Hurricane Mathew

[Yooper42]

Hey Beech, how'd you fair thru the hurricane? Any other folks in/were the path of it hope everyone made it thru without any noteable damage

[gilligansc]

We lost a couple local piers on the beach front. At the marina here, some boats had torn canvas, a couple sailboats have torn sails, but my old boat did fine.
Thanks

[jbeech]

Property-wise we came through with flying colors. Unfortunately, when the power went and I started the generator it didn't deliver any juice. Gonna require parts, which we're not going to receive until later in the week so we've been without power for since early Friday AM (starting our 4th day).

On the flip side, neighbors on both sides had their power restored (we're the beginning of a branch feeding 8 house in a small development behind our place where a tree fell) and one called to offer use of his generator after his power was restored late Saturday afternoon. So we promptly loaded it and his near empty 100# propane tank. Fortunately, I had the foresight to have 3 fully charged 20# propane tanks on hand so we've been reasonably comfortable. and have the basics (refrigerator, lights, TV, cell phone chargers, and internet). No water because we're on a well and powering the pumps is more trouble than it's worth so we flush using water dipped from the pool and bathe in same (Lynn does my hair while I sit on the pool deck). While the water is cool because we're in October we're still feeling distinctly civilized.

Meanwhile, FPL was going to make repairs last night but by midnight (when we gave up and went to bed) they hadn't gotten around to us. Frankly, because we're somewhat out in the sticks I understand and approve the apportionment of limited labor. E.g. such that they restore power to those most affected first. The crews will get around to us eventually. When Charlie hit in 2004 we were sans power for 10 days.

In any case, this is on me because while I exercise the generator monthly and let it run an hour, I was careless, else I would have verified the output was copacetic as well. Live and learn . . . could have been worse ;>)

Anyway, my heart goes out to all those hit far worse.

[Yooper42]

Seeing things like that on the news, im glad the "worst" i have to deal with is subzero temps and snow 6 months otta the year! Glad everybodys OK and yes, prayers to those not as fortunate....

[jbeech]

Versus shoveling snow and sub-zero temps six months of the year I'll take the occasional hurricane and power outage.

So yesterday morning FPL notifies us it's going to be end of day Tuesday before power will be restored. Fretting about the extension cords running through the house I decide it's smarter to make up a connection to the panel and run to Lowe's to buy a 30A 240V 4-prong plug, 30' of 10-4 service cord, and a 30A single-pole breaker.

Once back I fix the plug to one end of the service cord, and on the other connect the red-black wires to the breaker. Next, I turn off the main breaker at the service panel. Then at the breaker panel in the garage I turn off the single-phase breakers (e.g. 220V like oven, dryer, HVAC, and water heater). Then I remove one of them and slip the breaker I've fixed to the service cord to into its place. Finally, I slip the white neutral wire and the green ground wire under a lug in the panel flip the switch on the generator from 110-220V and fire it back up. This backfeeds the panel so everything in the house works normally as plugged in instead of requiring extension cords from the generator.

Last thing, I fix myself a congratulatory scotch on ice (by then it was almost 5 PM and the sun was over the yardarm). I even splurged because I poured from the bottle of 12 y/o McCallans. So I sat back to a well deserved break and not 5 minutes later I hear the beep-beep-beep of a large truck backing up. I walk out the front door to see what's going on and to my surprise, there's a huge crew of linemen from Pennsylvania (during events like these the various companies have agreements to lend crews - I've seen convoys of line trucks and materials like poles on trucks coming from out of state and it works both ways as we send crews north during wicked ice storms).

Frankly, despite the fact not five minutes had passed since I connected the service cord arrangement this was a welcome sight and about 30 minute later we had power again. While being without power at home is less trouble than camping (7AM Friday until 5PM Monday), it's still not a ball of fun. Me? I was happy to see the last effects of Hurricane Matthew.

Of course, this won't be the last hurricane and since I know from experience a small generator (like my 6500W Honda) won't run the whole house (not with all the amenities like air conditioning and hot water), a while back I picked up a 25KW Generac at auction. Unfortunately, other projects interfered with getting it installed in time for this event. It's only got 114 hours and runs on propane so it's like new but I still need to buy a 500-1000 gallon tank and make the installation, which because it has an auto transfer switch means wiring will be a little more involved than a service cord arrangement. Service comes to the generator before proceeding to the house, which means I'll have to pull a permit and involve a real electrician. I've been putting this off because I also want to bury the service while I'm at it and all this involves a fair bit of coin, but it will be a welcome upgrade to Château Beech. Maybe I get it done over the winter since the ground doesn't freeze like it does in the UP.

[eness76]

Glad things worked out OK. Plenty of lawn for Pantera fun!

[jbeech]

Fortunately, mowing's not nearly as bad as shoveling snow because the payoff is a place to fly. However, my goal is to bury the power line coming off the transformer because it crosses smack dab in the middle of my runway!

Of course, I've only been saying that since 2004. To date, other projects interfere so I continue playing limbo . . . and while I've come close a few times I've yet to hit the power line (knock on wood).