http://www.reviewermagazine.com/lisacarver/newenglandpoweroutage.html
The Northeast’s A Bitch
By Lisa Carver
(as reported to Reviewer Rob)
So I call Lisa Carver in Dover, New Hampshire, on her cellphone and leave a voicemail. Some time later I receive a series of matter of fact texts that describe the serious conditions of the northeast’s power blackout during one of the coldest ice-storms in recent history. http://Weather.com has a function in its mobile version where I can easily see the current temperature of the north pole, as reported at Barrow, Alaska, on my Blackberry, and it said the temperature there was 21-degrees fahrenheit, while Dover was 18 at mid-afternoon on the 13th. ~Reviewer Rob
:::
Dec 13, 2008
2:23:50 PM
Hi. No computer, no landline, and iPhone runs out of battery quick from car charger. No gas stations working around here, so can’t run much. Got a low vo
2:23:54 PM
ltage generator for just enough heat that the pipes don’t freeze and burst. Sump pump in basement broke down. Flooded. Hotels all booked up. Metal frame
2:24:00 PM
swingset smashed in two. Fallen trees everywhere, live wires. They’re not expecting power to return for days more. Eight degrees last night! We put a pow
2:24:04 PM
er inverter on the fish tank so they don’t die, but they’re very sluggish, and one seems in a coma. The northeast’s a bitch!
(I text back, asking her how her kids are handling this.)
2: 52:50 PM
Kids are doing much better than the fish are. We can pile blankets on humans. I don’t know what all the single moms on Section 8 down the street are doin
2:52:54 PM
g. We were just lucky that there was enough gas in my fellow’s car that he could get to Massachusetts where his little generator was stored. There are no
2:52:57 PM
more flashlights, candles, or batteries at the stores. Of course no generators or inverter left either. Lots of roads are closed off dye (sic) to live wires,
2:53:01 PM
so some people can’t get to friends or relatives who do have power. It’s been down for almost 24 hours now. A road crew picked up the 100 year old evergr
2:53:05 PM
een that was felled by the weight of the ice and was blocking our driveway, but I haven’t seen a single power crew out. They’re doing the hospitals, PDs
2:53:08 PM
and fire stations first, but all those people have generators. The poor people are freezing to death!
Dec 14, 2008
I text Lisa:
9:31:04 AM
How are you today? Can you make a fire anywhere?
9:36:20 AM
Is the power back on yet?
Lisa responds:
9:38:06 AM
No power probably till Thursday or Friday. No fire, but little generator allows for two hours of heat at a time. I am writing your dispatches—will send
9:38:08 AM
(with photos) when electricity comes back.
Dec 15, 2008
I ask:
8:53:50 AM
How are you cooking food???
Lisa responds, briefly:
8:53:18 AM
I’m not.
:::
You’d think that with all the money we’ve spent on bailing out Wall Street, and all the money we’re going to spend on Detroit, not to mention the war for oil in Iraq, that we could do more for the infrastructure of the oldest states in the Union.