Has anybody been through a blackout before? So here’s my blackout story. I’ve been through it a few times in my life: a full week in Florida when I was still a baby, thunderstorms, strong wind, and the most recent one was yesterday. My neighborhood and a small town’s power went out for 16 hours, and a few people like me never knew why. That was until this morning at around 5 AM-ish, the power came back!
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A couple of 3 day ones, both in Atlanta. The first one was Hurricane Opal, and it was 70 degrees F afterward, and the neighborhood had a cookout on day 3 to use up the food going bad in the freezers, so it was actually kind of fun.
The 2nd one was a winter ice storm, and the temps were in the 20s, so we all had to go stay with friends to keep from freezing. You could spend a lot of time listening to trees explode. It was not fun at all.
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Longest blackout I recall was when I was living in Northern Virginia, a place where you wouldn’t think emergency response services would be all that scarce. The power transformer on the pole at the end of my street was a lightning magnet and was hit several times when I lived there. One time it was hit hard enough to explode and the power was out for days. This was during a heat wave as well. We ended up checking into a hotel just to have showers and air conditioning.
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Hurricane Ida took out our power for days.
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The power goes out here pretty regularly unfortunately. We lose power for up to a couple of hours at least once a month. I have no idea why. We lose internet about as frequently too.
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Yes, the longest I can recall being for a couple of days one February. We have a generator so were able to run the fridge and microwave and a few things, but it got pretty chilly indoors without being able to run the furnace (it’s gas, but the control system’s electric). Fortunately we live in the SF Bay area so when I say “pretty chilly” I mean like in the mid-50s.
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Never had one that lasted more than a few hours but, growing up in the Seventies, there were frequent power strikes in the UK.
In the last year, sloppy local roadworks near where I leave have knocked out the power for about half an hour each time on at least 10 occasions.
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I was in MI for the Great Blackout of '03.
We fretted for about 20 minutes before figuring out that businesses purveying highly perishable goods needed to cut losses.
We went downtown Ann Arbor and got hammy on clearance beer and ice cream.
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I don’t even black out when I sleep!
Oh, a power outage? Yeah, occasionally. We had a long one earlier this year, about 14 hours, very localized. After the '94 quake, we had several days, of course.
I kind of like them. The kids go a little nutty, tho’.
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A couple. But they never lasted long because we were on the same grid as the nearby fire station.
When I lived near the beach in Venice, California, the power went out all the time. So did the cable.
When the power went out I’d walk down to Islands (I know, yuck) and get a drink at the bar. It was located just inside Marina del Rey, so they always had power.
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How many Amish does it take to fix a blackout?
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comically clears throat
About a week. I was staying at the Oregon coast, extremely high winds. Had a plan to remove some doors and nail them over the windows were they to have burst. Didn’t need to.
Not a big deal compared to people in the hurricane belt, but it was pretty dramatic for the region. Don’t remember how I amused myself: I think I read Middlemarch for the first time.