When The Tornado Struck

[BrownOut]

Last Wednesday witnessed the worst tornado outbreak in Alabama in history. As many as 66 tornaods were reported state wide. Every electrical transmission line into Huntsville was destroyed. That night, I went to storage and picked up my 6500 watt gen set. I huddled down and watched the stroms track across my region, and listened to the reports of wide spread damage. It didnt' take long for the gen to run low on fuel, and there wasn't any available in the valley. Down to my last two gallons, which would last about 3 hours, I decided to change things up a little to try to streach out the remaining fuel for the duration of the outage ( 4 days ). I took the battery out of my truck and connected an inverter to run my radio, charge up phone and flashlights and run some low voltage lighting. I was able to run everything and only used the gen set to recharge the truck battery for about 1/2 hour each morning ( while I plugged in my coffee maker, which was a little too much load for the 700 watt inverter. ) The lights came back on last night, but I was able to find 5 gl of gas just in case. The inverter worked great, even though it was only a cheap Harbor Freight Tool product. On the last day, I plugged in a small 12V electric cooler, which put a surprisingly large load on the battery. Here is the usage breakdown:

Battery, invertor, radio : 300mA
Battery, 12V lighting : 700mA
Battery, 12V cooler : 4A

Since I have no gas service in the mountains where I live, I had to cook over an open fire pit, also had my camp stove but I was trying to save on the special fuel I use for it. I have pleanty of wood in the forrest around here. All I can say it, "A country boy can survive"

The battery voltage didn't go below about 11.9V, that is until I plugged in the cooler. During charging, it took 40A for about 10 minutes before the current started to come down. I would charge it until the voltage reached about 14V or so, and the current dropped off to about 15A. I thought getting the last charge would be inefficient in terms of the fuel usage.

Here is a pic of the battery, charger, inverter and coffee pot I rigged up.

 

[Reloadron]

And this is what being prepared is all about. I bet you keep more gasoline around in the future or if you keep your truck full there is a stash. You also have the ability to be resourceful which helps in situations without power.

Since we are suburbs we do have natural gas and I have my emergency back up generator that runs on it. I still have my little 5 KW gasoline unit in the shed ready to go with 3 full 5 gallon gas cans. I use stabil in the fuel and rotate it into my truck and replace it in the containers.

Nice job of being resourceful there BrownOut and above all glad you did not find yourself in the path of one of those tornadoes. You guys really got slammed bad. Glad you are OK!

Ron

 

[Mickster]

Glad to hear you are OK.

I had 2 weeks without power following a hurricane, when I lived a little north of the Carribean, some years ago.
Fortunately, I had bottled gas for cooking. Water was a different matter though....no power = no pump.
Sick of taking 'soldier baths', I rigged up a shower from an automotive jump-start pack, a fuel pump, a length of hose and an improvised shower head made from a 0.5L water bottle.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Only 3 days once. Was able to rent generator. Long extension cords for 2 fridges and 1 freezer 1 or 2 at a time.. Gas cooking.

 

[3v0]

Just wanted to say I am glad you are OK.

 

[killivolt]

Last Wednesday witnessed the worst tornado outbreak in Alabama in history. As many as 66 tornaods were reported state wide. Every electrical transmission line into Huntsville was destroyed. On the last day, I plugged in a small 12V electric cooler, which put a surprisingly large load on the battery. Here is the usage breakdown:

Battery, invertor, radio : 300mA
Battery, 12V lighting : 700mA
Battery, 12V cooler : 4A
Here is a pic of the battery, charger, inverter and coffee pot I rigged up.

WOW, 66 Tornado's.

battery voltage didn't go below about 11.9V, that is until I plugged in the cooler. During charging, it took 40A for about 10 minutes before the current started to come down. I would charge it until the voltage reached about 14V or so, and the current dropped off to about 15A. I thought getting the last charge would be inefficient in terms of the fuel usage.

Maybe it would be better to have a Camp Trailer Refrigerator. One that uses Butane it will take about 24 hrs for it to come down in temp but, it will cut down the battery. Either, way it's a split decision to use it or not. Fuel for heat or fuel for cooking?

I think we should all have a backup plan, around here that is what folks do food storage etc. We have central people who just use Ham Radio's along with scanner's to pickup info and or communicate things happening on the ground.

How you holding up ?

kv

 

[BrownOut]

Maybe it would be better to have a Camp Trailer Refrigerator. One that uses Butane it will take about 24 hrs for it to come down in temp but, it will cut down the battery. Either, way it's a split decision to use it or not. Fuel for heat or fuel for cooking?

I've thought about that. I might check that out.

How you holding up ?

So far, so good. Enjoying the time off from work

I bet you keep more gasoline around in the future or if you keep your truck full there is a stash.

I'll bet you're right!

PS also looking for a 'safe' place to store gas+genset. If the tornado hit my property, a shed would be the wrong answer.

Glad you are OK!

