5+ day Power Outage, Derecho hits Iowa!

[LarsB]

What do you do for 5 days with no power and 37 fish tanks/tubs?
You go OLD SCHOOL and set up digital camera (w/ batteries) and a LED flashlight, and film some guppies! Silly fishes, think they are getting fed! Not in the dark, never with no oxygen - filtration - Sorry FISHES! go gonna get treated vicious! (I lost 2, same tank, but do not feel it was due to the situation)..... Had to make my own fun!!

My house was 5 days + without power. Most tanks have no air/no filtration for first 3 days!
We were hit by a Derecho (de-ratio), and "inland hurricane" weather phenomenon - "We used to live in a forest, now most of it is on the ground" Google Cedar Rapids Iowa Aug 10th 2020 Derecho.
97% of the county was out of power, Cedar Rapids, the 2nd largest city in Iowa, was without power, cell service, communications - no food and in some cases, no water. Ancient tree uprooted and tossed
As of this AM 30% of county still with out power, 32K in the "dark" as of Tues AM
48k state wide -While I personally fared far better than many, this place is still hit hard and still with out power.
After a few days, I was able to attach to a generator and have power to run air tubes to all my tanks and have a fan for me and charge my phone, eventually getting internet and Cell back, though spotty. and then finally electric, then lost internet! LOL

 

[ClownLurch]

Best of luck to you. Stay calm, think calm.

 

[LarsB]

Best of luck to you. Stay calm, think calm.

I have been pretty lucky, some have not. I have great neighbors, and over all everyone has been pulling together. I was stuck in the middle of it, in my car, in 110MPH wind and driving rain. Part of tree had fallen on my car. my mantra for that almost (long hour) was ""Mother earth, protect us and HOLD ME NEAR YOU!"" After the rain slowed I had to walk 3 blocks home. Later, when I got back to my car to drive it home, it took almost an hour to drive "three blocks" the REALLY long route...

 

[Retired Viking]

I hope they get everything up and running soon, we had strong wind and heavy rain with a few spots loosing power for a short time but nothing as bad as you. I ended up with a 3 inch deep pond in my back yard.

 

[mbsqw1d]

I'm lucky in that I can't see me being hit with any such weather in the near future, but I suppose there's other reasons we might end up with no power.. which gets me thinking, I suppose we as fish keepers should consider having emergency backup supplies on hand just in case? Battery operated air pump with a few packs of batteries, heat pads, torches etc.. does anyone already have this stowed away?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Good job for improvising my friend!

Stay safe, and I hope the power comes back on soon.

 

[LarsB]

I hope they get everything up and running soon, we had strong wind and heavy rain with a few spots loosing power for a short time but nothing as bad as you. I ended up with a 3 inch deep pond in my back yard.

The power company made the goal to have 90% up by midnight WED, they missed that mark! But now they say FRIDAY will have (almost?) everyone up and running....We'll see... They have a horrendous task, and some awful circumstances - Thank those people doing it for us all!!!!

 

[LarsB]

I'm lucky in that I can't see me being hit with any such weather in the near future, but I suppose there's other reasons we might end up with no power.. which gets me thinking, I suppose we as fish keepers should consider having emergency backup supplies on hand just in case? Battery operated air pump with a few packs of batteries, heat pads, torches etc.. does anyone already have this stowed away?

I was pretty lucky, as I had just down water changes for the most part, and none of my tanks (not TOO many) are on a heavy bioload. The ones that were, I just babied and kept up with smaller water changer ( I have a 44g aging/conditioning barrel)... One of the LFS had a post about "USB and Batt Powered Pumps now back in stock! DO NOT Wait until the next power outage"..... Public service and capitalism all in one ad! LOL

 

[Retired Viking]

The power company made the goal to have 90% up by midnight WED, they missed that mark! But now they say FRIDAY will have (almost?) everyone up and running....We'll see... They have a horrendous task, and some awful circumstances - Thank those people doing it for us all!!!!

I have an old army buddy who is a pole climber but he does mostly the big power line towers and is over 60 and still climbs up them. Pay is really good.