Blustery!

[elfs]

There is one sound guaranteed to wake me up in the middle of the night: the sound of the electromagnetic ram on the gasline failing. It's a very loud "Clunk!" sound, and it means that the power has gone out.

I awoke last night to that sound. It was pitch black, and the wind outside was really blowing. This morning powerlines were down throughout the county, but I have to give Puget Sound Energy kudos for getting us back on-line by 8:46am. According to LisaKit, it went out around 1:32am. I'm fairly happy with the notion that I slept through the night without the comforting backup of electricity.

But now there's all this debris in our yard. That'll be fun to clean up.

Comments

[tamino.livejournal.com]

"electromagnetic ram on the gasline"? I'm unfamiliar with such a device -- does it have to do with a specific appliance (furnace, etc)? Or is it house-wide? Is this is a northwest thing? (we have automatic gas shutoffs here in california, but they have to do with earthquakes, not power outages...)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

It's just a heavy weight that opens when the furnace wants gas, and is closed when the furnace is done. A powerful magnet pulls it open, and gravity shuts it, which is good because that means it shuts off automatically when the power goes out.

[maellenkleth]

For what it's worth, within those parts of Cumberland and Nanaimo that are known to be undermined by old workings, the gas utilities are redlined-out and there is no service at all.

Considering that I live 27 metres above Number Six Mine, which is still on fire, I'd as soon not have live gas pipes under the street.

Electrics and wood do just fine for the likes of us. ^_^