Anyone Affected by Helene?

[Jerrytball]

Last week of September, first week of October is peak season.

September being the most active but August and October are about equal.

Without being political lol, I lived here in the 70s and the hurricanes just seem to be nonstop. But ever since that tsunami hit Japan, the weather around the world to me has changed. I mean, since I left North Carolina three years ago they get pounded all the time compared to say 10 or 15 years ago. And Northern Michigan in the upper Peninsula I never heard of a tornado up there, 400 inches of snow yes average probably 250 inches but it’s gotten that deep up there but one year no snowmobiling it’s just so wacko anymore.

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[Tampamike]

Yeah, I got mine at the beginning of hurricane season and right now they got a pretty good special on the second battery. I’m thinking about getting that. The one I got came with a smart panel for free and the solar panels are yet to have that smart panel put in. I really need an electrician to put it in. I don’t feel comfortable doing it myself. It would have to go in the house and I don’t have a lot of room on the wall next to the panel in the house. No garage unfortunately but I really like my EcoFlow. Before moving to Gulfport Mississippi, I live for 30 years in North Carolina. My mom was from Black Mountain area so very familiar. I really am just totally shocked at what happened. And it looks like we’ve got something coming this way again next week damn, I didn’t think we had that many in the month of October.

Nice. You got the big one. I’m jealous. I think I need an upgrade.

 

[Jerrytball]

Nice. You got the big one. I’m jealous. I think I need an upgrade.

I did charge the car with it one time I think five or 10% first time I got it just to test it. I definitely want to get that second battery which is like $1400 right now which is not a bad deal cause it’s normally like 2200.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Here's a cool approach to hurricane response for EVs.

 

[CaptainET]

Was in Asheville for Helene, no power for 5 days, had a delta 2 to keep fridge cold by running a few hours a day, then at night plug into car to recharge, be sure to turn car on, lights and accessories off and 30 min power off timer turned off, took 10 hours to charge up delta 2. now I'm in tampa and getting ready for Milton, this time I have same delta 2 , but also got a 400watt inverter to run extension cord from car to condo, hoping to run fridge from that if power goes out here. I tried to charge delta 2 from inverter, but that doesn't work(not sure why), has anyone found a way to charge a power station from car faster?

 

[ChasingCoral]

Was in Asheville for Helene, no power for 5 days, had a delta 2 to keep fridge cold by running a few hours a day, then at night plug into car to recharge, be sure to turn car on, lights and accessories off and 30 min power off timer turned off, took 10 hours to charge up delta 2. now I'm in tampa and getting ready for Milton, this time I have same delta 2 , but also got a 400watt inverter to run extension cord from car to condo, hoping to run fridge from that if power goes out here. I tried to charge delta 2 from inverter, but that doesn't work(not sure why), has anyone found a way to charge a power station from car faster?

Try this thread:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...battery-can-we-leverage-that-for-power.39178/

and this one:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...hrough-power-outage-with-flying-colors.37965/

 

[Mach1E]

Our house flooded unfortunately but we didn’t lose power.

Had to move the Mach E to higher ground for fear of burning the house down in a saltwater flood. Many cars and golf carts caught fire last week on the barrier islands.

More worried about Hurricane Melvin currently headed right at us.

If we need to evacuate, we would have to drive 5-8 hours north to Georgia (depending on evacuation traffic).

Absolute ZERO chance we would take the Mach E. And ZERO chance we would leave it in our garage to possibly burn the house down.

Mach E’s (and all BEVs) do not play well with hurricanes. Period.

 

[Mach1E]

Ugh, what a pain but it doesn't sound like charging the car is an issue. I just saw a headline about trouble getting gasoline due to power outages (people forget gas pumps need power to work as well).

Yes and no.

Florida law requires gas stations built after July 1, 2006 to have generators that can power their pumps and cash registers. The law was passed after the 2005 hurricane season, when power outages lasted for weeks at a time.

Getting gas after a hurricane and while evacuating is definitely faster and easier than charging an EV.

 

[Deleted member 20140]

I live in Asheville. We lost power almost immediately on Friday. Was fortunate (smart?) to have a backup natural gas generator that automatically kicks in within seconds. I charged up immediately to be sure if anything else happened. Lost internet and streaming TV and cell phone service for about a week. Still don't have running water.
I did go out as soon as I could on those roads that were passable and saw only a few gas stations open with really long lines. I thought to myself I am really glad I have and EV and not an ICE. That is the one big advantage of EV over ICE. Your fuel source is right in your garage and not dependent on the vagaries of electrically powered gas stations or the whim of foreign dictators or international politics.

 

[Jerrytball]

You know, I thought about this the other day and I was just thinking, I lived almost half my life in North Carolina up to three years ago in the Raleigh Clayton area. And whenever a hurricane was coming in to the coast Wilmington, whatever Outer Banks, you know the people in Western North Carolina would Pray or hope we’re OK, and we would like to be thinking it would be nice to live in the mountains at this time! And people will tell you you would never think this could happen in Asheville. Been there many times for fireworks , Other events, my mother was from Black Mountain, a landslide maybe an earthquake very rarely you would think could happen there, but not what happened here. I really feel so bad but I definitely have the solar powered Eco generators two of them now for Mississippi here, and thank God I have not had to use them this year, but I’m interested in that inverter. Where do you hook that up on your car to use it as a generator as you did, is there a lot of rewiring or can you just like plug this into a cigarette lighter?

 

[2FlyMache]

We lost power for a few days, back up and running now. The car was a convenient place to grab some a/c and recharge our devices. Post storm, I was assisting some friends and my brother-in-law whose homes were inundated- driving through ankle deep mud. No issues or complaints from the car. She looked like an off-road vehicle with mud splashes up the sides. Made it to work yesterday and grabbed a car wash with underbody rinse and wheel cleaning so all good as new. Topped off to 100% In anticipation of another night without power, but was happy to find power and internet was restored. It is still a mess here, very limited access to the barrier islands where there is mud and sand across the roads - hiding obstacles that disable rescue / emergency vehicles - as well as no power, water, or sewer. It’s gonna take a while for the beach towns to recover.

We were without power for 8 days and used it to cool us and dogs off. Even caught a couple hours of sleep a couple times while waiting for temps to come down in house. Started with 90% and got down to 36% when I was able to go to a fast charger and bring it back to 65. Used it to charge phones as well. Definitely made a difference

 

[ADDZ71]

We were without power for 9 days. Used the MME to go into town on a couple of times. I should have recharged the Jackery from the MME. My next EV will have V2H capability. We have some chargers in town that were restored rather quickly and used those to top of when in town. I would say getting the MME charged was probably easier than getting fuel.

 

[ChasingCoral]

The Florida Gulf Coast is preparing for Milton now. He's due to come ashore Wednesday night as a major hurricane.

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Yes and no.

It's actually just yes. Back up power is still power. ? It's just more reliable power. If for some reason those generators fail or are damaged, pumps still won't work.

Really emphasizes just how dependent humans are on electricity.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Tampa is providing high ground for EV parking during Milton:

https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/...S-4_aem_Duy8I5CYzEhOdMdbkWi5iQ?cid=share_clip

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