Feb 12th to Feb 21 Northwest Oregon's big ice storm, experience from ground zero.
Here in northwest oregon we were without power until today, in total 9 days others will be out weeks and we are in the city of Salem.
2 inch ice of radiall ice on everything started last friday and power went out to 650000 thousand people.
Half had power restored in 2 days then others over the next 2 or 3 days while the rest of us about 90 percent of another 25000 yesterday and today.
Stores and gas stations only started working after day 2 and cash only, by day 3 and 4 most was back online except for a couple hundred thousand homes.
I had a brand new 4KW harbor freight predator generator which we bought last september after our devastating wildfires and the generator died after 5 minutes, and my luck Harbor freight will not stand by it.
I was fortunate to receive a 1500 watt loaner from a friend and with the generator and a fireplace and wood we faired fine in my neighborhood, sunnyslope of salem oregon, 90 % of 2500 houses had no generators and many no fireplaces due to historically moderate winter weather. for 8 days perople were living in cars half the time using car heaters.
Warming shelters were not open because the temps were in the high 30's to mid 40's and some pencil neck emergency co-ordinator for salem and most of oregon determined that shelters would only open when the airport temp was under 32 F, the salem airport is around sea level while the sunnyslope area of salem is 500 to 1200 feet elevation so temps here were 32 and below.
The only thing working was cell phone texting and no other cell services work, we couldnt even research city or state updates because cell sites were limiting communications for first 3 to 4 days to text only so we could not get info on what to do.
The city of salem gets a F grade and the state of oregon also and F for lack of communications contrary to what politicians in warm homes will say there was no emergency declaration done that reached ground zero, a paper declaration on local news channels is no good if people are starting indoor warming fires and starting residences on fire as were monitored by salem fire throughout the 8 days for us and there is no way to get info.
Since oregons covid vaccination is a total failure, we are still vaccinating 80 and above and prisoners, people do not want to co-ordinate with neighbors to share aid and comfort, again the state and city gets a double F failing grade here, and any state city rep can come to my neighborhood if they say the contrary but I'd bet they would get hung out to dry if the had the guts to come to the sunnyslope are of Salem Oregon which none have the integrity or guts to do so enough said on useless city and state reps.
Politicians will say its there finest hour but when you are at ground zero and see no city services for 8 days you realize that politicians give on air happy talk while people are freezing without help.
As to what worked, NUMBER 1 WAS HEAT AND ONLY WOOD FOR HEATING IN WOOD STOVES AND GAS FOR GENERATORS. WOOD WAS PLENTY FROM CUTTING UP ANS INSIDE DRYING OF DOWNED TREES CUT WITH ONLY GAS CHAIN SAWS, GAS WAS AVAILABLE AND ONLY GAS GENERATORS WORKED. PROPANE WAS LIMITED IN AVAILABILITY BUT SOME HAD IT AND IT WORKED ALSO BUT WOOD AND GASOLINE WERE MAJOR LIFE SAVERS.
None of the usual ham radio HF nets worked nor were they on the air, i only had contact on HF with the veterans net on 20 meters and KL2AX in new mexico was invaluable for wahtever info he could get, I was trying to get info on wife and son in Austin texas who got hit the same time Oregon did and KL2AX stayed around for several hours checking on my health and wellfare until I received an limited text notifying all ok with my texas family although they were evacuated to a safe location.
In the first 3 days local VHF was used, 2 meters but unfortunately after the major 2 meter players had power restored most local weather related info dissapeared and 2 meters was of no use and we left in the dark for 5 more days were designated the forgotten 25 thousand.
Again HF radio use was limited use and while there were no real oregon emergency nets to be found the only info net was the VA group on 20 meters throughout the entire ordeal and KL2AX gets an AA grade while others get a C grade such as 2 meters nets which is still a better grade than our states and cities F grades.
As of today 95 % are back with power and power crews from every area of Oregon are working here in the hardest hit are of Salem restoring power.
These linemen are working in groups 24/7 and my sincere notice of appreciation especially to the Pendleton, Herrmiston and Chemelaw linemen who came from hundreds of miles outside of Salem for working 8 days non stop to get our sunnyslope neighborhood of Salem Oregon back on, these kids, linemen as young as newbies only 19 years old receive a AAA grade.