ADVERTISEMENT

Des Moines storm (also some Iowa towns of less importance with worse pizza)

My cousin's family lives in the McClellan Heights
area in Davenport. They went without power for
35 hours and it was restored today. They lost some
tree and shrubs, but no damage to their home.
 
We're now at 54 hours with no power. Yay. But, our cell service is back up!
 
+1. Still no power here either. Will have to toss everything in the fridge / freezer. And will be buying a generator in the next few months, probably just use what I would have spent on tailgating.

We at least have a generator to power the fridge and freezer.
 
I see a lot of purple talking about powering their fridge and freezer. Just making sure you all know you can power your entire house with a generator by plugging it into your dryer outlet or hardwireing it to your AC disconnect. The latter is how I'm doing mine. Can still run your AC this way too. Need at least a 5000 watt generator though. That's not real big.

On a side note, looking like this might be my second house to be a total loss. First Parkersburg, now my new place. House is twisted to hell. Wouldn't have noticed if I didn't know about the effect the wind had on houses in Parkersburg that weren't destroyed by the tornado. Would encourage people to have your agent climb into your attic even if you think things are fine. So many houses were totaled out and you wouldn't even have thought there was something wrong by looking at them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Old_wrestling_fan
I see a lot of purple talking about powering their fridge and freezer. Just making sure you all know you can power your entire house with a generator by plugging it into your dryer outlet or hardwireing it to your AC disconnect. The latter is how I'm doing mine. Can still run your AC this way too. Need at least a 5000 watt generator though. That's not real big.

On a side note, looking like this might be my second house to be a total loss. First Parkersburg, now my new place. House is twisted to hell. Wouldn't have noticed if I didn't know about the effect the wind had on houses in Parkersburg that weren't destroyed by the tornado. Would encourage people to have your agent climb into your attic even if you think things are fine. So many houses were totaled out and you wouldn't even have thought there was something wrong by looking at them.

Also, make sure you turn your main breaker off if you do that! Would not be good if you didn't and your power came back on lol
 
Also, make sure you turn your main breaker off if you do that! Would not be good if you didn't and your power came back on lol

One other thing I'd consider if wiring direct into your main circuit, is shutting off any breakers you don't need, so the ones still connection match the service limit for your generator. 5000W generator gives you ~42-amp service, whereas most houses now are wired for 100-200 amps, total. If you only open circuits you need, the chances of popping a fuse or breaker on your generator are lessened. Figure out the refrigeration circuit needs and add up from that. If you're disciplined about not running lots of stuff at once, this isn't a big deal. But if you have kids that'll start turning things on, etc, you might be wiser to match your amp-service of the breakers that are on to your generator.
 
Sitting here in my cabin at a comfortable air conditioned 72 degrees. I flip a light switch...THE LIGHT COMES ON!

My sympathies to those that don't have this option. But I had to get out of the sauna. I still have a shitload of work to do, but not being able to cool off taking a break...I'm too old for doing that kind of lumberjack work all day long in the sun and heat any more.


Hell, I may go fishing tomorrow. Even just a long ass lazy boat ride would be awesome.
 
Marion IA check in, last night at 8:30 the power comes on. Shut down generator and plugged everything back in to normal outlets. 10:30 electricity goes back out. As of this morning it's still off, generator back on. :mad:
 
My brother lives in the Donnelly Park area of Marion. No power yet, but crews are assigned and they had an expected restoration time of midnight last night.

The west side of Marion might come back online before the east side. When I drove up 13 from the 151 interchange, every power pole on the west side of 13 from Culvers to County Home Road was down.

I'm betting that area is gonna be awhile yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: beanerhawk
To the poster whom said something about "army of trucks heading in", my buddy drives for Schneider and while he was out today on I-80, he saw 3 different bunches of an Asplundh convoy that he said each was 50+ trucks strong.

Help is coming...
That's a lot of beer ;)
 
Also, make sure you turn your main breaker off if you do that! Would not be good if you didn't and your power came back on lol
This is not just an issue when the power comes back on. If you don't turn off the main breaker you're backfeeding voltage into the power company line and some poor person trying to make repairs could be electrocuted.
 
At noon today it will 72 hours since I last had power. A generator has made it bearable and LTE data keeps me working/connected. Couldn't imagine not having those.

My kids are with their grandparents where there is electricity. They'll be there until mine or my ExW power comes back on. It's still so surreal to drive around in CR. Like a f'ing warzone.

Be safe everyone.
 
I see a lot of purple talking about powering their fridge and freezer. Just making sure you all know you can power your entire house with a generator by plugging it into your dryer outlet or hardwireing it to your AC disconnect. The latter is how I'm doing mine. Can still run your AC this way too. Need at least a 5000 watt generator though. That's not real big.
Also, make sure you turn your main breaker off if you do that! Would not be good if you didn't and your power came back on lol

Yeah, I am receiving some alternating advice on the generator and how to wire it. I'm really only interested in the fridge / freezer and the sump pump to be fully functional, and I guess internet. Charging a phone or tablet is irrelevant on draw. AC or furnace is where I'm hedging, as that bumps me to a larger one - cost & fuel consumption. Lights, microwave, TV etc can wait until we have power.

