topic Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings in Community Chat

CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:32:03 GMT

PGE has issued a warning that we're in for blackouts and brownouts this El Nino season.

I'm trying to prepare, getting a lot of LED lanterns, including two hand crank lanterns that will also charge phones. I already have a hand crank radio.

I also have a lot of flameless candles on hand to strew around the house.

Checked DH's stash of batteries, he is more than ready.

Old land line phones will still work, I bought one about 10 years ago, with a cord, and keep in in a drawer.

What are other people doing?

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

gardensla — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:36:23 GMT

Between that and Sig Alerts, gonna be one long winter!

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

MaggieMack — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:41:13 GMT

When I lived on the acreage, my house was hooked up to a gasoline generator. Lost power a few times due to blizzards and ice storms, but never for a long enough time to require me to fire up the generator. I had lots of flashlights and battery lanterns and windups, too. I discovered that even if the electricity goes out, the gas fireplace still works, there's just no blower to force the air. So I never worried about getting cold. Just be sure to have food available that you can eat out of a can, if necessary.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:42:26 GMT

@gardensla wrote:
Between that and Sig Alerts, gonna be one long winter!

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gardensla, are you in SoCal? We haven't had many recent sig alerts up here that I'm aware of.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

MaggieMack — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:43:23 GMT

What is a sig alert? Haven't heard of them in the Midwest.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

sidsmom — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:48:03 GMT

Quick Google search.....

What are Sig-Alerts?
A.
"Sig-Alerts" are unique to Southern California. They came about in the 1940s when the L.A.P.D. got in the habit of alerting a local radio reporter, Loyd Sigmon, of bad car wrecks on city streets. These notifications became known as "Sig-Alerts." Later Mr. Sigmon developed an electronic device that authorities could use to alert the media of disasters. Caltrans latched on to the term "Sig-Alert" and it has come to be known as any traffic incident that will tie up two or more lanes of a freeway for two or more hours.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:48:58 GMT

@MaggieMack wrote:
When I lived on the acreage, my house was hooked up to a gasoline generator. Lost power a few times due to blizzards and ice storms, but never for a long enough time to require me to fire up the generator. I had lots of flashlights and battery lanterns and windups, too. I discovered that even if the electricity goes out, the gas fireplace still works, there's just no blower to force the air. So I never worried about getting cold. Just be sure to have food available that you can eat out of a can, if necessary.

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Hi Maggie!

Thanks for the reminder, I didn't think about food. You're right, and it's good to have a cooler on hand so we don't have to open the frig. Keep a few things in there with ice.

Earthquake 1989, we had no power for a little more than three days. The first night we ate beans out of a can. Some restaurants and grocery stores had backup power, so the next day we drove around to find those nearby and had other choices.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:50:31 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
Quick Google search.....

Q.
What are Sig-Alerts?
A.
"Sig-Alerts" are unique to Southern California. They came about in the 1940s when the L.A.P.D. got in the habit of alerting a local radio reporter, Loyd Sigmon, of bad car wrecks on city streets. These notifications became known as "Sig-Alerts." Later Mr. Sigmon developed an electronic device that authorities could use to alert the media of disasters. Caltrans latched on to the term "Sig-Alert" and it has come to be known as any traffic incident that will tie up two or more lanes of a freeway for two or more hours.

*************************

The term is also used around here but not often.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

icezeus — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:52:27 GMT

Sig alerts refer to severe traffic accidents/incidents in Southern California. I hear about them daily on my commute in to work and home.

We always have one or more freeways that are affected.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

ChynnaBlue — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:55:36 GMT

Those are the basics. I go to a lot of all-day events and have several external phone batteries that don't need cranking and hold a charge for months. My 10,000mAh battery will keep my iPhone 6 charged for a full weekend of heavy use.

Did they mention if they suspect the power will be hour for long periods or for a wide area? If so, you may want to keep a stash of granola bars, foods that don't need cooking, or a portable gas stove of some kind on hand to warm canned foods. If my power goes out at dinner time in good weather, I can usually drive a few miles and find a place where the lights are on and restaurants are open, but if the power goes out over a huge area, that's not so easy.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

MaggieMack — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:56:13 GMT

No wonder I've never heard of Sig Alerts! Our biggest interstate is only two lanes each way. Oh, and our speed limit on those interstates is 80. But I never exceed 65. Unlike when I was in my 20s in California.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

icezeus — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:07:10 GMT

@Noel7

What county are you in. I am only asking because you mentioned that you hardly have any. Orange County, LA County, Riverside County has them frequently as in daily.

