When the power goes out

[ZuZu]

when i first moved to where i live now there was a half month long power outage from a windstorm! (fourtunatly I had not bought crabs yet...) it was so crazy! but great ideas since there seems to be potential windstorms this year I am glad this post came up!

[CrabbyJo]

Last week we had another bad wind storm that knocked power out all over the area. Many downed trees, broken poles, and it was COLD. Winds were gusting to 80mph, and the wind chill was purported to be -20F. A tree went down on our street and took out the power line from our neighbor's house to our house.
This happened about midnight, and while I usually wake up immediately when the power goes out, I think I was vaguely aware and went back to sleep. I dreamed that my hermit crabs were cold, and were trying to get warm.
I awoke at 4:30am, and leaped out of bed to care for the crabs, not realizing the power had been out so long. No residual heat from the light hoods, and I don't even remember looking at the thermometer in their tank, I grabbed blankets and covered the tank, grabbed all my empty 2 liter bottles and 1 gallon milk jugs, only to find that a tiny leak in our toilet had drained the water from the holding tank in the 4 hrs the power had been out.
I began ripping hottie hand warmers open, and placed about 20 of them under the blanket around the tank. This tank does not have a UTH, so was not elevated, so the hotties only went around the outside edge.
The line was repaired about 24 hours later, but we did not have power as the transformer had blown, so we had to wait for a "heavy crew" to replace it, about 10 hours later.
The temp in the tank had dipped to 54*F. I was very worried for my crabs. I had purchased more hotties and placed them around the tank under the blankets. The tank was on the floor below the hearth, and the gas fireplace did not warm the tank at all, and we could not place it on the hearth as it would have been too close and would have gotten far too hot. I just put the long lasting hotties (18hrs) under the blankets and prayed the crabs would survive.

It's been almost a week now, and I've seen 5 of my 7 crabs ,and am feeling that perhaps they are going to be fine. I know at least one is molting.
There has been a lot of visiting the salt water dish, and appetites seem to be fine as well. I am wondering if the stress is helped with the salt water somehow - as it just seems odd to see them at the salt water dish so much, as they usually leave it alone and only visit it at night when I'm not there. This includes the PP's as well as the E's.
And it could also be that everyone is ready for molting too... who knows!

I wish I had had a list though, to remind me about putting rocks into the fireplace to warm them. It did not even occur to me, and had been a year since I'd read this thread.

My suggestion - print out a list of steps to take when the power goes out so you have it right there by the tank and can refer to it. You tend to forget things when you are concerned about keeping your family warm and pipes from freezing at the same time, especially in an extended outage. 34 hours! Long time, very very cold.

[ladybug15057]

Bumping this thread for all crabbers who live where winter is knocking on doors. (Today being our first official day of fall) Best to be prepared....

[emmac350]

Just wanted to add one more idea to this thread. In dropping my crabs off at their home for the next two years, the temperature dropped rapidly and we had to do some work to get the tank up to the proper temperature. The power wasn't out, but the heating in their apartment isn't very good. It won't be a long-term problem since they're in Dallas, TX (temps went down to only 16* F, which is about -9* C for you Aussies out there), but for the short term, we needed some ideas.

First, we used aluminum foil around the tank's back/sides at the substrate level. I put another layer above that across the back, but leaving the sides open. Make sure to do this shiny side in - otherwise it won't keep itself warm. My UTH was under the foil, and within half an hour, the tank temperature went up by two degrees. We did use a space heater in the room while we were in the house to keep the tank from having to heat itself too much, and by that evening we were at the right temperature (and the humidity just fine too).

So put the foil over the tank first, then blankets. You won't have to worry about them catching on fire as much because the foil will protect them more.

If anyone's interested, I can post about how we prep my crab tanks for their road trips too. They've been on three of them so far.