TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin We are back in power......

Yay!!

After almost eight full days, just short 2 hours and 55 minutes, we are back in power. We have a small generator so we were in better shape than many but it was a very long almost eight days. No a.c., no internet, nontoxic, no telephones, and the worse part, nonTTOL and only limited opportunity to keep up to date in all things SXM.

So very glad to be back.

Wow, I knew there were some power outages up the East Coast, but hadn't been paying attention! Welcome back!

Wow. 8 days is a long time. Shades of SXM and other islands after Irma.

TY. It’s good to be back in power. The leaves are all long out of the pool but it wasn’t too inviting due to the lack of filtration. Glad it’s now all up and running again and the airco is on again, as well

Pat,
That's why we keep a land line. Doesn't go out with power outage. What I didn't know is our bldg power is buried so it's not going to go out anyway! LOL
But the cell towers go out!
Welcome home!
i

Underground wiring can still go out if the main source feeding it is out of service.

Wow , good to hear for you Folks.

Pat, enjoy having modern conveniences again. A/C has been most welcome lately.

Carol, CT is still in tough shape. State officials are not happy. Here's a map showing the remaining Eversource outages today, 8 days after Isaias. United Illuminating, another CT utility, has another 50 or so customers on/near the coast around New Haven who are still without power (that's the area showing no outages on the Eversource map).

I guess I'm guilty of being in my own little world. That has been happening to a lot of us lately, I think...

Carol, you’re forgiven.

Bahston,

We were lucky to have most of the conveniences provided by our portable generator even if we had to work a bit for them but there’s just nothing like airco on a nintY degree day. So glad the power is restored although I extend my sympathies to those still waiting for it’s return.

Good deal, glad you are back. Good luck.

Wow...what an ordeal. I think I would die without a/c at night or being able to get in the pool.

BeachKitten--I tell you, the most miserable I have EVER been in my life was after a hurricane here in Florida, staying with my in-laws, NO generator, no nothing. 90 degrees and 90% humidity at night, with no FAN even, trying to sleep. Try that...

That is when my a** checks into a hotel! lol

My parents got a whole house generator for this very reason.

My next house will have a whole-house generator, solar, and a battery wall. Soon come.

BeachKitten--I would have done that, if it had been up to me...

Oh Darlin’..it is ALWAYS up to you.

Pat, wonderful news that you got your power back on. I was one of the lucky ones in CT that only lost power for a day and a half. I have UI as our electric. I know a couple of people still without power, going on day 9 now. It's criminal that these utility companies charge the amount they do and the lack of response to service in times like this. I think heads are going to roll after this storm though.

We got the whole house generator a couple of years ago. Haven’t had to use it yet but it’s great for peace of mind. Especially on my extended trips to SXM when I can be confident that if the power goes my sump pump will keep running.

BeachKitten--one would think so... Someone decided to take out a light pole somewhere around here last night and we were out of power for about three hours. That was fun. Not. We have a pretty big generator that will run most of our house, including the well pump and ceiling fans, and a room a/c unit, so we can at least get cool. Since it's getting to be that time of year, we need to get some gas for it..

Mike,

You were definitely one of the lucky ones as were both of my daughters who live about a mile from us and were also out for a very limited time. Maybe the utility company shouldn’t be paying their CEOs those mega million dollar salaries and should base their pay upon performance and consumers’ confidence levels?

Tim,

While we never felt we needed a whole house generator in the past, events of this last week coupled with our ages is making me rethink that previous position. A lot of things that were eezy-peezy in our thirties are a lot more challenging in our seventies and will only become more difficult down the road, I’m sure. We’ve been in touch with a provider and it’s in the works for us. And tge peace of mind issue is huge.

Pat--you have had a LOT of issues with power outages in the recent past, that's for sure. Don't blame you a bit.

My fear would be a storm and our sump pump and security system/cameras would stop working if we weren’t here to check the house due to travel.

((Travel? What’s that? Will it ever happen again?))

