On 2011-08-30, Ed Huntress wrote:

"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Aug 29, 10:27 pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
"Ignoramus4719" wrote in message

...

Life lesson #116: having a generator or two is essential.

In my case, in this storm, a generator wouldn't have done anything. The
last
time I wished I had one was after a nor'easter 25 years ago. And all it
would have done for me then is save maybe $50 worth of food.

One of my neighbors bought his generator several years ago (after not
having one during a three-day outage) when his wife told him, "Either
get a generator or get a divorce." Interesting choice.

Smart wife.

I can see it if you've had that experience. But aside from that 3-day stint
25 years ago, the longest we've been without power is 24 hours once or
twice, but without a water problem.

An electrical outage is not just loss of comfort. It is also a loss of
sump pumps, loss of refrigeration, computer use etc.

Our problem here is not widespread loss of power, although that happened
downtown here during this storm. It's limbs falling from 80-plus-year-old
maples and oaks. They're brittle as hell and they're rooted at the curb, all
over town. Power losses tend to be local and brief.

I was really impressed by the PSE&G crew that showed up here at 10:00 PM,
BTW. Those guys were working like furies, and they were at the end of a
16-hour shift.