Thread by @Aristos_Revenge

So the power is back up after Hurricane Beryl punched our ticket here in Houston. As always, like with the 3 day freeze etc, I'll do a post mortem of social observations in a mass power outage situation and the gear that was the best for quality of life stuff: 🧵

The social aspects of power outages are very fascinating if you've got the presence of mind to pay attention. Watching American society adapt to no internet or media. There are stages of cope that at this point, I can confidently measure.

The first few hours, most people stay in their homes in a state of puzzlement, thinking "maybe it'll come back up soon". They eventually decide that isn't the case, and the unprepared will try to hit any stores that might still be open for the essentials.

The prepared will start reconfiguring things. The genny comes outside, the extension cords get strung, the camp stoves and grills come out. You can figure out who the fancy folk are right away because their generac will immediately be on when things go dark.

On the first day, people are generally helpful and in a cheery mood. After some hours go by you'll see a lot of people taking advantage of the situation to go for a run, or sit on a park bench and read, kids will play outside. Feels kinda like normal life in the 90's..

The second day, people start to get quiet. Those who planned on shacking up with nearby family have done so, or leaving the area altogether if that's possible. Those riding it out hit a point where there's no more preparation to be done, just twiddling their thumbs is left.

I've only had to go fully through day 3 once, and you can see the palpable desperation that would set in during a scenario like this that lasted a week. Most Americans, plainly put, can't cope with a week of no power. They don't have stocked pantries, they run out of gas.

On day 3 of the freeze a few years back we had the people who ran out of what they had for lack of preparation begin to worry and ask for help. People without food (stores were mostly not open) and people without gas for cars and generators (sitting in their cars for warmth)

But today and yesterday were definitely lessons entirely opposite from the freeze, surviving the heat is a way bigger pain in the ass than surviving the cold, imo. In the cold, you have a lot of strategies and tools to bundle up and warm up. Fireplaces, heaters, clothes, fires.

But you can only strip off so many clothes until you're sweaty and naked in your home with no AC, where opening the front and the rear door for a crossbreeze means the mosquitos hear a dinnerbell. The only way to cool yourself off in a hot and humid environment is with power.

I was hot and miserable after grilling dinner yesterday, I plugged the air fryer into the genny to make stuff for the kids and grilled a t-bone steak and some vegetables from my chest freezer for my wife and I.

We cruised over to the walmart parking lot in our car where there was cell reception and just relaxed and cooled off for an hour or two as the sun went down. Then we went back to our dark home and we all went to sleep and coped with the sticky heat.

The problem with American homes is that they are designed to run with the AC on. They become hotter inside than outside in the summer without it. If this had been an emergency or long term problem, we'd be living in a tent in the backyard in the shade, because it'd be cooler!

Honorable mention goes out once again to this little bastard, the Goal Zero Crush Light. These things are invaluable. They are cheap af at 20 bucks, they can crush flat into a slim profile for storage, rechargeable, with a little solar panel.

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For 5 bucks more you can get the crush light chroma, which can change colors. Both models have a removable handle so you can hang them off of all sorts of stuff. I give one to each of my kids and it keeps them occupied messing with the colors and not hogging one of my flashlights

A generator is also a must-have, coupled with a bunch of power cord extensions. Make sure to only run them at an acceptable standoff distance from your home so you aren't blowing carbon monoxide into your house. Position them with exhaust facing away.

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I wish I had bought, and will have on hand in the future here, are some adequately hefty battery operated fans like the ones you see tradesmen using fairly often.

I didn't want to string my extension cords through the house to the bedroom for a fan.

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And because generators are noisy and use fuel, it really pays to have a heavy battery power station. They provide a lot of utility for charging up small electronics like radios, batteries, phones, and lights.

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That power bank has been one of my best investments for camping or for our frequent power outages due to weather events. I charge it on the generator, turn off the generator, and take the power bank to where I need power instead of running cords.

Also make sure to have several gas cans on hand, you don't want to make a lot of trips to fuel up. I like the metal GELG jerry cans that have the vented spout and pour quickly and easily. Way better than those gay red ones Obama made everyone use.

Also don't forget to use STA-BIL on long term stored fuel. The gas I used was over a year old and still good because I had treated it with fuel stabilizer and put it in highly pressurized gas cans. The GELG ones hold a really good seal to where they audible pop when opened.

So while the gulf coast is used to this happening occasionally, from Houston to Florida, my thoughts always wander to "what if this happened in a major city in any other part of the country where they aren't used to it?"

What if the grid went down across a big swathe of the US?

The other thing to make people aware of here, I used to work for an LTE cellular provider at one point. Those cell towers in areas without power? They're on backup generators until the power comes back, and those generators run out of fuel just like anything else.

So in a truly catastrophic situation where more fuel can't be ferried to those generators by the cellular operator, you've got a few days of reliable energy until the cell towers go down too.

We used to get big storms in WTX where we would be renting generators in a panic and driving them out to towers to keep things running, and sending field techs to refuel them regularly. In a non permissive katrina tier disaster, you're losing the already bottlenecked cell reception within a few days.