The “bomb cyclone” we had in November was a surreal experience. I had to go to a customer meeting that afternoon, and towards the end, kept checking my phone for the wind. The storm itself didn’t make landfall, but its pressure center was so low, it sucked wind from the east. The easterly wind caused more damage because it’s less common and trees hadn’t develop stress wood for that..
Image from the Cliff Mass Weather Blog.
One tree in the greenbelt behind my house fell, taking out the ham radio antenna I’d launched in spring. Power was out for almost five days, the longest since we’ve lived here.
- We had no heat. With this being November, yet unseasonably warm, the temperature inside the house dropped down to 51F (10.5C). I found it tolerable if I was moving around and doing stuff. I also wore a lot of layers. To some extent, it felt like an extended camping trip, but with good toilets and not sleeping on rocks. My better half did not like it. When the estimated restoration time was reset again, I booked a hotel.
- The camp stove worked well enough for basic cooking. I set up a folding table under the front porch where we could try to use up things that were soon going to be spoil in the fridge and freezer. There was also a lot of hot water for coffee and tea.
- We had hot water for showers and washing dishes, thankfully, because the heater is powered by natural gas. Getting into warm shower after three days of 51F was surprisingly painful.
- Power was restored in surrounding areas pretty quickly. My spouse took a bunch of rechargeable things up to her office to top them off (and bask in a normal room temperature). I had cell coverage and realized that I could still have deliveries from Amazon. One of the first purchases was a connector between the camp stove and the large BBQ propane tanks leftover from a grill. I later picked up a normal-sized, battery-powered chainsaw.
- Nearly everything we in the freezer and fridge was eaten or tossed. What I could salvage was put into a small, portable camping refrigerator running from a 100Ah battery ham battery. On the fourth day, I cleaned out everything, wiped down the walls and shelves, then let it air out. I was very glad that I had procrastinated doing a grocery run.
- I had plenty of battery power for small devices, but anything requiring an AA/AAA battery would have needed an alternate way of charging. When the ordeal was over, I was pondering whether to get a backup generator. A friend suggested a 4Kw should be fine, but I would want to get a transfer panel with six circuits that switch up for generator power, down for line power:
- Furnace (currently natural gas, so it would just power the blower)
- Kitchen – fridge, lights
- Microwave (on its own 20A circuit)
- Entertainment center (Internet, primarily)
- Master bedroom / bathroom
There were a couple of subsequent mini-cyclones, but only one multi-hour outage. I’m about 70% done cleaning out the fallen debris, limited by weekly bin size.