Carol, we didn't have the in-laws, but the 90 degree at night trying to sleep--not fun. (7 days)

We have the sump pump issue too, thank God there was little rain!!!!
See things could have been worse--lol

No cell service was the worse--having no communication.

BTW, there was a tornado a mile down the street that took out a house.
Our town was hit the worse according to reports---after me bragging how we are safe in our little bubble here.

Terri--no generator? I have to have some air movement, even if it's hot air, or I can't breathe. Glad you're back online also.

Yes, but we tried to shut it off, since it was so close to our neighbor's open windows.
(Rit was concerned that it would get stolen too.)
Plus making trips to the gas station a couple times a day.

I would have kept it on if it wasn't fixed Monday night . That was the limit, since it was getting hotter.
Hotels were full........

I know what you mean, about air movement, we keep a fan going even with the ac on.

On a positive note, we met a lot of nice neighbors, that we didn't know before.

We have 4 five gallon gas cans, so can go about three days. Generators are pretty noisy, that's for sure.

Wow, that's the way to do it!


We are usually back on first, but the guys that arrived here, from south Carolina, were
not informed about a lot of things
We still love them....lol
Eversource.....not so much....

You can always tell the people who have to deal with hurricanes frequently. They always have back up generators and 5 gallon cans of gasoline. Like you, we have back up generators and 20 gallons of gasoline ready to go. Luckily this last storm didn't take out our power even though it landed right on our door here in Southport NC.

We got our power back after 6 days, but no phone or internet (land line) for 9 days. Frontier just couldn't understand that a car flipped over and hit the junction box, or whatever you call it, during the storm. We have a generator that we used for a few lights, but mostly for fridge and the freezer in the basement. We were able to use the TV (satellite) but had multiple extension cords running throughout the house.

I live on the south shore of Long Island, close to the Great South Bay, and that was one strong storm. Not much rain, just gusts of close to 80 mile an hour winds. Luckily no home or tree damage, but with power out for 24 hrs. Two past storms, I was out for close to two weeks with no electric. Very fortunate this time. Can’t imagine what St Maarten went through with Irma. Winds over twice what I just experienced. And the floods! We heard many stories while staying at the Horny Toad last year. One more incredible than the other. Very strong and brave people for sure.

Carol, delete or edit if you need to. I have a Honda Inverter generator. It is not at all noisy and uses very little gas on its economy setting. It is a portable so less costly than a whole house system. John

Whole House generator was the best thing my husband ever installed in our house. It’s large as he got a “deal” from a job be was doing. We were only out 24 hours if that but never skipped a beat. Mom (pat) is 2 miles up the road and her area was decimated!!!!

A good daughter would have run an extension cord 2 miles up the road to mom’s house and provided her with power also.

Haha and smart parents would
Have come over and stayed in the cool A/C and swam in a pool that was running!!!! . She did have her portable genny going. But damn was it hot during that time!!!!

It is good to know that everyone survived the power outages no worse for wear. I am quite sure if your mother had needed that extension cord run that you would have been right out there doing that and if you needed any help than you could have relied on help from many members here on the board.

Glad you have a sense of humor and didn't bite my head off for the teasing.

Haha -nah. Great sense of humor! I own property on SXM!!!! . Funny think is we did run about 700 feet of cord to a neighbor whose power comes in a different way and had a “covid freezer” full of high end food but didn’t have a generator!!!

bdeeley,

For the record, Kim did offer her home very early on as refuge from the noisy generator (as did her Sister who lives next door to her) - I’m so very lucky to have two great daughters and equally great son-in-laws - but we were totally content to ride out the outage at home. When the noise from our trusty generator became intolerable we just turned it off for a while. But it’s good to know alternative choices are there if you need them.

Both my girls take teasing well - having grown up with their Dad, they had to - and they do have a pretty good sense of humor, too.

One of the really nice things about TTOL, just as with so many normal families, we might squabble among ourselves now and then, but when we need lifting up or support, we’re all here for each other.

But you knew that already, didn’t you!