Well, this kinda stinks...

[Jim O'Dell]

Called home a few minutes ago to check to see if Glenna had heard from the delivery company about the dishwasher that is supposed to be here today. The phone rang 3 times and I knew....the electricity was off. We only have one "regular" phone in the house, all others are cordless, so knew it would take her a while to get back to that phone. Said the electricity has been off for 3 1/2 hours now, and the electric company is saying it is a wide spead outage. Maybe back on by 11:00 pm!!:( We have a total electric house, so this could be fun. She already started a fire in the fireplace, so hopefully that will help. Pretty much cancelled her teaching schedule this afternoon. Hard to read music by candle light.:p
And we aren't supposed to start getting ice until late tonight, or tomorrow. Wonder what will happen when that hits??
Our temps won't be anything like what you in the north have had for the past few weeks. Glad I've got a few dogs in the house.:D
Oh, and I totally forgot to ask if she'd heard about the dishwasher. ;) Jim.

[Karlan Talkington]

That's one of the two things I hated about living in the DFW area. Power outages during ice storms and the dreaded "black" ice.

Hope they get your electricity on soon. And be careful on those North Texas roads.

[David G Baker]

Jim,
On the coldest night so far this year in Mid Michigan, the power went out at around 1:00 AM. I have a Honda portable generator that I have set up to hook into the house and give us power to the well, heater and necessary appliances. Before I went out to start and hook up the generator I used a flashlight to look at our remote thermometer, it read -16 F. It can get deadly here if the power is out for any length of time.
Good luck at getting your power back.

[Jim O'Dell]

Karlan, it's bad enough that I dislike being on the streets down here when it gets icy. I personally don't have a problem driving on ice. Drove from Lake Texhoma in a sleet storm one Thanksgiving day in the Mid 90's where truckers were all over the side of the road. Made a normally 2 1/4hour trip about 4 1/2 hours, but not problem in an 87 Mazda PU, manual trans. But people down here don't understand slowing down, and making all movements as smoothly as possible on ice.
I remember as a kid back in OK in the late 60's waking up to transformers popping because of the ice on the lines. A series of booms that started way off in the distance, and kept going til it got to our's. It was loud by that time.:D We had to spend the next week at my grandparents house because they had 3 fireplaces. No other heat.
David, we've talked about needing a small generator. We get power outages from wind because of all the trees. Usually only out for a couple hours, but if prolonged, I'd hate to lose all the meat we keep in the freezer. Just got a load last Fri. as a matter of fact. About 200 lbs worth.
Again, it's nothing like you northerners deal with. Jim.

[David G Baker]

Jim I paid the big bucks and got a Honda inverter type. It is 6500 watts, electric start and will run 220volts as well as 110v. I bought mine form the Amish and saved quite a bit of money. I paid $3000 for it. The AC is so stable that I would feel safe running my computers and other electronic equipment. The only problem I have had is I have to shut down all the high current draw items to run my well. I may be doing something wrong because I have only had to use it three times and each time is a learning experience. I did all of the wiring myself so I saved a bunch of bucks.
I haven't really had that many power outages, maybe a couple every year but it really concerns me when I loose power in the Winter.

[James Stokes]

I am watching the news and weather right now. I am in Springfield, MO They are saying we will probably get about 1 inch of ice in the next 36 hrs and there is a good chance power will be out for a couple days. I am not looking forward to the next few days.

[Steve Clardy]

Got a little ice on the ground and vehicles here.

It was supposed to be snow. Drat

[Sonny Edmonds]

Well, Jim....
You can't use the dishwasher without electricity anyway...

Umm, unless it was a human dishwasher, of course. :D

[Brian Elfert]

That's one of the two things I hated about living in the DFW area. Power outages during ice storms and the dreaded "black" ice.


I'm curious how you get black ice in Dallas? Does it get down to around zero degrees in the winter?

We get black ice here in Minnesota, but only when it gets down to zero or below. Salt doesn't work at those temps and the water vapor in vehicle exhaust freezes to the road.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a whole house standby generator for power failures. I've had two power failures in seven years and both were in the spring or summer and were short duration.

I suppose if I didn't have the generator I would have long term power outages when it is well below freezing in the winter.

Standby generators have come way down in price. You should be able to get one installed for about $3,000. Mine cost $4,000 and I installed it myself, but I also got a Kohler instead of the cheaper Generac. A Kohler similiar to mine would be about $500 less today, but Generacs can be had for $2000 or so.

[Jim O'Dell]

What they call black ice here is where it just starts to freeze, and you can't tell it's not just wet. That's when the igits here hit the overpasses at 85, and say "I don't know what happened. The streets weren't slick at all!" as they are being pulled out of the bar ditch by the wrecker. It's really funny to watch people driving on ice and snow here that just don't have a clue. I can watch and predict which ones are going to bite it. :rolleyes: Jim.

[Brian Elfert]

Your black ice is a lot different from that in Minnesota, but we spend millions on snow and ice control and removal.

In Minnesota MNDOT and the cities and counties follow the weather closely and they will salt most bridges and certain roads in the metro area at least once a day when below freezing regardless of precipitation. It is below freezing pretty much all winter long so they do this daily.

They will also salt if snows or if it rains when the temps are near or below freezing. They even measure pavement temperatures to determine when and how much salt to use.