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August 03, 2006
Mini(?) Blackout
It’s not often that one is made to feel like a swamp.
I had made a mental note of trying not to talk about the weather often, anywhere, or by any means. But when I attempted to walk home tonight, and ten seconds into the night, I was reminded that we had a high of 103 Fahrenheit today. 40 Celsius. In the shade. The humidity is high enough to turn every pore of my skin to mini-swamps. Appropriately, Mayor Bloomberg declared a heat emergency a few days ago.
Sporadic thunderstorms that typically (and thankfully) cool our hot summers had again made the news. Reports of people being struck by lightning are also typical: 2 men were struck by lightning a few weeks ago, and more recently a woman golfer was killed by lightning while seeking refuge in a shed.
But because we already know the sorry state of the city’s infrastructure, what’s more worrying to most is the possibility of another blackout. For a large number of Queens residents in July, several hundreds of thousands had gone without electricity. For 8 days. In New York City. The NYT reported a few days ago that 100,000 people were without power, and that was in addition to the estimated "several hundreds of thousands" that were with limited power. So a total of 300,000 people? Or maybe 400,000 affected by the power failure? ConEd, the city's energy supplier, could not provide an exact figure, and it wasn't also in a position to refute the various estimates by different press sources.
The papers were filled with stories of the old and sick who were on respirators, who can't climb stairs, who only had a pack of crackers, and a few packs of yoghurt which would most certainly turn into a health hazard by next sunset.
A friend from Ethiopia said that a blackout of a couple of days was rare in Ethiopia, and an 8-day stretch was simply unheard of. Now tell that to the Ethiopian football team and they might just qualify in the next World Cup together with Ghana and humiliate a certain world power.
We are very lucky not to be affected by the black/brownouts, but we know friends who were. ConEd will only reimburse up to $350 worth of damaged groceries per (residential) customer - if they can prove it with receipts and photos. So lucky are those who hoard their grocery receipts. Now they just have to avoid the electrified metal plates and exploding manholes.
Posted by quickness at August 3, 2006 10:19 PM
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Comments
Photo just shows a regular sunset, and not the blackout.
Posted by: quickness at August 17, 2006 08:49 PM