What I have Learned from Hurricane Irma....
I thought I would start a thread to deal specifically with my experience with hurricane Irma. I do not wish to imply that I am having some severe hardships, but I have had some serious issues. I am a bit of a survivalist and the preparations I have made have been tested fairly rigorously.
I am going to use this as a bit of a scrap board to show and explain how and why things were done, how well they work, what I would do differently, answer any questions you may have, and field any comments or suggestions you may have. Please feel free to add any tips or ideas that you have that may help others. Perhaps in the future this could be a thread those in threatening positions can refer to. I may repeat some things I have said in other threads, but I wanted to gather info here.
So, I think this first post will be about gas and generators and electricity.
Our electricity has been out since Saturday night (it is currently Wed morning). Gas has been a problem. People are gabbing as much gas as they can because they are scared. The fact that much of the southern half of the state are fleeing is making matters worse. The have been times the THERE WAS NO GAS. My gas preps were satisfactory. I keep 50 gallons on hand.
The way I made this prep works like this. Buy a five gallon container and put a "1" on it. The fact I garage sale has allowed me to accumulate pre-idiot gas containers that just pour out. There are ways to make the new idiot containers work better, though. When you fill up, fill the five gallon container you bought and put it away. Next month, buy another container (I like them all the same so they store neatly, but if you are an artist and like things different, by all means) and put a "2" on it. Fill that container when you fill up and put it next to the other. Next month, do it again and put a "3" on it. Some suggest 12 (that would give you a fuel storage of 60 gallons) so you can take a stored fiver and pour it in your tank when you fill up and then just replace the fuel in the container that you poured in the tank. Once they are all full, you are just paying to fill your tank because you are cycling the stored gas with new and keeping the stored fresh. I cycle a bit faster because I will pur one in rather than have to make a stop at the gas station when it is not necessary.
When there was no gas, I simply poured gas into the tank of my car and used that when the gas stations were empty. As the supply returned, I would go and fill up and replace the gas I poured in the tank. What was a problem for others HAD NO EFFECT ON ME.
Generators, too, were relatively painless because I purchased the gens at yard sales. I had three on hand. A 3,000 watt, a 6,000 watt, and a 10,000 watt. If interested I will tell how and why I bought them, but I was going to tell you how I keep them ready.
The 3K I rarely use, It is small and relatively quiet. I have used it to work and when I do, I run it dry, I slide it under the shelf of my garage and there it sits (probably five or more years at this point). When I pulled it out the day before the storm to test it, it started on the second pull. The 3K would power the 5,000 BTU AC on the back porch, the refrigerator, an oxygen concentrator and several lights and chargers with no problem. I pulled a squid (a power line splitter you can get at Home Depot.... Yes, I got mine at a yard sale) and ran extension cords to the appliances I wanted to run. Had the outage been brief, that probably would have been the only gen I used.
The 6K I am using to backfeed the house through the dryer plug. This is illegal to do, and dangerous to equipment and lives, so I am not going to tell you how to do it. It is running everything but the 220 circuits. It is, however, running the water pumps and doing okay. It is running out in front of the garage. I was considering putting the gen in the fenced yard and backfeed the shop line, but the shop is only 10ga four conductor and I would be far more concerned about the load it could handle over the load the 50amp dryer line could take.
There were reports of gangs in the area stealing generators. This concerned me to the point I had to weigh the benefits of hiding the gen and using a less capable line or keeping it in front of the garage where it would be easier to steal. The garage won. This is what I did:
https://i.imgur.com/nm6tYtK.jpg
I put the gen as close to the garage door down as I could get and doubled 3/16 steel cable six(?) times. The cable is nearly impossible to cut one at a time and multiple loose cables I thought would be secure. I looped them and drove a tapcon with a fender washer to keep it in place. You can see the lip of the garage door there between the anchor and the gen frame. If they want to try to hacksaw those cables around and 300 degree generator while it runs, you have a lot of moxie and a tolerance for heat and pain that surpasses mine. BUt, I also have emergency night lights that plug into outlets that will come on when the power fails when you have an outage. I tell customers and friends to plug these lights into the GFI outlet in the garage they plug there extra firde or freezer into so the light will come on when the GFI trips. It will let them know that the power is off to their freezer before the food rots.... The one pointed at my face at night will let me know the gen has stopped running for whatever reason and the first tool I will take outside to fix it will be the Bersa .380 wrench.
