Over the weekend, Western Washington (where I live) experienced the biggest wind storm in seven years (according to the National Weather Service). Gusts of up to 78 miles per hour in some places inland, trees falling onto power lines, waves blowing over the top of houses in some places... you get the idea. It was no hurricane, but for part of a state that is not accustomed to the kind of storm we had, things were pretty bad. The wind blew in Friday night, and continued into saturday afternoon. As a result of the high winds, roughly 200,000 homes and businesses Washington lost electricity. As I write this, more than 40,000 homes and businesses are still in the dark, mostly in the central Puget Sound region.
At my home, the power went out early Saturday morning, came back on at about 7:30am, then went out again at 8:15am. Wifey and I, who are accustomed to high winds, storm-related power outages and such, dealt with the situation: we broke out the oil lamps and flashlights, and instead of cooking a hot breakfast, we made sandwiches. For lunch, clever Wifey made hamburgers and noodles on the Hibachi in the carport. About every two hours or so, we called the power company's automated hotline for updates on the power outage.
We went to my radio station early in the afternoon to help out any way we could, but the power companies were so swamped, they weren't relaying information to media outlets, so we didn't stay long. While we were there, though, we were inundated with calls from people who were frantic about why their neighbors had power and they didn't, when they can make a hot meal, and the real mental giants wanted to know why the power was out. I can only assume that those callers didn't make the effort to call their power company to find out what's up with the power outage, or figured we would have more information than the power company did.
Despite power being restored to much of the county, our lights were still dark when we got home. The wind had died down, the National Weather Service was saying "the worst is over", but we still had no electricity. So, again, we dealt with it: we put on sweaters, had "carport" tacos for dinner (again, with the Hibachi),
and wrapped up with blankets, listening to my station playing old-time radio shows. It actually made for a pretty romantic night. The power came back on at about 11:15pm.
Rhetorically, I ask, "what's the big deal is with temporary power outages like the one we had this past weekend"? Why all the mass panic from the folks in Western Washington? The power goes out, you grab sweaters and flashlights, and expect to either BBQ your food or eat sandwiches. No TV? No problem. You listen to the radio or read a book (I got through half a 500+page book on Saturday, and I enjoyed it). If you're cold, grab a blanket, for goodness sake. "Radioguy," you may ask, "what about folks living in nursing homes?" Dear blog reader, those folks are not the ones who are complaining about the power outage, nor are those running the nursing homes. Power outages are a common-enough occurance locally where senior communities have generators, and hence, hot meals, etc. From my experience, the most vocal complainants have been those who know a power outage can happen, but don't prepare for one, then complain because their house is dark and it's getting cold.
I'm not talking about families that had a tree fall through their home. I'm not talking about families who now have to deal with water in their livingroom as a result of coastal flooding. I'm talking about folks who felt that merely because their power was out, they were experiencing some sort of local disaster.
We knew beforehand that the storm that blasted through here wasn't going to last for days (like a hurricane does). We knew beforehand that if the power went out, it would be a temporary outage. And common sense dictates that bitching that the power company (which had brought workers in from other states to work around the clock to get electricity back on, and due to still being overwhelmed, was unable to give "instant" updates as to when the power would come back on) would not get the power back on any sooner. So why is it that people don't prepare for a forecasted inconvenience, and then comaplain about it? If it snows in Snoqualmie Pass, and you plan to use that roadway for travel, do you try to cross the pass, get stuck in the snow, then complain that the weather wasn't nicer? No! You prepare for adverse driving conditions before your journey. Common sense, eh?
Common sense worked well for us this past weekend, and I hope it worked for anyone else reading this blog who was hit by this weekend's storm.
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