My power did come back on after five hours off yesterday.

It should be pretty obvious to local residents by now that it can take days to get back on the grid. You’ll want to get basic disaster supplies and keep them handy. If you can’t afford a generator, you want to at least have an ice chest and flashlight with batteries available.

I got a call from my husband who just woke up and realized nothing was working.

I told him I’d be home in about an hour and a half with ice to save what groceries we can (I have an appointment to keep first).

Daughter’s assignment is to retrieve all available coolers and lunchboxes from our camping supplies.

Husband’s assignment was to call DTE Energy to get us on the repair list.

Many of our neighbors, however, don’t have power and it is 6 a.m. on Tuesday. Some of the blacked-out homes are so close we can hear their generators humming.

It’s the same sound we heard for nearly two days during the summer blackouts that DID include our home. I had lost my sense of humor about the situation once it rolled past 24 hours. It’s fairly easy to handle a blackout of a few hours but beyond that point, rechargeable batteries and cold refrigerator air run out and it costs real money to get back to daily routines.

DTE Energy does have an information page on its web site as far as status reports.

The Monroe Evening News has updated its headlines for the day, and the print editions will be in the racks soon. Among the stories you will find is Dean Cousino’s report: Wild weather.

A snippet:

The winds knocked down power lines or blew tree limbs into lines in the northern half of the county. DTE reported about 4,000 customers in the county were still without service this morning. That was down from a peak of 5,500 users about noon Sunday.

While Dean was working on that story, I was making phone calls about a minor house fire that has been blamed on the weather.

In the meantime, WTVG TV 13 from Toledo did an interview during its noon newscast with a Monroe family that is without power. Unfortunately, I can’t find the video clip on the TV station’s web site or I’d post the link.

Regional coverage is also at the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.

The National Weather Service in Detroit is forecasting wind gusts up to 44 mph later today for Monroe County, Mich.

Here’s a post on that topic I did during a power outage last June when my home was off line for almost 48 hours:

Where can you get that stuff cheap this week in Monroe?

Candles

Go to any of the Christmas clearance aisle at the local stores and grab those red, green, gold and white candles that were marketed for the holiday. Be very careful with real candles and do not leave them unattended. Please do not start a fire while you are trying to keep the house lit.

Instead, consider getting one or more of those battery-operated candles “night light” safety use. I have one for use in my Sunday School classroom and it’s a very cool gadget. Battery-operated candles are, however, quite expensive. That’s why I have bought only one so far. Check your coupon box because there have been coupons recently for those products. You may also find holiday ones in clearance aisles.

Batteries

Yes, my husband has a rechargeable battery system. This is very practical for keeping the expense down for his small electronics. This setup won’t help, however, during a lengthy power outage. That is why we still keep regular batteries in our disaster kit.

Reasons: Our emergency lantern runs on D batteries rather than propane. Our alarm clocks need 9-volt batteries for battery backup. And our flashlights are better served with regular batteries that won’t lose a charge during standby time.

If you are in need of batteries, check your coupon box because there are Energizer and Duracell batteries in circulation. Save your Duracell purchase receipts for the P&G Year of Savings offer. This would also be a good occasion to cash in your drugstore rebate checks.

Now, who has batteries 0n sale this week? I grabbed my sales fliers on the way to the office this morning and here’s what I found:

• Kroger has Duracell batteries $5.99 with shopper card.
• Kmart has Duracell and DieHard batteries two packs for $12.
• Walgreens has megapacks of Duracell batteries $9.99 each, a Walgreens “club pack” of 36 AA batteries for $10, Energizer batteries $5.99 each, Walgreens regular battery packs at buy one get one free.
• Rite Aid has megapacks of Duracell batteries for $9.99. Buy $20 of Duracell batteries at Rite Aid, get $10 back on the Single Check Rebate program. The Rite Aid brand batteries have 12 batteries for a cost of 8 in the AA and AAA sizes.
• CVS Pharmacy has Duracell batteries for $5.99. Energizer batteries are $2.99  pack. CVS brand batteries are buy one get one free.

The MonroeTalkers were chatting about that situation, and by following their links one could find a news story that was posted at Chicago Breaking News.

Bottom line: a power outage Sunday morning at an AT&T facility in Bloomfield, Mich., resulted in mobile phone problems in several states.

Some of the people who posted comments on the reply boards are wireless only customers and no longer have landlines.

Now, I know it is considered a very frugal concept these days to go without a landline. Those who are college students or constantly on the move also rely far more on their wireless phones than landlines  for practical reasons.

I understand. I really did have five mailing addresses / with five landline phone numbers within one calendar year when I was bouncing around dorm rooms and apartment rentals in college. The only people who knew how to get in contact with me at any given time that year were my parents and my boyfriend – while a P.O. Box kept up with my mail.

The reality is: wireless phones can, and do, go out of service during power outages and other emergencies. And then what will you do?

Do you remember the Big Blackout of Aug. 14, 2003? I had to ration out my wireless minutes because I had no way to repower that phone until electricity came back on. We relied on landline to contact family and co-workers until the phone lines were knocked out of service because of an accident on our block. (Yeah, that was an unpleasant situation.)

Another example is from late 2007 when a storm knocked down a bunch of trees and wires across Monroe. I thought I was very smart taking pictures on my camera phone of the windstorm damage around my neighborhood, with the intention of posting them on one of the Monroe Evening News’ blogs.

And then I realized I had no wireless connection. No bars on the phone. A tower had apparently been knocked out of service. I couldn’t send those photos out to a computer where I could upload them to the Internet. Great idea – no way to follow up.

My husband and I have decided to keep both landline and mobile service, with the least expensive calling plans that fit our needs. In adding to being far more accessible during bad weather, the landline helps keep the per-minute usage down on our wireless phone plan.

You might be surprised as to what you can do to keep a landline active, if you actually crunch the numbers and research the bundle promotions and emergency / basic service options.

Julie’s List has some programs listed on her utilities page.

I’ll get some “how to cope” posts up here while I’m helping with news coverage for today’s edition of The Monroe Evening News. Yes, I know, you need Internet access to read a blog. On the other hand, we are now into the business day and some of you access the Internet at work or at the library … or can share this information with a friend or family member who is still off line.

First order of business: the refrigerator.

If you have lost electricity, The American Red Cross has this handout about food safety during a power outage; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a similar list with keeping food safe during an emergency.

Given the fact that we’re back to cold temperatures, you could stick a cooler filled with ice on your back porch or patio as a place to keep at least some of your food. Go get some ice at the grocery or convenience store.

During a power outage last summer, I lost about $50 worth of food because I didn’t act fast enough on saving what I could. I kept thinking “oh, the power will be back on soon …”

Yeah, right.

Frankly, we’re lucky we still have power and Internet. We had brownout conditions early this morning. There are several wires down two blocks away and at least one of the nearest traffic lights was out of service for a time.

My husband is a Green Bay Packers fan.

Green Bay is hosting the Detroit Lions today.

Now, while you Lions fans are rolling your eyes or hiding in shame at the likely scenario of an 0-16 season, my husband enjoys seeing the Packers in action any chance he can get.

He went to the basement black and white TV that is prepped for emergency use with a digital converter system. But he wasn’t impressed with watching sports on black and white. So he unhooked the equipment and brought it into the master bedroom to watch the game on our small color TV.

The digital picture really is pretty good.

And well, now we know that our digital converter works.