dscn0627Just after midnight on Tuesday, January 26th, the power went out. We were experiencing a wild night with 30mm of rain and high winds. Earlier that evening the lights went out for a few seconds then came back. When it went off after midnight, it stayed off for 13 or 14 hours! We never used to lose our power, but over the past few years, it has been becoming a lot less dependable.

We have sump pump in our basement which needs to run when we get torrential rains. Without power, we’d be screwed were it not for the backup battery-operated sump. The battery had kicked in shortly after the power went out. It is always on a trickle charge which supposedly keeps it ready for action in case of emergency. But… the water was filling the reservoir so quickly that the poor batter couldn’t last 13 hours! I had a sleepless night and went down to check it at 2:30am. It was still pumping away. But when I woke at 5:30 and checked, it had failed and there was half an inch of water spreading through most of the basement.

I woke Jason and he started moving things to the only dry corner. The carpets were under water. I called our plumber and he came over at 6:30 with his own generator and got it hooked up to run our electric sump. That took all the water out from the reservoir and you could see water from the floor running back into the hole. The generator definitely saved us from any further damage. By 730, the Service Master people had arrived and started extracting water. They sucked for 3 hours getting everything out. At 9:00, they had a big crew arrive to check everything for water damage and setup fans and a huge dehumidifier. Those ran for several days until everything got dried out. They removed the molding at the floor and the kick-plate under the cupboards to make sure there was no damage to the walls. Everything was good. No damage there.

The next morning the guys arrived and removed all the carpeting and rearranged the fans to the areas still the wettest. Then it was just wait. Two days ago they came back to see if everything was dry and took all their equipment.

The floors are a mess. The concrete is littered with glue and paper backing from the floor covering. Apparently they are coming back to pressure clean the concrete with a power wash to remove all this stuff and get it ready for the carpet to go down. I’m still waiting for the carpet place to call me and let me know when I can go pick out some carpet that the insurance company will pay for. Hopefully that will come together soon and we can get things back to normal.

The crew made a mess of my new basement stairs which were just built a month ago. They scuffed the edge of the steps and even chipped some paint off them. They said they would repaint them for me. The bathroom sink has warped at the bottom where it sat in water so that will be replaced. They said a larger, removable molding would be installed, so if this should happen again, they could easily remove it to check for water damage to the walls.

Our friend Topper is coming to visit with us in May. We might give him free hand to repaint “his” room as he likes.

We have never put a claim into State Farm since I bought this house in 1975, and they have been great helping us with all of this. They will pay for all the damage, even the plumber charge for the generator which kept the water from rising further. BUT… I never want to go through this again! I really feel that the dependability of our local power company (NB Power) has gotten worse over the last few years. They have cut crews and not replace those linemen who have retired. The equipment and lines are old and not maintained. And if they sell it to Hydro Quebec, will it get better or worse? Of course, they have no control over Mother Nature. We have learned that NB Powers electricity is quite dirty as well – it gets a lot of spikes and worse, drops which is very hard on electronic equipment. We installed UPS units on our computers last year and just got one for the TV system. These have AVS (automatic voltage control) to prevent the issues I mentioned. It also comes with insurance to cover your stuff for up to $150,000 if it fails and your stuff is damaged.

We can’t depend on NB Power for reliable service any longer so, last week, we went shopping for a generator. Our electrician, Marc, found us a great deal on a 9,000 watt King model. This past weekend, he installed it and rewired the house to run essential circuits, like the sump pump. With 9,000 watts, we can run most lights in the house, both fridges, the microwave, the TV and satellite receiver and much more. We bought a couple of small ceramic heaters which are enough to keep us warm. So we’re pretty well set now for the next blizzard or tropical storm. Fingers crossed!