Thanks Ron. I got lucky. Even had I more gas, I would still try to conserve, not knowing how long the outage was going to be. When I did the math, it was gonna cost more in fuel to try to save my perishable food than the dam food was worth in the first place.

Just wanted to say I am glad you are OK.

Thanks!

 

[cr0sh]

Glad to hear you made it ok; that was one heck of a weather pattern. We don't see anything like that here in boring hot sandland (maybe a duststorm, a monsoon, some thunder and lightning - maybe a small power outage)...

 

[bryan1]

Maybe you guys should do what we used to do when a cyclone ( hurricane in yank terms) came around when I lived up north. Fill ya bath the beer then completely fill the bath with ice. When the power does go out ya got a bath full of ice cold beer to drink, cold fresh water and a place to keep ya cold food from going off. Just think of it this way if a tornado is going to rip ya head off ya might aswell be off ya head when it hits..........

 

[BrownOut]

Glad to hear you made it ok; that was one heck of a weather pattern. We don't see anything like that here in boring hot sandland (maybe a duststorm, a monsoon, some thunder and lightning - maybe a small power outage)...

I used to live in sand-land ( Tucson ) Funny thing, when I first moved to the desert, I didn't like it. But it gets in you blood, and I miss being there. I have to make the trip back from time to time.

Maybe you guys should do what we used to do when a cyclone ( hurricane in yank terms) came around when I lived up north. Fill ya bath the beer then completely fill the bath with ice. When the power does go out ya got a bath full of ice cold beer to drink, cold fresh water and a place to keep ya cold food from going off. Just think of it this way if a tornado is going to rip ya head off ya might aswell be off ya head when it hits..........

We can't get ice. When a delivery comes, it sells out immediately.

 

[gerty]

@ Brownout, I'm about 60 miles north-east of Huntsville and a friend went to Murfreesboro TN to Northern Tools. He was told they sold all of their generators to people from AL. Another friend went to Cookeville TN and had the same news. Glad everything worked out for you, we've had some close ones here in my county the last couple of years but nothing on the scale you've had.

 

[BrownOut]

HI gerty. I know many people were driving to Tn for gas and food. Luckily, I didn't need to. I know a couple years ago, there were a few bad storms that passed in your area. If you ever need anything, get in touch with me.

 

[Reloadron]

PS also looking for a 'safe' place to store gas+genset. If the tornado hit my property, a shed would be the wrong answer.

Good point! Maybe I should think about moving the back up to the back up from the shed to basement.

My main generator is natural gas which we have never lost but I also have a few full cylinders of LPG just in case but doubt I would get much run time off them.

Every spring I drag out the little gasoline unit put some fuel in it and run it dry, just to make sure it runs and works.

I figure other than trying to be prepared part of the whole trick with things like natural disasters and power loss is doing what BrownOut did and that is being resourceful. You look at what you have and start a plan.

The reason we have this place so well setup is prior to my wife's mother's passing she went through a long illness and was totally bedridden. As she deteriorated more and more machines came into the house. I am looking at all this and thinking if we lose power we are in deep crap. That was when I bought the little 5 KW unit and kept and rotated plenty of gasoline. That little unit saved my butt several times and after her mom passed away we damn sure kept it. Later when we did major house renovation we got the big whole house unit but kept the little unit.

Ron

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I've been wanting to get a little resoucefull, at least having an inverter to run a sump pump off the car battery. Still have fuses, so generator interconnect is more difficult. I have like a 120 W inverter. Internet access i could do through my cell and charge the cell in the car. Had the oxygen generator before my father passed away.

 

[Reloadron]

Had the oxygen generator before my father passed away.

With us it was called "Oxygen Concentrator" and that is what put me over the edge.

That thing used some serious current and produced heat! During power failure we had to go to the mini oxygen bottles. When those were gone you were screwed. The oxygen concentrator and the vent machine both were the main reasons for the first generator. I had nightmares of me in an ice storm yanking batteries out of the trucks while trying to figure out how to run the gas fired forced air furnace.

Internet? If I lose my cable connection I shove the 3G card in the laptop. I can get the whole home network connecting through the laptop that way.

Ron

 

[Wond3rboy]

Sorry for late post. Glad to hear you are ok and hope the same with the awful flooding.

 

[killivolt]

That's a Pretty Good Idea. I'll bet their is a real good use to find "power up" in hard times, for things for Medical needs or Machines that help people with illness.

I had never thought about it, good thinking.

kv

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

It' like the priorities are "life support", "enough drinking water" , "sump pump", "food in fridge/freezer" etc.

You don't know what you have until it's gone like the song said. During a hurricaine, i went out and bought a bilge pump because all of the sump pumps were off the shelves. A garden hose and a couple of fittings took care of the water end of things. A power supply and couple of jumpers got power to an extension cord. A 120 plug to aliigator clips got me to the pump. I had power.

 

[DerStrom8]

I'm glad you're okay, BrownOut. Here in Vermont, all we got was rain
I hope you can get back on your feet quickly
Der Strom