What to do if you lose power during a winter storm?

[Anonymous]

Dealing with cold or heat loss in a power outage is annoying, but temporary and totally manageable. I worry much more about things like burst pipes - an expensive, messy pain in the ass.

[Anonymous]

Any ideas on how to heat a blanket or something for cats? They have heating pads, but they must be plugged in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP it's kind of nuts to me that you typically bail out and go to a hotel when you lose power for a couple of days. You must be wealthy.

OP here - what do you do when you lose power in the summer? Sit in the house when its 90 degrees?

NP. Yes…? Open some windows and get on with your life.

Yep. We were out power for three days for a bad storm this summer. We spent time out of the house, charged our phones in the car, opened windows, played board games, read... and were hot! We lived. My kids had a great time, actually. My DD was just talking about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dealing with cold or heat loss in a power outage is annoying, but temporary and totally manageable. I worry much more about things like burst pipes - an expensive, messy pain in the ass.

Do you realize that people die during these events? 246 died in Texas during the freeze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any ideas on how to heat a blanket or something for cats? They have heating pads, but they must be plugged in.

Your cats will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Load up the SUV and drive the four hours to our vacation house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Load up the SUV and drive the four hours to our vacation house.

Why are you so sure you'll have power there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dealing with cold or heat loss in a power outage is annoying, but temporary and totally manageable. I worry much more about things like burst pipes - an expensive, messy pain in the ass.

Do you realize that people die during these events? 246 died in Texas during the freeze.

That is because it is Texas

Florida is going to have that problem this time with no FEMA. So will parts of NC that voted for Piggy. Zero empathy

[Anonymous]

Another adult who has a generator, bottled water for my family and pets, and plenty of shelf stable food and camping stoves, and propane heaters and blankets. Preparing for a winter storm is just as easy as a hurricane...maybe easier.

[Anonymous]

1) put your refrigerated food in a closed container outside

2) fill bottles with very hot water (2 liter soda bottles work great) and put them under your covers before you get in. They stay hot for hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP it's kind of nuts to me that you typically bail out and go to a hotel when you lose power for a couple of days. You must be wealthy.

OP here - what do you do when you lose power in the summer? Sit in the house when its 90 degrees?

NP. Yes…? Open some windows and get on with your life.

Yep. We were out power for three days for a bad storm this summer. We spent time out of the house, charged our phones in the car, opened windows, played board games, read... and were hot! We lived. My kids had a great time, actually. My DD was just talking about it.

why on earth would you open your windows in the summer when it's muggy outside? Gross.

[Anonymous]

First thing: after this storm, go buy a generator.
In the meantime, if a storm hits and you lose power, do not open your door for any reason. That'll help.
Get out every blanket you have for sleeping. You can have family members snuggle up in the same bed.
During the day, you may need to wear coats, hats and gloves. You'll survive a day or two. After that, roads should be okay unless folks get a ton of snow where there usually isn't any.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking that I would shut off the water and open faucets (like wintering faucet bibs) if I lost power to avoid pipes bursting in the wall. Is that recommended?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP it's kind of nuts to me that you typically bail out and go to a hotel when you lose power for a couple of days. You must be wealthy.

OP here - what do you do when you lose power in the summer? Sit in the house when it's 90 degrees?

NP, but... yes. We also have a couple battery operated fans and extra blackout blinds -- if it cools off at all overnight or in the early morning, we open everything up to let the cooler air in, and then close it up and put up the blinds before the sun comes up. This can make the house at least tolerable for a few days. If you can go other places during the day (work, school, camp, library, mall, museum movie theater) you can get the break you need as well.

Once we went two weeks with no A/C in a DC summer as we'd just gotten ours replaced and the new install didn't work. Like at all. Took two weeks to replace. It was brutal but we did it, and definitely did go stay in a hotel given we'd already just spent over 10k replacing our HVAC system. But in that situation we did have power, just not A/C, so were able to run ceiling fans and a high powered floor fan our HVAC company provided, that we turned into a swamp cooler by putting behind a cooler full of ice. So not as bad as having no power at all, though a longer period of time than any power outage we've had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Load up the SUV and drive the four hours to our vacation house.

Why are you so sure you'll have power there?

If not, drive back.