Possibility of power outages for a week!

[Gemma]

I live in the coastal area of NJ, as of 8am this morning I have a mandatory evacuation from my own home. I am prepared for Hurricaine Irene, however my BIGGEST concern are my chinchillas!

I am going more inland to my parent's home, the a/c will be on as long as it can, but there is a great possibility (almost unavoidable ) that the power will be knocked out. This can last for the entire week, for my entire area! The grids are set up so vast I have no one to go to that may have a different power grid then me. Nevermind I will most likely be stranded at the house.

Thankfully the weather is averaging mid 70s, but right into Monday it says it will be around 80/85. I'm going to my mom's today to take the temperature of her basement. I was told to keep cold water bottles around to emit coolness.

I need more suggestions! Has anyone been in a situation like this, what did you do?

My chins are used to 70 - 73 degree F all day and they are comfortable. Anything above I worry. Around 77 my one female immediately shows signs of over-heating. I had her out of the a/c for only 5 minutes! I'm going nuts. x.x

 

[obcsed]

Freeze a bunch of bottled water. When Ike hit here, I was without power for 10 days. The water bottles lasted a couple of days and I stuck one or two wrapped in fleece in the cages when it got too hot. The chins snuggled up to them when they needed to cool off. The last couple of days it finally got too hot for them and I moved them to a vet that got their power back before I did. Hopefully the basement will stay fairly cool for you and the chins.

 

[Gemma]

Thats what I was told before. I do not have fleece. I was thinking about running to PetsSmart and picking up this:

http://www.petco.com/product/10500/...cm_mmc=bazaarvoice-_-RLP-_-10500-_-image_link


It is the only fleece product they have. Does it look OK?

 

[obcsed]

It will probably work but you can pick up a yard of fleece at a fabric store for less.

 

[Airyn]

I'd definitely go with the fabric store option if you can. They often have sales for a yard of anti-pill fleece for under $3. You could also call local hotels to find out which ones have a back-up generator and allow pets. Since they're caged, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting in.

 

[liewwan]

This suggestion may be a bit odd, but the guys do this on camping trips when it gets super hot. Well let me correct that, the guys do this for us. I seen them put ice in a cooler and there is this fan that goes on top of the cooler, the plug for the wire is cut off since they connect the coil to a batter (looks like a car battery or smaller).
It ran all night and kept the huge tent cool. Now how they did it I have no clue, I just remember how the set up look like. I'm sure you can google it up, it's worth a shot.

 

[Spoof]

The basement sealed off should stay at or below 68 degrees year round. They key to basements is to NOT open the doors/etc at any point. You need to make that clear to your family that if you pick a room in the basement for the chins they (and you!) can not open the door more than twice per day. Otherwise it will heat up to the temperature of the other rooms by pressure offset.

liewwan, that's called a swamp cooler. It works in dry climates. If you google homemade a/c or swamp cooler it'll show all types of neat designs.

 

[liewwan]

Sweet Spoof, yeah I saw the guys rigging it up during our camping trips and boy did it help sleep through the night.

 

[Gemma]

My basement is our food storage location, so it is constantly being accessed. However, with the High of 77 tomorrow, and a high of 70 on Sunday with lows in the 60s, I'm very confident that my basement will be very cool.

After this weekend, I pray the power is returned (if gone out at all). Then I will beg for no one to go into the basement.

I think I'm good.

Thanks guys! I am praying this isn't a "100 year event" as they say.
In the event that my parent's house DOES flood (which it should not, soo far from being prone) if I need to rush my chins out in wet conditions. What must you do if they get wet? I am a worry-wart. x(

 

[Cuddlebug]

If they get wet you can dry them with a hair dryer (if you have power) set on the coolest setting. If you don't have power, you will need to spend a lot of time drying them off with towels. You need to make sure that you get them thoroughly dry to prevent fungus.

 

[Spoof]

If several chins get wet the fastest way to dry them is a quick squash with a wad of paper towels and let them go nuts in a pile of dust. Dust dries them very, very quickly.

Hairdryers don't work when the power is out and you're running from a hurricane.

 

[Andrea]

I have about thirty chinchillers in the freezer & right now the AC is WAY pumped up and blasting in the basement...after the power goes off I am going to seal off the basement and hope that it stays below 72. If it goes above that, and the power is off, I will be taking them to my parent's business that has a generator. I am hoping power gets back on quickly but they are saying it could be "weeks" before things return to normal...the rain is already starting... :/

 

[Spoof]

You can go out in a Cat 1, it's actually neat to see the cloud rings and the phases of the storm. The eye of a cat2 passed over us two years ago. Wicked cool. Winds were too high so we couldn't go out other than in the eye.

I'm sure everyone will be fine. )

In the future, if you get a battery backup - mine is a Cyberpower 1350va - you can hook your router/cable modem up to it and it will run it for several days up to a week if you turn it off when you're not using it. My mac battery lasts 7 hrs or longer, and you can charge it off the battery as well. This way you have constant internet access so long as the line isn't completely severed.

 

[Gemma]

Everyone plus the chins are OK here.

My power went out multiple times but never too long for me to whip out the frozen waterbottles. My power is on now, and their all happy and safe!

Lastnight was very scary, Gemma (my female chin) was making unique noises that I never heard her do. Take the sound of a newborn baby crying (human) and that is what she sounded like! Everytime I turned around and she looked OK. :/ I think she just wanted attention since they haven't been out during all this Irene hype.

Thanks everyone for your help, hopefully we can all go home tomorrow.