From: "Ted White" <twhite8@cox.net> To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist@keithlynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Isabel Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 01:13:58 -0400 Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist@keithlynch.net> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net> To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist@KeithLynch.net> Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 3:04 AM Subject: [WSFA] Isabel > My power went out 8:20 pm Thursday, and was still out Friday when I > left for WSFA. I didn't go to work last Thursday; my boss decided to close at noon -- an hour after Metro had stopped running all trains and buses. So I was home when my power went out. The first time was around 3:00 PM, but lasted less than five minutes -- just enough time for me to shut down my computer before the power was back and I was rebooting. But at 5:00 the power went off and stayed off. It stayed off for two days. I was sitting in a chair in my front yard, reading Walter Mosley's BIG BAD BRAWLY BROWN(taking a break from yard work), Saturday afternoon when I heard shouts from across the street -- gleeful-children shouts -- of "Power! We've got power!" Startled, I glanced at my porch and saw the porch light on. I immediately dropped my book and went into my house. I flushed all the toilets, reset all the clocks and VCRs, shaved, and cleaned my teeth. I felt suddenly great. But all was not joy, however. My cable service was still out -- and with it my internet service. The video service was restored late Sunday night, the internet service today, just before I left for work. As I left, hundreds of emails were downloading, and I will read them and deal appropriately with them. But not immediately. I had no damage from the hurricane -- nothing more than a few small branches in the yard -- and not one tree in my neighborhood fell. No roads were blocked, no power lines fell. So why was my power out for two days? Blown transformers. All during the afternoon and night I heard dull booms and weird bbbzzzzaps -- each signalling another transformer gone. Between midnight and 4:00 AM they averaged about one every 20 minutes. Each of my power failures were signalled by one of these sounds -- but closer and louder. I figure it had to be wind-driven *rain* which got to those transformers. And I'm wondering why they are so vulnerable. Life hereabouts was difficult at first. I went to work Friday -- the store never lost power and wasn't in the part of Alexandria (along the river) which flooded -- and found the traffic a serious mess, due in part to closed roads and in part to non-functional traffic signals. It took me twice as long as usual to get there via alternative routes. After work, returning to a still-dark house, I decided I'd had enough bowls of cereal for meals. First I called the local pizza places. Dominos put me on a "hold" loop of music and commercials and after three commercials hung up on me. The third time this occurred I decided they were trying to tell me they weren't open. The message at Pizza Hut was simpler: "We're closed." So I called Anita's in Vienna, a New Mexico Mexican restaurant (and long one of my favorites) and upon being told they were open I immediately departed for it. What should have been a fast and simple drive was slowed by all the dark signals, which had to be treated as 4-corner stop signs (by law) but were ignored by maybe half the drivers. Stop and get rear-ended, or proceed and get broadsided? Wotta choice! Shortly after two parties were seated after me, Anita's locked its doors to new customers; the kitchen was overwhelmed. And it took more than an hour to get my food -- extraordinary at Anita's where it rarely takes more than 15 minutes -- but I used the time to read a book (much easier there than with a flashlight). Friday night I heard trucks in the street all night -- those beep-beep-beeps that signal they're backing up, the sounds of idling engines, the occasional clank of tools -- and I kept waiting, in near-suspense, for the power to come back on. But it didn't -- not for another half day. But Saturday morning and afternoon I saw and heard nothing more. When I wandered out to the street I saw a Honda generator padlocked via a Kryptonite cable to the phone pole, and realized it was what I'd heard putting along all night. A neighbor told me it was used by Cox Cable, not the power company. Saturday afternoon, less than an hour before the power came back on, a Virginia Power truck cruised slowly up the street, made a U-turn at the intersection, and cruised slowly back down the street. The generator was removed this morning. I didn't do too badly. I left my refrigerator and freezer shut, and didn't lose or have to throw out any food. (But I got tired of warm Diet Pepsi.) I didn't spend hours in lines waiting for dry ice (or wet ice, for that matter). My ex-wife Lynda, who lives less than two miles from me in Falls Church, *still* has no power, and my son, Aaron, says he hasn't slept well in the heat and humidity (but tonight is forecast to be drier and cooler). I didn't either, so I know what he's going through. No power means reverting to a sunrise-to-sunset schedule. I sometimes went out to my car and sat in it to listen to the news on the radio. Now things are pretty much back to normal, for me. All I have to do is to deal with half a week's email. --Ted White