Pretty sure I'd have it stand-alone, as I'm pretty big on safety and know enough to be dangerous, fully realizing that aspect. I also have kids who are not nearly as... aware.
 
Thinking of you guys. Going without power that long sucks but unlike this event, often you have warning and can stock up and prep.
 
west side of dport checking in and no power still. parts of neighborhood have it but not our street. hopefully today
 
I work for a regional insurance carrier based in Iowa. Mondays storm event has generated 4000+ individual claims and counting. It's unprecedented claim volume for a single storm event for our company.
 
  • Like
Reactions: QChawks
Start stashing $$$ for those insurance premiums down the road.

Best wishes to all affected.
 
I work for a regional insurance carrier based in Iowa. Mondays storm event has generated 4000+ individual claims and counting. It's unprecedented claim volume for a single storm event for our company.

Yeah, my wife just texted, we're getting an adjuster in on Saturday...she called while the storm was still going on.
 
Got power back at work today. Nothing yet at home. 3 nights now. Got a marine battery and inverter from a friend. That has helped some.
 
Heard the substations around CR are shot. Some areas are looking at 4-6 weeks.
 
Heard the substations around CR are shot. Some areas are looking at 4-6 weeks.
Wow. Puerto Rico took a while - would that be otherwise be the longest outage in the lower 48? How long does it take to restore power after the larger hurricanes?
 
School district just got pushed back a week. My summer vacation just got a week longer.

No power at home. Alliant has not assigned crews yet either for my outage area.

Long, frustrating sigh. 2020 can go fark itself for all I care any more.
 
Man. I hope that’s incorrect.

Unfortunately...from what I am hearing from "guys in the field" is that there are likely to be areas that are out for weeks, not days. Particularly in the Cedar Rapids/Marion area. Iowa City was hit pretty hard, but not nearly as bad as CR/Marion apparently.
 
our company has mediacom and it finally came back online yesterday and then today around noon it went down so we had to send hundreds of people home AGAIN.

I heard everything funnels through Marion and they continue to have issues trying to get the fiber line patched.

what an absolute mess!!
 
our company has mediacom and it finally came back online yesterday and then today around noon it went down so we had to send hundreds of people home AGAIN.

I heard everything funnels through Marion and they continue to have issues trying to get the fiber line patched.

what an absolute mess!!

I've seen some of the NW, NE, and south side of CR, and drove right through the north side of Marion twice.

Marion, north of 7th Avenue - was by far the worst I've seen.
 
Pretty soon, this will get political. Hinson will summon the WH and Trump will sign an EO getting relief for CR and surrounding area.

Only half kidding.

Best of luck to those suffering.
 
Yikes


At 11 a.m. on Monday, August 10 2020 Cedar Rapids was there, by 2 p.m. it was gone. Monday’s derecho, a landlocked hurricane with straight line winds over 100 mph, has impacted every part of the city catastrophically. Nearly every home has damage. Most big trees in the city fell. Most local businesses are closed. Every business is damaged. Most roads are impassable. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday 90,000 plus households in Linn County were without power. Restoring power across the grid will take weeks. Lines at gas stations outside of town with power were hours long. Chainsaws are sold out. Generators are sold out. Many gas stations sold out of gas. Cell service and LTE is spotty or nonexistent. You can’t call 911. The city has implemented a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. There are no lights in the city. You can see the milky way from downtown.

The water stayed potable. A saving grace. No power means people without gas stoves couldn’t boil water. Gas leaks throughout the city meant people with gas stoves couldn’t boil water. It would have been impossible to buy any nearby. No internet means no debit cards or credit cards or ATMs. All banks are closed. There wouldn’t have been enough anyway. People with well water and no power are using buckets as toilets.

Most power lines and poles are down. Let’s be clear about what this means. In every neighborhood, on every block, powerlines are down and poles are snapped in half. Powerlines are draped over garages, nestled in broken branches, strung five feet high over roads, laying across the street, across the sidewalk, they are everywhere. If they turned the power back on the city would burn.

There is no trash pickup. There are one hundred thousand fridges of rotting food. There are raccoons.

There is no escape from the heat, except to run out of town to look for basic supplies in an air conditioned car.

Downtown bricks and glass litter the sidewalks. Plate glass windows shattered during the storm. Many businesses have been physically destroyed. All restaurants lost all of their perishables. Factories are closed. Offices are closed. The economy — the whole thing — is stopped.

Cedar Rapids has been destroyed (again!).

 
  • Like
Reactions: Moral and McLovin32
ADVERTISEMENT