As I type, TS Andrea's center is passing about 20 miles west of here. Despite NWS predictions of 35-60mph winds and 3-6" of rain, we got max 20 and <½".

Thought I was clear, but the power went out a little before 9 PM. My backup genset, nearly 20 years old, started on the 2nd pull, as it always does whether it sits a day or 6 months.

Kohler? That's what is on the boat that all my friends count on plugging in, you can't believe all the extension cords from me to friends. Good luck to you.

It's a Coleman 5KW with B&S Industrial engine. It has around 250 hours on it. Ran it for 10 days after Frances and 3 after Jeanne.

Based on Clay Electric's phone message, this outage appears to be major, and may last through the night. Their map shows the greatest number of customers in my "cluster", so we'll get priority. Weather's not a factor.

Best of luck to you and the pooches.
Electricity is overrated based on my connections with the 19th century.

Yep - I moved my coal-fired TV to GA last month, so I'm stuck with electric...

...and as I type, TS Andrea's center has passed here 2 hours ago leaving 61 CMs of liquid refreshment for her to be remembered by...

After over a year, the generator got used twice in 8 days - Thurs 6/6 for 2 hours and last night (after a severe thunderstorm), an hour.

In late 1999, I was convinced that the Y2K thing would result in widespread power outages. So I bought a 20kw generator powered by propane that I had stored in a tank that looked like a mini submarine. What a horse!! It could have powered all the houses in the neighborhood. Sold it to a guy in Florida the next year who really needed it.
Jim

I plan to install a permanent BU generator at my place in GA. The electrical is split into 2-200A panels, and the one that feeds the house-to-be will be the candidate.

More thunderstorms today - got 20 minutes of yard work before the rain started. Again the power went out here and at my neighbors' (18 homes). Half an hour later, Clay Electric had over 2000 out, and are gradually clearing the outages.

The genset got another 2 hours, and it quit raining long enough to change the oil.

What size permanent generator are you thinking about setting up? Diesel, gas or propane?
Jim

Probably 10KW propane. I already have a 75 gal tank for the travel trailer; I'm not sure if I'll have any LPG appliances in the house, but propane's much cheaper than diesel or gaso.

Propane is more practical for engines that sit idle a lot. I might also go with gaso - a neighbor has a 150 gal tank and gets off-road fuel delivered. That's handy for filling the mower and ATV.