Real Bad Weather and the storm caused a power outage

This morning a ferocious  storm is howling across the island. Gusts are in excess of 50mph and they come together with pouring rain. The weather forecast spoke about up to 100mm of rain for the Fundy Bay Islands. It was still early when I was reading the Bayfield Bunch blog when everything went dark. The furnace stopped instantly and the internet vanished into thin air. Power outage! Now what? Luckily coffee was already made, but how to cook or make a toast? The solution was in our motor home. First I went outside and hauled the 30pounder of propane inside. In the baggage compartment I found the camp heater, I have never used. I put it on the tank, placed it in a corner so the heat would blow into the room and lit the burner. Next thing was getting out the long power cord and plug into the motor home outlet. The other end I dragged into the kitchen and plugged in the toaster, the fridge and the phone. The Onan Diesel generator started grumbling away and pretty soon we had the toaster going and the fridge humming. Next problem was water. We have no community water but a well and a pump. Pumps need power, but I can’t plug it into our motor home emergency supply as the pump is hard-wired. That must be changed pretty soon. A plug and a receptacle will be installed as soon as this is over. Fortunately we have a spring-fed water supply on the island, so I grabbed two water containers and drove the few kilometers to the spring. The rain had discolored the water a little bit, but I know that this water is safe to drink. For the washroom we can use water from our big basement well. I wouldn’t drink it though as it’s been standing without being used for a long time. With only the dining room and the kitchen heated we can survive as long as there is diesel in the motor home. When hauling water, I passed the post office and there were blazing lights inside. So I stopped and asked how come they have power. It turned out the power outage was only north from there. We called the power company, but they had already received the message from somewhere else. Now we just have to wait and see how long the fun will last. It is just scary to think about how dependent our society is of the power grid. Without power we will run out of money (no ATM and CC’s) fuel (no pumps) we can’t communicate anymore (no internet, no phone) we will even run out of water (no water pumps) and we will freeze in our homes as our furnaces quit working. Public offices will shut down, all public transport will stop, and the hospitals will only function as long as their generators have fuel. Without power airliners will fall out of the sky as they can’t land without the assistance of the tower and communications. Daily supplies of food cannot be distributed without having trucks for delivery. Our society will come to a complete stand still. Now the real scary part: Today’s power grid is controlled by computers. Computers can be hacked into. If somebody does that we all are at their mercy. Let’s hope that it will never happen! And the latest update: Power fully restored at 12:00noon! Thanks for stopping by!