HELLO, THAR!

[Bob Wright]

Last saturday night, around 11:00 p.m. a violent storm passed over Memphis. There was thunder and lightning and high winds. Winds reached 100 m.p.h. and at 11:06 we lost power. We were kept awake by car alarms going off all during the night as each clap of thunder jarred the ground so much. We slept until 6:30 a.m. as our alarm clock failed to go off. We (Nita and I) slept in, as we had been kept awake most of the night. When I did survey the damage I saw big limbs from our maple tree down in the yard, and plenty of other debris from oak and sycamore trees. Damage on our street was not bad, though many trees had come down. One house on the next street to us was crushed by a large oak tree, the entire front of the house fallen down. Also a SUV was crushed. We drove around the neighborhood to see crushed utility poles and downed trees. We were able to got to a Kroger that was open and bought forty pounds of ice and stored some food in a cooler. We did lose some meat and our beloved fudge bars. And was unable to make coffee. We have two coal oil lamps and a couple of flashlights which we made do with. Power was restored at our house yesterday at 11:30 a.m. Initial reports were 190,000 were without power. The news last night reported 78,000 at the beginning of the broadcast, and 72,000 by the end of the news. By tonight the number stands at 60,000. And it is hot here, 85 degrees with 90% humidity. Power companies from the surrounding area are coming in to help. The mayor estimates six million dollars will be required for clean-up.

Even after power was restored I could not connect to the internet until about an hour ago, or around 7:00 p.m.

Bob Wright

 

[protoolman]

Coal oil lamps? That would be Kerosene lamps for us younger folks right?

 

[volshooter]

Uhh, we use kerosene.
We have a dozen or so and emergency candles.
Ain't heard it called coal oil in 30 years. You been in a deep freeze or jest makin fun?

 

[Bob Wright]

Uhh, we use kerosene.
We have a dozen or so and emergency candles.
Ain't heard it called coal oil in 30 years. You been in a deep freeze or jest makin fun?

Well, actually the fluid we used is called lamp oil. But coal oil lamps is all I know, except for the Aladdin lamps, which I've never used.

Bob Wright

 

[Bob Wright]

"We go to bed pretty early at night,
it's hard to see by the coal oil light,
a jug of coal oil costs a dime,
We're gonna stay up late, come pickin' time."

Johnny Cash, Pickin' Time



Bob Wright

 

[SR1911SHOOTER]

Last saturday night, around 11:00 p.m. a violent storm passed over Memphis. There was thunder and lightning and high winds. Winds reached 100 m.p.h. and at 11:06 we lost power. We were kept awake by car alarms going off all during the night as each clap of thunder jarred the ground so much. We slept until 6:30 a.m. as our alarm clock failed to go off. We (Nita and I) slept in, as we had been kept awake most of the night. When I did survey the damage I saw big limbs from our maple tree down in the yard, and plenty of other debris from oak and sycamore trees. Damage on our street was not bad, though many trees had come down. One house on the next street to us was crushed by a large oak tree, the entire front of the house fallen down. Also a SUV was crushed. We drove around the neighborhood to see crushed utility poles and downed trees. We were able to got to a Kroger that was open and bought forty pounds of ice and stored some food in a cooler. We did lose some meat and our beloved fudge bars. And was unable to make coffee. We have two coal oil lamps and a couple of flashlights which we made do with. Power was restored at our house yesterday at 11:30 a.m. Initial reports were 190,000 were without power. The news last night reported 78,000 at the beginning of the broadcast, and 72,000 by the end of the news. By tonight the number stands at 60,000. And it is hot here, 85 degrees with 90% humidity. Power companies from the surrounding area are coming in to help. The mayor estimates six million dollars will be required for clean-up.

Even after power was restored I could not connect to the internet until about an hour ago, or around 7:00 p.m.

Bob Wright

Bob,
I feel for you without Coffee. Here in Texas, we occasionally have a hurricane or two, and it is inconvenient.
Sounds like y'all made it ok. News stories from there are indicating heavy damage.
Blackie

 

[LAH]

I always make coffee on my camp stove when the power is off but I can't imagine living where you are without air conditioning. Hope your power is on soon.

 

[blume357]

That explains the light show to the North West I watched as my wife and I flew out of Atlanta at around 10:30... actually I think I filmed it on my smart phone. Oh and when we were coming into Atlanta from Minneapolis I remember the pilot coming on and saying we were descending from 39,000 ft. Seems we flew over the storms.

 

[mikewriter]

Living on the Texas COAST, hurricanes are more than "inconvenient"! Last big one we had we were without power 2 weeks, and I lost a boat I had worked on for 7 years. For me, that was worse than the tornado tearing our house up a couple of years later! "The season" officially began yesterday, and we are hoping to get by - again - without a "Big One". Talked to a fishing buddy from Alabama a few years back, after that part of the coast took a real smashing, and he said when he built his next house, he would cut down every tree on the property first, as few houses in his area survived the storm without a tree on top, or through the roof. I'm thinking about that as we clear the jungle on our woods property to maybe build out there.

Glad ya'll made it through OK.

Mike

 

[pete44ru]

.

Why I long ago bought/installed a residential generator..........

I glad you weren't hit as hard as your neighbors - crushed vehicles/homes are bad cess.


.

 

[Fox Mike]

Glad you and the missus are OK. I still have a coal oil stove and lamps. Somewhere in the depths of the garage is a true coal oil can. You know, the kind you stick a potato in the spout to keep the smell down. Don't let 'em get on ya Bob. :D :D

 

[#1rugerman]

Back when I lived 50 miles north of the gulf coast there were certain things that we kept handy for prolonged power outages. Flashlights with spare batteries, in the house and in vehicles. Always fill vehicles at the first sign of a major storm. Have water on hand, if a hurricane was expected we filled everything that would hold water in case of a water shortage including trash cans, bathtubs (for flushing the toilets, washing dishes, etc) . Long term - we had two freezers that we tried to keep full of meat, vegetables, seafood, etc. we kept most of it in a chest type freezer and the immediate use stuff in our upright. As we emptied out the chest we would fill the empty space with ice (buckets, bags, whatever to fill the space and in a power outage that ice would hold the freezer cold for a long time as long as we kept the lid closed. When hurricane Fredrick came to visit we emptied the chest freezer, loaded it in my dads truck filled it with as much frozen food as it would hold and drove it 30 miles north to my aunts house and parked it in their yard and ran a extension cord to the house to keep it powered up. We made sure the propane tank for our fish cooker was filled, stocked up on charcoal, and made sure we had firewood as a last resort if we needed to cook in the fireplace (a couple of cans of stereo can also come in handy). A kerosene lamp and candles were always on hand, but usually after a major storm you lived on daylight time (up at dawn down at dark). Hope this helps. Just remembered we would rinse out plastic milk and juice jugs, fill with water and freeze them and place them wherever they would fit in either freezer. These jugs also came in handy for fishing, etc. trips where we would take a ice chest, the large piece of ice lasted a long time and as it melted you could drink the ice water and whatever was in the ice chest was not floating in water.