Blackout 2011

A view of the 2011 blackout along the eastern seaboard from space.

October 30th, the day before Halloween, was a snowy day for many states as governors declared states of emergency in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York. Three million homes on the East Coast were without power after NY was hit by a deadly snow storm.

Since the Civil War, there has only been 3 other occasions in modern history when snow has fallen in NYC in October. Unfortunately, this snow fall was grim for too many people. There have since been 25 reported deaths, including a 77 year-old great-grandmother who tragically passed away because her oxygen machine stopped working when the power went out.

Experts predict there may be much more snow and storm on the way while officials warn it could be days before electricity is restored. Experts say it could last up to a week. In an interview with The Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy, he said “It’s a mess… we have more power outages than any time in history, including the tropical storm Irene”.

It seems power outages are becoming more frequent and persistent these days. Homes and businesses are continually being subject to disruptive power outages that seem to last longer than the previous one. Generators are no longer a luxury item that only hospitals, telecommunication companies, and well-off families buy in case of an emergency… they are reliable power appliances, and in some cases a necessary life-support system.

Piggybank

Prolonged power outages can see families taking significant financial losses, forcing them to dip into their savings.

Many families are spending more money on loss of power than they are on the generators themselves. A power outage that lasts a week can cost a family thousands of dollars. Often, large businesses can lose millions! One or two of these outages can increase costs for both families and business really quickly.

For these people, or anyone else that you may know, that need back-up emergency power immediately, the Generac Portable GP Series GP17500 model #5735 has an electric start and 17.5kW. It runs on gasoline and has a 16 gallon fuel tank size- that means it has a run time (50% load) of 10 hours. If you need less power, the Generac Portable iQ 2000 model #6866 manual start 2kW, also runs on gasoline with a run time (50% load) of 5.7 hours.

For those people who have a back-up emergency power system but are looking for a standby generator to power their home automatically in the event of a power outage, Generac Guardian Series 22kW Standby Generator with 200-Amp Service-Rated Automatic Transfer Switch is a very popular generator. The Guardian Model 70432 runs on liquid propane or Natural gas. This generator will provide you with the comfort and security of everyday living, even during the worst storm, hurricane or tornado.

Updated August 3, 2018