IN HEAT OR IN COLD - SEVERE STORMS ANY TIME OF THE YEAR are now ORDINARY with THE ELECTRIC POWER OUT

IN THE LAST BOUT OF HOT WEATHER POWER OUTAGE IN COATESVILLE PA a small generator powered our refrigerator, air conditioner & lights using long extension chords coming through a window.

As far as cold weather storms, we have an oil furnace & hot water radiators. There’s a furnace emergency on-off switch at the top of the basement stairs. I think I could use that power line to add generator power to keep the oil heat & hot water on. 

We’ll probably have an electrician come in and install an:

Interlock Power Inlet Box

For later & more costly is a hookup to solar & battery. Or a gas line to whole house gas generator. 

Our present home has masonry walls and is near the bottom of the valley, more protected from my family home on Black Horse Hill Road close to the ridge of the valley Coatesville lies in. 

Many of the homes in Coatesville are from the historical period when most homes were of masonry construction. A hurricane could blow the roof off, but not collapse the house.

I saw how a tornado plays with a recently constructed home when the Limerick Tornado hit. 

The twister caused major devastation to “the Hamlet,” a housing development that was under construction at the time. The tornado destroyed 20 of the 27 occupied homes. It also killed a family of three while injuring 25 other people. A savings bond owned by one of the victims, a 10-month-old child, was found the next day in Bath, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles north, according to officials.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2024

In 1985 we lived in a 1960 era ranch house in Macungie Township PA. On a Friday evening the four of us went out for ice cream. I almost unconsciously watched 3 vertical swirls dance in the sky. The Macungie Tornados. 

We haven’t had a direct hit hurricane in SE Pennsylvania since 1954 Hurricane Hazel.  

Three apple trees went down. We had 90 years old walnut & oak trees that could fall on the brick masonry house constructed in 1860. Power was out about 2 weeks. The furnaces at Lukens Steel were damped. National Guard helicopters landed in Central Park to bring medical supplies to Coatesville Hospital. I was 11 years old.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

We sat in the living room of our home on Black Horse Hill in Coatesville. After ½ of a 100 foot high tree just missed the small porch where our collie dog sat. My dad let her stay inside for the first time. Hurricane Hazel took down 3 more apple trees