Rural Talent residents put survival skills to the test during snowstorm’s extended power outage; ‘Storing water in a bathtub? Really?’

By Buffy Pollock, Rogue Valley Times

Some rural Talent residents say the recent Southern Oregon snowstorm gave them more practice than they’d have liked to test out their assortment of doomsday supplies and survival skills.

A self-proclaimed “prepper,” architect Heiland Hoff and his wife, Hannah, lost power early Monday at their property along Anderson Creek in the rural foothills of Talent. At one point, they joined more than 9,000 Jackson County residents who lost their Pacific Power service during the first day of the storm.

Light snow flurries had been forecast and were expected Monday morning for the region. Loss of power around 1 p.m., however, ended up being just the start of a more than three-and-a-half-day-long exercise in relying on the array of off-the-grid infrastructure Hoff put in place at his property over the past decade. 

With snow continuing to dump across the region, local municipalities and school districts faced early closures or full class cancellations, and most residents found themselves unable to leave their homes as roads turned to slick sheets of ice.

Hoff, who describes himself as a self-reliant outdoorsman, said he and his wife have been no stranger to power outages or overall uncertainty. The former California residents — he’s 62, she’s 60 — moved to Southern Oregon on Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the United States. A job he’d relocated for was immediately withdrawn as his would-be employer, along with the rest of the country, faced a sudden rush of newfound uncertainty.

Uncertainty, Hoff noted, would become a theme for life in Southern Oregon.

As a skilled architect, rather than embracing the panic after 9/11, Hoff said he opted to plan and design for such uncertainty, enhancing his emergency preparedness. With any passing incident or disaster, including the COVID-19 pandemic and devastating wildfires in recent years, Hoff found additional ways to get more prepared.

In addition to off-road vehicles and an impressive arsenal of tools and weapons, he’s acquired a year’s worth of nonperishable food and three years’ worth of firewood.

“If you live in the woods, you’re liable to get hurt … so I keep three years’ worth of firewood. … If I ever have to be holed up healing from an injury, I don’t have to worry about firewood,” Hoff noted.

With power outages becoming a regular part of life for many Talent residents — occurring almost daily during summer “wildfire season” — and at least three 10-day outages over the past decade, Hoff wanted to avoid relying on electricity to power his well.

“The first time you go 10 days without power, it’s really jaw-dropping,” he noted.

“My 4,000-gallon water tank up the hill was a pretty big prep about 10 years ago. … Most preppers talk about storing water in a bathtub and I’m like, ‘Really? A bathtub? I got 4,000 gallons.’”

Installing the tank on a hill above his property, along with 1,700 feet of water line, he noted, ensured the gravity-fed system is not reliant on power. 

No power, no problem.

Except, Hoff discovered this week, it doesn’t work out so well during an extended freeze.

“I’m not entirely sure how long two people can live off 4,000 gallons, but it’s a while,” he said. “But if the pipes freeze, then all my doomsday prepping would have been for nothing. … Living without power is frustrating, but living without power and water is really a threat.”

Hoff said one small relief during the past week’s storm was accessing social media to see how others were faring and to update friends on his and his wife’ ordeal.

By Wednesday, regional officials were still grappling with icy roads and downed trees and power lines across the region, with Jackson County Roads and Parks Director Steve Lambert declaring on Wednesday, “48 hours into this week’s winter weather event, the Jackson County Roads and Parks department continues to work on clearing roads to prevent slick conditions, but is faced with challenges in some areas.”

Lambert reported specific issues near Hoff’s property along Anderson Creek, where efforts to remove trees and improve access had to be abandoned due to trees continuing to fall and creating hazardous conditions for county and Pacific Power crews.

Hoff noted, “For the first three days, every time I saw any of the crews, none of them were doing anything other than trying to get unstuck, so here are all these vehicles, and yeah, I mean they’re sending them out to try and help, but they’re spending all their time trying to get unstuck out of the snow.”

With snow above his knees in most areas around his property and wearing snowshoes to maneuver around to try and clear some of the snow, Hoff was anticipating his fourth 10-day power outage of the decade as the week wore on and snow continued to fall.

Unable to navigate parts of his property with four-wheel-drive vehicles, Hoff and his wife passed the time using his side-by-side “doom buggy” to navigate their property. They checked on chickens and barn cats, and looked in on neighbors, making sure they had enough water and ferrying people up the hill to their homes.

“It’s kind of all-consuming, spending all the time just shoveling and doing the basics. It’s kind of fun for the first 24 hours, but not so much on day 4,” Hoff said.

By Wednesday night, the road had been cleared enough that they could make their way into town to fill more than a dozen gas cans with fuel for their generators, purchase flashlight batteries and — a highlight for the week — buy pizza. As of Thursday afternoon, Pacific Power officials reportedly had made good on efforts to restore power to 97% of customers in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

The Hoffs, it turned out, were in the remaining 3%, but still received phone updates from Pacific Power officials.

“They call every 12 hours and say they’ll have you back on in 12 hours, and then you get a call 12 hours later, saying, ‘Hey again, we’ll have you back on in 12 hours,’” Hoff said.

“They just don’t say what year.”

A few hours later, just after 8 p.m. Thursday, power was finally restored to the Hoff household. After nearly four days of relying on generators to power only the essentials — and using wood-stove-heated water for sponge baths — the couple was excited for hot showers and having escaped a fourth 10-day outage.

Hoff admits it was good dry run for his doomsday prepping skills.

“It definitely kind of brings the neighborhood together when it happens. We take care of our own up here. … Most of our neighbors are pretty set, but we all help each other however we can,” he said.

“We’re kind of a bunch of modern-day pioneers. … Heck, until about 1910 or so, everyone was a doomsday prepper.”

Hoff noted that power briefly went down on Friday. 

“It went off momentarily this morning, but came right back on,” he told the Rogue Valley Times. “We both screamed.”

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.