All Day Power Outage in St. Paul Kept Me Offline Yesterday

[MineralMan]

In came the big thunderstorm, with tons of lightning, hail and high winds at about 9AM. Before it started, my wife and I pulled the plug on all AC-powered electronics. I learned that lesson when lightning took out all my computers, 25 years ago in California.

Sure enough, after a nearby lightning strike, out went the power to our house and about 100,000 other power company customers in the Twin Cities. So, I got to have 8 hours of connection-free time. In many ways, it was a good thing, No TV. No computers. Cell service was down, too.

Once the storm passed, we took the dogs for a walk, relaxed, and I even had a rare nap on a Sunday afternoon. We went out to a local restaurant for lunch and another one for dinner, another rare treat.

About 5 PM, the lights came back on, just in time to watch the evening news. We were lucky. There are still about 20,000 customers without power this morning in the Twin Cities.

We did have to toss some stuff from the refrigerator and freezer, though, but that was a good excuse to clean the thing out. Ugh! Some of the stuff on the back of the shelves appeared to be prehistoric science projects.

Back to work...

[Lotusflower70]

1. Crazy weather

It went from so hot and humid to wind, hail and pouring rain. I was worried about the possibility of a tornado. I was one of the lucky ones that didn't lose power. I just had a lot of branches to clean up. I was running around unplugging electronic as well. That is the 2nd weekend in a row that people were without power due to storms.

[malaise]

2. Hurricane power cuts are very good for rediscovering

community and life's simple pleasures - glad you're OK

[HipChick]

3. I'm not saying it was the Russians, but have you read this?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newly-discovered-nightmare-cyber-weapon-is-already-causing-blackouts

[MineralMan]

6. Well, unless the Russkies can stir up a Minnesota thunderstorm,

I doubt that applies.

[Liberal In Texas]

4. Good thinking about pulling the plugs on electronics.

A few years ago a lightning strike in the afternoon took out the phone line along with both computers garden lightning, a stereo receiver, a fax/printer and damaged an old tree.

Then had to fight with the insurance company to get paid. Finally hired a lawyer and got reimbursed almost a year later.

[MineralMan]

7. After lightning took out all electronics in my home in 1991,

I don't take any chances here when there's a severe storm. It's easy enough to shut down and unplug everything before the lightning starts.

[tammywammy]

5. I live in a neighborhood built in 1951 with a lot of old trees.

My power goes out a few times a year. I have a hand crank radio for entertainment.

[nadine_mn]

8. That storm was insane

It felt like being in one of those tornado simulator things. The hail was huge and trees were down everywhere. Sorry you lost power, but glad you are ok.

I was just so happy for the brief break in the heat