Possible power outage for next two days

Would putting some dried ice in the fridge work?

How 'bout a 10,000 watt Honda generator?

That's insanity.

I read the news story regarding the blackouts, and BlueFox I thought you were in Seattle. Good luck!

Good luck! I had 4 days without power back in June after a big storm. It's a real bummer.
A good tip I got was to empty the ice maker. They normally overflow once the ice all melts. Also the obvious things, batteries, flashlights, keep a phone charger with you.

I personally had a hard time with was multiple nights with true dead silence. I'd buy a battery powered radio or something if it happened again. We also didn't have AC in June in Texas, but I'd imagine your temperatures will be more temperate.

Also take note of gas powered vs electric appliances. Having a working oven and stove during a black out is nice. Same with hot water. All in all, it's very annoying, but try to make the best of it.

I guess it is cheaper to cut power than keeping the transmission rightaways clear of brush.
This is what caused the earlier fire, dead vegetation under the lines when they came down.

Here in Ohio these areas are completely void of anything but natural grasses and the like.

Also I hear that raking the forests helps.....lol.

The east coast gets moisture, pretty much year round.
(Most of) California, not so much.

The tinder problem in CA (at least in the East Bay hills, just east of where we lived when we were there) is that the scub lands were/are overgrown with non-native grasses that die in the hot/dry season and are just waiting to burn. The situation just escalates from there.

In fact, in northern New England, we get localized brush and field fires often in the very early spring, when there is lots of 'fuel' around (dead vegetation from the winter), things have dried out, and the air is warm and dry. Very, very common along side roadways in MA, NH and ME (probably other places up here, too).

Jstas wrote: »

...Yeah, the power company is at fault for not maintaining lines properly but the state is just as at fault for not allowing responsible conservation activities or proper clearance of areas around power lines so they can be easily inspected and remain safe...

This is indeed the crux of the problem. We had much the same issue in Montana with the beetle-kill trees (large pines that are standing dead from Pine Beetle infestation). These trees are perfectly viable timber for 2-3 years after they die off from the beetles. However, because timber companies are evil(?), the environmentalists lobby and sue to ensure that this dead resource stay right where they are - in the forest, as hundreds of thousands of acres of well-aged kindling. One day, in the not-so-distant future, there is going to be a wildfire up there the likes of which have not been seen by anyone living now.

What a waste, and all because of miss-guided, feel-good politics. Sad.

This is what I'm referring to. Nobody in NJ is "raking the forest. lol"

This picture is the intersection of Llewellyn Ave and Landis Ave in Milmay, NJ in the Richland section of Buena Vista Township. Zipcode 08340

39°28'22.4"N 74°51'29.3"W

What this picture shows is the road clearance on either side. If you go to Google Maps, you can see that every road that cuts through the Pine Barrens has this buffer zone. Even if it's covered with trees, that buffer zone is still there, under the canopy, where satellites can't see it. The buffer zones get burned frequently and cut with mowers to keep the road sides clear to limit fire potential and ease maintenance.

Anyhoo, the large line of what looks like clear cutting is exactly that. Clear cutting. Circled in red are two transmission line towers. These are the paths that the transmission lines cut through the forest. Every year, Asplundh Tree Service is contracted with the state and power companies and flies helicopters with cutting equipment up and down these paths to keep the trees from growing over the lines. They also roll these massive brush cutters up and down the path to keep stuff from growing up into the power lines. The forestry service runs their bulldozers through with ripper hooks and creates fire breaks in the root systems along these lines too. All of this is for fire prevention/containment. We don't have many transmission line problems because the vegetation isn't close enough to the lines to cause problems. When we do have a failure, it's never down long because the lines are easy to get to and fix. NJ also maintains these areas by seeding with native plants and grasses that help keep unwanted stuff at bay while providing habitat and food sources for local fauna.

This goes locally too. I have 450 feet of road frontage on my property. It borders a county route so there's perpetual traffic running between towns. Two years ago, Asplundh was out cutting my trees back. They stopped where I thought it was dumb and I asked why. They told me the owner of the house doesn't want his trees cut. I told them I'm the owner. They didn't believe it because we had just bought it so I had to go get the "SOLD" sign to show them. Then I told them "Cut what you have to, it's dangerous not to." They were so happy that someone reasonable was living here now that they cut a few trees below power lines that they didn't have to just to help me out. But they have a state mandated 10 ft area around the power lines that they have to keep clear otherwise the trees and plants get risky for storm damage to power infrastructure which causes outages, fires and injuries as well as other damages. So I have a bunch of trees that look like they got topped because of the power line requirements and forestry management that NJ says the power companies HAVE to do. But then again, NJ doesn't tax and fee the power companies into insolvency either.

This is what is meant by proper forestry management. Man has an impact here whether we want to acknowledge it or not. NJ makes a concerted effort to manage that impact. Lots of other states up here from Maryland to Maine do this too. We still get fires from time to time but because of these management techniques, they don't spread very quickly. And there have been years where the weather has been so dry that even the Cohansey Aquifer is threatened and the crazy deep municipal wells are in danger of running dry. So our pine forests can run a very similar risk to what So-Cal has in their drought times as well.

One more reason to avoid buying a Tesla car.

can you not get that hamster to start running on its wheel

tonyb wrote: »

Ok then, if the current power company is that frickin' bad, why are you still using them ? Nobody else available to supply power for the state ?

I mean, it's not rocket science here, if they're doing such a horrible job, get rid of them or make them improve by regulations set onto them. Having power lines on the ground....is just unacceptable.

...and California needs to get their heads out of their rear ends and allow the forests to be cleaned up a bit. Again, it isn't rocket science on why that needs to be done.

California hasn’t allowed any new infrastructure to be built(power plants, refineries, etc) in the last 50 years... in fact, government has forced many that exist to shut down through regulations and stopped others from being built through red tape and endless environmental lawsuits. Now, if they need to take a refinery down for maintenance, gas prices spike to absurd levels overnight.

Bottom line isn’t there is no backup plan here. CA is a house of cards waiting for the next disaster....

This is going to be a shitshow. Stupid PG&E.

"Up to 5 days". They're out of their minds.