Power Outages & Food Loss

I lived through the "Ice Storm of 1998". It is the single most biggest natural disaster I have ever witnessed here in my area of Ontario. We were little over 3 months (and a few days) without power. It was bad. We have a farm and at that time we milked 60 head of Jerseys and sold cream. Thank bloody god we had a generator in the barn. But the house wasn't so lucky. But we are country folk. My dad an I got one of the hay tarps out of the barn and laid it on the ground. We all made a little production line and started handing things to each other we put everything from the freezers-we have 3 big ones-out in a pile in the snow on the tarp. Then dad and I folded the tarp over the food and he took the tractor and buryed the food. We had to tarp it because well he have cats and there are wolves and coyotes and our freezers held 3 pigs 60-some meat chickens and a whole cow (all cuts of meat for us to eat) we also had fruit and veggies that were frozen. So by tarping it the critters couldn't get into it. Then when we finally got power back on we had to set the production line back up and move it all back in the house lol.... But nothing spoiled.

I have not lost food to a power cut, not to this xtent anyway. Milk etc goes of easily. When our powerr fails, invariably in summer,. I try hard not to use the fridge or freezer, so as to save the colloing in there. You may be able to claim compensatioon for lost food. Although they will say it is the fault of the lightening.

I had the power out for three days once. I lost everything that was in the freezer. Luckely I was single at the time and there was very little in the freezer and refrigerator. But it was still very frustrating. I remember that I did the same as you did and finished off the ice cream before it went bad.

I live in an area with many earthquakes, so power outages happen often. We have a generator to solve this problem. I can't have the power go out for my fish, since that is how I make a living. Sorry to hear about the ice cream, one of my favorite foods. Hope your power doesn't go out again.

Oh no Bob, wasted ice cream... so very sad. Can you tell I'm an ice cream freak? LOL I'm definitely glad you didn't lose a lot of groceries with it. We've been very lucky the only time we had a long power outage was during the winter so I just had to take the fridge stuff out to the porch as it was only about 35 degrees out there. How convenient! And it gave me the opportunity to clean the fridge out while I was at it. Glad you have your power back :D

Yes, we did, once we had a power outage for three days, which wasn't that abnormal for the rural area we lived in. We cooked on the grill and got pretty creative about it. I made coffee on the grill, biscuits, eggs and bacon in the morning, for dinner we would cook the meat...but our ice cream and dairy like milk,cheese and sour cream didn't fare so well.

i never experience any power outage before fortunately... so i never have to throw away any food before... i will be very upset if i have to as it will be a lost of money and it is so hard to earn money nowadays... i feel the pain and tiredness of working to earn every dollar everyday... so i hope i will never have to go through that experience...

I lost food, but it was due to a borken freezer. About 2 months ago my freezer stopped working and I didn't realize it until I went to get ice cream and noticed it was soup. I live in an apartment, so they sent people out to fix it. A few weeks after that that same thing happened again (both the freezzer and fridge), althought this time I had to wait a few hours before they would come out. In the mean time I started cooking all the food and eating the ice cream. Both times I lost a good majority of food. The second time they replaced the fridge and so far so good.

No which is a good thing, Our power at the most has been out 45 minutes to an hour at the most.. I don't think there's really been at time it's been out any longer than that.. Wait I do recall one when where I used to live actually a few years ago.. lucky for me it was in the winter where I could place them outside in a cooler to stay cold.. I believe it was milk and some meat that we had in our freezer.. But for summer time I can't do that cause I have nothing cold enough to place anything in so it does go to waste but i always try to stay out of the freezer and refrigerator during those times...

Oh too funny Grandpa Bob. I can picture you eating ice cream for breakfast. I would have just left them in there until the power was back on- Sure it would have been a mess- but it’s ok. I have lost food prior to no power- We do the same thing- keep the fridge and freezer shut. Hoping it will keep the food cold enough to stay safe- I have thrown out frozen pizzas- just too many to cook at one time- once they thawed. Sorry you lost your ice cream-

Oh yes. I remember about 10 years ago, we had a terrible snow/ice storm. We lost power for 3 days on the mountain that I lived atop! We lost all the meat in our freezer (which was quite a bit, as we used to buy bulk). It is the most sickening feeling to see all that good food go into the trash. We had thought about filing on the insurance, but the deductible was so much that it wasn't worth it.

The only time we had a power outage that last more than 2hrs. was 9yrs. ago when I was preggy with my daughter. It was during a major ice storm and the power line behind out mobile home at the time came down from all the weight of ice on it. The whole mobile home court was out of power for 3 days straight. Power crews couldn't even get out to help us till the highway depart. were able to clear the 6" of ice on the roads. That was the worst winter I can recall since I was a young child. Thankfully, we didn't have any kind of spoilage since the temp. in our mh dropped down to 0 degrees in a day.

Ice cream for breakfast - see there is a silver lining in everything Grandpa Bob! lol That is so sad! I am glad to say that even when we had a spate of power cuts it never lasted long enough to spoil food in the freezer, we also try to keep the freezer well stocked - food lasts longer then if there is a power cut! xxx

what a waste..yes i did loss some food because of power outrage..there is no storm that day but it was nationwide block out i guess because i don't see anywhere else that has power..it started from afternoon and power turned on midnight almost the sun is rising..the fridge got defrost due to long period of power lost and when i look up in it my tuna, meats and other stuff are spoiled already specially the tuna..lots of wasted food that time i just cooked it for my Raggy..