Power outage for 8 hours

[Timothy]

What a PITA.

I was afraid to go to sleep, because I didn't think the freezers would last until morning. I'd just lay awake and worry about all that food thawing.

Power went out at 4pm, on again from 5 to 6 and then out until 1am.

I have temp sensors in all the fridges and freezers that have digital readouts that are all on the kitchen fridge.

All the regular freezers stayed at 22F or lower and the fridges stayed at 44F or lower. The sushi freezer stayed at 14F or lower and everything in it had already passed it's 10 day Minus four span. Not bad.

About $1,500 worth of food. No way was I gonna let that all defrost.

I was getting sleepy, so I went out to drag the generator into the front yard and run the power for an hour or so, to bring everything down to normal operating temps.

Literally, just as I was getting ready to start the generator, I saw the street lights come on at the two neighbors houses. What timing. Ha!

Well, it's 1:30am and the power has stayed on, the house is cool again and dehumidified. I can go to sleep without worry.

Goodnight all. I feel much better now. No stress. No stress. No stress...

 

[Claire]

Serenity now, serenity now. One thing for future use, and in St Augustine (I lived a bit south of there) you might need it .... if you know or even suspect the power might go out, newspaper is an excellent insulator. Put a layer or three over the food, then close the freezer door and don't reopen unless necessary. I also used to fill all plastic beverage bottles 3/4 with water (allow for expansion) and make sure my freezers were absolutely full. I'd start this in spring and leave 'til the end of the stormy season, in fall. The more full your freezer is, the longer the food will last, plus you'll have extra, clean water during a long outage.

 

[Claire]

If lots of food does thaw? Call the neighbors, it is party time. worse case? You can feed rescue type workers soups, stews and chili.

 

[licia]

We have had pounding rains last night and this morning. The pool is up past the filter so I suppose some of it has gone out. We have a memorial service today and I hope we don't have such rainy weather for that time.

 

[Claire]

.... and I'm leaving beautiful, perfect weather in Illinois to go to Florida? Am I insane? Don't answer that question!

 

[Andy M.]

I'm glad the outage didn't last too long. Hope you're feeling better. Defrost some of those goodies and have a good meal to build your strength back up.

 

[Silversage]

.... and I'm leaving beautiful, perfect weather in Illinois to go to Florida? Am I insane? Don't answer that question!

Claire, we had a low pressure system sitting over the state for the last couple days, which was being watched for possible tropical storm development. It caused a lot of rain & storms the past day or two.

It has now begun to clear out, and by tomorrow, we'll be back to normal October weather - in the 80's and sunny, with possible brief showers each afternoon. Your trip will be fine. What part of FL are you visiting?

 

[Claire]

My parents live south of Daytona in Florida Shores, Edgewater. That's where we will be staying. For awhile we lived in Port Orange. When I called the parents yesterday the weather was pretty bad. Right now we're having a lovely Indian Summer, and knowing what to pack for this road trip is driving me nutso. Part of the problem is that my parents, like many of their age (late 70s, early 80s) keep the house at a temperature that is way, way, way too hot for my generation. So knowing what to pack is insane. We're leaving on Friday, so will be going right up until the last minute wondering if we need sweats, shorts, etc. The last time we made this trip (about this time last year) I wound up having to buy warm clothes for the last day of the trip home. clothes I didn't like and never wore again. Sometimes you just can't win! It almost makes me look forward to winter! At least I'll know when to wear the flannel-lined LL Bean jeans!

 

[Claire]

By the way, my electrical outage experiences come from both Florida and Hawaii. Mostly hurricane-associated, but I think the longest was when a mongoose committed suicide in a transformer and left the island without power for a week or two. The best time, if you want to call it that, was when we were living in a trailer (I mean RV type) and a hurricane hit Florida when we were in Louisiana. Mom & Dad called us to see if we could meet up with them when they were evacuating. Because we were in NO, we were in a secure campground, and went to the owners and several of our neighbors, and arranged access for them, whatever time of night. My sisters and I kept in touch until Mom & Dad arrived and were put to bed. I spent the intervening hours washing sheets (yes, the campground owners knew what was going on and kept the laundry room open for me). Parents arrived to a clean bed, hot showers, and we spent a couple of days having a good time in New Orleans and Biloxi. When we got back to Edgewater, they had some clean-up, but no running water or electricity. The advantage of living in the trailer, at the time, was that we had battery and propane power, and every evening I was able to cook dinner, provide a hot shower, etc.

 

[licia]

Claire, believe it or not, but we are supposed to have highs of 87 and 88 later this week. I think the rain is moving out, but as you have lived in Florida, the weather is anyone's guess as to what is coming up. We don't usually get much cool weather until the first or second week of November - but that isn't a guarantee, either. You are only going about 85 to 100 miles below us, so other than more ocean breezes, the temps won't vary that much. We used to love Port Orange, Edgewater and New Smyrna. Our kids really enjoyed Marco's Heritage when we stayed at the beach.

 

[Timothy]

Power just came back on at 10am. Everything is ok.

Just typed a long explanation, but IE decided to fail and erase it.

I'm not typing it all again right now.

Thanks for all your words of kindness, support and suggestions!