Storm damage

Mike T., Swampeast MO

What you do DURING the outage is just as important.

IMMEDIATELY shut down all air conditioning equipment and turn off all but one or two prominent lights!

POSITIVELY turn off and/or unplug computers and other sensitive electronic devices, including electronic boilers and/or their control systems.

If prolonged outage (more than 5-6 hours), unplug refrigerators and freezers.

You do these for two reasons: 1) to reduce the load to the utility company when things are turned back on, and 2) to avoid equipment damage caused by most people not bothering to turn off/unplug and the resulting nasty voltage fluctuations.

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Things I can think of to check afterwards:

Refrigerated and frozen food.

Cooling appliances and equipment for proper operation.

Clocks and timers.

All electronic devices that require setting by the user, e.g. entertainment equipment, coffee makers, thermostats, boiler/furnace controls, etc., etc., etc.

John R. Hall

Customer checklist

Okay, it is thunderstorm/tornado/hailstorm etc. season. A lot of people will lose power over the course of the next couple of months. If a contractor were to give his/her customer a checklist of items to inspect after a prolonged power outage, what would it include? I know some answers are obvious but let's state the obvious anyway. I'd like to make a major list and eventually publish it in The News.

Fire away (please and thank you).

Pinball

How 'bout your sump pump and basement for water infiltration.. a smoked pump motor could be disasterous during a storm.

Al