So what are we seeing for weather in your location? (Page 2 of 2)
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Originally Posted By bodybagger: They are roasting mayor Frauddie and NES in the comments on fox17 stories NES sent out emails to their customers on Friday of last week, claiming they were prepared to deal with the winter storm. Scrolling back in this thread, it's easy to see that the forecast had shifted on Thursday morning to all of Davidson County getting ice, so they can't really claim they had no idea it could get this bad. There have been claims that they were (at least initially) turning away offers of some help from out-of-state line crews, but I don't know how much confirmation there has been of that. There have also been claims that they haven't been maintaining their reserve of emergency repair materials at the same levels they have in the past, but again I don't know how much confirmation there has been of that. On the mayor's side of things, there doesn't seem to be much difficulty in finding things to point out. For starters, since becoming mayor he has shown an inability to properly address issues until he has had time to address things the way the council does (form a committee to study the issue, make recommendations, etc). That mentality was apparently fine when he was on the council, but that's not how the mayor's office is supposed to work when a problem suddenly appears. Of the rare times that he has responded quickly to a sudden issue, he has given the impression that he has no idea what his authority as mayor is. There have been claims that the response from the city was slow and that communication of information from the city was a mess. If my memory isn't off, it took an additional two days after the announcement of 'warming shelters' having been opened, for somebody in the chain of command to realize that some people couldn't get to those shelters on their own and transportation help needed to be offered. There was also some delay in getting word out that only three of those warming shelters would be open overnight, and which three those were. I saw some complaints that the city had been directing people to the 'Hub Nashville' website that the city seems to have been so proud of since it was developed, and yesterday I talked to someone who is still resisting the pressure to get a smart phone and is still using a 'dumb' cellphone. They had tried to get information on warming shelters by calling the non-emergency number for the city's emergency services, and were simply told to check Hub Nashville, when they informed the person that they had no working internet connection (no power for their computer, which was what led to their call), they were given a phone number to call for the Hub Nashville system. Their call to that number resulted in an automated response, with the typical 'press 1 for...' menu, but when the menu did not have an option dealing with what they wanted, there was no option for talking to an actual person for other issues. It wasn't that long ago that the city had an automated system for calling phone numbers of city residents and playing a recording of emergency alert information, but that system seems to have been abandoned when the switch was made to Hub Nashville. People have complained about the poor response to blocked roads (trees or limbs in the road), and from what little I have heard directly from other people and what I saw when I made trips for gas, restocking some food items, and to help a relative that needed transportation for an errand on the other side of town, much of the city seemed to have been left to deal with those blockages on their own for several days. The city didn't completely drop the ball, but there are examples pointing out bad weaknesses in the current system - the system that the mayor is in charge of. ETA: Toss in the city's recent efforts toward large increases in the property tax bills (and the mayor spending a chunk of that on offering free bus service to people on SNAP for the next three years), and it's not surprising that people might be wondering about the current market prices for pitchforks and torches. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
| And I just saw a report of people fighting in the warming shelter at the fairgrounds. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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Originally Posted By bodybagger: How about the new bike lanes? I bet they really helped  More room to slide before leaving the pavement. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
The fingerpointing is starting. Nashville leaders push NES to release restoration timeline for all customers immediately  TN leaders express concerns over power outages, restoration efforts  Nashville mayor growing frustrated with NES I'm looking forward to someone at NES losing it front of a reporter and ranting about how the city has been issuing building permits so fast that NES has been playing catch-up with getting new infrastructure in place to support the new construction. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
| Mayor Freddie must be getting worried. He went to Bellevue and did a photo op with a crew where he helped them move a downed limb. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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NES has been bashed for not giving customers any information on when they can expect their power to be back on, so they have now added information to their website with estimates on when power will be fully restored in each zip code. My zip code is February 8th. ETA: NES has suspended late fees and disconnections until further notice. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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At about 5 am tomorrow, I'll have been without power from NES for a solid week, with the information from NES indicating that it could easily go on for another week. Having already missed a week of work with the deadline for paying property taxes looming, I've had to sort out some things to allow going back to work under these conditions (now that the roads are no longer much of a problem, even for 2WD). Up until this outage, my standard procedure for running the generator has been to turn off all the 220V breakers in the breaker box before starting the generator, then be a bit careful about how many things I turn on. Over the last couple days, I have determined that if I cut all of my breakers off, then turn just the 220V breaker for the water heater back on, my generator seems to make some complaints about the load but will run the water heater (and only the water heater). That allows me to take a hot shower after waiting for the water to heat up, instead of heating water in a pot on the propane camp stoke and taking a sponge bath. Starting from having just the 220V breakers turned off, I can turn off the breakers for the chest freezer and the refrigerator, turn on the breaker for the washer/dryer unit (I have the apartment sized stacked combo) and wash clothes, but I have to hang them up to dry (I doubt the generator would be happy with the dryer). In addition to having missed that I was out of oil for the Dietz lanterns and having put off some chainsaw maintenance until after the chainsaws were needed, I apparently wasn't paying enough attention to my inventory of AA batteries (not out, but definitely low), and it would have been nice to have a better stockpile of certain foods that I randomly get a craving for (though I don't really have a way to cook a pizza under the current conditions). Having a couple of the smaller Jackery portable power stations would likely cut down on the amount of gas used, as there are plenty of times that I only need to plug in one or two things (such as my modem, as it is my main connection for phone and internet) to 110V outlets and then wouldn't really need the generator for a while, and the portable power stations could be charged when I need the generator running more things. I also need to shift the task of building a small woodshed next to the house to a higher priority on the 'get this done eventually' list. Carrying a day or two worth of firewood up the hill to the house and putting it on the porch is enough of a pain, but doing it with snow and ice on the ground is far from optimal. Oh, No! Not another learning experience! |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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I'm making plans based on the assumption that NES won't have me reconnected until next weekend. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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Originally Posted By Prae: Hopefully it's sooner. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst. 
