Scariest night ever…

Thank goodness for woodstoves and honda generators...

We’ve got a pellet stove and a B&S standby generator, and if either of those would have failed, we’d have had to abandon ship. We’re still without electricity, but PG&E is in the neighborhood, so it should be up today. Our only internet is via 1-bar on our phones, but it should come back once the electricity is restored.

We were lucky in one sense… Several branches were just inches away from doing far greater damage. One half of our house has a Swiss cheese roof, and there are a couple of blowouts in the deck, but other than that, there’s not much damage. As of today, I think everything is dry, so hopefully we can avoid any mold problems.

Now I just need to find somebody to do the roof. If anybody has any suggestions, LMK…

Glad to hear everything is coming together for You NWM.

I help with traffic control for PGE and its contractors and have been to many places where folks have not been so lucky. 

Glad you seem patient with your power being restored. There are outages all up and down the Monterey/Santa Cruz County. PGE has enlisted companies from all over the state as well as outside of the state to help restore power. 

I was on a job site in Watsonville that took 19 hrs. to complete. Downed tree across a road that took down powerlines as well as communication lines. There was a transformer that was damaged and had to be removed by a hazmat team. Was a long night for me yesterday and unfortunately one of many for me this year. I have done many shifts close to 24 hrs. When i tell people, there response is usually, isnt that illegal.  Not when they cant find someone to replace you at 2 in the morning.

I use to be annoyed when my power would be off for 8hrs or more. Being in the front lines has shown me what it takes to have power restored by these hard working men/women. I don't get annoyed with the long hrs i do, because i have seen the hrs and conditions the PGE workers and their contractors put in.

Good luck with your restoration.

Alex.

Glad to hear everything is coming together for You NWM.

I help with traffic control for PGE and its contractors and have been to many places where folks have not been so lucky. 

Glad you seem patient with your power being restored. There are outages all up and down the Monterey/Santa Cruz County. PGE has enlisted companies from all over the state as well as outside of the state to help restore power. 

I was on a job site in Watsonville that took 19 hrs. to complete. Downed tree across a road that took down powerlines as well as communication lines. There was a transformer that was damaged and had to be removed by a hazmat team. Was a long night for me yesterday and unfortunately one of many for me this year. I have done many shifts close to 24 hrs. When i tell people, there response is usually, isnt that illegal.  Not when they cant find someone to replace you at 2 in the morning.

I use to be annoyed when my power would be off for 8hrs or more. Being in the front lines has shown me what it takes to have power restored by these hard working men/women. I don't get annoyed with the long hrs i do, because i have seen the hrs and conditions the PGE workers and their contractors put in.

Good luck with your restoration.

Alex.

Alex,

Yes, I always chat with the PG&E guys when then show up, and they definitely work hard. We got lucky this time, as the wire broke off at the pole at our house. Twice when trees fell on the lines, it broke off at the house, bending the "periscope" in the process, and that's a much bigger hassle.

After they connected our wires and turned on the power, everybody was back up except for 2 houses (us being one of the unlucky 2), due to a bad transformer. They say they are going to replace it within the hour, which is impressive...

Thank goodness for woodstoves and honda generators...

We’ve got a pellet stove and a B&S standby generator, and if either of those would have failed, we’d have had to abandon ship. We’re still without electricity, but PG&E is in the neighborhood, so it should be up today. Our only internet is via 1-bar on our phones, but it should come back once the electricity is restored.

We were lucky in one sense… Several branches were just inches away from doing far greater damage. One half of our house has a Swiss cheese roof, and there are a couple of blowouts in the deck, but other than that, there’s not much damage. As of today, I think everything is dry, so hopefully we can avoid any mold problems.

Now I just need to find somebody to do the roof. If anybody has any suggestions, LMK…

I just put a standby generator in this past summer.  I could not have picked a better time.  It was a bear finding a propane tank, though, so I wound up with a 325 gallon when I was originally searching for a 250 gallon.  Worth. every. penny.  I finished wiring up the generator in late September and it already has 180 runtime hours on it.  I'm also glad I went with a dedicated tank instead of plumbing into my house tank.

Sure sound a lot better than my suitcase generator setup and running extension cords all over my house and property 

OK, WTF!!!  . Just after posting that, I lost power. 

OK, WTF!!!  . Just after posting that, I lost power. 

Oh, so this one is your fault?!  I was thinking maybe someone found some black ice and used a utility pole as brakes. 

Went to town for food looked like its out everywhere.  No weather atm, so not sure what happened, must be a car.

Yeah, the PG&E text said 3980 customers out.  That's even bigger than our squirrel detector outages. 

Whew, it's back!  But not after running spaghetti of wires and starting up the generator 

We're back to normal now. Well, except for a Swiss cheese roof, a large log sticking thru the ceiling, a deck in ruins, and a few other minor inconveniences...

I'm also glad I went with a dedicated tank instead of plumbing into my house tank.

Just curious why you say that. We have 3 tanks that are 110 gallon each. We've got all of the tanks connected together and use them for all of our propane appliances (2 small direct-vent heaters, a tankless water heater, and the generator). We've never had any trouble with our setup...

I'm also glad I went with a dedicated tank instead of plumbing into my house tank.

Just curious why you say that. We have 3 tanks that are 110 gallon each. We've got all of the tanks connected together and use them for all of our propane appliances (2 small direct-vent heaters, a tankless water heater, and the generator). We've never had any trouble with our setup...

I like that my generator is the only thing that draws from the tank.  That way, when the house tank is on the low side and we enter into a 5 day outage, I'm not scrambling for a delivery.  I know the dedicated tank has two weeks of fuel in it. 

I like that my generator is the only thing that draws from the tank.  That way, when the house tank is on the low side and we enter into a 5 day outage, I'm not scrambling for a delivery.  I know the dedicated tank has two weeks of fuel in it.

That makes sense. It also kinda makes me want to install another propane tank, as I can't bear the thought of anybody having more propane than me...

I like that my generator is the only thing that draws from the tank.  That way, when the house tank is on the low side and we enter into a 5 day outage, I'm not scrambling for a delivery.  I know the dedicated tank has two weeks of fuel in it.

That makes sense. It also kinda makes me want to install another propane tank, as I can't bear the thought of anybody having more propane than me...

I got a guy in Watsonville that refurbs and sells tanks if you wanna chat with him