Hurricane diary 6 - Aftermath

kw: current events, observations, weather, hurricanes

Everybody has been using the line "Goodnight, Irene" from a song nearly nobody alive has ever heard. I am not sure Leadbelly would be pleased.

While the mid-Atlantic region is filled mostly with a sense of relief (except for nine families that suffered fatalities - breathe a prayer for their comfort), New York and New England have huge numbers of power outages, and people facing a week or more without electricity. My son in New Jersey said there are three million without power, though most of them can expect to have it restored in the next two days. The only saving grace here is that the weather will remain temperate, so air conditioning isn't strictly needed.

I don't know what I would do if I had a week or two without electricity. I don't think I would stay elsewhere, because I'd want to be on hand to discourage looting. We would learn how to make the most of daylight hours, as our grandparents did, rising and retiring with the sun. While I have enough vacation time accrued to stay at home, not all of my colleagues are so fortunate. This really brings home how critically dependent we are on the electric grid for our well-being.

For most of us, all is well that ended well. Lend a hand to any neighbor for whom it didn't end as well.