Top Winter Power Outage Tips / Christmas Ice Storm 2013

It all started with my hubby saying, “We keep having good luck…”

When he said it, I knew we were in trouble.

There’s 2 things you should never say…

1. I haven’t been sick in a long time.

2. I’m really having good luck lately.

—

When I woke the morning after the storm, I heard the neighbor’s generators loud purr.

I glanced out our bedroom shutters, and what I saw took my breath away.

Every tree, every Christmas light, every inch of forest was covered in ice.

It looked magical, beautiful.

It didn’t occur to me that it may be dangerous until I grabbed my camera and went outside.

Our power had been out since 3am so my hubby was tending to our generator & fire,

but I wanted to capture the moment.

While snapping these photos, I witnessed a few limbs smashing into our pond from not the wind,

but the weight of the ice.

The limbs were tired, and heavy.

I knew we may be in trouble.

Our power outage lasted 5 days in below freezing temps.

Over 400,000 people were with out power.

I captured our cat, Sylvia, on my desk while I was taking the photos.

The sound of the generators scared her a bit and she didn’t act herself during the entire ordeal.

Our generator only worked certain things in the house at once.

We had no heat, or electricity.  We used our fireplace and space heaters to keep the house as comfortable as possible.

We didn’t want to leave the house because we were worried about our pipes freezing up.

I could see my breath in our living room, and my tooth paste was frozen.

Pizza came in handy.

I cooked it on our gas cooktop.

“Click for Cook Top Grilled Pizza Recipe.”

On Christmas I realized we could light up the kitchen with my “Vintage Christmas Sign“.

Good timing right?  By this time we were running out of tea lights & candles.

We used extension cords that reached to the generator.

We celebrated Christmas as best as we could.

Our girls were troopers, and the tree will stay up a little bit longer this year so we can enjoy it.

Unfortunately, the fish I got for our little Valerie for Christmas didn’t survive :(.

Later we found out that our furnace wasn’t working and a breaker was bad.

This was some of the cause of our generator problems.

You can see Christmas gifts on the counter that I still need to put together.

Everything went on hold.

We are finally catching up now.

This is what I wrote on Facebook right after the power went on:

“We had family and friends offer showers, food, charging stations, help and am extremely grateful to all of them.

We even had 1 friend offer to let us stay at her unrented apartment.

I must say though…this guy I’m hugging is my hero (my hubby, Rick).

He worked NON STOP keeping our family warm & safe. From filling/fixing the generator, to stoking the fire, to buying space heaters, to ordering wood, to calling the hotel, heck he even wore my yellow rubber gloves and did the dishes in freezing cold temps.

This man is AMAZINGLY SELFLESS and this redhead loves him.”

Redhead’s Personal Top  Winter Power Outage Tips:

(These are general tips we used based on the design of our home.

You should use your own judgement on whether these will work in your home.)

~First and foremost…do not go outside, or let your children go outside.  Trees can fall, limbs can fall, or you can slip.

~Decide on a room where you will stay.  Preferably a room with a fireplace, especially if you do not have a generator.  Hang sheets in door ways to help keep heat in room.  Move furniture around to suit your needs.  We actually brought mattresses down and slept in our kitchen.

~Monitor food in fridge for temp, and use up what you have left over (ice cream goes first).  Keep frozen pizza dough on hand before a storm hits because it is perfect for gas top cooking. My recipe is here: “Grilled Cooktop Pizza“.  Place food in garage or patio until everything is back up (we live in the North).  Window sills work great for temporary cooling, or eggs.

~Move your meds to the warmest part of the house.

~Keep an eye on pets, sometimes they hide.  Fish need a warm location.

~Hang flash lights over stove.  You will be able to see what you are cooking so much better than by candle light.  Christmas lights work easily if you have access to a generator.  Our generator only allowed so much to be plugged in at once, so Christmas lights worked really well in our situation (lamps too).

~Use yellow rubber gloves to do dishes.  Spare your hands the freezing temps.

~ If you have a well, flush toilet with pond water/melted snow, or other water you have access to.  Use anti-bacterial wipes to wash hands if you don’t have water.

~ Sleeping together = warmth (including furry friends)

~ I always keep my tea pot full on my stove even though I use a Keurig for our tea.  You never know when you will need water.  Always good to have some on hand for emergencies.  That goes for batteries too.  Dollar stores sell really cheap batteries.

~Let friends & family know you are with out power.  It’s never a good idea to tackle it alone.

~Check status updates on the power outage with a cell phone.

~Check on your neighbors and make sure they are okay.

~ If you need weather updates, here is a great source we use (just punch in your zip code): WEATHER

~ One more, and it’s a good one.  A redheadcandecorate.com follower gave me this great tip & I had to share.  Stock up on the $1 store mini led lights they have for your garden.  They make excellent flashlights!