Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

The week of Thanksgiving saw several winter storm watches and warnings in many parts of the Plains and Midwest. During the third week of November, Southeast Michigan saw temperatures in the 60 degree range and then temperatures quickly dropped below freezing as the first winter storm swept through. 

Reports of about 12 inches of snow were reported over parts of southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. By the time the storm reached Michigan, it brought over one inch per hour of snow to portions of Southeast Michigan. The state had the highest amount of snowfall with a height of 16.8 inches.

Unfortunately, according to the Detroit Free Press, the storm system that swept through metro Detroit knocked out power to about 12,000 DTE Energy customers. On November 23, some 6,000 customers woke up to find that a substation in Dearborn blew out causing a power outage. This comes on the heels of 6,000 who were similarly affected just two days earlier.

Overall, it was reported that the storms caused about 40,000 outages across the metro Detroit area. The outages were not the only problem, Michigan Department of Transportation spokeswoman Diane Cross said "numerous crashes" were reported due to the snowfall.

It is not surprising to hear of power outages during severe weather conditions and this storm was no exception. Over a one week period, Michigan suffered over 200 separate outages. When outages occur, especially during a severe snowstorm, there is no telling when the power will be restored. This can play havoc with all the electronic equipment that people have in their homes.

So what can be done to try to save as much information and equipment during situations such as this? Businesses and homes are always affected, meaning that some could have experienced data losses and others will find that their equipment was damaged and is now useless.

During a situation such as this sometimes the only way to stay in touch is through cell phones and tablets. Of course these run on batteries which need to be charged. A simple solution is to have an uninterruptable power supply (UPS).

We live in an age where greater amounts of data are being collected every day, not to mention the fact that everyone needs to be connected all the time. A UPS becomes a valuable tool in not only allowing you to save your data and safely shutting down your equipment, but also for keeping cellphones and tablets powered up so that family and friends can be contacted and people can keep up to date on information concerning the power outage.