In my last post I told you about the ice storm we had. It's still a big topic of discussion around these parts.
While we were four and one-half days without power, there were those who did not get theirs back for two weeks. As you can imagine, there is much finger pointing, mainly at local government officials for lack of preparation, and at the power companies (there were two different ones involved, and customers of one seemed to regain power much more quickly than customers of the other), also for lack of preparation but also for the slowness in achieving full restoration.
We stayed at the house one night without electricity. By the time our friend came and collected us (because at the time, there were still two trees across our driveway and we could not get out), the temperature in the house was hovering around 40 degrees, with our only source of heat being our fireplace with gas logs.
We kept a steady drip going in all the faucets and I had covered the ones outdoors. I was advised by a couple of friends to shut the water off completely. The problem was, when I received that advice, the trees had been cleared and cut up and all the debris from that was in the front yard near the curb for pickup and chipping, covering the water meter where the water shutoff valve is located.
On Thursday morning (the day power was restored), one of my friends told me he was on his way over to help me get to the shutoff valve so we could shut off the water. He felt pretty strongly about it. Thankfully, before he arrived, power was back.
As for the criticism of various local officials and the power companies, I am going to sit that out and let others talk about it. The mayor of Nashville has appointed a special committee to look into it, review lessons learned and make recommendations for how this might be better handled if, God forbid, this were to happen again.
I think that is a good plan. I am sure there is room for improvement, but that is always the case. I am grateful to have had power restored and that our damage was minimal. We needed those trees down anyway, so for me, there was a silver lining.
By last week, temperatures were in the 70s. But I've been around enough to know false advertising when I see it. We were back in the low 20s last night, and snowflakes danced around for a short time this morning.
4 comments:
You don't have a shutoff valve on the inside of your house where the water line enters? I though that was probably code but perhaps not. I have had one of those on the inside plus the shutoff on the exterior line on each of my houses.
I don't participate in the blame game either because I know what often goes unsaid is the other potential scenario. That scenario is where the city buys all this equipment needed for an ice storm of that magnitude, the likes that hasn't been seen in decades if not longer, and spend money doing all this prep work for storms that never come. Then the people get upset at their high rates to pay for all the equipment that never gets used or all the prep work that they deemed not necessary. It is one of those proverbial double edged swords.
We don't have a shutoff valve inside our house, either. Of course you can shut off water to various things (toilets, water heaters, etc), but the main valve is outside. I'm sure codes vary from state to state.
When I told my younger daughter about the trees blocking you she laughed and said "they don't live in the country". She's right. Regardless the size of the tree, country folk pull out the chainsaws and move that stuff! 😂
Ed, that is a great question about having a shutoff valve inside the house. It must not be code, as in a legal requirement, because I know people who do and people who don't have them inside. My buddy who was so insistent on my shutting off the water was also insistent I had one inside the house, but I am virtually certain I don't because I remember a plumber coming here once and telling me if I ever needed to shut off the water, I would do it outside and would need a special tool. In any event, I'm glad I didn't do it.
I used to have a chainsaw, one I inherited from my dad, but it played out a few years ago and I couldn't get anyone to repair it because it was a brand that was defunct. jI am not a big gadget guy, but I rather enjoyed the times I used it over the years. I had neighbors offer to bring theirs over and help but honestly, it was so ridiculously cold that I couldn't ask them to do that (and I would have had to have been out there with them, and I didn't want to be out in the cold either!). When my yard guy said he could get here by Tuesday morning (48 hours after the trees fell), I felt a sense of relief. There are things worth paying for!
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