Stormy Weather

Although we’ve only been full-timing in our RV for 6 months, we’ve weathered (no pun intended) two potentially serious weather occurrences; Hurricane Irene and a pre-Halloween snow fall.

Because many of the RVers at the campground we were at when Hurricane Irene headed towards New England were frequent travelers to Florida during bad weather times, we received some really good advice from them. Everyone knew to pick up their small decorations and chairs from around their campsites, thus eliminating wind blown items. Those with screen houses either dismantled their units

or secured them with extra weights (btw, that one collapsed).

One couple stopped by our unit and reminded us to fill our fresh water holding tank. This way, if the campground lost electrical power and their pumps stopped working, we would still have access to drinking water. (Our RV holds 84 gallons of fresh, enough to last several days). They also said to make sure our propane tanks were full (cooking and possible heat should it get cold), and finally, since we have a generator, to make sure we had extra gasoline. Those 2 were common sense to us, but still good to hear from a more experienced RVer.

Another camper suggested that if the electricity did go out, to plug a radio, fan or light into the power post and to turn it on. That way, when the power did come back on, we’d have some indication and could discontinue the use of the generator.

Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a Tropical Storm by the time it reached our area. We only had 1/2” rain, but the winds were rather strong. The area did lose power for several hours. We were very comfortable in our rig and had no issues with this storm.

On to Halloween; at a different campground and several days advance prediction of a snow storm. Most of the people at this campground were in just for the weekend activities, and although there was a prediction of up to 6” snow, we were amazed at the number of folks who arrived the day before the storm with plans to stay 2 nights.

As with the Hurricane, we made sure we were prepared with the full water tank as well as propane and gasoline. Saturday the rains started around noon and by 6pm the temperature had dropped and a light film of snow had fallen. Around 8:30, the campground lost power: we just hunkered down for the night while other campers around us rushed to pack up and leave.

Sunday morning we were still without power at the campground and about 4” of snow. Chuck got out a broom and climbed on to the RV to clear it. We walked about in the winter wonderland with the pups and were amazed at the amount of tree damage in the park. This RV park was in the forest, many maples and lots of oaks which all still had leaves. We saw several large branches down across RV units and heard of one family that had a branch crash right into their unit, thru the roof and in to the refrigerator.

We put a light on to our electric box and waited for it to relight, signally us that power was back. In the meantime, we cranked up the generator and pulled out the cribbage board. Wednesday evening, we noticed the light on outside the RV. The campground was back on the power grid.

So one strong wind storm and one adequate snow in the first six months. We feel they were both good tests for us and feel that we’ll be able to deal with Mother Nature.