hurricane

[Bill S]

I have a small 1000w generator. Never been used. Having lost power for 8 hours before, running a Seio off of a car battery & inverter. Moving the surface water is the critical item.

[Nascars]

Well i just got my power back on. My power went off Saturday at 7:30 a.m. I lost alot of corals and fish.

[sly fox]

my power was out but i was still able to use the gas cooker, so the gas was still running...

[LoneStar]

I think closer to the 'major' disaster areas (coast lines or barrier island) they would/might turn the gas off, since that would be a direct impact with the most devestating damage. I would figure the further away from the coast line you would be safer and still have gas as an option. Plus if you have a gas stove, you would be able to cook if the power was out for long spells.

I would use the natural gas generator if I was in the area that I knew the power would be out for long spells due to natural disasters. I am pretty sure there are kits to allow generators to run off of liquid propane as well. Well at least the larger, permanent generators for houses.

[rotti71]

Right now is not the time, but as things get back to normal keep an eye on craigslist. You can get a really good used generator for under $500. I picked up a 10HP 6500W Briggs & Stratton last year for only $400 ($1000 new). Other than that, as soon as a hurricane enters the GOM go fill up w/ gas and fill up any portable cans you have. Even if you dont end up needing it for your generator, you can always pour it your cars (no chance to waste $ on gas).

[Aquapod24]

Hey guys. Not sure if any of these vendors were in the houston/galveston area, but here In Corpus Christi, I saw a vendor selling this power inverter which he said can run your lights, fans, and tv for up to 16 hours. The recharge on this is done by plugging up to a marine or your very car battery via the included jumper cables and running your car for 20 minutes to recharge. Now you are ready for another 16 hours. The company is called apsi power. You can see a demo at apsipower.com. The small one costs $499.

[Aquapod24]

Sorry guys. Hope I didn't sound like I work for this company..... I was just seriously looking into buying because the salesman says it was FEMA approved and I would be reimbursed because the President declared it disaster etc. Anyhow I didn't see that FEMA was outright paying for anyone who bought these so I turned it down.

[captexas]

I've seen some of those type inverters, they are portable, Sometimes used to jump a car battery. One of the guys at work has one and only uses it to power up his laptop when we are working in the middle of a store with no power. I wouldn't expext it to run a lot of stuff for too long.

I haven't heard of FEMA paying for people to buy generators or inverters. I don't think they will because they don't want you staying there in a disaster area, they want you evacuated. Also, "FEMA approved" doesn't mean much, they also approved travel trailers with formaldahyde in them that has made people sick. If they do pay for it, I'm sure it will be like everything else and you will have to meet several criteria to get reimbursed.

If you are looking at generators or inverters, don't just assume that what they say it will run will actually run all those things that you have. Different lights or whatever have different power draws. Most generators or inverters have a peak wattage rating and a normal/continuous wattage rating. You need to figure up how many watts you will be using to run certain items and then look for something that will power up that much at the normal rating. To do so, look at the item to see how many amps it is. AMPS x VOLTS = WATTS.

We had a conf. call this morning with all our guys in Houston. Sounds like several of them had generators fail after running for so long. Might be good to have a back up to your back up.