Winter Storm in the East

[preppy]

We are getting a big winter storm which is par for the course, but with the expected winds and below freezing temps I am pretty nervous about the power going out and having no heat with two small children. We don't have a functioning fireplace in our home. Once the storm clears we could go to my moms but we couldn't access her home mid storm due to the fact that it would involve crossing two bridges that I wouldn't dare try in a snow/wind storm. 

Is anyone else concerned about the wind/power/frigid temps with kids at home? What is your plan?

[Susie]

This isn't helpful for you, but if we lose power we can ride it out for a while with a wood burning fireplace and a gas range to cook hot food. If we had to keep the fire burning 24/7, we'd have enough wood to go for a couple days, I think.

[mbcdefg]

My mom lives 30 minutes away, but ditto about having to cross bridges to get to her place. We have other family members within an hour's drive who would certainly put us up if we asked.

There's a hotel right around the corner from our house, and a couple more within a 10-minute drive. But of course, if we lose power then they might as well.

We have a fireplace, but it hasn't been inspected or used in several years and we're not about to risk it. 

I haven't really thought about it beyond that :/

[Velar Fricative]

I didn't start developing a plan until around 5 minutes ago because I thought we'd just be getting a few inches of snow but now they've upped how windy it's going to be and mention that power outages may happen here too.

DH won't be home until late tonight so after the kids go to bed, I'm going to put our flashlights in an easy place to find. We don't have a fireplace at all so no fire options for us except candles, which we're nervous about. My ILs never lose power even when much of the area loses power (they had power the entire time when Sandy hit), so we'd want to head over there but your post reminded me that we're on an island and need to cross a bridge to get there so who knows if that's possible. We have three other bridges and know people on the other side of those bridges too if one direction ends up better than the other for us. If anyone we know on the island ends up keeping power, we won't hesitate to ask if we can come over to stay warm; we'd welcome the same if we don't lose power but others do. I think we'll be okay doing some driving, but obviously not long distances.

If we have to stay put, our first floor gets the warmest so we'd just park ourselves there until the power comes on. We're okay with food, water and baby formula. Our cars have enough gas in them too and we have cash if needed. We don't have a generator though; it's one of those purchases we think about making but then never do.

[janegold]

Hmm, no, I hadn't really considered it to be honest. We have forced hot water radiators in our condo so I don't think that would be impacted by a power outage (but maybe it would...don't know whether the boiler depends on electricity at all). I guess if necessary, we would probably call around to hotels to find out if they still have heat/power/generator.

[dale]

Do you have friends nearby? I've found that with times of no power/heat in the winter, friends are always willing to say "Come here and stay warm!" But until you could get to them - charge all cell phones and the travel battery packs if you have them. Crank the heat to high so that if you do lose power you have some time to deal with it. Be sure to have plenty of warm clothes and blankets. We try to keep those little hand and foot warmers in the house also. Do you have a gas stove that you can light without power? If so, boiling big pots of water add some (not too much, but some) heat to the room.
Good Luck!

[pooh8402]

Why not just go to your mom's now and hunker down there?

[noodleoo]

Yup, I just started googling food we can eat during a power outage. The longest we’ve lost power before is 24 hours, but we haven’t lost it since having DD which is an extra wrinkle. Plus given how cold it is, I’m pretty nervous. I’m planning to take a few things out of the fridge and put them in a cooler in the garage so we don’t have to keep opening the fridge (like milk for DD, maybe some cheese and other snacks, meatballs we can cook for dinner). We are lucky that wee have a gas stove and fireplace (that actually works when the power is out). That’s what we used last time to stay warm. We’re charging devices and have lanterns/batteries standing by. 

Ugh this winter sucks.

[starburst604]

Ugh I hope we don’t lose power, we are screwed if we do. We’ve been fine in other storms so knock on wood we’ll be ok again.

BUT WE HAVE BREAD AND MILK LOL!

[ewall]

We have a wood-burning fireplace with blower that we could hook up to a small generator. But we always end up at my mom's because why suffer when we can be comfortable. A whole house generator is on our list of home improvements given how often we lose power.

Our go-to's during power outages are battery powered lanterns and the shelf-stable Horizon milk boxes. Plus cash, gassed up cars, and fully charged devices. Bottled water and disposable plates/cups/utensils.

[scm1011]

I’m worried, too. We have a Homewood Suites a few blocks away, so the second the power goes out I’ll book a suite. I’ve considered making a reservation now just in case, but I don’t want to throw away money.

[vtdiamond]

Yup, I’m worried as well. We lost power for 2 days during a storm back in October. We also don’t have a working fireplace. During the Oct outage we used the grill to cook things and didn’t get too cold. I’m nervous this time as it will be much colder. If we do have an outage we would probably go to a hotel.

[mainelyfoolish]

We have a portable generator and plenty of gas in cans, so I'm not too worried about power outage. If we didn't have the generator, I'd be filling my bathtub with water so we can flush toilets (we're on a well) and turning the heat way up so the house is plenty warm if/when the power does go out. The worst part of running on the generator is not watching tv (my kids' school tomorrow is cancelled)!

