What to do in case of power outage

PsychoSnake · 11-17-15, 10:38 PM

Power is out city wide in my area due to an apocalyptic wind storm. 911 is not responding to calls due to high volume and the city has requested to only can emergency services if it's life or death. The power company can't handle the volume of phone calls either. On my way home I saw a transformer lighting up with electricity and a few downed trees. Nearly everything is closed. Generators are sold out.

Fortunately I was home when the power went out after a loud crushing sound and I moved all my snakes into the. best insulated room and shut the doors to it. I am currently heating the room with large candles (its keeping the room at 73) and I bought a kerosene heater from home depot before its generators went out. It's really bad here.

Anyone have suggestions on keeping the snakes warm? It is expected that the power outage will be prolonged.

PsychoSnake · 11-18-15, 02:36 AM

Update: the power outage has reached historic levels. Slightly less than half of power customers do not have power in the entire county. My only connection to the outside world is my cell phone on dwindling power, my landline phone, and the radio in my vehicles. Holy crap it is boring!

I will be transferring my frozen rodents tomorrow morning to a friend who still has power. The snakes are staying at a stable temperature of 71 without any heating elements on. I've got the window covered halfway with a blanket which is the primary leaking point in the room. My body seems to be helping keep the ambient temperature up. All other areas in the house are cold! Tomorrow morning I'll fire up the kerosene heater with the window open for a short while to raise temps in the snake room. My retics and anacondas are the ones I'm most worried about as they have recently had a huge meal. They need the heat to digest! I'll also go for a little drive to recharge my phone soon.

treaux · 11-18-15, 04:00 AM

Wow. That's a long outage. Glad you're getting by.

I guess that's one benefit to having a wood burning stove to heat my living room/den.

**Tsubaki** · 11-18-15, 04:11 AM

Damn, good luck! I have a solar power charger + battery charger for my phone in case of power outages, maybe something beneficial for next time.

trailblazer295 · 11-18-15, 06:10 AM

Be careful with the volume of candles, they put off carbon monoxide and enough of them in a small space can increase the PPM.

I've been thinking about my plans for a power outage a lot lately. This just gives me more of a kick in the butt.

Jim Smith · 11-18-15, 08:00 AM

It's funny that this subject should come up today. I was actually looking at whole-house backup generators this morning. I'm looking at one that runs on natural gas and have it run whenever we need it. We don't get a lot of power outages where I am because all the utilities are buried, but the ones we do have can be a bit longer than usual. The last one was caused by a utilities construction crew who cut the wires and never even knew it. I went down to where they were working and told the foreman and he wanted to argue with me saying that they hadn't done anything wrong and it wasn't them. That took three days to get sorted out as the crew packed up and left without reporting any problems. Oh well, as they say, "We can put a man on the moon, but we can't stop a fool with a backhoe." Psychosnake, good luck with your outage and I hope they get it sorted out soon and get you back up and running.

chairman · 11-18-15, 08:17 AM

Easiest way to provide emergency heat is to use a gas stove to boil water, place that water in sealed containers, and put the containers next to your enclosures. Put a blanket or sleeping bag, preferably a down one, over the whole cage.

Repeat as necessary when the water cools.

PsychoSnake · 11-18-15, 09:38 AM

Well power is still out. With no heat on last night the temperature in the snake room only dropped to 69. I only burned candles during the few initial hours of craziness. Right now I'm blasting the room With the kerosene heater with a window open and ites heating things up fast. I only.plan to run it when necessary.

I just called to cancel the shipment of a rosy boa I ordered.

I don't have a gas house stove but I do have a little camper propane stove I can boil water in. The racks/glass terrariums have been covered all night.

Everyone (snakes) appears to be okay but since the damage is so extensive the power company has to first restore its power transmitters and then they are going to concentrate on restoring power to hospitals and emergency services. I'm thinking I'll be without power for at least a few days. This is the worst storm we've had since 1996. Back then all schools were shut down and some people were without power for two weeks.

PsychoSnake · 11-18-15, 06:32 PM

Crazy day! Stores are either closed or sold out. The line at McDonalds was 15 cars long and Starbucks was so full the line started outside. Someone hit my car head on today but we both lived. I worked all day.... I'm glad my dad was home to take care of the snakes, but it's getting colder outside and harder to keep the snake room warm. I'm glad I'm home before sunset. Traffic is awful. Traffic lights on busy roads are often out. Power lines and trees blocking most main roads at some point.

The current report is 70% of the county is without power and it will take 3-5 days to restore it. It's evidently the worst outage ever experienced in this area.

PsychoSnake · 11-19-15, 07:57 PM

Update: Most of the city is still without power, including me. But some of my neighbors do have power! One block away! Hopefully it'll turn on tomorrow. Most stores (that are open) are completely out of supplies. The shelves are just empty. Traffic is ridiculous because of all the trees and power lines and nonfunctional lights. Lots of car accidents!

As for the snakes I've been able to keep them between 69-77 F with the kerosene heater. My temp gun has been extremely useful. We usually have to check temperatures between 1-2 am and I just point the gun on the walls from my bed. Sucks for my dad because he's on vacation visiting me and we have to live in the snake room. My living room if freezing. I'm worried about the pipes freezing.

PsychoSnake · 11-20-15, 09:49 AM

Well, still no power. This is getting old. I had to take my dad to urgent care last night. It was a lot colder last night too. I woke up to this: Daisy, my largest female today boa pointing her belly towards the direction of the kerosene heater. My dad had fired it up before I woke up.

Albert Clark · 11-20-15, 11:39 AM

So sorry about your emergent dilemma! This sounds really bad. Are you able to get your hands on a case of 40 hour heat packs and some aluminum foil? I know if you have to order them that could be problematic. I think there are 72 hrs heat packs also. What about a battery operated heater? Just a thought. Hope you get through this ok and the power returns quickly.

bigsnakegirl785 · 11-20-15, 06:37 PM

I once had power out for 2 weeks during the big snowstorm here in NC ~6 years back, it was like 3' of snow and we lived out in the country. The city limits had power again after 3 days. The only thing that saved us was the wood stove.

We don't have any way to create any sort of heat without electricity here, we have the means to connect our stove to our oil/gas/whatever it is but that's probably not something that will happen this year. :/

I think your kerosene heater is going to be your saving grace PsychoSnake. Is there a reason you aren't able to run it for longer than you currently are?

trailblazer295 · 11-20-15, 06:53 PM

Gas or wood fireplaces are a great investment. Look nice when everything is good but will work when the power goes out and can put a lot of heat into the house. Can easily raise the temp of the area into the high 70s. The rest of the house might be cold but that area won't be.

Good luck though, obviously less options during the problem when stocks in stores are gone.

PsychoSnake · 11-20-15, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Are you able to get your hands on a case of 40 hour heat packs and some aluminum foil? I know if you have to order them that could be problematic. I think there are 72 hrs heat packs also.

That's just it. I have to order it.

Quote:

I think your kerosene heater is going to be your saving grace PsychoSnake. Is there a reason you aren't able to run it for longer than you currently are?

Definitely. The problem with the kerosene heater is that a) it produces carbon monoxide and requires having the window open whenever running it and b) just running it when necessary requires a gallon of kerosene a day. At the rate it's currently being used I will have heat until Monday.

The good news: most of the city is back online. The power company has been importing linemen from out of state and they are working 24/7. Transmission lines are close to being repaired and they are now working on distribution lines. I still don't have power but the city is beginning to go back to normality. However we are running out of gasoline.