Power outage in Poky; what it really means (Pocatello: condo, credit card)

[pw72]

Today there was a five hour power outage in my neighborhood in Pocatello. (A truck hit a power line and brought down the entire east bench of Poky).

But this isn't about the truck or the power line. It is about how our society has changed and how the lack of power is much more significant than it used to be.

The first thing I noticed is several residents in my condo community milled around the parking lot, actually talking to each other. It was as if they were knocked unconscious by this outage and didn't know what else to do!

Frankly, I didn't know what to do with myself either! First, no internet. I could not find answers to questions, could not find my news, could not check my bank account, credit cards, etc., could not check my sites, like city-data. I felt completely in the wilderness without the internet.

Beyond that, no TV. I never thought it would be a big deal if I it wasn't there, but I did feel the lack of access to it. It's still summer, so light wasn't a problem, but I then wondered what if this were December? No heat, no light.

Of course, the fridge started me wondering. How long could my perishables last? Should I eat them now? What about the hot water? Should I not use any in hopes of preserving it somehow? All random thoughts.

Here is the point. This was just a five hour outage. Heaven forbid we had to endure several days, or even weeks. This was an eye-opener for me. We have become so dependent on electricity, we have no idea what life would be like without it. And it goes beyond our personal conveniences. If widespread, it would be a total disaster...no ability to buy products like groceries and gas with our "plastic" society, no way to get cash unless banks were open. No internet transactions. No transactions, period. I know a lot of people are without power for short periods, but this really is a wake-up call. Our society is more dependent on the power grid than ever before. We need to put safeguards in place, and ultimately, take measures to protect ourselves as individuals. I don't mean to sound alarmist, but this really got me thinking today.

[cleosmom]

I had the same thing happen to me last week. In fact, if the weather looks iffy out, thunderstorms iffy, I leave my front porch light on so I know for certain that it's out. If I don't then I sit outside for a few minutes pushing my garage door opener uselessly

When it comes to the perishables, I was told by Rocky Mtn Power that if you keep the fridge and freezer cold during the outage, providing it's only hours and not days, then all should be well.

When I did stop by the house last week I had to grab the dogs and take them back to work with me as they are used to a/c and some sort of background noise and well there was nothing

Of course our power manages to stay on during blizzards, hurricane force winds during thunderstorms and even just majorly windy days. It tends to gout when it's about 52 degrees, bright sunshine and no breeze

Back in the 90's we had that brownout in the west; CA, WA, OR and parts of ID. I was scared as I had a lot of money not only being deposited, but being transferred as well since the bank was being bought out. The prominent thought about that day; I drove through the ag area of Fresno State, the horses and cows were clueless to a power outage, the were grazing away as normal. It was us humans who were lost. I know I was somewhat glad my mom was in the hospital at that time as the temps in Fresno were over 100 that day. I bet Desert Ryder remembers.

[abbie132]

It is amazing what you will do without electricity. We moved here from Virginia a year and half ago. We went through Hurricane Isabelle while in Virginia Beach and was out of power for 5 days. It was Sept. and 100 degrees and 100% humidity! LOL The first couple of days was fighting the city traffic and chaos trying to find any gasoline to run the generators. 2 Neighbors in our neighborhood had generators and we had extension cords running up and down the street to all our houses. Now these generators ran only our frigs and the occasional TV for the bored kids. The last couple of days everyone started getting crazy and it almost turned into a mob mentality in the city. It was crazy!! It amazed me how electricity rules almost every aspect of your life. Food, air, entertainment, hot water for showers, etc.
What a life lesson though.

[DESERTRYDER]

The Old Desertryder does remember.
Being a desert motorcyclist I promptly went to the shop and obtained my trusty honda 1000 generator for my desert camping trips..
It made enuff electricity to power the fridge a small fan and a small tv.
I was set and no need to worry about how long would it last??
The beer stayed cold

[breer23]

Abbie, I can definitely relate to your experience. When my wife & I went through Katrina in '05 (we were in coastal Alabama at the time), we thankfully only went 3+ days without electricity. Granted, it was August and temps hovered in the high 90's with sweltering humidity, but there were areas of town that did not regain power for 3+ WEEKS! We lived in an apt. complex, and not on the ground floor, so a generator was out of the question - would rather sweat buckets than go dizzy sucking in gasoline fumes! BTW, Abbie - were the gas station attendants in VA armed? Ours were!

To us, it was like camping out, at home. The true God-send was still having running water, though we did boil it on our camp stove, for coffee, cooking (pasta and beans) and personal hygiene. Cooked canned food (again, the camp stove), had to pitch food in the fridge after 2 days (FYI, the standard temp for refrigeration is ~44F - if it goes above that, pitch what you've got if it's thawed). No relief from the heat except to run some cool water - wanted to turn the bathtub into a swimming pool for a day, but we never knew if we might lose water next.

This wasn't exactly survival mode, I realize - we had a roof (well, most of it) over our heads, we had food and means to get more if need be (I made a bank run a day before it hit), and a place to go if we didn't. Lots of people weren't even close to being as fortunate as we were. We offered our floor to another couple who was worse off than we, for a night, and even lent our camp stove to a friend who lived in Miss. and had lost their house - they offered to give it back after using it daily for 2 months, but we just gave it to them - they needed it a hell of a lot more than we did.

All in all, you're right in that the lack of juice, or even a "mild" disaster (tho I would NOT suggest riding out a hurricane!) can really bring folks together in the ways that they always have - usually, and mostly, in the best ways. The occasional gasoline run aside...