<p>Here in my NJ town we got electric back on the following day but we lost our hot water heater, furnance, airconditioner, washing machine and dryer. We can’t take a hot shower or wash the clothes, and after working all day cleaning up there is nothing we want to do more than wash the smell of bleach off of us. I hate to complain because I do consider us lucky since a tree did’nt land on our house or the water did’nt rise to the second floor as has happened to many other communities.</p>
<p>Well, I had reported the dangerous power lines and huge downed tree near my house. So around dinner time two workers from Potomac Edison (!) came to inquire about the situation. By then the tree had been removed, but the pole looks bent, and the lines are sagging. They said they would report back, but had no idea when it would be fixed.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve come to terms with the situation, I can say that I feel… tired. We may not have power until after labor day. The stores don’t have adequate ice, since a good portion of own town is still out. The grocery stores around the whole area are touch and go as to what is open and ok and what is not. Tonight’s activity was the library and Starbucks. </p>
<p>I am grateful that my house is not under water. We had flooding with Floyd years back, and had to throw out most of the basement stuff. It was hard work hauling all that to the curb.Now I will only have to throw out foodstuffs, and that won’t be heavy lifting. Good thing because I am not so young anymore.</p>
<p>My husband has decided to have a professional generator installed at some point. It runs on natural gas (our neighbor has one.) Since this is very expensive, this should be insurance for the future - we won’t lose power again once we buy it. </p>
<p>One of the people at the library said that they do not have a sufficient supply of transformers to fix all the damage. Wow.</p>
<p>I guess this is supposed to be transformative for me. I sure will appreciate modern conveniences when this is over.</p>
<p>anothermom2, So sorry. We lost power for 6 days with Isabel and seeing the out of town power company workers is a very good sign for you. The whole thing is indeed tiring. Even with just a flooded crawlspace,I am already tired with dealing with so many contractors(as nice as they all have been). I feel for all of you that have it much worse. Hang in there!</p>
<p>Still no power here, but I’ve been able to charge my iPhone in the car and at work. This is such a useful device, glad I finally gave in and bought one a few months ago. I’m using it as a phone, to read the local paper online, get updates about power and water, and of course, CC! But I think the most helpful thing is the flashlight app. </p>
<p>For my fellow JCPL customers without power, several supermarkets are providing ice and water at no charge. Go to firstenergycorp.com to find stores local to you. I was told we can get more ice and water every day. Today I shared a bag of ice with someone else who didn’t need the whole bag, and we shared 5 gallons of bottled water. </p>
<p>We have an inverter that plugs into a cigarette lighter in the car and then you can plug in anything like you would in your house, and it also has a USB port. (by “anything”, I mean a laptop, phone, etc. Not a refrigerator!).</p>
<p>While this might not work for everyone, it is a little suggestion that worked for my father after an ice storm in Atlanta back in 1972. While the power company was more concerned with getting whole streets back online, that left those with lines down from the street to their house with little hope of ever getting power back. </p>
<p>After 2 weeks of no power and staying in a hotel, my father had this great idea. He owned a liquor store, so he brought home a case of liquor, drove to one of the neighborhoods that had a power truck working and said, “If you follow me home and repair my line, this case is your.” Hours later our house had power! :)</p>
<p>My mother was mad my dad hadn’t though of this 12 days earlier!</p>
<p>Our town has the highest percentage still without power according to the power company. Should ver back on by 10pm Saturday.
