Observations of a 3 day blackout in SA
Jan 13, 2018 10:16:06 GMT 10
SA Hunter, Peter, and 3 more like this
Post by spinifex on Jan 13, 2018 10:16:06 GMT 10
I originally put this content up on another site but thought it some might have interest in it here too.
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I'm from rural SA. My region lost grid power for 3.5 days due to the storm. Many large back-up systems for hospitals and supermarkets failed. Telecommunications and data transmission became very sketchy after 8 hours.
Mobile phone service suffered problems from 'overuse' even before their battery back-up ran out. Best to use text messages as connecting calls was really hard.
I took a tour of the nearest regional centre (pop 15k) on day 3 to see how 'the system' was going.
Life rolls on. People seem to generally help each other out. No spike in crime.
The main shortages were in bottled gas, d cell batteries, gas bbq's, camping supplies, motor fuels, ice and any food requiring refrigeration. Fridges with temp sensitive medicines at pharmacies etc were kept going with patched in gen sets. Shelf foods in shops remained in good supply and 'opposing' supermarkets co-operated to move foods from sites where back-up generators failed to those where back-up was working.
Lots of people around here have small camping generators and used them for the first day ... but quickly ran out of fuel. Farmers had plenty of diesel on hand but petrol was harder to acquire. On day 3 one servo finally managed to patch a portable workshop gen set into a fuel pump ... the line up to use that pump was about 2km long.
The feeling/rumours at the time were that grid power would be out for upto 2 weeks, we were all kind of surprised that we got power back as quick as we did. The reason I point that out is that it's not as though everyone was happily believing the problem was going away quickly.
of course ... the media tried to sensationalize any little negative they could find.
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Only thing I saw here which I thought could have been done a little better was the fuel situation. Whilst it's his business and his call to make ... the fuel station owner who got one of his pumps going (hero!) probably could have limited each vehicle in the queue to 20 or 30 litres each. I watched some fit younger folks (quite able to walk and ride bikes) fill up their patrols and landcruisers and then 1-4 jerry cans of extra besides ... while at the rear of the queue more 'car dependent' pensioners in their little cars may not have got any fuel. (I only observed this location for about 10 minutes though, so maybe what I saw was not representative of the entire action.)
Last minute hoarding just makes a difficult situation worse ... unfortunately it's a common behavior.
I bet there are 20 or 30 people in my region that are sitting on a combined total of 3000 D cell batteries purchased in haste in September last year! ;D ;D ;D
Thus I do my hoarding well before the need arises, both to avoid the hassles myself and avoid adding to other peoples problems.
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Based on our blackout experience and walking around the shops ... always have a good supply of D cell batteries to power torches, electric camping lights and radios. 40 litres of petrol stored somewhere is also very prudent as the fuel pumps at servos all run on mains power and I can't believe NONE of the dozen servos in my area had back-up generators. Small gas burner or gas BBQ very handy too. Get two cylinders and make sure you have 1 full spare one on hand at all times. A bicycle is a sterling idea for short range (upto 20km) travel.
Don't buy bottled water if you're on a hard budget ... buy a shifting spanner and learn how to tap your hot water unit (if it's a stored tank type). Otherwise buy some plastic 20 litre containers and fill them up and slide them under your bed. Or ... just fill up lots of 1.5 and 2 litre PET bottles and put them some place dark. Possible EDTA contamination wont matter a rats bum during a serious situation. Regularly refill the containers with fresh chlorinated water from the tap. (again - chlorine taste is irrelevant in a dire situation). Buy a few extra items of the things you normally eat like pasta, tomato paste etc to build a reserve. Rotate the reserve. (I grew up on a farm where 3 weeks of food was a normal grocery shop and we could afford to skip a trip to town without too much hassle.)
................................................................................................................................................................................................
I'm from rural SA. My region lost grid power for 3.5 days due to the storm. Many large back-up systems for hospitals and supermarkets failed. Telecommunications and data transmission became very sketchy after 8 hours.
Mobile phone service suffered problems from 'overuse' even before their battery back-up ran out. Best to use text messages as connecting calls was really hard.
I took a tour of the nearest regional centre (pop 15k) on day 3 to see how 'the system' was going.
Life rolls on. People seem to generally help each other out. No spike in crime.
The main shortages were in bottled gas, d cell batteries, gas bbq's, camping supplies, motor fuels, ice and any food requiring refrigeration. Fridges with temp sensitive medicines at pharmacies etc were kept going with patched in gen sets. Shelf foods in shops remained in good supply and 'opposing' supermarkets co-operated to move foods from sites where back-up generators failed to those where back-up was working.
Lots of people around here have small camping generators and used them for the first day ... but quickly ran out of fuel. Farmers had plenty of diesel on hand but petrol was harder to acquire. On day 3 one servo finally managed to patch a portable workshop gen set into a fuel pump ... the line up to use that pump was about 2km long.
The feeling/rumours at the time were that grid power would be out for upto 2 weeks, we were all kind of surprised that we got power back as quick as we did. The reason I point that out is that it's not as though everyone was happily believing the problem was going away quickly.
of course ... the media tried to sensationalize any little negative they could find.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................
Only thing I saw here which I thought could have been done a little better was the fuel situation. Whilst it's his business and his call to make ... the fuel station owner who got one of his pumps going (hero!) probably could have limited each vehicle in the queue to 20 or 30 litres each. I watched some fit younger folks (quite able to walk and ride bikes) fill up their patrols and landcruisers and then 1-4 jerry cans of extra besides ... while at the rear of the queue more 'car dependent' pensioners in their little cars may not have got any fuel. (I only observed this location for about 10 minutes though, so maybe what I saw was not representative of the entire action.)
Last minute hoarding just makes a difficult situation worse ... unfortunately it's a common behavior.
I bet there are 20 or 30 people in my region that are sitting on a combined total of 3000 D cell batteries purchased in haste in September last year! ;D ;D ;D
Thus I do my hoarding well before the need arises, both to avoid the hassles myself and avoid adding to other peoples problems.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
Based on our blackout experience and walking around the shops ... always have a good supply of D cell batteries to power torches, electric camping lights and radios. 40 litres of petrol stored somewhere is also very prudent as the fuel pumps at servos all run on mains power and I can't believe NONE of the dozen servos in my area had back-up generators. Small gas burner or gas BBQ very handy too. Get two cylinders and make sure you have 1 full spare one on hand at all times. A bicycle is a sterling idea for short range (upto 20km) travel.
Don't buy bottled water if you're on a hard budget ... buy a shifting spanner and learn how to tap your hot water unit (if it's a stored tank type). Otherwise buy some plastic 20 litre containers and fill them up and slide them under your bed. Or ... just fill up lots of 1.5 and 2 litre PET bottles and put them some place dark. Possible EDTA contamination wont matter a rats bum during a serious situation. Regularly refill the containers with fresh chlorinated water from the tap. (again - chlorine taste is irrelevant in a dire situation). Buy a few extra items of the things you normally eat like pasta, tomato paste etc to build a reserve. Rotate the reserve. (I grew up on a farm where 3 weeks of food was a normal grocery shop and we could afford to skip a trip to town without too much hassle.)