Lost power for 14 hours during a high-wind freeze!

[Godzilla78]

This is a dramatic story, but really happened last night!

I have electric heat for my house, I have electric heat tape for my rack, I have supplemental electric space heaters for my snake room and my bedroom. Yesterday a high wind storm came in causing trees to get blown down and temperatures to drop below freezing! At 6:30 pm, a tree fell on some power-lines somewhere on my neighborhood grid, and I lost electricity to my home! I didn't panic at first, thinking the power company would fix it soon. After several hours, no response from the power company, and the house temps were plummeting fast! The extreme wind combined with freezing outside temperatures was chilling my home temps rapidly. I started to panic when the temps got down to 65, and I knew they would keep dropping if the power company didn't get it fixed soon.

I decided to do whatever it takes to save my snakes. I quickly realized The only heat source in the entire house, was a large warm-blooded mammal...ME! The first thing I did was get my $$$ super-pastel-piebald stud hatchling who is only 3 months old or so, and I put him in a small cloth bag and held him close to my torso under the blankets to keep him warm. (remember it was getting down to 60F and falling and I was cold too, so I had clothes on and TWO blankets! He is by far the smallest snake, and would cool off the quickest, and be the most susceptible to hypothermia, not to mention the biggest investment loss.
After a couple more hours, I realized that the power company wasn't coming any time soon, as there were downed power lines all over the area due to high winds! I then grabbed the subadults and put them in a pillowcase, and put them in MY BED WITH ME!, next to my body (which is perfect temperature, as my skin measures around 90F with an infrared thermometer.) I went to get the adults and put them in a pillowcase too, but noticed that the adults were still warm to the touch. They are both quite large, and were wrapped together in the warmest shelf on the rack, as they have been mating. I realized that I couldn't possibly keep all 5 snakes next to me all night, so I left the large adults in the rack, packed paper towels and cloth around the tub, and covered the rack with a large comforter.

I then spent the entire night holding the 1 hatchling and the 2 juveniles close to my body. The largest and most outgoing snake, Flame the female piebald kept trying to get out of the pillowcase and explore. The other two are smaller males and they are timid anyway, so they just huddled close to me for warmth. At one point Flame peed in the pillowcase and I had to keep her next to me and try to "sleep" with one eye open so as not to crush the snakes, and the smell of snake piss next to me! TALK ABOUT LOVE OF YOUR PETS! As morning got closer, the power was still not on, and the house was down 50F!!! I was really worried that some snakes might get sick or even die! I had to go to work, and was really depressed. Towards the dawn, I put the subadults in one tub together to keep each other warm, and insulated around the tub again, with the comforter over the rack. I was really worried about Chuck Norris, my hatchling, and I kept him close to me. By this time, he didn't even need to stay in the cloth bag, and was just pressed to my skin trying to stay warm. He didn't even try to move or get away. (It was pretty emotional, he was literally like my baby!) Finally, I had to go to work, so I put Chuck in a warm sock (war right off my foot!) and put him in the rack too, and hoped the power would come on soon!

Well, the power came back at 10 am, the rack came up to temp, and they survived! All 5 look healthy, but stressed out! I will be leaving them alone for the next few days to recover, and keeping an eye on their behavior. Now I have to wash my pillowcases and sheets!

I never thought I would sleep with snakes, in an attempt to save their lives! I have to get some sort of non-electrical heat source soon.