Ok friends, I have a question, and hopefully one of you can answer it. I have two couples here with me that need cool air and oxygen. I still have Michael's oxygen generator and a couple of large bottles of air. So I'm having to keep the air conditioners running to keep the air cool and dry for those of us that have COPD, as well as the oxygen generator for two of my guests. I can hear everything pulling on the electricity, but I can't turn the air or oxygen off. My question is, is there anything I can do to help the situation? The county contacted us this morning, and asked if we could maintain things for as long as possible. So until we loose power, I need to see what can be done to help lessen the problem. In case I can't post later, I want to thank you all for your prayers.
Try to turn off the breakers for everything that you do not need to use electricity for, @Ina I. Wonder . That way you will only be using it where it is needed the most. If you can hear it pulling more than usual, then you may be getting a lower amount of power than you usually have. Close all doors except the room where you have the AC on and do not try to cool the whole house. At night, you can do the opposite and turn off the AC except what is in the bedrooms where someone is sleeping. Don't open your refrigerator door any more than is necessary, and you can even unplug the fridge part of the time. When I lived in Idaho and didn't have water or electricity, and had a generator, I turned the generator on for about an hour in the morning, did whatever cooking I needed for that day, and then turned it back off again to conserve diesel fuel. The refrigerator did fine at keeping things cool the rest of the time and I only opened it when I had to and closed it right away again. For showers, I turned on water, got wet, turned it off, soap and shampoo, and then turned the water back on long enough to rinse off, Use as cool of water as you comfortably can use to keep hot water tank at a minimum, and this can also be turned on once a day, and off for the rest of the time. If you save rainwater, you can use that for washing. Also, after we had the tornadoes here and no power for 2 weeks, I washed our clothes outside in a big plastic tub, and then hung them on the fence to dry. If it is raining, you can't do that but can probably adapt something similar that works in the house, at least with underwear. Also, you should be able to turn off your well pump, and just turn it on once or twice a day, depending on how much water you are using. It will fill your storage tank, and then you can use from that, and when you turn it on, then it will refill the tank again.
@Ina I. Wonder , my thoughts and prayers are with y'all. I have a question. They tell people to get on the roof of their house. How can they get on the roof? The only to get on my roof is on the outside with a ladder. I can climb up into the attic but there's no way to get on the roof from there.
That is a good question, and one that I worried about, too, @Shirley Martin . Someone would not be trying to get into the attic in the first place unless the flooding was already pretty deep, and then you would have to wade outside, get the ladder and hope it stayed steady long enough to climb up on the roof. What if the person is in a wheelchair, or even one that needs a cane to walk, or is very overweight ? There are a lot of reasons why someone might not be able to climb up on the roof. And what if you have pets ? No one wants to leave their beloved dogs or cats in the house to drown. If more than one person lives there, then they might be able to pass the pets up the ladder onto the roof, but then you have to keep them from panicking and trying to jump off of the roof. If the person lives alone, it would be extremely hard (if not impossible) to climb a ladder while carrying a pet, especially for an older person, or a handicapped one.
I'm reading some really angry posts on FB from those stuck in the flooding in Houston. It seems the Governor of Texas told Houston to evacuate...but Mayor Turner basically told them they didn't need to do that. Yes they did need to do that and this reminds me of the Mayor of New Orleans who did not encourage the people to evacuate for Katrina either and because of that there was so much death and devastation. Please pray for the people in Houston...they really need our prayers at this time. KHOU's Channel 11 Station got flooded and they were able to relocate so they can keep broadcasting and trying to help so many people that are letting them know either them or their loved ones are in desperate need of rescuing. I even saw a picture of old people in an Assisted Living Facility sitting in recliners with the water up to the recliner's arms. It doesn't look like a fake picture but with the way some people can change things on the Internet it might be. But for sure there are alot of people in serious trouble in Houston right now. Lord, help them please.
This is my daughter's subdivision in Texas where they sold their home a couple of months ago...and this is about an hour from downtown Houston...in Needville.
#BREAKING: La vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson Texas flooded, but the Galveston office of emergency services says 20-25 residents were evacuated safely. (Credit: Trudy Lampson)http://abc13.com/2347953/
We've got a tornado warning in our area right now and the rain and the wind is starting to pick up quite a bit.