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Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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After the mayor and some members of the council indicated that the timeline that NES had provided by zip code was too vague and seemed to be presenting a worst case scenario, NES added an outage tracker function to their website, allowing typing in a specific address to see the current status. I tried it, and the reply was essentially that my power was out and they had crews working in the area. I guess that helps people who left their homes to stay with friends or relatives who had power to check on whether or not their house has power, but I knew there were crews working in my area during the second half of last week. The mayor and council seem to have shifted over the weekend to complaining that NES is failing in communication, but the city was doing a poor job of communicating (location of warming shelters and other issues) for the first half of last week. The timeline by zip code chart was also updated to say my zip code will have power fully restored sometime between Feb 7 and Feb 9, instead of the earlier statement of Feb 8. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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NES has updated their outage map. Instead of just me and one other house on my road being without power, they are back up to every house on my road not having power, along with the houses on the road where the guy who brought his mini-excavator over to help clear my road lives. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
| Well Frauddie and NES are taking a thrashing in the media. I love seeing the left eat their own. Wish you'd gotten your power back by now though. |
I think one of the major problems with America today is not enough families sit down to a big plate of squirrels momma just fried up.
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Originally Posted By bodybagger: Well Frauddie and NES are taking a thrashing in the media. I love seeing the left eat their own. Wish you'd gotten your power back by now though. Like I said earlier, I would have been seriously impressed if they had gotten my power back on before last weekend, but I'm planning for it to not be back on before this coming weekend. I didn't make it to work yesterday, because they got power back on at my sister's house and she needed a ride home, but I made it to work today. Gonna try to get there earlier tomorrow (need to manage my time a little better with getting the water heater going). |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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Got sidetracked with replacing a carburetor and fuel lines on a chainsaw, this morning. Got it about halfway back together, picked up a screw that didn't match any of the other hardware, pondered this oddity for a moment... Oh crap! Took it back apart and installed the forgotten screw. Started putting it back together and got it almost completely assembled, then I found another unique screw. Pondered on that one for a bit, turned the saw this way and that, looking over every bit of it that I could see with it assembled. Eventually gave up and started pulling it back apart, got it about halfway apart and found the hole the screw went in. Put it back together, then looked at the clock and realized that I was going to be much later getting to work than I had been yesterday. Switched the breakers so that I could get the water heater going, then headed out to test out the chainsaw while it was heating up... ...and there was the line crew. I didn't go to work today. The chainsaw works great after I found a broken tooth that was causing an odd vibration while cutting and replaced the chain with a new chain. Now I'm just enjoying having electricity without listening to the generator. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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Amazon is running a 20% off deal on the Coleman camp ovens, so I now have the ability to make biscuits or cook a small pizza if the power is out. I should have the list I made during the ice storm taken care of before next winter. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
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Originally Posted By JPN: Amazon is running a 20% off deal on the Coleman camp ovens, so I now have the ability to make biscuits or cook a small pizza if the power is out. I should have the list I made during the ice storm taken care of before next winter. Those are handy! |
I think one of the major problems with America today is not enough families sit down to a big plate of squirrels momma just fried up.
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Originally Posted By bodybagger: Those are handy! Originally Posted By bodybagger: Originally Posted By JPN: Amazon is running a 20% off deal on the Coleman camp ovens, so I now have the ability to make biscuits or cook a small pizza if the power is out. I should have the list I made during the ice storm taken care of before next winter. Those are handy! Yep. Very handy after 10 days without power from the local utility results in a shift in mindset from "what do I need to get through this" to "what do I need to get through this with as little disruption to my life as possible". More gas cans was also on the list, but fortunately I planned to put that purchase off until there was likely to be no impact on availability due to people running out to buy gas cans, then I was looking for something else and found the 'nearly new condition' 5 gallon gas cans that had gotten buried under other stuff, 9 years ago, in the rushed move to this house. |
Earthsheltered house - a reinforced bunker that even the treehuggers consider to be socially acceptable.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.
Earthbag house - like an earthsheltered house, but cheaper and easier to DIY.