Hey guys,
 
I don't write that much, but I think people should learn from our
mistake.  I live in Richmond, VA and a storm "Gaston" hit us hard monday
night.  I live in a part of town that was hit the worst.  We lost power
around 6pm monday night, so we went to get the generator.  I have dogs,
cats and 3 ferts.  I quickly got the ferts down from their bedroom
upstairs, being afraid it was going to get way too hot too fast.  The
power flickered on and off for about 3-4 hours.  It was still very cold
in my house as I keep pretty much like and "ice box".  Around 10pm still
no power so I sent my husband for the generator.  He got back with
everything around 12am.  We hooked the fridge up, a light and a fan to
keep us cool.  I let the fur kids out in their play pen in the kitchen
knowing that the linoleum floor would keep them cool.  They played for a
while and around 2am I put them up for the night and laid down on the
couch to sleep with them, my husband laid on the love seat.  Here comes
the lesson of a life time......!  My husband set the generator up in the
garage with the huge 2 car garage door open and the exhaust facing out
the door.  The door from the house to the garage was completely closed!
We were lucky to get out of the house around 7:30am tuesday morning.  We
had a Carbon Monoxide level of 600ppm(fatal level) in the house.(the
firemen would not even enter the house with out their oxygen masks).  As
soon as I realized it was not the Tylenol PM I took at 2am to help me
sleep I got out of the house and my husband got the ferts out as well as
1 cat.  He managed to let the dog out side in the back yard, but I still
had 3 more cats in the house.  We were rushed to the hospital and we were
there until 10am Wed morning on Oxygen until 3am Wed. morning.  Some
friends and family went to the house later and got all remaining cats out
and opened all windows.  I have only GOD to thank that none of my babies
were at all effected.  Talked to the vet immediately and he assured me
that they would be ok, because they were showing no signs and are so low
to the ground.  Please place generators completely outside.  Everyone
that has heard our story can't believe it got so bad.  They all thought
that it would have been fine to place the generator where it was.  If my
father-in-law had not called us Tues. morning we would not be here to
tell this story.  PLEASE PLEASE be safe as I know there is another
Hurricane coming.  Please hug all your fur kids tonight and count your
blessings that they and you are ok!
 
Sorry for the Long post.
Thanks for listening,
Jamie
[Posted in FML issue 4624]