Power Outage

The last time I remember a power outage in Boston was in 1978, during The Blizzard. We certainly have plenty of power outages in New England, but the last one I can recall in downtown Boston was way back then. How long did it last? I'm a bit fuzzy on that. I remember no electricity - no lights, no TV - but I remember it as being during the daylight hours. I don't remember being without heat overnight. But I also don't remember what kind of heat we had in the building. It was just a crazy time. Stores and banks were closed. There were National Guard troops standing on the corner to what, I don't know. Maintain order? Remove snow? The latter, I think.

So many moons ago.

We do experience occasional Internet outages. I got hit with one around the Fourth of July and was out for a couple of miserable days when I had to rely on my phone as my lifeline. Years ago, when landlines were more of a thing, and cellphones did not yet exist, we lost phone service for a few days when some sort of switching station around the corner got flooded out. An inconvenience, for sure, but not all that big a deal.

Water and gas get shut off occasionally for repair work, sometimes emergency but often planned, but things are usually back to normal pretty quickly. 

With electric power, I'm just plain lucky that the powerlines in my area are underground.

My sister in Salem is not so lucky: the wires are above ground. During severe storms, they're often out for a while - sometimes that while turns into a few days. Ditto my cousin on the Cape, only she has a generator to see her through.

Anyway, we get plenty of crappy weather here: tropical storms in the summer, nor'easters in the winter. So there are a lot people who know what it's like to live power-free for a few hours, or days even.

Those of us with power watch the news to see reports on downed powerlines and utility crews driving in from all over the country (and sometimes down from our neighbors to the north) to help restore normalcy. We watch people making winter due with their fireplaces and gas grills, storing their perishable food in coolers plunked in the snow. We see folks taking shelter, sleeping on cots in school gyms that have AC for them in the sweltering heat. 

Life somehow goes on. 

I can't begin to image what the folks in New Orleans are going through right now, facing the prospect that they'll be without power for weeks. Weeks.

That means having to "use it or lose it" with everything that's in your fridge and freezer. And then, unless you've got a grill (and the fuel to fuel it), it'll be PBJ and soup spooned out of a can for a while. Even if you have a gas stove/oven - vs. electric - it may rely on electric ignition, so it won't work.

You won't be able to wash your clothing, other than by hand. Yuck.

The good news is, you'll be able to flush your toilets. At least if the pumping stations are working. Then you'll have to join the bucket brigade and throw a bucket of water down the hole each time you need to flush. The good news seems to be that the New Orleans water supply is working just fine. Phew...

Maybe you have a generator, but that probably won't power everything. And you probably won't have enough diesel fuel to keep it going for weeks. Weeks.

But no electricity?

Your kids may drive you nuts, but you really can live without TV, gaming, the Internet. An inconvenience, but I'm sure the city has portable charging stations set up to powerup phones and other devices. Evenings might have to be spent sitting on the stoop after dark. That or go to bed early.

But no AC? 

Sure, people "survived" in New Orleans before the invention of air conditioning. But I put "survived" in "quotes" because, back in the pre-AC era, a lot of people used to die during heat waves. My mother grew up in Chicago and told us that the newspapers used to print lists of those who died when it was too damned hot out. And New Orleans is a lot more sweltering than Chicago is or was. I'm also guessing that cities have gotten hotter over time. They're more built up, with more heat islands. Some of the wetlands that used to yield a breeze in New Orleans have been diverted, developed, land-filled. 

No AC is definitely the no fun zone, even if you live through it.

Years ago, I moved into a top floor apartment in December. Comfy cozy. Physics in action: heat really does rise. Come April, we had a run of a few hot days - up in the 80's even. I tried sleeping with a wet towel around my neck and upper body. That lasted a night or so until I could get a window AC in there to cool things down.

Imagine going weeks in a place as sultry and steamy as New Orleans without air conditioning? I can't.

Weeks.

I was wondering whether it was my imagination, or does the US experience more power outages than, say, Europe.

Not that they don't have power outages. A few years ago, after nasty winter storms, some friends in Ireland were without power in their small town outside of Galway for a while. But turns out that the answer to the question about whether or not we have more outages, the answer is 'yes.' 

Partly that's because we have more extreme weather events (hurricanes, tornados, etc.). And partly it's because their infrastructure is more robust than ours. This is somewhat due to Europe's infrastructure getting destroyed during WWII, after which they built back better. But European countries tend to take the common good more seriously than we do. 

We take a more lax approach to infrastructure. Spit and duct tape. Repair as needed. Don't ever invest. We saw how this played out last winter in Texas when many people were out for solid days at a time, or sporadically through rolling blackouts. And we're seeing how underinvesting in infrastructure is playing out in New Orleans.

That infrastructure bill can't pass soon enough.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here in the AC'd comfort of my home, turning to the Weather Channel to see how they're faring way down yonder in New Orleans. Not well, I'm afraid.

Let's fix our ailing, fragile grid. Let's bury our strung out power lines underground.

Unfortunately, it can't come soon enough for the folks in NOLA and its surrounds. 

Sigh...