I’m so grateful to have gas. We’ll lose the contents of the refrigerator, but we can shower! I Have one of those inverters…DH says I can’t use it for the hairdryer :-(</p>
<p>Still no power here in north central NJ. 75 hours and counting. I got 2 automated calls to my cell phone from JCP&L asking me to confirm the the power was back on. These got my hopes up briefly, but each time I called my wife’s cell to confirm I learned that, no, our power was still out. I’m taking my laptop to the office today to charge it. I’m really happy I got an iPhone 6 months ago - otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get and send emails, check the JCP&L and NJ American Water websites, and of course CC.</p>
<p>Hang in there, all you without power!</p>
<p>My father in central Va. is still power-less but the generator my brothers fill every day is taking care of his immediate needs. And my 98 year old uncle who lives alone still has no power, but he gets meals on wheels, so that’s helpful! </p>
<p>And BIL in NH just got electricity back so we can visit him in 2 days without having to experience a 3rd world country… :)</p>
<p>Any tips or recommendations for buying a good generator? We are going to be purchasing one soon so we can be better prepared than we were last time the electric went off. Sounds like there is some experience on this thread.</p>
<p>Also in NJ and still no power or water. The roads that were closed on Sunday are still closed and I haven’t seen a single power truck. I am tracking the JCP&L outage map almost obsessively and the number of outages in my town and the surrounding small towns hasn’t changed one bit. This is getting very discouraging. </p>
<p>Sent from my Droid using CC App</p>
<p>Skyhook, we just went to Home Depot and bought a Honda generator. We read the box and got one that would run what we needed (refrigerator, some lights, portable TV.)</p>
<p>My parents in their eighties have been without power since Sat. No water, one landline corded phone. Yesterday was a good day as their community center got power so they can shower, get coffee and use the Internet there. They live near a large university and the students and campus just got power so they also have restaurants now. One night they boiled pasta water on their outdoor grill but then discovered they had dishes they couldn’t clean. I am hoping they get power soon. We are being told it could be one week.</p>
<p>Back in the 80s we were building a home, a huge snow storm took out power to our condo in town, it was out for a week. The 30 minute away place where we were building was out of electricity for 3 weeks! We immediately made plans for a generator! And never saw anything that bad again, but it was nice to know we would be okay if it happened. And would have been okay if Y2K actually went bad.</p>
<p>I remember a few years ago a winter snow storm leaving us without power for 5 days, frozen food on the back patio, refrigerator food in the garage, all huddled around the tiny gas fireplace and cooking on the BBQ.</p>
<p>Last night when I called the power company for an update I was told that my power would be restored today. This morning I called and it said my power will be restored on Saturday night. In reality my power will be restored when my power will be restored and I will hate Virginia Dominion Power with the heat of 1,000 burning suns every time we have a hurricane or snowstorm.</p>
<p>I’m being told Friday, maybe Saturday. I agree - I’ll get it when I get it. I’m resigned to it now and pretty much living with a friend during the day so I can work. My dog is very lonely though.</p>
<p>
Me, too - love the iPhone now!</p>
<p>We still don’t have power in MA - down the block at the middle school, there’s power, but not at our house! We’ve been upgraded from Saturday to Friday for a return of power.</p>
<p>I’m getting too old for this - the Little House on the Prairie approach isn’t working for me any more.</p>
<p>Yes, I also am resigned to getting power back whenever. The jcpl website lists more houses out in our town than they did yesterday. (yikes). Lots of other folks coming into the office saying still no power, flooded basements, furnaces etc ruined. </p>
<p>One other good thing to connect to those generators that we are all going to buy is the sump pump for your house. </p>
<p>I am really busy at work today, so I will check back later, from starbucks wifi or a radio free Europe broadcast. (do you remember those?)</p>
<p>Thanks for keeping in touch my friends.</p>
<p>Not only do we mow have power both at home and at our business, my insurance company just agreed to pay to have two trees removed from my driveway without even coming out to see if they were actually there–they are direct depositing the money for the tree removal plus lost groceries to my bank account tomorrow–how’s that for service? Hope my good luck spreads out to all of you!</p>
<p>Good vibes to all. Have you spoken with your town officials? It sounds like our mayor (part-time, pays like $5000/yr) is in NJ American Water’s and PSE&G’s face every few hours to get things moving. Also, our DPW workers are working round-the-clock to clear trees to get roads open. A huge challenge for our town is that 2-3 of our major streets are county streets and the tree clearing is subcontracted to a company that is woefully understaffed, so the houses impacted by those trees & downed lines are going to wait a long time.</p>
<p>Well, I read on line that our mayor and police chief got really mad at JCP&L, but I don’t think much of anything is happening. Someone will actually have to come in a truck and go on the cherry picker to fix it by my neighborhood, and a few others. I have seen ZERO cherrypickers from this electric company out and about. The only trucks I see are Verizon and the cable companies. Street lights are still out on RT. 22, which is a major roadway . At the rate they are going, this won’t be done by October 4. :(</p>