Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Life is good, even without power

goin on 48 hours without power, huge windstorm and snowfall knocked out power for tens of thousands the other night.


had three 90 foot spruce trees come down on our property, worst was the one right by my wood shed and 500 gal. farm tank I'd just had topped off a week or two ago.

top of it landed on the stand pipes for the underground 1000 gal heat oil fuel tank

neighbors didn't have flashlights or candles, so tossed them some of our extras to get them by.

I don't know how some folks get by, I truly don't.

for us life pretty well as it as the cabin, already had 10 gal. of water on standby, plenty of fuel to run both generators, fridge and freezers plugged in and humming along, shop lights hung up in kitchen. Trouble light in the bathroom. heck we even watched a movie last night by generator power.

coffee brewing on the camp stove in the morning, fire roaring in the wood stove, life is indeed good.

but I got really lucky that tree falling in such close proximity didn't mess up my preparations

talked to a GVEA guy (electric co. ) today, he was on his 32nd straight hour working. that's when stuff gets dangerous imo, tired to the bone and working with stuff that can bite you hard. I saw him at lunch and kidded him that he didn't have time to eat that I was still without power!

but told him the truth that we were absolutely fine, thanked him for his efforts and to stay safe.

hopefully we'll get power again one of these days, but I can weather the storm for quite awhile


one of the local grocers had to trash can 200K of perishable stuff, ouch, that's a hit!

I hear the Fairbanks airport also had some serious winds with a lot of damaged airplanes.

Hell of a wind storm. Did you hear em crash?

Now you have firewood for next year!

Or airplanes to fix !!

Every generator in town sold in about 3 hours. I don't know about ABS but the frenzy was pretty rugged at SW. Lanterns and Mr. Buddys sold like crazy as well. Amazing how many people will buy a generator when they are without power for more than 12 hours.
Randy I hope that you are ok. I know that they got power on quickly down here near McGrath probably worried that the locals would riot.
I heard that South Kushman didn't even go down. They were too worried about rioting.

Dang it though they better start up school pretty quick. I have been gun shopping for three days straight.

Crazy stuff! Glad to hear you lucked out and the trees didn't tear anything up when they came down.

How late in the year will u guys have to run school Thomas?
Been awhile since I recall school closed 3 days in a row!

We are fine. But thanks for asking all the same. Approaching 48 hour mark off the grid. Inconvenient yes at times. Problematic no way. We are warm fed healthy & happy. Blessed in so many ways. Those poor gvea guys are tired. Most folks around here have power. But our lil neighborhood & sil & Bil out in North Pole do not. Still no worries here just grateful for all the good in this life

May 28th with one saturday this Spring for staff development for teachers. It should be good. Rather have a break now than kids spinning out of control trying to get pizza during lunch and wiping out. Well, there will be a surplus of generators at the various outlets tomorrow. Stay warm and have fun with your kids.

Sincerely,
Thomas

I've got buddies heading your way as we speak.
Year before last we had a big storm in Anchorage, I worked about 100 hours with little or no rest. I was out of power for 72+ hours myself.
They'll do the best they can

Randy,

If this lack of power should persist, you are welcome to move to my house in Delta as I'm out pheasant hunting. Plenty of grub there and you may even find some quality beverage stored in the pantry for such emergencies.

I do hope that your power is soon restored as I see more storms on the horizon.

Vern what a kind & generous offer. Thank you!
But we are happy as clams currently. But your post speaks volumes to those that wonder about our life here. Alaska has always held men like Vern. Rugged enough to do what ever it takes kind & generous to those needing a hand

Donner I'd heard we'd imported crews from anchorage. Grateful for such. You guys work with some dangerous stuff in dangerous conditions add sleep deprivation 2 the mix & it's a nasty combo indeed. Grateful for the crews out there gettin er done. My family discussed at dinner last evening that we hope they're rotating shifts now. Lots of folks have their power restored thanks to the efforts of guys like you.

We are still waiting for ours but as mentioned earlier we are not suffering or lacking for anything.

Colder weather headed this way. I may have to move our layin hens to the garage if we don't get power back on soon. But if that's the worst life throws our way well them I'm just gonna keep whistling : )

Randy, here's hoping you get things back on the grid pretty soon. I know what a pain it can be when things go down. On the bright side, at least there people around there that can do it. Of course having those people sort of handy also means there is a fairly large number of people who might also need assistance all at once, hence the lingering. It's easy to take this stuff for granted sometimes, and so I got kind of a surprise the other night when my crew texted me in the night's middle with the news that the apartment was getting cold and it was "pitch dark". It's sometimes nice to know that "Dad" is needed even if having Dad there wouldn't have changed the fact that there was no wood stove to feed.

But speaking of Alaska and it's great people.....I don't even know Vern except by here, kind of the same as you until recently,.......so I probably shouldn't be teasing him. Nevertheless, knowing that he is undoubtedly made of the same good stuff as so many good guys up here, I can't help but read between the lines............I think he was saying just in case his house loses power, he wants you to go 'take care of' the quality stuff he has stored away that might freeze. (That could make a mess, don'tcha know? ) I do hope they get you "back on" soon.

That's always been my experience with the folks in Alaska.

Well I was going to pot about this "storm" ...I called GVEA @ 645 on weds eve....I lost power 1ST! ... I sayz the wind is howling ...no, says the guy on the phone all's well ...bs!! LOOK! I have near NO trees left..i lost 25 in the last "wind from hell" on the 2nd of nov..that wind never got to town It ripped down the line smashed my transformer /left it hanging on the pole by one wire AND put my biggest spruce tree caross my house!! ....now this last wind #$%^(&^%#@!@#$% f-WIND !!! i'll see if I can get some pic's of my WW1 wasteland up...

Hey, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.....

here is a pic from the 2nd of sept to get a reference ...still working ...to show u what happen

Randy

Always figured you'd be as prepared as can be. Thankful for that, I am, so that y'all are ok as usual!

Re the grocery store, one would think, especially in AK, the stores would have backup power of their own. Even our local store has it... of course come to think of it, a new walmart does not.... they might find out the hard way too...

Not much I can do from lands of 82 degree flippin temps in Noveember, but if there is something we could help with, let us know.

jeff