Hurricane Irene

We've had an interesting few days since hurricane (really tropical
storm) Irene hit Connecticut. We lost power Sunday morning, and
finally got it back Tuesday. This wasn't really an inconvenience for
us, as we had a generator and 20 gallons of fuel. That would last
almost two weeks - the trick is to realize that you don't need 24x7
power to be comfortable, assuming you are prepared (more about that
below). We ran the generator about six hours a day - two hours each
morning. afternoon and night. That was enough in 80-degree weather
to keep the fridge and freezer cold enough so there was no food
spoilage. While the generator was off, we relied on stored water
(both potable and rainwater for flushing toilets), a propane stove,
various solar lights, battery-powered flashlights and oil
lanterns. Since it was late August in New England, we did not have
to worry about heating the house, although we have a wood stove if
it had been necessary.

Some of our neighbors were not as prepared, and after just one day
without power, one was plugging into our generator with an extension
cord, and another was using our freezer and had asked us to charge
one of their cell phones. In a moment of candor, one of them
admitted to making fun of people rushing to buy water and toilet
paper before the storm (we were also poking fun at the last-minute
panic shoppers, but only because we had the things they were buying
in storage already).

One source of disappointment was Internet access - we have a digital
phone line from Cox that uses our house's existing copper phone
lines and their cable, not the Internet, so I assumed it would
provide dialtone for some time after a power outage. This would, in
theory, have allowed me to use the SDF dialup account I keep as a
backup. That plan only worked for about eight hours. One neighbor
with an AT&T (formerly SNET) POTS line had dialtone for about 12
hours - not much better. Gone are the days when you could count on
phone service for days or weeks after a power outage. I think most
people just don't expect phones to work under those conditions -
either they have cordless phones which are dead without power
anyway, or they use cell phones. So companies stopped spending money
on backup infrastructure. Of course, cell (data) service is much
more expensive than SDF dialup, even if it would last perhaps a few
more days. So I'm not sure what to do about that in the future.

We had no major storm damage to speak of, apart from a tree that
fell on the kid's playscape. All things considered, it could have
been much worse.