Hurricane Sandy-electric co. says possible outages 4-7 or 10 days for some

[graham4anything]

got a call saying be prepared for electricity to go off and if it does, just like last year 4 to 8 days depending on area.

that puts it right on or near election day should it happen, regardless of how nice it is outside by then.

nice of them to feel competent they can keep it all going.


(well, at least we stripped the basement in advance of everything on the floor but the Washer/Dryer)

edited Monday morning, added followup post lower down.

[Lefta Dissenter]

1. I'm sorry, Graham.

[nolabear]

2. Take it all seriously and hang in there. Good luck.

[gkhouston]

3. Sometimes cable modems or cordless phones have batteries for backup power.

Unless your batteries were very fresh and you only used them sporadically, it wouldn't help you for a 4-8 day outage. (And that's assuming your computer has a charged battery, too.)

Has your basement flooded before? Would it be possible/useful to get the washer/dryer up on bricks, boards, or cement blocks??

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. When I had phone service through the cable company, I had one.

It had a built in battery that was supposed to last for 45 minutes if the power went out - so I could use the phone. I don't know if it also worked for the internet though. If you have cable - you can call them and ask. May be able to stop into their office and pick one up in the morning (noting, they did charge me $7/month rent to use their modem).

Another option is to get a cellular stick/modem from a cellular provider. I have one from T-Mobile that works really great. It uses a 4G cell connection as opposed to WiFi. Expensive to use, but if the power goes out, it will be a life saver.

[dhol82]

5. you are lucky

i got a robo-call saying 7-10 days. can't believe the power might be out that long.

fyi - live on long island, ny. more worried about trees coming down on the house.

[graham4anything]

6. trees are a problem here too and a week's blackout will put it into election day

there is a tree directly across street that two years ago the neighbors said the base was dead (though it blooms still) and it is directly next to electrical wires,but they can't afford to remove it and it is just over the line so the town won't do anything about it (til it falls)
If it fell in our direction, it would take out two cars we have.
We have another tree that could theoretically fall into our house

The washer/dryer is already elevated about six inches, but we had higher basement floods last year (and the backup sumppump only lasts 20-24 hours. Last year's one was so much water so quick, it didn't matter anyhow as it couldn't pump quick enough. But there is nothing else of value except for those two left on floor, and at least seven feet of water before it came upstairs(but we could open the windows in basement and let water out before that would happen anyhow...as we are on a hill, and there is a nice lake down the block, the water would go that way so at least we are lucky the rest of the house wouldn't flood.

So far it seems like noon time til midnight will be the major part, now it is eerily quiet


at least the current prediction here is less wind than said yesterday-

current predictions in central/northern NJ as of the moment
3am til 10am lighter rain/showers (right now it's not doing much of anything outside 345am edt)
from 10am to noon rain and wind pick up (wind 30-35)
Monday noon-6pm heavy squalls (with wind 35mph)
7pm to midnight heavy rain (wind 30mph to 35mph)
Tuesday 1am to noon-rain 20-28mph
Tuesday 1pm to 9pm less rain 10-20mph
Tuesday evening,early morning rain less than 10mph wind

I know there will be alot more (millions of people more) serious than us here, hope everyone has the supplies they need, and hope everyone filled their gas tanks up in their cars, which one can charge cell phones, and of course listen to the radio (and in emergencies get to shelters/hospitals) if need be.
(and lots of water and canned food).

[loli phabay]

7. advantage of living in a rural area, we often get cut off for days a t a time and lose power

so we are always prepared with lots of food, other supplies and most importantly generators, we can go for up to a month on ours if the kids limit their tv etc though we are not expecting to bad a time out in the mountians of VA.

[graham4anything]

8. re:generators

never wanted a gasoline one

one of these days will get a natural gas one, but its expensive which has stopped us in the past(though worth it).

Jersey more than some states, has many different electric companies and hundreds of towns, and normally, after storm itself passes, some place has wifi and gas for the car (which if its cold one can always sleep in the car in the driveway, long as one can refill tank.) and charge phones and while the computer don't go online, it can play movies or music.

(and there is always the old transistor radio)

dang health club just said they are opening at 9 instead of 5.
Wonder what stupid reason they had for that? Weather is doing nothing outside at moment
and by 12 the bad stuff will be here.

[loli phabay]

10. i got a propane fueled one that automatically comes on

cant remember if its 17kw or 7 but it runs the whole house excepting the oven but we have a grill, crockpot, microwave etc for that stuff anyway. it makes a hell of a difference when your snowed in to still be able to sleep warm and watch tv etc.

[TorchTheWitch]

9. what electric company is this?

I have no idea what area or even state you're in.

[graham4anything]

11. NJ

northern NJ
about 30-40 minutes west of Manhattan

From what i have heard, many different electric companies in tri-state area are having robocalls alerting customers (or notices on the websites), so its not really specific to one particular one.
PSEG is the biggest one in NJ
con edison in NYC