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August 15, 2003
Got Power?
(Psssttt....I hate it when I accidentally shut down my browser before I've saved my blog entry)
Annnnnyyyyyywwwwwwaaaaayyyyy..........biggest Blackout in US history last night in the Niagra Mohawk Grid...50 million people effected. Comparisons to the 1996 and 1977 blackouts of which I remember NOTHING. Now where was I during the 1965 Great Blackout of the Northeast and I can tell you I was sitting on the couch with 17 candles lit when my parents got home. ::::willies::: Must be the reporters last night were too darn young to remember the 1965 black out...it was a big deal ya know!!
It's also important to remember how being able to get the lastest news effects our reactions to incidents such as this. One son was sitting in an Emergency Command Center with phones and even internet connections albeit no lights AC and cut off from his home.......the other was safe and sound in his home with his family but cut off from news....only knowing the outage was widespread; beyond his little neck of the woods. Their reactions were totally opposite. I'm thankful neither of them (nor their families) was stuck in an elevator or on a subway....
Now then....do *I* have the right kind and quantity of batteries at home to power up those boom boxes they left behind? I have the phone, food, water, and means to cook ( gas grill and stove top even) and plenty of flashlights/candles/oil lamps....but that battery operated source for news is a little trickier. Must put that on my to do list.
I think I'm also glad we don't have to deal with flights tonight although we would have had a direct flight from DC to VT....I bet it's still going to be a mess. Instead we will spend the night here in Richmond and drive up to Maryland tomorrow. Friday and nooooo packing.
BTW...yesterday was laundry day in my travel world...the hotel's laundry facility was out of order though. I thought of waiting until we got to the next hotel Sat morning...we could have made it without resorting to turning our undies inside out by why chance it, ya know? So I found the closest coin-op laundromat and used that...next time I think I will buy more clothes or wear dirty underwear before going to a skivvie laundromat again. It was expensive too...twice as expensive as any hotel machines I've used AND I brought back some damp clothes...I was just not going to feed those machines any more quarters.
Woe is me...it is too hot to sit outside here today and the pool is an indoor one in a room where the AC is making the room too cold! BUT I've got power, and phones and internet...I'm a lucky woman.
hhhhmmm...now about those war torned counties????? They've been without power for how long?
Posted by frani at August 15, 2003 11:10 AM
Comments
I know I kept asking about comparing this blackout to the one in '65...we sat in our house in Somerville, NJ...iwth lights radio that went out and not knowing what was happening to my grandparents in NYC....my uncle was stuck in the subway....very very scary......
my parents had no power until 9:30 this AM..that was scary for dad.....
Posted by: Risa at August 15, 2003 12:07 PM
My mom finally got power at 4:40pm. I was lucky - my complex has a generator so we didn't lose any power.
Posted by: DA at August 15, 2003 05:30 PM
whew...glad all are safe and sound.......
Posted by: frani at August 15, 2003 05:34 PM
Nadia and Elios are in Greece, so they missed the blackout. Steven's company was almost ready to quit when the blackout hit, so they went to a nearby bar and drank beer. Then one of his employees lived close by, so they went there and grilled out. He is missing his flight to Greece tonight, but I think he came out pretty well.
Posted by: Tonya at August 15, 2003 06:24 PM
Tonya...hope he will get to join his family soon. I think a lot of the people made the best of a bad situation...I'm just glad none of them were stuck in elevators or subways...snort...I almost wrote escalators...guess they could have survived those...;-D
Posted by: frani at August 15, 2003 08:30 PM
LOL, Fran - Yes, I think even I could survive being stuck on the escalator.
Posted by: Tonya at August 18, 2003 12:05 AM
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