When my kids were 4 & 2 we lived 20 miles from the nearest town. We had freezing fog that lasted for several days and took down power lines for miles and miles. We were without power for 10 weeks. We had a generator but it was just big enough to power the freezer and fridge and the tv if nothing else was on. We had to drive to town to do laundry. The heat and cooking were propane only so that helped a lot.

A manual pump for your well? I did not know they were available. Can you PM me? I would like to know more information about it.

Don't say that Roberta. We have an all house generator, and so far in the 2 years we have had to use it 3 times. Once was for 2 1/2 days, others for about 24 hours a piece. And of course the occassional hour or so. But it has been money well spent. We had a power outage for four days when we first purchased the generator--purchased sitting in the driveway not installed!!!

sounds to me like when you finally get your power on, you might begin thinking about the things you need to keep your home going smoothly for the next time the power goes out..i know that folks around here think that i wear a tin foil cap but, should i lose my electricity i have managed over the last few years to work around that and make electrical power as not being all that important..no, i am not talking solar..i have propane cookstove and fireplace, a treadle sewing machine, oil lamps, a water source etc...and enough food for a very long time. have a plan A and a plan B. be prepared.

All is good advice Caryn. I did have a burner cook stove, oil lamps, and the treadle sewing machine and a small generator. The lack of water was the hardest thing to deal with. At least there was 6 inches of snow on the ground to heat for washing. I think that I was not emotionally prepared for the length of the outage. So, I am in the process of planning for another outage (or an even worse emergency) even if there is not another one for a long, long time.

Good luck to you. Hoping you get power soon so you can return to normal.

Hi Everyone,
Hope you all are doing well and getting your power restored. I grew up in the Midwest and had to deal with tornadoes amd the total sudden devistation it can cause. Having relocated to the VA/NC border area, being prepared for Hurricanes was very important to us. Hubby was military and would be sent to sea. But, people living in this area are so unprepared. They (not everyone) waits until less than 24 hours to prepare and then flock to wipe out stores. Hubby and I stock up on the essentials as the Commonwealth of VA gives people a tax break on items for a week to be prepared before Hurricane Season starts. We have a gas fireplace in case the power goes out in the winter. We use the "tap lights" to provide the best power to our condo which means no generator for the unit permitted. Maybe in the next place/house we will get that. They can't evacuate this area in a hurry if they tried. But winter is here which means we will also face the chance of snow shutting down the area. They are not prepared for snow and all those idiots took the hurricane supplies back after the season ended thinking it was a good idea. We have a couple of boxes set aside with supplies and make sure the pantry is stocked.

I feel for you. Same thing happened to us in October with the freaky snow storm in New England that took down trees that still had leaves and wiped out power lines. Not fun, but it sounds like you're coping - barely - LOL. It's especially tough when you're the last one with your power out, because the power company doesn't consider you to be as urgent as a line where many people are without power. However, the squeaky wheel does get greased, so keep complaining!

When my ex was in USAF and we stationed in the UK, we lived on the economy and power outages in winter were frequent. We had a parafin heater to keep us warm and to cook on. So much fun...NOT

I'm always afraid of being without power in the dead of winter and we've had some bad ones but the cost of the generators are so expensive. We've got plenty of heavy comforters and blankets and we've got a large wood burning fireplace and we can cook on the BBQ outside for meals and I can boil water as it's got an extension for boiling or griddle. I hope all that are without power can get it going again soon = were supposed to be getting heavy snow over the next 2 days.