Berks County Power Outage

My daughter lives in Berks county (PA). She called a while ago and is without power. Looks like she may be without it for a few days. I asked if she understands why I burn coal now and she said "yeah but it's messy and too much work". She lives there right in PA coal country and burns oil. Oh well, maybe she (and her husband) will at least think about a coal stove..............just maybe.

We have heated with wood for 16 winters, and with coal and wood last winter and this winter. Power outages are frequent here. I know many people around this area who rely on oil for heat and have no back-up. A lot of houses have wood burners, few have coal-for now.

If shes going to be without power for quite a while i can only assume shes in a rural setting, I know if i was in a rural setting I would have at least one form of auxiliary heat like a hand fired stove and/or wood stove. At least something to keep the chill out of the house and keep the pipes from freezing.

Two TV channels are off the air here last i checked , Not sure if they are back on yet.

She is in Strausstown. I did try and get them to buy a stove after purhasing their home but, to no avail at this time. We'll see how long they are without power. For their sake, I hope it's not too long.
The wind is really staring to howl here................just had a 45mph gust. Glad the ice melted..........(I'm in Adams County PA).
Last I talked to her they still had ice on the trees and power lines and several roads were closed off in the mountains.

I finally broke down and bought a generator last April because the cellar flooded during the Nor'easter and the power was out, I had to keep the pumps running. We are able to exist fairly normally with out power, but one of my projects is a transfer switch so I don't have extension cords running all over the house. Usually by the time I finish running them and plugging everything in the power comes back on.

At the very least they should have a kerosene heater just to keep some warmth in the house.
I hope the power is restored soon.

Richard S. wrote:If shes going to be without power for quite a while i can only assume shes in a rural setting, I know if i was in a rural setting I would have at least one form of auxiliary heat like a hand fired stove and/or wood stove. At least something to keep the chill out of the house and keep the pipes from freezing.

Two TV channels are off the air here last i checked , Not sure if they are back on yet.

I was reading on CNN about Ok city area, some folks are expected not to get the power back on til X-mas.
And that's an Urban area! True, alot of rural folks have always had backup heat because they are last to get turned back on. But, with a changing planet, I believe alot of people are gonna be shocked at how Vulnerable modern society is to Mother Natures whims.

As an update they did get power back on Sunday evening for about 2 hours ................then it went out again and has been out ever since They may have power restored sometime tomorrow. Her house temerature is down to a chilly 46. Meanwhile, as I sit here typing away it's a very nice 76. .
In all seriousness though I hope her power (as well as everyone elses) is restored very soon.
She has in-laws that are faily close by so she has a place to stay warm and have all of the other modern day things such as running water. Others don't and I do feel for them.

46 is cold. SuperBeetle, I was telling my wife your story this morning. We feel for your daughter, but maybe now she'll take advantage of living in a coal state When I was learning how to keep my stove lit, it went out a number of times. I'd wake up to the house being at 50 degrees. Thankfully, those days are gone.

I heard that out in OK, there are people without electricity and many may not have it until after Christmas!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071219/ap_ ... nter_storm