[Plantagenet]

People are freezing in the dark right now in central Alaska.

About a week ago a couple of unusually severe storms slammed into western Alaska. These storms come up from the Pacific---they are warm and wet and can drive temperatures above freezing in the middle of winter. They've been increasing in size and frequency due to global warming.

These storms are accompanied by very high winds. This last storm knocked down the biggest trees, which then knocked out electrical power out to 45,000 people by falling on power lines in many places. Normally power outages get fixed quickly, but after this storm there is break after break along the powerlines. Even when they get powerlines fixed, there are breaks that cut the power to individual cabins.

Now the temperatures have plunged back down to -10° and will hit -20 to -30 in the next few days.

For me personally, I've spent the last four days struggling. I thought I was pretty geared up to deal with emergencies, but I've learned a big lesson from this----if you think you are prepared, then think again and go buy more gear.

I lost electricity, heat and water. I've been burning wood in my wood stove 24/7, but it isn't enough to keep the whole house warm, much less outlying buildings with gear and supplies. We're already down to about 6 hours of daylight, so I'm living with my headlamp on and a couple of oil lamps on the table. I've got a neat Canadian machine called a "heat buddy" which runs on propane and can generate heat without being plugged in---but it isn't enough to keep the outbuilding warm. I drove into town and every propane cannister in town sold out the first day. Every generator sold out the first day. All the lamp oil is sold out. Power has been restored in a lot of areas, but about 7000 people still don't have power and some may not have it for another week.

I caught 50 salmon on my subsistence dip-netting permit on the Copper River last summer nice and I had the filets safe in the freezer, but the freezer is in the house where's there no power and its warming up---so I had to transfer the salmon and everything outside and stack it in the snow to keep it from thawing...and now I've got to watch out for wolves and bears getting into my salmon.

I've learned a lot about being prepared from this. All that talk about groceries and stores emptying out in 3 days after a disaster---its all true. I'm lucky---on the first day of the mess I ordered a generator via Amazon---it should get here tomorrow.

I'm going to be OK. But for other people its starting to get bad.

People are freezing in the dark here in Alaska.


Hey BEAR! Get away from my SALMON!!!!!!

[dohboi]

Plant, we've disagreed about many things over the years, but I am sincerely glad that you're still with us. Hang in there, buddy.

[dissident]

I hope the power can be restored soon.

We see the utter failure of the just in time system for goods and services when conditions deviate from the norm. Alaska is a special place which should not be treated like New York. Without supplies people can die. Ultimately every location can be stressed to the breaking point.

We heated with a wood stove, it is high maintenance and the efficiency is crap. Perhaps pellet stoves are better, but they smell like a racket designed for you to spend money on the pellets. They should sell pellet making machines.

[Lore]

Modern man is not equipped to live on the margins.

[Lore]

All the romantics will learn a hard lesson: the American frontier then and now is a hard place. Folks who ran from the cities to avoid the responsibility of a democracy will return, tail between the legs. All that "country living" depends on JIT delivery of food, fuel, medicine, and conveniences. The lights go out and death comes a calling. It's an American psychosis to believe you can live alone and independent. What BS! It all depends on cheap fuel. No wonder the real-estate crash and financial crisis had its start in the new suburbs. The pseudo-survivalists, back-to-landers, ski enthusiasts in their "ski lodges", "2nd homes", cowboy "ranches", hillbilly "cabins" the entire Disneyland Country Dream will come to an end soon enough.

And there will be a flood of unhappy homeless white "country folks" just dying to return to the security of the cities. But the cities are either no more dead, or owned by the the ethics the whites ran from. It'll be just like the movie "Day After Tomorrow" when the remaining 1st-Worlders hoped to anchor their Super boats in Africa. Notice the Super Boats had no room for weapons? It's gonna be a new fight at Madison Ave.

Got that right. Been with a bunch of these folks back in the early 70s. They all soon went home to momma and fast food.

[americandream]

10 years subsistence farming (crofting) on a northern Scottish island was a salutory lesson on the need to be as independent as you can in capitalism. Despite our political differences Plant, I take my cap off to you. Its not easy in those climes.

[Lore]

When maryjane is finally legalized, the business will move to the warm California valleys where grapes grow. Leaving the backwood to the fishers and salmon.

Except, grapes may no longer be grown in California by that time. If I were a wine producer in Napa Valley right now I might be thinking of planting a fresh crop of agave plants for tequila.

[Pops]

Hang in there Plant!

I'm sure you know more about cold than I but be careful, don't do things that can get you in trouble!

Perhaps shut off some rooms that don't need heat and camp out around the wood stove!

Pick up a CO2 alarm and first aid kit next time you're in town, check the smoke alarm batteries too, be careful about candles and open flames! Down here the cold can hurt, though not as bad as up there, but inevitably people die from CO and house fires when the power goes down in the winter.

Stay safe

[dinopello]

I'm amazed you can get a generator from Amazon in a few days. But, it's fortunate. Good luck, stay warm.

[Lore]

I'm amazed you can get a generator from Amazon in a few days. But, it's fortunate. Good luck, stay warm.

Two days if you're a Prime member! Always keep your smart phone charged for emergency orders.

[SeaGypsy]

Hi Planty, feelin' for ya!
24 C late spring in the southern subtropics

This story reminds me of a long time Finnish girlfriend telling me about how the Suomi did things. One of her key points was the very first thing to get built for a house was the sauna. The family would move in there and build the house around it. I wonder if any modern Alaskans follow this example?

