Ice Storm AAR

[patton487]

Here's my short AAR

Lost power Monday night. Lit all of the wall mounted "decorations"

Started the Generator the day before to test. Never actually had to use it.

We use this woodburner for our primary heating. Although with no power the blower couldn't circulate the heat as well as usual. The kids camped out in the living room near the fire and had a blast.

Plenty of firewood (had to chip the ice off the top row!)

We have a propane stove, so cooking was not an issue. But just for fun I wanted to see if the woodburner was hot enough to cook breakfast on. Here I made cream of wheat and perked some fresh coffee.

The Eton emergency crank radio worked like a charm to keep us up to date on news and weather. It was nice to have some music in the background too.

Here's a pick of the path to my garage where I about broke my tailbone trying to get to the feed for our chickens.

"Tiger" didn't seem to mind the inclement weather!

We haven't gone anywhere for 4 days. The power came back on Wed. But
the roads out in our rural area are hilly and ice covered.
I'm going to town today though, getting low on milk and bread.

All in all it was not as bad as I thought it would be. The most dangerous thing was when I got on the roof to de-ice our satellite dish. Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done

 

[moischmoe]

Drain your water pipes when the power goes out in the winter. Alot of people have busted pipes now.

 

[unforgiven1203]

I forgot to mention that my eton radio got a lot of use as well. its a great thing to have.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Went to chip ice off my car, then the ice creatures attacked. With the power out, I had to fashion a makeshift torch to scare them away, as we all know ice creatures are frightened by fire.

After a night of door scratching and howling on the roof, I ventured out into the haze of day. My sister fell into a ice chasm that had opened up on the front lawn. She took her entire supply of ammo and food with her, as well as almost pulling me down with her. I struggled to reach the top again, only to be accosted by me neighbors, who had turned rather feral and murderous, yet pack oriented. I soon challenged their leader to hand to hand combat, eventually killing him and becoming pack leader.

With me new trusty tribal assistant, I began to scrape ice off my car. Then the mutants came, scores of them, all mutated from radon in their homes and cold's natural ability to turn people into murderous freaks. TWO days of fighting, in and out of car, critically low on shells and no food, we stumbled back into the house, only to find the former tribal leader still alive and holding my family ransom. The assistant and I formulated a daring plan to rescue them, but failed once he was killed by the leader. A miracle ensued, the roof collapsed upon him, killing him instantly.

I shambled through the wilderness of Avon, dreams shattered of living. I rested upon a frigid oak, frozen, until the thaws came. I awoke in a new world, a world of comparable warmth, superscience and sorcery...

(Sorry, couldn't resist, power went out for an hour, just wore thick clothing around the home. Car was tarp covered, so I got off easy this time. All in all, the preps I made were untouched in the long term...)

 

[03A3]

I've been saying for a while that I'm going to buy a generator, a tri-fuel to run off of natural gas.
What have I done instead? Spent all of my money on guns, ammo, reloading components ect. Yes I've continued to work on my other preps and have made good progress at it.
But when the ice storm came rolling in on us I knew just how bad I'd screwed up. It could've been worse, it was worse for many other people. But this will be my last winter without backup electrical power even if I have to sell something to make it happen.