Power outage again on STT

Power went out here shortly before 8:00AM

Power out on the whole island as well as St. John. My daughter has been released from school.

I hear (via one of the maintenance folks) that the part is on island and being replaced today.

Well, yeah, but not long after the incident they were on the radio talking about restoring power in 3 hours.

Right.

(insert very long string of expletives)

Hope springs eternal!

http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1223612464

Dark has come and no power as of this writing.

The rumor on STJ (and God I hope it is only a rumor) is that it may be another 40+ hours until we are all back to normal.

The good news is, that by me writing this, I know it will only be a few mins more 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thanksgiving this year could be.................. i n t e r e s t i n g 🙂

Pia

In STT the Crown Mt. area came back on about midnite.

Thank goodness the power came back on....My neighbor down the mtn a tad ---- called the police on me..stating my generator was giving her fumes and she couldn't sleep. Police asked if I could change the direction ot the exhaust....I'm like sure, but the wind will just carry it. Couldn't figure if was mine or another neighbor which could have been their exhaust as well. I think they were knocking on all the doors. I didn't want to open the door as the police didn't quickly identify themselves. I had to call their station to verify it was them knocking at my door. Guess it takes all kinds....

Heard a radio report that while most are up now, it's just so that people can get up and at em, shower and brush and flush. Then we will have rotating outages since there are some batteries that must be charged in order for a particular segment to stay online. It's like they are borrowing from different areas for the nonce. So there will be some more outages but they will be controlled.

Just got one, bye!

I wonder how much money I've lost from throwing out spoiled perishables when the power is out for this long.

The tangible and intangible costs from these frequent outages are enormous. Lost productivity, lost food, etc. It's so bad for the island.

Bet there's an increase of minor food poisoning incidents following a prolonged outage such as this. Beware of the restaurants...

At least I caught a shower this morning before the power went back out (came on at 3 am).

Our power came on just for one hour starting at 7am. Was reading this thread and had just read Anita's post and I had just hollered to my honey that it was going to be rotated and that the power was gonna go back out, and BOOM there it went! Didn't even get to finish reading the thread. I am now running on solar power, using an inverter! How cool is that!
It's not like we haven't done this before!
My food has held up just fine, no problems there... and we were not on a generator or anything at the time (our power was out for 24 hours). Wow, your fridge door must have been opened a LOT in order to already loose your food.
Good thing for us was that we were already set up with 12 volt lighting and had Ryobi 18 vt battery fan to sleep by. It ran all night! Oh, and a GAS stove! 😀

In case you miss the paper today....here's the article on the Black Outs.

Left click on the article to make it larger to read!

Well, I gots no solar, but I do have gas cooking and plenty of water from the cistern (thanks to the property owner)... I also have emergency lights plugged into key outlets, flashlights, lots of batteries, candles and a good battery operated radio. Oh, and did I mention that I have a battery operated fan? Did not need it last night as it was nice and breezy but came in handy while shut in during Omar (or the lack thereof on St. Thomas).

My freezer was full, and I never opened it or the fridge except for 1 or 2 times so everything was frozen solid when the power came back... not even the ice had melted.

My computer, router and internet antenna are all on a UPS so I was able to complete my thought and shut down my computer in style.

A bit of hot water added to the bird-bath and 10 drops of lavender oil, and I felt like I was in a spa this morning, so thankful that I had the clean water and french toast made with sprouted grain bread and real maple syrup. Does it get much better than this? Well, it probably does, but I am grateful nonetheless.

Anita,

As an incorrigible curmudgeontrix I have to say that you are the most positive person on this forum! Have you always had this disposition or did you have to work to develop it?

dntw8up:

Like most people who act like me, it's come to me over time. I find that I feel better when I take certain perspectives and I choose to do so.

I feel the same impulses as I have always felt but I just think a bit more before reacting.

I don't encounter many people who share your rosy view of life and it's a refreshing change. You epitomize the disposition my mother wished for her off-spring!

Now - after 5:30 pm - that the stores and offices have closed down for the day and shut down the AC reducing demand appreciably - WAPA has turned most of the rest of us back on.

Wow... Bummer.... that's right, when the power goes out, you can't pump water from the cistern.... hmmmm, has anyone checked the practicality of having a 100-200 gallon water storage tank, above at least one of the house's bathrooms?

EngRMP - Since we have a pressure tank in the system already - [ between the pump and the house ] - one possible solution is to make that tank quite large - 50-100 Gal. - that stored water is then available , admittedly with reduced pressure, and allows you to finish your shower, flush and wash for quite a while.
At 8 lbs a gal. a 100-200 gal tank would be very heavy to mount, fairly large, and the associated plumbing and valves become complicated as well.
On some older island homes the cistern was much smaller and situated uphill from the plumbing but below the roof line and was gravity feed. Also many people had a hand pump system , and used the cistern much like a well.
After Hurricane Hugo I rigged a hose to the cistern and ran the water to a boat foot pump at the sink - filled a bucket for flushing and used solar shower bags. Now I run a small 2.5 KW generator when I need it to run the pump and fill the pressure tank.

EXIT ZERO,
Good advice, we have large tanks also which allows for more water usage before there is no pressure. Good thinkin'!

Thanks Exit Zero... lots of good info.

I was wondering about the power saving, complexity and ease of use of the various options:
- an electrical generator is probably the easiest solution to use, but you have the maintenance of the generator. But, of course, as often as power goes out, you probably are going to want a generator anyway.
- a pressure tank allows use some water storage without it having to be above water-usage-level. But, you have to have a vessel that can maintain pressure over the entire life of the system (a maintenance issue), and it has to have suitable valves to let water in+out while also providing pressure. But, you probably want some type of pressure tank so that the pump is not coming on every time you use water in the house, and you want somewhat even water pressure.
- a raised tank might have a lot of pounds/sqinch unless you make it with a big footprint, which means you have to find a place to mount that, plus have fill-valve control... and it's one more thing to worry about leaking.

I really like the foot pump approach. Simple mechanics, cheap, easy to setup and use. So, do you have a hose attachment built into the plumbing of the cistern, or do you just drop a hose down through the access panel?

To answer :
A small generator does not require much maintenance beyond changing oil and spark plugs if you start it on a regular basis.
I have not seen a water pump set up here without a pressure tank involved - the size of the tanks do vary.
The whole raised tank idea seems simple in theory and too complicated in practice.
When I designed the foot pump system I put the hose down the cistern overflow - when I had to use it for 3 mo. of no power in 1989 I moved some furniture and put the hose down the cistern cover indoors.

When we first moved in to our place we had no water or power for 3 weeks. It was kind of like camping with all of your stuff. We bought a couple of solar lights from home depot and used candles. When we finally got the cistern filled I had to siphon (suck) water out of the overflow hole for a while into milk jugs to flush the toilet and take 1 gallon cold "showers". It was primitive as can be, but we endured and are possibly better equipped to survive under rough circumstances. I think that a katrina (New Orleans) like disaster could happen here some day. I actually was a boy scout when I was a kid, but not a very good one really. Their motto? "be prepared". At least I remember that!
- congasan