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.
13 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!
Ed, we have never had a shut off valve in any of the we have lived in (although apparently in New Home 2.0, it is a thing). Perhaps it varies by region or updated code.
There is always blame to go around during such significant weather events. The last major ice storm in New Home saw people without power for the same 2 week amount of time. It definitely created a lot of furor and perhaps some changes, but part of the reality is that planning for the extremes means building for the extremes. Everyone likes the idea until they get the bill for their share.
Two weeks is a long time to be without power.
Interesting... I would have thought every home/building has an inside shut-off valve. Our in-houses shut off valves have always been close to where the water pipe enters the house from the crawlspace. And that has always been where our water softener and water heater are. In our old house, that was in a half-basement laundry room, and in this house it's the garage.
At our home in town the outside shut off valve was out by the street, but the one time we wanted to turn it off, it was impossible for us to do it (it was so tight). We had to call the water company to come and turn it off. That was in warm weather. I can't imagine trying to do that in bitter cold - especially if it's snowing.
Well I guess comments have assured me that it isn't code to have inside shutoffs. One heads up from my experience Bob, the one time I have gone to shut off the valve on the outside using that long handled tool, the valve had been rusted open requiring, at my expense, that the valve be replaced. I found that out at my last house when I had the city turn the water off after we moved out and before it sold. To my knowledge, especially since we have an indoor valve, the outside valve of this house has never been shut off (and is 52 years old) and likely in the same condition.
Thanks, Ed, and who knew what a stimulating discussion we would end up having about water shut-off valves?! I know our water has been shut off at least once by a plumber when some work was being done. We have a contract for a yearly inspection so the next time they're here I'm going to ask about it and see what the feasibility would be to have an inside valve installed. Should the need ever arise, it would obviously be much easier to do it from inside.
Exactly, TB. It's why I'm staying on the sidelines during this debate.
Lesson learned from this ordeal is that it would probably behoove me to have an indoor shutoff valve. I am definitely going to look into it.
You need a chainsaw in your garage! As for shut-off water valves, when I lived on Skidaway, I had to go outside to shut the water off, which I did when we evacuated for hurricanes. Hope it quickly gets back to normal. Was one of the power companies a co-op? If so, did they get their power back first? It always seemed that way when I was in Michigan.
You are probably right about the chainsaw. (See reply to Kelly's comment). I don't know the answer regarding the power companies. We are fine now, but still a lot of debris still being cleared in the area.
I think that it is very hard to have a community plan in place for events that rarely happen! But on a personal level, a chainsaw for your garage would not go amiss.
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