[CheeringCharm]

We have a generator. I have no idea how to use it though. I should probably learn in case it ever happens when DH isn’t home.

[Mrs.flang]

Ugh I have not been following the weather. We have a fireplace but it doesn’t seem to throw that much heat usually.

[minionkevin]

We have a generator + gas, a full fridge and freezer, blankets, flashlights, batteries, and a gas range. My parents are an hour away but in a coastal area that is supposed to get hit worse than my inland one. Also our one 4WD vehicle is in the shop.

[imimahoney]

We'll be screwed if we don't have power. They cancelled school at 3, the earliest it's been in a LONG time. Hopefully it will be all cleaned up for Friday.

[memenee]

We were without power for several days post-Sandy. We had our fireplace going, lots of layers on and under tons of blankets yet the temps outside weren't even horrendous. But damn I can remember being so cold!

I'm much more worried about losing power tomorrow with the very bad winds and temps in the high teens. Ugh.

Good luck everyone - stay safe!

ETA: Where is everyone located? NJ here. Expecting bad wind and last I checked only 3" of snow.

[preppy]

Jan 3, 2018 16:36:19 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

My mom lives 30 minutes away, but ditto about having to cross bridges to get to her place. We have other family members within an hour's drive who would certainly put us up if we asked.

There's a hotel right around the corner from our house, and a couple more within a 10-minute drive. But of course, if we lose power then they might as well.

We have a fireplace, but it hasn't been inspected or used in several years and we're not about to risk it. 

I haven't really thought about it beyond that :/

Checking into a hotel isn’t a bad option if we needed it. There are plenty around we could walk or drive to.

[preppy]

Jan 3, 2018 16:54:41 GMT -5 pooh8402 said:

Why not just go to your mom's now and hunker down there?

If I did that we prob wouldn’t lose power, lol. But really cause I would really rather not get snowed in with my mom but it’s prob the obvious answer.

[preppy]

Jan 3, 2018 17:24:01 GMT -5 starburst604 said:

Ugh I hope we don’t lose power, we are screwed if we do. We’ve been fine in other storms so knock on wood we’ll be ok again.

BUT WE HAVE BREAD AND MILK LOL!

We have food to make chili and beef stew and propane for the grill. So we can eat if we don’t freeze to death! lol.

[preppy]

Jan 3, 2018 18:15:55 GMT -5 memenee said:

We were without power for several days post-Sandy. We had our fireplace going, lots of layers on and under tons of blankets yet the temps outside weren't even horrendous. But damn I can remember being so cold!

I'm much more worried about losing power tomorrow with the very bad winds and temps in the high teens. Ugh.

Good luck everyone - stay safe!

ETA: Where is everyone located? NJ here. Expecting bad wind and last I checked only 3" of snow.

We are coastal RI and now it’s up to 14” now. Meh.

[mbcdefg]

Jan 3, 2018 18:15:55 GMT -5 memenee said:

We were without power for several days post-Sandy. We had our fireplace going, lots of layers on and under tons of blankets yet the temps outside weren't even horrendous. But damn I can remember being so cold!

I'm much more worried about losing power tomorrow with the very bad winds and temps in the high teens. Ugh.

Good luck everyone - stay safe!

ETA: Where is everyone located? NJ here. Expecting bad wind and last I checked only 3" of snow.

I’m also in NJ, near Newark.

We lost power for three days after Sandy. My mom’s in hudson County and was without power for 10 days.

We were just brainstorming where we could go if we lose power/heat, but our family is all in NYC, South Jersey and Orange County NY so we probably won’t have luck with that.

[memenee]

mbcdefg hello (sorta) neighbor - Union County here. Stay safe and good luck!

[lifetaketwo]

I just came home to a flooded basement...

[preppy]

Jan 3, 2018 18:37:56 GMT -5 lifetaketwo said:

I just came home to a flooded basement...

Noooo! Pipes?

[brooklyn]

NYC public schools closed tomorrow!

[lifetaketwo]

Jan 3, 2018 18:38:55 GMT -5 preppy said:

Jan 3, 2018 18:37:56 GMT -5 lifetaketwo said:

I just came home to a flooded basement...

Noooo! Pipes?

Yeah my FIL is driving an hour to help hopefully restore the heat today. H actually thinks they may not be frozen and just weird timing?

[icedcoffee]

We would go to my ILs but it would be a last resort because they are a lot. They have a generator and are 20 minutes away. If the roads were bad we'd be outta luck. We have a fireplace but it doesn't really heat the house all that much.

[raangoli]

Jan 3, 2018 18:37:50 GMT -5 memenee said:

mbcdefg hello (sorta) neighbor - Union County here. Stay safe and good luck!

Hi! Me too! And I didn’t realize the potential for a power outage until now. I tend to stick my head in the sand when it comes to snow storms ever since BB* was born.

We have enough food and batteries and if need be, family within 20-75 minutes that we could drive to stay with so I guess that would be our plan.

*BB = blizzard baby. She was born 9 weeks early during a January blizzard almost 2 year ago without any warning. I will never let her live that down and remind her every time it snows lol