[Loki]

I would think that folks in (rural?) Alaska might be better prepared to deal with the vicissitudes of nature. But maybe not.

if you think you are prepared, then think again and go buy more gear.

I've got the gear, problem is I don't always top up my gasoline and propane supplies. I recently did a function test of my gennie and realized I was running very low on gasoline. Thinking about getting a propane conversion for it and investing in some more 100# tanks. I already use propane for cooking and hot water and some heat, it's easier to store than gasoline and costs less (for now).

At least you have a woodstove. Not an option for me right now, but I've been toying with the idea of building an enclosed porch tied into the RV and putting a small woodstove in that. Not sure how well it'd heat the RV, but if all else fails I could just sleep in the porch. Unfortunately it'd cost at least $1000 all told, not sure I want to spend that kind of money on a shack and a little woodstove.

As Pops warned, be careful of running propane space heaters indoors, most are designed to be run in drafty garages. I have a small catalytic propane heater that's designed to be run indoors, but it cost considerably more than the standard Mr. Heaters and still requires a couple windows to be cracked.

Hope the salmon keeps well in the snow. That's one thing I'm worried about, I have a hog and a half waiting for me at the butcher's, and I plan on storing a bunch of it in my chest freezer. If electricity goes out for more than a couple days I'll be scrambling to find another solution---snow is rarely an option here. I'll probably keep most of it at a commercial meat locker, which will stay colder for longer than my chest freezer.

Good luck Plant, these kind of events are stressful when they're happening but they certainly help sort out our priorities and highlight how ensconced we all are in our JIT economy.

[Ibon]

I caught 50 salmon on my subsistence dip-netting permit on the Copper River last summer nice and I had the filets safe in the freezer, but the freezer is in the house where's there no power and its warming up---so I had to transfer the salmon and everything outside and stack it in the snow to keep it from thawing...and now I've got to watch out for wolves and bears getting into my salmon.

Plantagent,

Good luck to you. We could have almost been neighbors. My wife and I went to Cordova and explored the Copper River area looking for land back in 2005, a couple of years before we bought in Panama. We were seriously considering that option. The cool highlands of Central America won out in the end but we could have been there. Way up by this abandoned copper mine, that is where we were looking at tracts of land. Met some of folks there that would have been our neighbors. Interesting couple from Hawaii

The choice was always between the vast clean wide open empty wilderness of Alaska vs. the rich biodiversity of the tropics. It was the biodiversity that tipped the scales for me and finding a cool climate at 2000m that never freezes the pipes.

Take care and good luck. Be grateful to these events and hiccups that remind you what improvements you need to make to be better prepared if the next time around you are hit harder.

Alaska can make you tough or kill you........if only all humans could be so graced with an environment that demanding.

[cynthia]

Hi Plant!
Thanks for sharing your situation. I've grown sanguine and soft lately about preps and that is not a smart path. When major disaster/emergency strikes, we can only rely upon our resourceful selves and hopefully the community in which we find ourselves surrounded.

It did not occur to me, until reading your post, that my frozen meat/fruit could be compromised by our four-legged neighbors in the event of an alternate emergency storage.
I will ponder further what I would do to maximize compromised frozen foods in the event our mild, but unpredictable Willamette Valley weather or other major event goes sideways causing a prolonged outage.
My first thought was I would fire up the outdoor propane canning stove and pressure cook any thawing meat. But reading Loki's post, um, yeah, we have two empty 20# tanks with partially filled 10# and 5# tanks. Ouch! I'll fill the empty tanks tomorrow.
Take care and keep posting. Living the experience and talking about it is invaluable. I am not feeling so sanguine in my preps any more. Thanks Planet!
cynthia

[Tanada]

Be safe! Your input is invaluable in the real life situation you find yourself in. The closest we have come to that around here was the great Eastern Blackout of 2003 when the A/C was too much and the august heat blew out the grid. For three days we were buying ice from across the line where the power was still on to keep our freezer safely cold. Not nearly as life threatening as your situation except for the Senior Citizens and there were half a dozen cooling centers set up to keep them safe.

When you get a chance let us know how your neighbors fared through the outage.

[Shaved Monkey]

Stay safe

Maybe a Coolgardie safe as back up and bear and wolf proof if you can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe

and
maybe a rocket mass heater is a must in a cold climate if you have access to sticks,theres a project to keep you busy ,might be a good time to draw up some designs.
It would be harder to incorporate into an rv but I have seen a wood heater in VW Combi Van
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=rock ... 032%3B1568

We get cut of here mainly by flood every year, but its in the middle of summer so you arent going to freeze... even in winter.

[PrestonSturges]

Take care! You ought to be able to move the frozen fish to one of those outbuilding when they cool off.

Don't forget the old tricks like warming a brick to take to bed with you, or maybe a 2 L bottle as a hot water bottle.

[Beery1]

It'll be just like the movie "Day After Tomorrow" when the remaining 1st-Worlders hoped to anchor their Super boats in Africa.

I think you're thinking of the movie "2012". "The Day After Tomorrow" didn't have super boats. It had glaciers, people holed up in the New York Public Library and frozen presidential helicopters falling out of the sky.

On the issue of freezing in Alaska, personally I reckon people who live there are crazy. I would never even consider living in a place where my survival was so dependent upon deliveries of fuel.