Friday night was very eventful for many including us in St Louis. I believe our State lost 20 people due to the tornadoes and high winds.

The sirens went off about 10 times for us while we were hunkered down in the basement. Lights flickered 3 times and the power went completely out at 9:25pm Friday night.

Unfortunately we are still without power and Ameren can’t provide us with any updates. Per their website it is due to downed trees albeit all the lines are underground in our subdivision.


About 2 hours ago I thought I should clean out the garage and kitchen combo frig and freezers. To my amazement, the items in both freezers were still frozen.

Fingers crossed Ameren gets the lines fixed soon and prayers for those who lost loved ones and their entire homes.

Sorry to hear this h2toys, hope they get it back for you soon. 24 hours is pretty long for a refrigerator to be off.

Mine went out today but only for 3 hours. If it's off more than 5 hours I wheel the portable generator over and plug into the house which can run the refrigerator, microwave, lights and well pump.

Ridewv, We rarely lose power, and if we do, ordinarily it’s for a few hours or maybe overnight.

Might be time to invest in a generator for a possible future event.

When I made a return at Home Depot earlier today. I teasingly asked if they had any generators and he giggled and said no they were all out.

A portable NG/LP powered generator along with a transfer switch would be a worthy investment. I had a gasoline powered generator at our previous house and ran extension chords through the dog door. It was great to have power but it could be a pain to set up and fueled. Current home has a whole house NG generator that automatically kicks in within seconds of the power going out.

The wife, family, and I lost our power for about three days where we lost all frozen foods. The electric company ended up paying for almost everything. A major PAIN-IN-THE-ASS to get reimbursed.

On a side note we got a kerosene heater, 12 months of dehydrated foods, and some water purification devices. The wife and I can now eat, drink, and stay warm "almost" on our own for a fair amount of time. Long story short, life sucks without power.

Oh, if you get a generator, store enough fuel for it. Power out, no pumping gas. I learned that from our power outage above because I was writing software for a local oil jobber. I'd never thought about that

This thread reminds me of April 27, 2011 here in north Alabama. After the onslaught of tornadoes, we were without power for 7 days. It wasn't a big deal for the first 2 or 3, but after that it got brutal! We ended up joining a "block party" in our cul-de-sac where everyone took the stuff out of their refrigerators and freezers and cooked it up on a neighbor's large gas grill and then shared it with everyone. That was actually an enjoyable experience and brought us much closer to our neighbors!

I know it doesn't help you now, but the Kohler 14KW automatic generator I installed several years ago is absolutely, no question, hands down the best money I've ever spent.

If you plan on staying in your current house for any length of time, DO IT! Even if you sell later, it's a nice addition to the property.

I moved out in the country and built a house in 1973. Very quickly I bought a 3000 watt generator which would run a gas furnace and refrigerator and freezer. Fifteen years ago I moved up to a 5500 watt unit on wheels. Four years ago as I got up in the mid 70's in age I went for the whole house automatic unit because horsing the portable got to be harder and I wanted something that would work for my wife. I can't imagine life without a generator where I live.

I am hopeful your electricity has been restored. We have lost power for a few days, and we were lucky enough to not lose much in terms of frozen foods since we didn’t open the freezer, but this was a basement coffin style freezer- our refrigerator upstairs with the freezer on the bottom did not fare so well.

Consider yourself lucky with a hurricane heat index is above 100 and two weeks is the standard time to be without electricity.
Seriously,it becomes needed not just an inconvience.Hopefully wont be much longer.

Just saw your thread, If you need a generator I have one you can borrow. Enough power to keep your frig and freezere running. I'm in brentwood. email in my profile.

Sorry to hear that OP, hopefully they get you up and running soon. How cold is it there? Do you have heat for the house?

We had a power outage that lasted about 24 hours a few years back and I had half a cow in the freezer that I really couldn't afford to lose. I gave in and went out and dropped $500 on a generator, and as I was setting it up the power came back on. I hadn't even gotten to the point of putting fluids in the generator, so I just boxed it back up and put it in the shed. It'll be there next time I need it. We bought a wood stove this past December, too, because I am sick of paying our outrageous gas bills and I wanted a way to keep the house from freezing if the power ever goes out in the winter.

I am in St. Louis County but still have power. My sister has been without power since the same time as the h2oys. A couple years ago I had a transfer switch installed with 50 amp plug outside the house. Since then, no power outage lasting longer than 15 minutes (so far). My sister also had a transfer switch and 30amp plug installed and they have used their generator now about a dozen times.

I started out with a Harbor Freight 3500 watt generator and still have it, as it is extremely quiet. I got a 8000 watt generator which is more than capable of running my house and AC in summer. I priced out some of the installed home generators but due to the lay out of my home, it would cost a fortune to lay cables and natural gas piping on where the generator would have to be located and where the cables and piping have to come into the house. It would have a little cheaper just to run the natural gas pipes through the house and out to the backyard where the generator would have to be located.

I also had a "transfer switch" installed on my natural gas furnace so I could power it with a power station (trying to be a good neighbor by not running generator at night and having to stand guard on it).

Yeah!!!

Power came on about an hour ago at just shy of 48 hours without juice.

Of course it got cold after the storms came through so it was 47 upstairs and 59 downstairs by the fireplace. Tonight it’s supposed to get down to 28 outside. My birds will be happy my small fountain won’t freeze. Also glad powers back in that I just started our dog on Farmers Dog, our first box arrived on Thursday, and it’s kept frozen.

All minor problems as some lost their lives and homes.

Thank you all for your well wishes and the offer of loaning your generator dubdubu.

I e already started researching generators vs inverters for the future. Either way I go I keep 6 gallons of gas on hand.

Glad its back on. Next time start your thread sooner and ameren will turn it back on.

^^^your probably right lol

Awesome, glad to hear you're back up and running!

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I live in Florida and we have tornadoes and hurricanes fairly often.
Our home is in a retirement subdivision and our power and phone lines are all underground.
We've been here 21 years. We lost power once for one hour....

I would average power outages twice a year, outside of hurricanes. They could last 8-10 hours. Hurricane outages are usually in multiples of weeks.

I installed a whole house generator a couple years ago and it’s been a good investment. Before that I had a Cummins dual fuel that I kept on hand. The food I have in my chest freezer alone makes the investment worth it.

Here’s a pic of one of the St Louis tornadoes. It was taken by a neighbor of a friend who lives about 20 miles from us near Purina Farms.