A view of the future as globull warming regulations and stuff are passed: After the Storm: The Haves and the Have-Nots
Here’s part of the 1,009-word missive that Bush tapped out on her cell phone:
Over the last 4 and a half days, I’ve seen families struggle over what to eat when most of the food has spoiled. I’ve personally had to wait in line for gas, praying they wouldn’t run out before I got my fill. I’ve taken cold showers because there is no hot water (WT: because there’s no electricity). I’ve gone hunting for elusive ice that has become worth more than gold, and not found any. I’ve seen fights break out over basic necessaries, because nerves are becoming frayed from the stress of the heat and lack of water.
Kate Sheppard pushes the notion that we can expect more of this thanks to hotcoldwetdry because you, dear reader, decided to use your ice maker and record a few shows on your DVR. We can expect long lines for fuel and rolling blackouts and brownouts. I wonder if Kate will complain next week when temperatures are at or below normal?
I used to be like these people. My electric company, SWEPCO, is about as reliable as an old Chevy, or make that a new Chevy. Some days it work, others it does not. So I decided to become independent. I bought a generator, hooked it to natural gas, which never stops unless you have an earthquake. The result, when the electicity goes out, it have a much lower utility bill, I have running water, all my various pieces of junk work, and it is cool in the house. You can also hook in propane to the generator and you might consider something like a solar panel. But you should always have a backup plan as things are going to get real bad when the O’s policies hit.
I forgot, in the 50’s we lived with little electricity and no air conditioning (in the South). So deal with it.
People of today are so feminized and wusses. To call being a week without ice to be worth gold….?
Granted, it is an UTTER un-American to have people who live around the capital of the world going without electricity for over a week is sheer stupidity and IMHO criminal.
How in the world can they be without power for this long of a period?! Even in storm ravaged Oklahoma after dozens of real and actual tornados, we can get power on after a week. In the middle of nowhere. And, a few years ago it was also triple digit temps when the crews were putting up the lines. However in OK.. people were making do and were actually bringing out food and drinks to the linemen. We knew (know) what to value.
If you want to know what going without electricity is really like… read the book, “One Second After”. You will be PISSED… and sad… at how defenseless our system really is.
Gumball,
The “middle of nowhere” helps rather than hinders. When you start to work in an urban environment, it is not as easy to move trucks and manpower to get to downed lines. Crews run into everything from blocked alleys to parked cars to just plain congestion in the area.
For example, say you have a line in a back yard of a home that is the result of a downed tree with the tree still on the line.
Down here in my neck of the woods, power companies can pull in trucks and men from both sides of the line as there are gaps between homes. So you have the power guys working to get the line ready to be strung while another group cuts up the tree and grinds / mulches it 10 feet away.
With a row home, you can’t do that. There is only one access point – the back alley. You can’t stage trucks within the alley and even simple distances – like having to take a branch 30 feet instead of 15 feet get multiplied.
Then you add into that the fact that the storm cut a swath that had neighboring states without power and needing to keep crews in their area you don’t have the manpower. Plus, as I found out one year after a hurricane, not all power companies use the same fuses, cable, etc. We had a crew from western North Carolina that were having problems because they didn’t have the right fuses, the line pulling equipment was slightly bigger than the lines they were trying to pull, etc. They were a lot of fun because every other word on the radio was a cuss word. (And I mean that sincerely – they were great.) The neighbors took care of them with drinks and grilled food, and they were greatly appreciative. These guys work on strange equipment with strange maps and strange supervisors. They do it for 18 – 20 hours a day in the heat while being yelled at by people who want their power on.
There are solutions such as burying cables, hiring more people in case big storms hit but that will increase the bills of customers greatly.
I don’t think there is a perfect solution.