No Power for Days in St. Louis

I'm so glad to be in air conditioning again. The St. Louis area had a major storm on Wednesday afternoon. The original estimates of power outages was in the 250,000 to 300,000 range. By Thurday morning that number was up to 465,000 households or business. Another storm rolled through on Friday causing more power outages. The total number topped out at 572,000 cutomers affecting some 1.4 million people. While my power has been out since Wednesday, many had their's restored only to loose it again in the Friday storm.

The best guess is that my power might be on by Wednesday. I wasn't too worried about the power being out at first because I have a large family and just thought I would stay with one of them. We lived in several different communities across the St. Louis area. Unfornately, no one in the family has power. Also no power at work.

We are all learning what live on the praire was like before we all took electricity for granted. No refrigeration. No gas (many of the gas stations don't have power.) No cold food or drinks (grocery stores are also out). The neighborhood had a gigantic cook out of the frozen food in everyone's freezer. The neighborhood also spent Saturday afternoon cleaning up the broken trees in several elderly residents yards.

Everyone is trying to work together. Several discount stores are offering to charge your cell phones while you shop. I haven't needed to eat any of the MRE's that are being offered. I've been trying our new restaurants, preferably those with AC. I'm at the library checking out large print books that I can read by flashlight or candlelight.

I'll update you when I have power again.

We'll be thinking of you and our other St. Louis area friends during this trying time, Judy. With the mid-east war news, we haven't heard much about the seriousness of the power outage in your areas.

Large print books by flashlight - I like that one Judy!

Sure wish you and everyone affected the best of luck in getting restored as quickly as possible.

My fridge conked out this past Monday, one of our hottest days. I crammed what I could into one of those mini ones I have in the basement. And made a special effort to keep the beer cold in a cooler with ice!

Hooray, we have power at work. I never thought I'd be so excited to go to work.

I got my power back about 8:30 last evening only to have it go out again at Midnight. I know they are working in my area today and hopefully I will be back to normal tomorrow. The cool weekend (low to mid 80s) allowed them to get a lot of the power restored.

Phew... we feel with you... Hope your power will be back to normal soon.

I feel for you, too - we lost ours with the set of storms last week for two days - I had to toss (2) 13-gallon garbage bags of food between the fridge and the freezer, since we haven't invested in a backup generator yet. Thankfully we live in the woods, but it was still pretty stifling at 85 and humid!

Lots of thunder boomers moved over our neighborhood last night. No power outage, thank goodness! I can't imagine being without power for days! Well I guess I can imagine it, but don't want to live it.

That's not much fun. Hope you have it back by now.
My A/C stopped working last weekend and I was without it for almost three days. Why do things like that always happen on a weekend? Living in Florida, the temp was in the 90's.
After reading about you, I guess I was lucky getting it back as soon as I did.

Boy, do I feel for you; imagine what it's like when a hurricane goes through and you are left without a/c for months?! Mine went out over Mother's Day weekend. Fortunately, we had a "cool front" and it was in the 80's. So it was tolerable until the a/c guy came out Monday.

Thankfully, I filled the bathtub with water so we had something to flush with since we are on well water; but we were scrimping and washing our hands in a large bowl and using that water to flush with, too! I think I taught Mary something new!

Okay, Jen, you asked for it; if you live in the woods (how fantastic is that?!), will you post pictures for us? I'm sure you have great ones of your beautiful surroundings.

Heck, I want to see the bathtub full of water, too, Grace.

So when you hear thunder off in the distance, you automatically fill up the tub?

Or was one of the kids in the tub when the power went out and you thought "I better not pull the plug, we're gonna need this water to flush the toilet!"

Either way, I'm impressed, Jen.

Boy, talk about Inspirational Imagery! :rolleyes:

Have you ever noticed that it's the AC that goes out on the HOTTEST days and the HEAT that stops working on the COLDEST ones?

Wonder why that is?

it is "Murphy's Law" .... what else...

My best friend Todd is a crew leader for Com Ed, the power company for northern Illinois. Because of the heat, they had been working 16 hours days, 7 days a week. He had'nt seen his kids (awake)in over a week. I called him last Monday and he was telling me that he was finally going to get a break, and be back to 8 hour days starting last Tuesday. Then the storms came through Monday night. Needless to say, he stayed on 16's all the way through this past weekend. He finally got a break of a day off, but is still on 16 hour days. Talk about being drained. Keep the guys trying to get everyones power back on in your prayers.
Heat, fatigue and electricity don't mix well!

Mike

I knew the system that was going through was nastier than usual, so I thought I'd take the extra step. I don't usually fill the tub, but it was as dark as night at 4pm. I guess I've learned a bit about weather from all my times photographing in adverse weather at the Lakeshore.

Debbie, I'd be happy to post some shots. I'll start a different thread under "Nothing to Do With Anything".

That is very true. Those electrical arcs that jump around from the lines to your sweating body can kill you in an instant. My oldest sun works for the power company in my town and the protection they must wear when dealing with live lines is quite elaborate and not conducive to comfort on hot days. Working around high voltage can be really dangerous.

Bob

My niece moved to Scottsdale this past Spring because of a promotion from her employer. I know its been really hot, but actually how cold can it be in the Fall and Winter months?

Bob

Well, the power is off again at home. Hopefully, it won't be more than a day. It seems that as they start removing the downed trees more wires are also being pulled down. Today's temp is expected to be in the upper 90s. The heat index was 105 yesterday and expected higher today. I just hope that the power at work stays on.

Please keep the electric workers in your prayers. Over the last few days there has been 1 death, and several injuries. Like Mike said they are working 16 hours days in high heat and humidity.

Don't make fun of Jen's filling the bathtub! I think the first time I did it was for Y2K. Remember when the world as we knew it was supposed to end???

I've done it several times since then when severe storms were forcasted. Sort of like insurance. (One time I did it and wondered why the water looked so bad. Didn't realize that the tub needed a good scrub. ) Of course I always have a river full of water if I need it.

Still no working fridge here for us.
Now here's the deal. If you buy a new appliance these days and it's not right when you get it, it's your responsibility to contact the manufacturer as well as the dealer. Manufacturers are the only ones who can authorize a replacement and they are supposedly more responsive to customers than dealers.

We got through to Maytag once and they gave I.O. some story about bowed doors and how the dealer would have to come out again and then call Maytag to get new doors. I tried several times to call Maytag again to request a new fridge and never got a supervisor to speak with, just 15-20 minutes of music. By yesterday afternoon the fridge was worse than ever and the dealer hadn't shown up by the time promised.

By then it was 90 out and hot inside (no ac to break down) and I was really p.o.'d. I called the store and asked them to contact the owner/tech and tell him I needed a working fridge that day. So then he got p.o'd too and said he'd credit my charge card and pick up the bad fridge this morning.

So off we went to Sears to get another fridge. That won't come until tomorrow so we're sort of camping out in the basement where I'm working out of a mini fridge and two coolers.

Now of course this is a very mild case of heat related stress but it sure is frustrating. Of course it couldn't have been winter when all you have to do it toss you stuff outside or in an unheated porch.

I really feel for everyone who has to work outside in these conditions.