How ofter does your power go out?

[ort]

I live in Shrewsbury and I feel like my power goes out way more then it has anywhere else I have ever lived. It feels like every time there is a storm, or any wind, or if there is a cloud in the sky... our power goes out. Usually for at least 12 hours.

Both of the times St. Louis had major outages we lost power for days. I've never lost power for days before in my life, and now it's happened twice in 3 years.

It's really starting to get irritating. We get some sort of outage at least once a month. Or at least if feels like it. It definitely happens 10 times as often here as it has ever happened anywhere else I've lived.

It's also odd because rather then a straight up blackout, we frequently get these strange brownouts where everything is running on half power. Last night we had this goofy thing where we would have power for about 2 minutes, and then we would get two minutes of brownout. Went out around 10pm and was still doing it in the morning. on off on off on off

This shit can't be good for my appliances.

Does anyone else have this sort of crap happen all the time? Should I be yelling at Ameren or at the city of Shrewsbury? Who is to blame?

[hansolo]

I watched an episode of "Ask this Old House" and they were showing how to install a backup generator.

The location was St. Louis - somewhere south part around your area.

The guy who installed the generator indicated that blackouts is a common problem in that area for some reason.

Might want to think about investing in a natural gas powered backup generator.

From the episode guides :

First aired: 2/10/2007 Production Code: 519 Richard Trethewey helps a homeowner refinish her cast iron radiators. They remove the radiators and take them to a restoration specialist, who sandblasts the peeling paint and applies a new finish and makes them look new. Afterward, Kevin O'Connor travels to St. Louis to help a homeowner install a standby generator who lives an area with frequent power outages that last for several days.

[ksbluesfan]

In six years, we lost power one time, not counting the pre-announced outages for construction.

[Moon Man]

I wouldn't say ofter, but occasionally.

Moon

[#1 Jimmy fan]

Since Ameren trimmed our trees last summer only once about a week or so ago. A neighbor's tree that had been trimmed was on the line again. hmmmmmm

[Jack Daniels]

Must be a St. Louis thing.

I''ve had Ameren IP & Ameren CIPS, and have minimal outages in the last 4 years.

[Ty Shula]

you may notice that we live in a forest.

[Schwahalala]

Well since the year of hell that was 2 years ago - Only occassionally and then for just a few minutes.

[Guppy]

The recent storms the last week or so has made my power flicker but nothing else.

[ort]

http://shrewsburyforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=68

This is bizarre... I was searching the intertoobs for some answers to this and I found this forum for Shrewsbury in the UK, and they had a power outage on the same day... in 2004. We could be looking at some sort of Twilight Zone/Brigadoon type of shit here.

Last night. I was walking around the Kenrick Glennon Seminary with my wife and were discussing how creepy it was. It's this giant castle looking construct, with a huge, well maintained grounds surrounding it... and you never, ever see any students or anything.

I was commenting that it reminded me of Hogwarts, or some weird illuminati* headquarters, and as I was saying this I saw some sort of bird with an odd wingspan fly past us and into a tree. As we got to the tree, there were three not-quite-adult owls just 3 feet up and staring at us. I shit you not. We sat there for a few minutes and we just watched each other. It was weird.

It looked like it might storm and I also joked about how we would probably lose power again...

*OK, I was just looking up the correct spelling of illuminati, and what the fuck, the song I'm listening to on my ipod (Books of Blood by Jedi Mind Tricks) says the word, Illuminati right as I typed it into google. How weird is that. It's on completely random shuffle too.

I am being watched.

[Donuts_For_Koharski]

I'm right there with you, ort. I was very surprised our power didn't go out last night. It flickered once, but then came right back on. I know my area of Shrewsbury (near the seminary) has been pretty bad over the past decade, but (knocks on wood) it has been better this year.

[Jack Daniels]

I'm right there with you, ort. I was very surprised our power didn't go out last night. It flickered once, but then came right back on. I know my area of Shrewsbury (near the seminary) has been pretty bad over the past decade, but (knocks on wood) it has been better this year.

"You're welcome."

Karen Foss

[sportschick]

Last night my power went off for the longest it's been out in years...Less than 5 minutes...There was a ginormous flash and crash, lights went out and there was a red glow for a second (i'm guessing from where ever the lightening hit), but there was no fire that I could see from my window and nothing looks to be freshly charred how that its light out there...Weird.

[ort]

I'm right there with you, ort. I was very surprised our power didn't go out last night. It flickered once, but then came right back on. I know my area of Shrewsbury (near the seminary) has been pretty bad over the past decade, but (knocks on wood) it has been better this year.

Yeah, the people across the street never lose power. By the way... you live about a block from me. I've seen you out watering your plants a few times.
I'm your secret stalker.

[Jack Daniels]

Yeah, the people across the street never lose power. By the way... you live about a block from me. I've seen you out watering your plants a few times.
I'm your secret stalker.

No longer a secret...