Raining like Noah was lied to

The rain's been coming down with a vengeance and is supposed to continue well into tomorrow. Wind's supposed to pick up later too. Interesting, but nothing to worry about.

When it rains like this, I'm glad I'm up in the mountains. We aren't prone to flooding and the soil isn't likely to go sliding down the mountain. My basement does flood, but the water comes in one side and flows out the other. I can live with it.

While I do live near the lake, it would have to rise something like a 100 feet before it'd come to the house. Nothing is impossible, but it's not likely. Most of New England would have to be underwater before it became a problem here.

Being safe up in the hills is nice, but that doesn't mean the roads don't flood out. In the 21 years we've lived here, there have been a handful of times all the roads were under water. A day or two later at least one would become passable. Still, it's a good thing we didn't have something like a medical emergency.

Of course, living in the woods, a little isolation is expected. In the winter, snow often blocks the roads. Everyone out here is prepared to spend some time cut off.

The house battery bank is getting a top off charge now. The sun is not supposed to come out for a few days. If the utility goes down, we won't need solar power until then. Battery power alone is good for 3 or 4 days, more if we conserve.

Communications might be a problem. If the utility poles go down, they'd take my phone and Internet with it. Cell phones don't work here, so that's not an option. HAM radio would be prudent, but I've never felt like putting in the time and money to get a license and equipment.

For a few years I had Wildblue satellite Internet service. It worked well most of the time. Heavy rains like we are getting now could degrade or totally block the signal. On the plus side, even if all the utility poles came down, the satellite system would keep working. Always ran it off my solar electric system. Hated to let it go, but when a rural Internet grant allowed high speed fiber to be run past my door, I made the switch. The lower monthly fees combined with the faster speeds were too hard to resist.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, it's probably something minor like a tree knocking out the utility poles. Sparsely populated areas are serviced last, so we tend to be the first to go down and last to be restored. It's a small price to pay for having a house above flood waters.

-Sixbears