Slickdonkey
Drink me
Well, my power came back six days after the huge outage and now a week later I've got my Internet access back. That was a real whopper of a storm... a grand total of 140 hours without power and over $300 in gas to feed the generator 24 hours/day.
A few years ago I bought a 5550W generator during a snowstorm. It really held up this time around, I have never run it so long before. So lucky for me there are no casualties in my reef. I managed to keep 270 gallons of water at 78 degrees running a 500W heater, Hammerhead return pump, and a 250W halide (few hours each day). The furnace is also on the generator so that helped keep the tank temperature from falling so much that the heater couldn't handle it.
On Friday morning I realized how extensive the damage was and realized power wasn't coming back anytime soon. So I set out on my daily quest to find gas. There was no power all up and down the I-405 corridor: Woodinville, Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, all no power for the gas stations. I had always just figured on going to get more gas when it ran out but I was lucky to find any at all. It took me three hours to get into downtown Seattle that first day to find a working gas station. Luckily the following days became easier as more urban areas began to hook back up to the power grid.
I was a little nervous because with the generator running all my stuff in the house I was only reading about 100 volts in some outlets. This made the pump work pretty hard and my UV wouldn't even fire up. The ballasts looked like they were struggling to light the bulbs as well. I got really nervous at one point when the generator shut down four times during the night. I thought for sure it was about to quit on me, but I think it had just begun to burn oil and was doing a low-level cutoff. The next day I changed the oil, put some fuel dryer in the tank, and it only cut out once more in the following few days.
Anyway, we are in the Cottage Lake area of Woodinville and according to the Seattle Times we got the worst of it. I can believe it... my friends still have no power a week later. There are a lot of old trees around here and all power lines are above ground. Not to mention the soil is super-wet lately due to all the rain we've been getting so you can imagine what happens when you blow huge winds on top of that. Lucky for me we lost only one big tree and it blew away from the house fortunately. Had it blown the other way it would have smashed the house, and with it the room we were sleeping in!
Here are a few pictures of my backyard. Relatively minor damage actually, compared to some of the houses in my neighborhood. Also my wife's friend lost her whole house, which is also where she works from. So no home, no job. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeak.
Here are a few pictures of the intersection at Woodinville-Duvall road down the hill from my house. It's still not looking much better today.
And here are a few of my friend's backyard. Ironically they just had their fence fixed when a tree fell on it during the snowstorm a few weeks ago. Looks like they've got some more fixin' to do. The good news, I've got firewood for life, and something to do every weekend for about the next 10 years or so.
Well I am heading to Oregon for a few days to help the folks move. It will be more relaxing than the constant stress of having no power!
A few years ago I bought a 5550W generator during a snowstorm. It really held up this time around, I have never run it so long before. So lucky for me there are no casualties in my reef. I managed to keep 270 gallons of water at 78 degrees running a 500W heater, Hammerhead return pump, and a 250W halide (few hours each day). The furnace is also on the generator so that helped keep the tank temperature from falling so much that the heater couldn't handle it.
On Friday morning I realized how extensive the damage was and realized power wasn't coming back anytime soon. So I set out on my daily quest to find gas. There was no power all up and down the I-405 corridor: Woodinville, Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, all no power for the gas stations. I had always just figured on going to get more gas when it ran out but I was lucky to find any at all. It took me three hours to get into downtown Seattle that first day to find a working gas station. Luckily the following days became easier as more urban areas began to hook back up to the power grid.
I was a little nervous because with the generator running all my stuff in the house I was only reading about 100 volts in some outlets. This made the pump work pretty hard and my UV wouldn't even fire up. The ballasts looked like they were struggling to light the bulbs as well. I got really nervous at one point when the generator shut down four times during the night. I thought for sure it was about to quit on me, but I think it had just begun to burn oil and was doing a low-level cutoff. The next day I changed the oil, put some fuel dryer in the tank, and it only cut out once more in the following few days.
Anyway, we are in the Cottage Lake area of Woodinville and according to the Seattle Times we got the worst of it. I can believe it... my friends still have no power a week later. There are a lot of old trees around here and all power lines are above ground. Not to mention the soil is super-wet lately due to all the rain we've been getting so you can imagine what happens when you blow huge winds on top of that. Lucky for me we lost only one big tree and it blew away from the house fortunately. Had it blown the other way it would have smashed the house, and with it the room we were sleeping in!
Here are a few pictures of my backyard. Relatively minor damage actually, compared to some of the houses in my neighborhood. Also my wife's friend lost her whole house, which is also where she works from. So no home, no job. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeak.
Here are a few pictures of the intersection at Woodinville-Duvall road down the hill from my house. It's still not looking much better today.
And here are a few of my friend's backyard. Ironically they just had their fence fixed when a tree fell on it during the snowstorm a few weeks ago. Looks like they've got some more fixin' to do. The good news, I've got firewood for life, and something to do every weekend for about the next 10 years or so.
Well I am heading to Oregon for a few days to help the folks move. It will be more relaxing than the constant stress of having no power!
