Tulsa Without Power

[FNSafari]

We all got to see a preview of what a widespread grid failure would look like following hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, for those of you who remember.

Oh yes I remember seeing that on TV and reading about it. Total chaos, some would say anarchy!

 

[Spoonbill]

Mannford area checking in. My wife and I road tripped to the Black Mesa this weekend and had no idea it even stormed at the house till we got home late yesterday evening.
We have some tree damage and it took out a big section of our fence. We had to come north to Bartlesville to find a hotel as all the Tulsa area hotels were full. My wife talked to a neighbor this morning that said it could take a week to get our power back on.

 

[FNSafari]

My loss would be a freezer full of meat.
Have a 6kw jenny and a manual transfer system, but I haven't refilled my gas tanks.
As far as affordability, I bought my jenny for $100 - it had a leaking fuel line and needed a carb rebuild. I start it up and test it 4x per year.
Power goes out in sketchy neighborhoods and there's gunplay. Wouldn't have predicted that ...

Like Larry Vickers used to say in his gun vids, "lets light er up!"

 

[FNSafari]

I was thinking those very things. I doesn't help to have a gas stove if your fridge is dead and your food is spoiled.

You can't read in the dark.

Regarding food, think Mountain House, or others!

 

[M-61]

I was thinking those very things. I doesn't help to have a gas stove if your fridge is dead and your food is spoiled.

You can't read in the dark.

But the non-perishable stuff is fine. Starting with my coffee

 

[Dimner]

my daughter (13yrs) and I have a plan for when the grid fails nation wide. Everyone is going to be rushing to the grocery store, gas station, gun stores, etc.... We are going to secure a liquor distribution center. Eventually liquor will be a currency. It was her idea. I'm on board.

 

[AlNyhus]

Up here on the Northern Plains, a generator is pretty standard.

 

[M-61]

$3k+professional installation)

Rough rule of thumb for those considering it:
Generator is 1/3
Installation is another 1/3
Propane tank another 1/3 not filled
It’s a big investment for sure.
My figures are for where I live. No clue what it is anywhere else.

 

[M-61]

In the event of a major (nationwide) outage, even gas will be unavailable. - electricity required to maintain pressure. A generator will be good for a few days until you run out of fuel (your gas station requires electricity to pump from their tanks).

That would be another whole set of reasons to go with propane. Will it run out? Yup. Never goes bad. Big plus. Storage size depends on how much money you can spend. Can it be refilled without electricity? Sure providing the delivery truck has been already filled at the provider.
Propane will buy some time.

 

[ebb]

The summer of 2004 we were without power on 3 separate occasions the shortest was 11days to lonest was 17 days. In West Palm Beach had some looting, not much considering who lives there. Judge Nelson live one block over from me was quoted in the Palm Beach Post saying " All my neighbors in Loxahatchee think looters should be shot. I am beginning to come around to their way of thinking. You may want to try and avoid my court till my A/C works again." When the power was restored the last time My wife and i had nursed the freezer along on the generator for over 2 weeks while i worked during the day. Pike electric showed up on the day we cooked all the meat in the freezer. We all had lunch together, meet a nice bunch of guys. One was a little edgy , he tells me "Hey can you do something with your neighbor, he keeps talking to me in Spanish and I don't know what he is saying. He's pissing me off." So for lunch i found the lineman a seat on a lawn chair and Alajandro sat with me on the tailgate of the GMC. You all in Tulsa need to learn to get along.

 

[okie]

hope you get power soon...im running on "blue power"---miller bobcat lol
couple neighbors running lincolns...

 

[wedgy]

The huge wildfires here in California were caused by wind knocking over trees into power lines so whenever there are hot, dry condition and so much as a breeze Edison would chop the power. It was getting ridiculous at one point about noon to 7pm or later it would be out every day so most people had portable generators going. That gets real noisy in a tract neighborhood but if you want to keep you perishable food and some light electronics going you have to. I am well stocked on LED headlamps, flashlights, etc. and lithium ion batteries. The stoplights would be out also so they put generators at most intersections. Edison has been on a rampage cutting down trees near the lines and replacing all the poles and lines for the last couple years now. They hired a ton of outside contractors, must be nice to have so much money that you can hire someone else to do your job.
That's interesting about the 5G because I used to get cell and internet service at my range but not now that they "upgraded" it recently to 5G.
I hope they get you power back on soon, it's a pain without it.

 

[L1986]

I’m on the south side of town and still no power here…been out since Saturday night at midnight. Latest update we have is it will be back on by this coming Saturday…luckily we have a generator going to power the refrigerator and chest freezer and a portable ac unit for the bedroom. Stay safe out there!

 

[Dave M.]

Where I live power outages are a way of life. DTE has a really bad infrastructure. We will get outages for far too many reasons.

Too hot
Ice storms
Severe wind
Thunder storms
Tornados
Cat sneezes

A generator here is a must have. Oh and I live in county with 1.3 million people. It doesn't get too hairy. Maybe because it's hairy all the time?

