Two-thirds or more of Fort Wayne residents lost power this past weekend. (The power company indicates that 142 of 210 circuits in the area were damaged. In terms of customers, there were well over 100,000 customers without power, out of somewhere around 140,000 total customers in the area, I think.)

This was not a good weekend to buy a generator, kerosene or propane heater, propane, lantern, or D-cell batteries. Items that would normally be in low demand were in high demand and low supply. (Time to start thinking about getting a few of these items ahead of time.)

We lost power around 10AM on Friday. Not much to worry about, although Carrie got a little stir crazy while I was away at work. We went out for supper, bought some ice, then came home. Since temperatures were well below freezing, we just emptied out the freezer and put everything outside, then used the ice to keep things in the refrigerator cold. No need for extra blankets on Friday night, although we had the sleeping bags on hand just in case.

Saturday morning, after 24-hours without heat, the house was still around 60°F, but it was time to start thinking about what we could do to generate some heat. A trip to the library led me to believe that an indoor-safe propane heater would be the way to go. A kerosene heater may have been more powerful, but last time I was around a kerosene heater, it wasn’t something you’d want in the house.

When I went to Menards and found a long line of people standing around waiting for various and sundry items to come in off a truck, I realized that it was going to be difficult to find much of anything. I called around various home improvement and hardware stores, but nobody had anything left. Finally, the Rural King in Decatur said they still had some propane heaters, so we went for a 20 minute drive. Turned out they didn’t have quite what we were looking for, and I hated to spend over $100 for something that we might never use again and didn’t have space for. Another truck was supposed to be on the way, so we waited. The truck was supposed to go to the Decatur store, then continue on to Van Wert, but it went to Van Wert first, so we waited some more. Finally we were able to buy the “Portable Buddy” we wanted and some propane.

Our little Buddy was sufficient to raise the temperature in the living area of the house (we closed off the bedrooms) from 56°F to 61°F before bedtime, but this time the sleeping bags came in handy. The wind was ferocious Saturday night, and several times I heard a loud bang that I was sure was a tree limb falling on the roof. Still not quite sure what caused the bangs.

After a restless night of sleep, Sunday came bringing more bitter cold and high wind. Sunday afternoon I tried to buy more propane and a battery-powered lantern. No luck on either end. Oh well, we had flashlights, a propane-powered lantern if necessary, and still enough propane to get through Monday. The temperature in the house had dropped to 54°F during the day, and the Buddy was having a little harder time chasing the cold away, managing to make it 58°F.

About 7:30PM on Sunday, wrapping up a game of Scrabble played by flashlight, we were joyously interrupted by a light coming on and the furnace starting. It was still cold in the house when we went to bed, but by morning everything was normal.

Things to be thankful for:

1. A gas hot-water heater. A hot shower, the ability to wash dishes and hands without freezing them, and the benefit of introducing additional heat into the house were welcome.
2. Freezing temperatures outside kept the frozen food from thawing out.
3. A small house that maintained its temperature fairly well without being heated.
4. No damage to our property.
5. Finding our Portable Buddy.
6. A camp stove for making hot drinks and soups.

Things that would help for next time:

1. Get the windows recaulked.
2. Have a battery powered lantern and a weather radio on hand.
3. If I had space, get a generator and figure out how to hook the furnace up to it.

As of 9AM on Monday, there are still over 43,000 AEP customers in Fort Wayne without power. The Indiana Michigan website says, “The majority of customers in Fort Wayne and Allen County should have power restored by Wednesday evening. However, it appears likely that some customers won´t be restored by Wednesday and our restoration efforts will continue through Christmas and the end of the week.”