Strom preparedness for you

[Greywings]

For you Northeasterners...FrankenSandy is morphing right now. Its going to spread out from one corner to the other to about 80 mph with 110 gusts and will be about 1400 miles across.

At 45 mph they will have to pull the power even if its not already gone out to prevent fires. Your local phones will work for about 24-48 hours after it goes or they pull it. I suggest you unplug everything you like such as dishwashers, TVS, computers, etc. because they debug the system as it comes back up by just turning it on and waiting to see if it shorts out... To your detriment.

Line to neutral comes back into the backside of your computers and kills the motherboards. Fridges and deep freeze I would get some dry ice and toss it in and unplug theme. Check often. Let someone else figure it out when its safe to turn it back on. Pull the main breaker outside if you have an air conditioner. Cooks the compressors too. That is inside of a box near the compressor. Same with the furnaces. Little microboards cost 120 and that is if you do the installation.

Winds in the Carolinas are in the 30-40 mph category already and trees are going over on the east coast edge. I wouldn't stay in this for anything. Its going to look like a wing of B-52's had their way with the place.

Wait until the winds get to about 35 before starting to think about pulling it. If the lights flicker and dim then its trees going over. It will try to come back on 30 seconds later, then 1 minute and then done. Now remember to keep plenty of food available for you pets as well and perhaps blankets to place over your cages to retain some heat in case your power does fail. Botteled water would be a good idea also.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Greywings
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