Hurricane Sandy

The phone rang and for once the automated message was not from a politician. Public Service Company of New Hampshire (electric company) called about the approaching storm. They gave out some basic prep info and contact numbers for outages. This is the first time that has ever happened.

For me, the grid serves the same function as a back up generator. Most of our day to day power usage is from solar. In fact, I’m going to use the grid to top off my battery bank before the storm. After that about my only other storm prep will be going around the house looking for anything that can blow or wash away. Being a prepper, this is the sort of thing I’m always prepared for. Of course, that doesn’t mean the wind couldn’t blow a tree through my living room, so I’m not taking this one likely.

I think back to Hurricane Irene. After the big cities weathered it pretty well, the news people were saying how much of a non-event it was. Then the remains of the storm blew into Vermont causing horrific flooding damage. They still haven’t fully recovered.

Hurricane Sandy is exactly the sort of storm that causes the computer models to fall apart. The conditions that cause such a storm don’t happen often. The models are based on what’s happened in the past. With little data to draw on, they are really just making informed guesses. The weather people do well with tropical weather storms. They do a pretty good job with northern storms. When the two meet, they aren’t quite sure how to handle it.

That being said, power outage maps show that I’m in a high risk for power outage area. If my area does go down, it will most likely be out for a long time. Those of us in the far flung rural areas get power restored last. That’s just a fact of life out here.

If my blog disappears for a bit, it’s probably because my Internet is down. My lovely wife and I will most likely be fine. The biggest danger in our area would be flooding and wind damage. Fortunately, the leaves have already dropped out of the tress, so they are less likely to get toppled. My home is on the side of a mountain 1300 feel above sea level, so flooding is not a major issue. What sometimes happens is that the rains flood all the roads out, but as long as we stay put we’ll be fine.

When Hurricane Irene hit our area, is appeared to be just another moderately rainy day. We suffered no damage at all. Areas just forty miles to the south and 40 miles to the west had roads, bridges and power poles washed away. We were lucky then and I hope we are lucky again.

If you live in a low lying coastal area or anyplace prone to flooding, I hope you are reading this from your bug out location.

-Sixbears