My Neighborhood Looks Like a Drone Strike Target

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OK, Your Survival Guy’s writing to you this morning with the house power restored, but no internet service. Let me say, there’s some weakness in security with no internet when, for example, your property security cameras depend on Wi-Fi. (Note to self, when is security more important and necessary than when the you-know-what hits the fan?) And yesterday, stuff was flying around Newport, and it seriously felt like a hurricane at times. No exaggeration.

The fierce winds even knocked out observation systems. The Newport Daily News reports:

Thousands of New Englanders were without power early Wednesday morning, as hurricane force winds barreled through the region. Gusts approaching 90 mph were recorded in Martha’s Vineyard, and Scituate, a town 30 miles southeast of Boston, was hit with gusts up to 84 mph.

Wind gusts of 52 miles per hour wreaked havoc on Newport County early Wednesday morning, prompting officials to temporarily close the Newport Pell and Jamestown Verrazano Bridges.

The last recorded data received by the National Weather Service in Norton, Mass., from the Newport Airport was at 5:53 a.m. before wind gusts knocked out some of the service’s automated weather observing systems.

One issue Your Survival Guy has with Mother Nature is, I feel like a target. If you look at the National Grid Power Outage Map, my neighborhood looks like a drone strike target. The mission, apparently, is to let all the other houses continue life as usual. (As a side note, my black smoke rising boat debacle turned out to be a lightning strike. I’ll keep you posted.)

So, yesterday, without power at my house, I drove four minutes to my office to find everything working and reports that everyone had power at their houses. It really is amazing what only a few blocks from home can look like. This isn’t the first time my house has felt like a drone strike target, either. It seems any time the wind blows over 35 kts, we’re at risk of a power failure. Yes, it’s nice when the genny kicks in, but I don’t like relying on a generator as my last line of defense.

At our log cabin in New Hampshire, where nasty ice storms are a way of life, it’s a different story. Crews work up and down the streets during the summer months trimming and cutting branches that could be a problem in the winter. It’s serious business up there in the mountains. A loss of power in the dead of winter could be a major problem.

Action Line: In my conversations with you, you’re telling me how you’re preparing your family for times of trouble. Sure, Mother Nature can be unfair, but so can markets. You must be able to roll with the punches. I’m here to help. But only if you’re serious.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.