Edit to mention..

The generator we have is your normal lowes purchased portable gas Jenny. It's enough to run the fridge, charge batteries for phones and flashlights, run an extension cord for misc.

The WORST is winter outages. Ice storms, 30 degrees out and it takes days to get power back. Meanwhile unless you have a whole house ($3k+professional installation) generator, your our furnace is not going to be on and it's a race against time for the water in your pipes.

Michigan is horrible for power outages and don’t even get me started on construction so they can slap down a layer asphalt that will crumble in one winter. I swear our state does the dumbest shit with power, water and construction; just so they can later say they created 500 jobs to fix the same issue. Assuming you live nowhere near Michigan, just google Flint water crisis and see what a joke it is here. We are surrounded by fresh water and have communities that haven’t had usable water from their tap in almost 10 years.
Dave

 

[urbanrifleman]

Michigan is horrible for power outages and don’t even get me started on construction so they can slap down a layer asphalt that will crumble in one winter. I swear our state does the dumbest shit with power, water and construction; just so they can later say they created 500 jobs to fix the same issue. Assuming you live nowhere near Michigan, just google Flint water crisis and see what a joke it is here. We are surrounded by fresh water and have communities that haven’t had usable water from their tap in almost 10 years.
Dave

I think they're roads in Mexico are probably better than the roads in Tulsa. I grew up here and I'm 100% shocked at the absolutely crumbling infrastructure in this city. And there's not going to be any solution to. It's too far gone now to ever catch back up there's no revenue coming in to the city because our city is set up for service industries casinos and dispensaries.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Those are good points. It doesn't get dark here till 8:30 pm or so. I read until it gets dark. I open the fridge and freezer sparingly. So I might lose something like milk. Where I live, hurricanes often cause power outages, so most people have backup generators. (I can't afford one).
My comment was based on the idea that we all (me included) rely (or are addicted to) computers and TV's. When the power is on, I stay up too late, eat too much, and don't feel so good. When the power is off, I go to bed early, eat less, and wake up feeling energized.

Oh don't get me wrong I agree with you. And this has really got me thinking about how much time I spend doing absolutely nothing staring at a screen. So you are correct.

I think my comments were more about the fact that I was shocked to find that I walk into every room and hit the light switch even though I have no power. I pull my truck out of the driveway and hit my garage door opener even though I have no power. I think to go look up something for a customer and then I realize I have no power so I have no internet connection. I have my phone and that's about it but when I didn't have my phone I sure got a lot done.

 

[urbanrifleman]

I've been speaking to my friends and I speak to my fiance who's 13 years younger than me and I realize how few people here in Tulsa have any frame of reference because most of the people here now are not from Tulsa or even Oklahoma. Most of them came here from West Coast or East Coast hell holes. So they come here and think it's great. Compared to the hell holes they came from that is. Compared to the Tulsa of the 1960s and 1970s Tulsa is a hell hole. It is declining as fast as any other city except for maybe we don't have the violence problems. But our infrastructure is horrible as bad as I've ever seen in any place. I think the roads in Detroit are better than the roads in Tulsa.

A few more nights of no power and this place might get downright spicy at night. Some of these apartments around here I can't imagine what it must be like on the second floor when it's 90 plus degrees and everybody's crammed together.

 

[okie]

I've been speaking to my friends and I speak to my fiance who's 13 years younger than me and I realize how few people here in Tulsa have any frame of reference because most of the people here now are not from Tulsa or even Oklahoma. Most of them came here from West Coast or East Coast hell holes. So they come here and think it's great. Compared to the hell holes they came from that is. Compared to the Tulsa of the 1960s and 1970s Tulsa is a hell hole. It is declining as fast as any other city except for maybe we don't have the violence problems. But our infrastructure is horrible as bad as I've ever seen in any place. I think the roads in Detroit are better than the roads in Tulsa.

A few more nights of no power and this place might get downright spicy at night. Some of these apartments around here I can't imagine what it must be like on the second floor when it's 90 plus degrees and everybody's crammed together.

come down here and experience D-FW every weekend...
its not same place as where i grew up.
i agree T. is falling apart...okc died long time ago

 

[Rube Shooter]

come down here and experience D-FW every weekend...
its not same place as where i grew up.
i agree T. is falling apart...okc died long time ago

At least you're just visiting DFW on the weekends.
I live here and the streets aren't getting any maintenance. I would be happy if they put some stripes on the road.
I think all the money being spent on roads is going towards the highway projects that never end and the construction of toll roads.
I pray you folks get your power back on soon.

 

[urbanrifleman]

come down here and experience D-FW every weekend...
its not same place as where i grew up.
i agree T. is falling apart...okc died long time ago

I used to live in Richardson. At least Dallas has parts of it where the infrastructure is impeccable. Of course it has its really rough parts too. But Tulsa doesn't have any impeccable parts anymore. My fiance and I will drive through some of the fanciest neighborhoods in the whole city and the roads are like going on a 4x4 trail ride.