I wanted to clarify my statement, at least one or more of those counties will be affected daily, not necessarily that we will have one in every county every day.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:05:24 GMT

@ChynnaBlue wrote:
Those are the basics. I go to a lot of all-day events and have several external phone batteries that don't need cranking and hold a charge for months. My 10,000mAh battery will keep my iPhone 6 charged for a full weekend of heavy use.

Did they mention if they suspect the power will be hour for long periods or for a wide area? If so, you may want to keep a stash of granola bars, foods that don't need cooking, or a portable gas stove of some kind on hand to warm canned foods. If my power goes out at dinner time in good weather, I can usually drive a few miles and find a place where the lights are on and restaurants are open, but if the power goes out over a huge area, that's not so easy.

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Thanks for mentioning the external phone batteries, CB! My daughter has a couple of them for herself and just told me she's getting one for me and one for her father for Christmas. Good thing to ask her to charge them up ahead of time, just in case.

I don't think PGE said how long they thought the blackouts would last, pretty sure DD got the message on Twitter, she's linked to city emergency alerts.

Good points about the food, I do have a store of granola and protein bars I keep for DH, and canned foods, cereal, almond milk in those paper containers, cans of fruit, etc.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:06:37 GMT

@MaggieMack wrote:
No wonder I've never heard of Sig Alerts! Our biggest interstate is only two lanes each way. Oh, and our speed limit on those interstates is 80. But I never exceed 65. Unlike when I was in my 20s in California.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

ROMARY — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:09:46 GMT

Nothing better (almost) than a land line phone. More or less. Although our vast area once had all landlines and cell phones out at the same time (years and years ago; possibly in around 2004 or so). Calm, warm evening, no storms, no wind, etc. Something about a tractor cutting through all of the lines? During the early evening and most of the night......hummmmm..........

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Plaid Pants2 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:07:06 GMT

Sometime in the 1990's we had a powerful windstorm, with one gust reaching 100 mph! For Humboldt County, that is rare.

Anyway, the power was out all over the place. My power was out for four or five days.

It definitely made life interesting. But, it gave me an inkling of what life might have been like before electricity.

Oh, and this happened on New Year's Eve.

I remember having a flashlight and looking at my watch and counting down the seconds until the new year.

It was the quietest ringing in of the new year that I had, up until then.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:10:27 GMT

@icezeus wrote:
@Noel7

What county are you in. I am only asking because you mentioned that you hardly have any. Orange County, LA County, Riverside County has them frequently as in daily.

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Icezeus, We're in the city and county of San Francisco. We have A LOT of traffic issues, they just don't usually call them "Sig Alerts."

The local morning news is always chuck full of traffic warnings plus maps where they occur. ABC also has a downloadable App for updated alerts while on the move.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:14:06 GMT

@ROMARY wrote:
Nothing better (almost) than a land line phone. More or less. Although our vast area once had all landlines and cell phones out at the same time (years and years ago; possibly in around 2004 or so). Calm, warm evening, no storms, no wind, etc. Something about a tractor cutting through all of the lines? During the early evening and most of the night......hummmmm..........

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ROMARY, I just bought us a new set of Panasonic house phones, wireless. They go out in a storm, which is why I keep the antique phone, lol. It always works.

This area is flooded with robo calls, which I hate. I don't want them on the iPhone and so far they just come in on the house phones. Only close friends and family have my iPhone number.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

chickenbutt — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:14:23 GMT

Hmm...I wonder if that will extend over to us. Maybe being further from the ocean, and on the other side of the mountains, it won't. But I guess you never know.

Will have to keep an eye on NVE (our version of PG&E).

Anyway, I hope everybody is able to stay safe.

Even back when we had BIG winters it was seldom that the power ever went out and when it did, it was usually very short-lived. That episode a couple of weeks ago (or whenever that was) was certainly the exception.

Re: CALIFORNIA: Blackout Warnings

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:16:31 GMT

@Plaid Pants2 wrote:
Sometime in the 1990's we had a powerful windstorm, with one gust reaching 100 mph! For Humboldt County, that is rare.

Anyway, the power was out all over the place. My power was out for four or five days.

It definitely made life interesting. But, it gave me an inkling of what life might have been like before electricity.

Oh, and this happened on New Year's Eve.

I remember having a flashlight and looking at my watch and counting down the seconds until the new year.

It was the quietest ringing in of the new year that I had, up until then.

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Five days! The worst part of the three day+ no power here was not being able to shower. DH was able to use his gym shower