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SharpieBass t1_j1g5kfc wrote

Brutal. Not awful in Toronto but our friends 90min south in Buffalo seem to be getting pounded. Hopefully the power stays up as it is fucking freezing!

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kudichangedlives t1_j1g6rz7 wrote

Or us unlucky punks that had the power go out have wood stoves. That's what's keeping me warm right now and if the power is still out for days then it will be keeping me alive.

Seriously if you live in a cold place you should invest in an emergency wood stove

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reddituser403 t1_j1gf4ni wrote

Or a back up generator

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kudichangedlives t1_j1ggy2z wrote

Preferably both, but I would say that a stove fireplace is much more reliable and you don't need gas at hand to use it, though I suppose you need wood at hand

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GroinShotz t1_j1gj7tw wrote

You can also cook on it!

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ButterflyAttack t1_j1i2wow wrote

I do proper quality baked potatoes in my wood burner. Wrap a baking potato in foil, pop it on the embers and turn every twenty minutes or so. Give it a couple of hours and it's perfect. I have mine with loads of butter, and tuna and sweetcorn but I'm willing to accept that there may be other valid accompaniments.

Or, yeah, you can stand a pot on top. Wood burners are great for stuff like stews and curries that want to cook for a while.

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Cutiecrusader2009 t1_j1hynse wrote

Some people have standby generators. They don’t have to do anything when the power cuts out. You can have it run off natural gas or propane.

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grainia99 t1_j1idaxo wrote

We have the generator and the stove is planned but have to redo the chimney first. Grew up with a wood stove and nothing beats one for winter back up. Saved my moms life during the 1998 ice storm (13 days without power and the lane wasn't open for 8 of them).

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in-game_sext t1_j1ir7x1 wrote

Why get a genny when you are reliant on gas when wood is a sustainable and renewable fuel source? My family has harvested and replanted groves of trees for fuel for five generations on their one piece of land.

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Tar_alcaran t1_j1lkhmk wrote

It a hard to have a forest in the suburbs

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in-game_sext t1_j1lkmfs wrote

Well its a good thing you don't need a forest and can buy firewood almost anywhere. Whether you've grown it on your lot or buy it from a store, doesn't change the fact that its renewable....

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Sentinel451 t1_j1guyi2 wrote

We used to have one years ago, but the landlord tore down the chimney because it gave him cheaper insurance or something. All we have now is an old oil furnace and some electric heaters. I'd love to get another wood stove, but without a chimney it's just not happening. If we lose power we're fucked.

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asdaaaaaaaa t1_j1i54y2 wrote

Agreed. Even if it's a shitty, cheap standing one on top of a metal plate. Anything's better than nothing (unless you really cheap out and burn your house down) in my experience. I'm so glad I have a fireplace, it's not perfect and I rarely use it, but I like having the option and spare wood just in case.

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diabeetus-girl t1_j1ghyu2 wrote

Yeah Buffalo is chaos right now. Some of the suburbs have entire towns without access to EMT/Fire rescue because the entire squads are stuck. Listening to the scanner is insane… so many stranded in cars.

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Malumeze86 t1_j1grd2t wrote

I heard someone say "I don't believe in the weather" the other day.

I'll bet he's stuck in a ditch right now.

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Wand_Cloak_Stone t1_j1gscnq wrote

On Long Island, no snow but my area was flooded to shit today and trapped some people in their cars, others couldn’t leave their house. Power is on by me but internet is down (currently using data, boyfriend seems to be dying without the TV, moment of silence for him pls).

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notlikeyourex t1_j1h54q8 wrote

That's insane. We had some -12/-15C days with 30cm snowfall in mid-November here in Stockholm but not that much chaos, just some disruptions to public transportation and needed a day or two for the snow plowers to clear most major streets.

What's the issue in upstate NY that similar conditions create this much chaos? AFAIK it's quite common to have snowfall there, no?

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rachnar t1_j1h6eol wrote

Their temps got closer to -30 and even lower. And shitty infrastructure not made for it combined with people not used to it that don't know what the cold does.

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irabonus t1_j1hlm7y wrote

It's very rural and if you can't drive you're stuck. Walking to the closest building or sometimes even a neighbor can be impossible in inclement weather.

Power lines in much of the US are aboveground (as in, not just long-distance transmission lines but the ones going to each house) and snow causes tree limbs to fall and lines to come down.

Each outage might only affect a few people, but where I live there were over 1000 individual incidents within one day last week, so it can take days to repair all of them.

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Aleriya t1_j1hsewi wrote

Part of the difference is labor laws. There are people driving 30km to commute to work with no public transit alternative. Even if it's unsafe to drive, they will make an attempt because they are required to be at work, and they can't wait for the snow plows to come through.

One time I commuted into work when there was 30cm snow, and we got another 30cm during my shift. Most of the employees weren't able to get home, so we slept that night in the store.

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FindingMoi t1_j1hof7y wrote

I think other posters have explained it fairly well but I think a point you’re missing is that Buffalo got 5 ft, or over 150 cm, vs in what you describe, 30 cm. That’s not similar conditions at all.

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NoNameComputers t1_j1hveix wrote

Most places in Western NY operate just fine with extreme cold and 30 cm of snow. Buffalo is potentially looking at closer to 200 cm of snow from this storm. Combine that with the fact that it was heavily redlined and therefore infrastructure was heavily under-invested, and you end up with a real disaster.

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ommnian t1_j1hkatn wrote

That's a little crazy. Usually the plows get firetrucks and squads out first ime....

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SheriffComey t1_j1g8snf wrote

Co-worker in Buffalo just sent a picture of a while lot of "fuck that!". Then again I live in S. Florida so tomorrow I'll have to worry about falling iguanas

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Spiritual_Navigator t1_j1gtgkk wrote

Makes me Happy to be an Icelander

We get our heat from 10km unerground

Geothermal energy

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tdring22 t1_j1lh6x0 wrote

The us has an electrical grid that is hanging on by a thread basically all the time. It's going to be a rough couple days

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