Everyone Okay With Heatwave & Power Outages?

[vdub]

I carry a small, quiet, Honda 2000 with us almost everywhere we go. I keep it in a locked box in our pickup. It wouldn't power an A/C or a normal home heater, but it will power fans, keep the fridge and freezer going and if in the winter it would power an electric blanket and small heater. I keep about 24 hrs of gas for it as well. I also have a weeks worth of freeze dried food all the time. It's nice to be prepared, but I don't go totally overboard. I could probably shut down the house and stay in our RV for several weeks if I had to, since it uses a lot less power and is totally self-contained. It even has it's own wifi and sat tv.

If I thought we would be without power for several days, I'd probably just pull the rv up to some cool mountain top and be happy.

[Sangye]

Gas stations quickly closed down when the storm hit out here. They had gas, but the cash registers wouldn't work without electricity. Like Gilda Radner used to say in her SNL skits, "It's always something!"

[vdub]

Not only that, but the pumps to get it out of the underground tanks are electric. I rarely let my vehicles get very low on gas.

[Sangye]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the pumps not working, too. Years ago in Arizona I had to evacuate my house due to a forest fire that was right on top of us. Cellphone reception stopped working in the neighborhood and I think the power went down, too. Even though the gas stations in town were not close to the fire they all had to close because the pumps couldn't run.

[KathyB]

Both locations in Virginia from which I fared for the past 19 years -- Lexington & Fredericksburg -- were impacted by the storms. Down here in NC, we did okay. Of course, the heat was miserable but at least we still had A/C! Hope all has improved for everyone!

KB