Zunu wrote:Also I know you were bummed about all your food spoiling but I'm wondering if the ambient temperature in your unit remained cold while the power was out, that maybe some of the food didn't spoil after all?
Yeah, it looks like that's what happened. The ambient temperature in the unit fell to 45–50℉ (7–10℃), so the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of the refrigerator was quite small. We threw out some items that were already open and/or long past their expiration dates, just to be safe.
We have a LOT of meat in the freezer, which came with the move last summer. I'll have to judge that stuff on a case-by-case basis. It was well wrapped and tightly packed, and it was frozen solid again just 12 hours after power was restored, so it seems okay. I looked at each package to see if juice leaked, pooled in the bottom, and then refroze, and I didn't see much at all. Ultimately, though, I'll have to thaw each package as I plan to use it and then examine it more thoroughly.
Fortunately, all of that frozen meat helped to keep everything else cold. I'm not worried at all about stuff like chicken fingers, French fries, and frozen dinners that are already cooked and only need to be reheated. And the ice cream slumped a bit and then became gritty when it refroze, but otherwise it's scoopable and edible after microwaving for a few seconds.
The railroad itself is totally wrecked, so there won't be 
