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Roughing it in the 'burbs
Jun. 7th, 2022 07:11 pmOn Saturday, May 21, at around 3:45 PM, I was listening to Shelagh Rogers' The Next Chapter when the show was interrupted by an announcement of a severe thunderstorm warning. The announcement had barely ended when the power went out, not to return until the wee hours of the morning of Monday, May 30. Thus began the Great Derecho of 2022.
So how did we deal with it all, you might well ask?
All in all, it could have been worse.
For one thing, it struck in May, a time of year that was neither so cold that we needed the heat on, nor so hot that we were left sweltering without fans or air conditioning. We had fairly long hours of daylight and a supply of flashlights for after hours.
We boiled the kettle and cooked food on the backyard barbecue. We procured ice when we could, and kept most of our food adequately cold in the fridge, the freezer and a picnic cooler. I dug out an old fondue pot (fuelled by tea-light candles) to heat up canned stuff indoors. We're vegetarians (although not vegans), so that helped.
My partner was able to use the computer with a hotspot, but I was unable to use it with my newer laptop. We charged cell phones and other devices through our solar panels.
I own a portable device that houses a radio, CD player and cassette player and can be used with batteries when we don't have power. I also have a portable DVD player and we watched the movie version of Cats on one of the days.
What we missed the most was having hot water for showers and laundry. We're on time-of-use rates with Hydro Ottawa and the cheapest rates are in the evenings (or overnight if you're a night-owl) and all day on weekends and holidays. I'd been planning to take advantage of the Victoria Day weekend to do some serious laundry, including a few blankets now that the weather is getting warmer. I did manage to bake muffins on the Saturday morning and we had a dishwasher load in progress when the power went out.
Initially, the hydro folks were saying that the vast majority of customers would have their power back by the end of the day Friday. So we figured, OK so we'll have next weekend at least. But in the end, we went through another entire weekend without power. In fact, it's the longest we've ever gone without power in the 40+ years we've lived here: more than twice as long as with the ice storm of 1998 or the tornado of 2018.
We learned a few lessons, I guess. My partner ordered an inverter and an ice-cube maker and a couple of headlamps. We put together a little emergencies kit. Ever since the pandemic hit, we've been doing bigger (though less frequent) grocery trips so we always have a sizeable stock of nonperishable food on hand. We decided we don't especially want to order gas-powered generators as many are apparently clamouring to do. And realistically I don't think we'll ever be totally off-grid .
Still, perhaps we'll be somewhat better prepared when the next extreme weather event strikes.
So how did we deal with it all, you might well ask?
All in all, it could have been worse.
For one thing, it struck in May, a time of year that was neither so cold that we needed the heat on, nor so hot that we were left sweltering without fans or air conditioning. We had fairly long hours of daylight and a supply of flashlights for after hours.
We boiled the kettle and cooked food on the backyard barbecue. We procured ice when we could, and kept most of our food adequately cold in the fridge, the freezer and a picnic cooler. I dug out an old fondue pot (fuelled by tea-light candles) to heat up canned stuff indoors. We're vegetarians (although not vegans), so that helped.
My partner was able to use the computer with a hotspot, but I was unable to use it with my newer laptop. We charged cell phones and other devices through our solar panels.
I own a portable device that houses a radio, CD player and cassette player and can be used with batteries when we don't have power. I also have a portable DVD player and we watched the movie version of Cats on one of the days.
What we missed the most was having hot water for showers and laundry. We're on time-of-use rates with Hydro Ottawa and the cheapest rates are in the evenings (or overnight if you're a night-owl) and all day on weekends and holidays. I'd been planning to take advantage of the Victoria Day weekend to do some serious laundry, including a few blankets now that the weather is getting warmer. I did manage to bake muffins on the Saturday morning and we had a dishwasher load in progress when the power went out.
Initially, the hydro folks were saying that the vast majority of customers would have their power back by the end of the day Friday. So we figured, OK so we'll have next weekend at least. But in the end, we went through another entire weekend without power. In fact, it's the longest we've ever gone without power in the 40+ years we've lived here: more than twice as long as with the ice storm of 1998 or the tornado of 2018.
We learned a few lessons, I guess. My partner ordered an inverter and an ice-cube maker and a couple of headlamps. We put together a little emergencies kit. Ever since the pandemic hit, we've been doing bigger (though less frequent) grocery trips so we always have a sizeable stock of nonperishable food on hand. We decided we don't especially want to order gas-powered generators as many are apparently clamouring to do. And realistically I don't think we'll ever be totally off-grid .
Still, perhaps we'll be somewhat better prepared when the next extreme weather event strikes.
