Power Outages....

[pastafreak]

Do you get them where you are? Have you ever?

I ask because my brother back in NY is wondering how the Brits cope. I know that in the 23 years I've been in the UK,I've only had a power loss 2-maybe 3 times max. And only for an hour or two.

[squarebear]

We used to get a few. Just put the candles on and talk to each other for a change.

[sherrardk]

We have quite a few short ones (usually daytime) and power drops - I blame it on the local army camp.

[pastafreak]

Ooo...we have the marines barracks near here...but I don't think they make excessive demands on ecectricity. They're too busy out running.

[Traci66]

We get loads in our village, the longest was in 2002 and lasted almost two weeks. I often get up on a morning and have to reset the clock on the microwave because the power has gone off in the night.

[Euphemia]

O

[paddywak]

About 25 years ago we had an really bad snowstorm here in Notts which put the brought the power lines down, I was on nights at the time and luckily I was deployed to the pit top and I'll never forget that night. It was a very thick blizzard and every time a power line went down the snow lit up with a fantastic blue flash. We went flat out to get the men out of the pit using the emergency winding system and it was nearly a week before everybody in the area got power back. The worst thing was everybody at the pit got the time off apart from the craftsman as the boss used the time to get all his outstanding maintenance and installations done.

[Euphemia]

Sorry, neuropathy at work again - or the gremlins. Our electricity was off yesterday from 2pm to 8.45pm. We did have prior warning so it was a question
of looking out candles, etc. Fortunately, our lounge has a gas fire. Had take-away fish and chips, the first for years, and they were soooooo goood!

[Frank97]

I think the worst one I can remember was when it went of for four days, I was reduced to having to cook in the front room, on the open fire, which was interesting. When it did come back on, it was for about half an hour, just long enough to think about cooking something properly, then it went of again for another four hours, what a wind up that was.
It often goes of for just a minute or two, for reasons unknown.

[sherrardk]

Our local camp is very specialised and they do a lot of communications stuff (and bizarrely there is a bt van working in or around the village nearly everyday too).

[DTCwordfan]

"The Great Hurricane of 1987" was probably the biggest outage that we have seen, short of industrial action and there was folk without power back then for nearly 3 weeks.

I could kick the BBC for their coverage of the recovery in New York/Jersey. The way electricty cos in the S States go about their recovery work is (i) power to the command centres and hospitals, (ii) then blocks of where they can bring power on quickly to a million folk (iii) then hundred thousand, and then (iv) a thousand, working down to single house issues.........in short, no pun intended, what bang for their buck can they get. With Hurricane Ike in Houston, it took up to three weeks for everybody's power to be returned, like Sandy, that storm was huge and if it had hit Pembroke, then it would have cut a swathe of damage from Northumberland to Cornwall, across 12 million people.......It is therefore ridiculous to expect all of Jersey and New York to be back on the tricity within a week, even though they would all love it. The Beeb ought to be more responsible in its reporting.

[pastafreak]

I've not watched the BBC coverage since last week-when they ignored whole areas.
My brother told me that while his power was out from Monday to Sunday...his neighbour never lost his-nor did others south and west of him in the same area.
I was still living in NY during '87...but just missed that storm. We'd been over here to visit the inlaws....arrived back in the US to discover we'd missed the weather goof of the century.

[Eve]

I get random power cuts though had a few not long ago for a few hours, one of which in the evening when it was dark and I was a bit screwed. I live alone so after the initial "ooh what's going on" people out in the street thing I was sat on my own in the dark until I gave up and went to bed...and got a non-electric lamp in case it happened again :)

A former flat had big electricity problems after a leak down two flats into mine and I had to wait for it to dry out before I got most of my electrics back and another time I put down to the landlord's dodgy electrician - over a week all in all. Doesn't sound much but makes you realise how much you rely on electricity!

[atalanta]

I have a real log fire and a gas cooker and some candle-lamps. I keep the fire laid and ready.
But I have to say we have far more problems in my village with water than with electricity.

[humbersloop]

hi pasta,

same as traci here, ours tend to last a couple of hours. We keep a couple of small parafin lamps handy just in case; I dread a really long one as there's no gas in the village, so cooking is electric.

Is your brother able to stay at home? I was reading some coverage this morning about moving people to evac centres because of concerns over lack of heating when the cold weather comes in with the next lot.

I'm sure it's no fun, but to me the emergency response does look effective and well organised so far

[237SJ]

I remember we had no power for 6 days in February 1982 and for 5 of those 6 days, we had no water either. Luckily we had a coal fired Rayburn so we were able to cook. There were some water buts in my Gran`s field so my dad used to go up there every day, break the ice and bring enough water home for us. We used tilly lamps for light at night. My mum had to cook the food on the Rayburn for the woman next door as her facilities needed electricity. It was due to extreme weather.

[seadogg]

We coped very well, on the whole, during the war and during the period of austerity that followed it. Whether we would today is another matter, though quite a few people are going over to multifuel stoves in this area. We heat a fair proportion of our water as well as being able to cook if necessary.

[percypineapple]

Every time we get high winds and rain, the power fails. sometimes several hours, sometimes just a few minutes, all the clocks need re-setting and causes hell with the two computers. was thinking of trying to sue the electric people.

[excelsior-1]

Good evening pasta
How has your brother coped with all that has happened over there, is he ok?

[pastafreak]

@humber...luckily they were able to stay in there own home.....cold and dark as it was...:-0

I think they coped ok. They are far enough inland so that they were not affected by the flooding. A few miles south or north,and it's a huge problem for many.
Thanks for asking excelsior.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

We used to get them regularly in my last house. The local transformer was always dodgy and the power would trip for a minute or two.
For the most part it wasn't a problem but I still use my mobile phone as an alarm to this day. I don't trust anything plugged into the mains to get me up for work.
I remember power cuts in the 70s as a child and loving the candles, but I don't remember how long they lasted and I'm too young to feel sad about them. They werre fun for us kids.