cellar. In 2003 we used the snow in coolers and tubs to try to save our food. It wasn't as cold then as we had sub zero temps this time. In 2003 we lost all of our food too in spite of our efforts. This time we were able to sit it outside and the temperatures were cold enough to preserve it for the most part. I seen on the news where they were going to put out special trash bins for food today in parts of Kentucky to try to provide a disposal for people. I'm glad you're up and running again and believe m I feel your pain. No fun at all. If you're like us you'll have the biggest garden ever this year and be canning a lot of suff for that "just in case" scenario! LOL
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
9 Feb 09
Yeah we lost alot of garden food 2 bushels of beans and 12 dozen corn and other vegetables that we froze. I put stuff outside to hang from the rafters of my porch but where it got to 4 degrees and under some nights it froze all the refrigerator foods and so we lost those that couldn't be salvaged.We ate some meat the forst 3 days but was told not to eat it. Meat we lost because during the day we had weather that was warmer and things start to dethaw and then refreeze some. Meat turned brown and we were told to toss it all to be on the safe side. we did try to pack in snow on the food but with it being warmer inside doesn't help my sister in laws lost theirs also. I have family in Ohio. I used to live there..I don't know what I would have done if it had been longer for us. I know some are still without power,phones, and water. I am just hoping that next time people will be more prepared.
