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Day three (tornados)

redsqwrl

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Is it wierd to enjoy being down?
weather:
90-103 straight line winds was what they said it was. the weather service has since determined that 5 ef-2 tornados ripped up a swath across the southern 1/2 of the county. Outagamie is in a state of emergency with the guard getting called out. It is so sad that local communities had to enstate a curfew.
annoyed:
apparently Real Men from town drive out to just any ditch any where to toss their brush and tree mess (can't believe it)
like camping
I find camping at home fun and am really glad I get to practice getting on with out the grid and or cell (they came back (reliable)today in the am) in the heat of summer. This would be ugly if this event would have happened in a colder, wetter season.
the good:
Little onan is happy and dead pan reliable.
Water. Yep plenty. (well)
Energy mulitiple avenues. (cooking,essential lighting) LP, Wood, home made charcoal. didn't need to mess with the used oil reserves.
Plenty of fire wood for next season.
My buildings stood tall. chimmney took a hit, and one window blew in.
bad:
Had some idiots in the yard pretending to look at a car as there eyes where wandering.(i'm sure something will be missing before this is over) I am over exposed.
Dial up worked,working. took a day to figure it out.
Trees took a licking.

observation:
for the most part (finally, this is my third tornatic event) the storm bounced over me. to my west a 8 mile string of power poles are on the ground with a bunch of houses. to my east a couple houses and a church and many barns and sheds are mingling. Hotels are full most business are running on generators. 50,000 with out power is now down to 15000. they cut my trees out of the power lines late today so it will be pretty soon the party will be over. but until then I am learning a lot about doing with out.....

Mike
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
Stimulating:
Always a good exercise to get off grid and see that you can do it.
Comforting:
To know eventually the soft life will return.
Disappointing:
The number of folks who carelessly abandon good manners and respect for others when life throws them a curve.
Rewarding:
Surviving the challenge better for it, and more prepared for the next time.
:thumb:
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Mike sad to hear this news. Glad your gen set is working, and you didn't have much damage. In my neck of the woods we cann't seem to buy a rain or storm or anything wet...

For the time being pack heat, and protect your belongings. In a few weeeks it will be some what back to normal. In my area the cops get calls every morning for property that has been stolen. They are saying it is the tough economy, and good scrap iron prices. I remember older folks who lived in the depresion, saying if it isn't tied, nailed, locked up, it will be gone.

Keep your phone charged, and expect a call....

Regards, Kirk
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
Sure is important to have genset. Wonder if that was the beginning of the storms that hit here last night. Major flooding just north of me around Watkins Glen and Ithaca. Some areas got over 5" in a short time and washed out roads and flooded 2 trailer parks in the valley up to the Glen.
 

redsqwrl

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Good news:
Hey hey hey, the power came back on today. 10 am. I think I kicked ass in the preparedness dept. even the wife said thank you.
it is going to be a while for the folks to the west and east of me they are working hard to get the debris off the lines and get the lines back up off the ground. for once I was in the right spot on the hop.
Photos:
My son snapped these photos when he was returning home from work. it is 12:30am the funny thing is that at the time of the photo the tallest tree behind the (little)shed is still there. in the second photo (which is the last photo he shot before deciding to hike it.) the large tree behind the (bigger)shed is already smoked (and gone). seconds later He could not get in the house; after taking the photos of the lightning. (between the time it takes to snap a few photos and getting hit with a drip of rain) the door would not open (and it opens inward.) then all hell broke, he was going to head to the small shed (which is a safe place to be) when the kitchen window gave way, he joked the door was surprisingly easy to open at that point.
Luck:
it is really a weird even that the corn and wheat did not get touched anywhere in the county but buildings and tall trees got hammered
all around. the forcast was for lighting and rain with some localized wind possible. tornado sirens were not activated. whoops.
 

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redsqwrl

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
What happened:photo 1
Outagamie county is the square county just above that lake. I live right between the EF-1 and the EF-2 traces that appear to be in alignment with each other. nearest the bottom.
photo two:
tornadoes on the leading edge of straight line winds make sense. My sons experience trying to take photos in the middle of the night, (which where shot with a crappy camera). and not being able to get in the house....the winds where coming (pressure change)and the lightning was so strong and often that it was daylike.

moving forward:
I am going to make a few small changes to my off grid approach.

The current approach was to run the gen set for about 2 hrs each am and late evening. this allowed the freezers and fridge to keep the beer cold, showers and other sanitation needs, charge the electronics. I think a few tweaks would significantly extend my energy reserves.

1) small fridge (sun frost or equal)
http://thesolarstore.com/home-garde...google&k=725&gclid=CIP7lqeZ87gCFY4WMgod8W4A-g
why? In the dark there was a bunch or wasted time thumbing through the fridge looking for items. it would be great to say we are going to organize the fridge in a logical manner but the lazyiness of day to day (normal)prohibit anyone here sticking to it. When the power goes out just empty the primary firdge and focus on the basics. and move those items to the efficient smaller fridge. the ice make was nice for the three days but is it necessary????
2) I want to add an inverter/rectifier with a charge controller to my gen set. I have a set of AGM deep cycle batteries that are used for various purposes around here. I could move them to a bank and then draw from them as needed with the inverter, even utilyzing PV to replenish. I could even evacuate water with 12 pumps instead of a traditional 120V sump pump.

These short little events are hard to learn from.
 

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