Powerless

I think that we handled the recent power outage fairly well, but it held a series of lessons nonetheless.

The storm swept through northern Illinois suddenly on Monday morning, knocking down trees and telephone poles, tearing off shingles and scattering anything that wasn't nailed down. It blew through quickly enough and left us with clear skies for most of the day, but the damage had knocked out power in a wide area including my entire town and most of its neighbors. I saw work crews on the streets just minutes after the worst of the storm as I drove cautiously to the library, dodging debris from the size of small branches to whole trees. Still, our power wasn't restored until Wednesday night.

LESSON 1: Mother Nature is still The Boss.

The library where I work was one of the rare establishments unaffected by the downed power lines. Our piece of the grid was still functioning while houses directly across the street were dark until late Tuesday night, and many businesses in that town were closed for days. In the still, humid, sweltering heat, we were a haven for those without air conditioning, computers, or information about the crisis. Not only was electricity hard to come by, but for many, phone service, internet and cell towers were affected as well. Traffic patterns were snarled as signals malfunctioned all over the area, and people had limited options as grocery stores, banks, restaurants, and all sorts of businesses we take for granted locked their doors. Much of the county was in an ugly mood.

Thanks to a run of generally good luck and the efforts of utility company repair men, many of the affected people had never had to deal with such a prolonged outage before. Those who had seen similar hadn't seen it for quite a while. It seemed as if many were at a loss as to what to do without technology or conveniences, and at the very least, they were mightily irritated by the whole situation.

LESSON 2: A safe and comfortable existence can change pretty quickly. Be prepared.

My home town, about 15 minutes away from the town where I work, seemed particularly badly hit. If there was an open business in town, I don't know where it was hiding. Trees were down in most yards including mine, where a sapling fell into the zucchini I was growing. But zucchini is resilient, not to mention a significant portion of the garden, so it looks like that will be OK. The power outage was a little more of a challenge, but we found ways to cope.

My husband and I were both poor kids, so we've been through longer power outages before, mostly debt-induced blackouts. I've personally hauled buckets of lake water in order to flush toilets because a well pump won't function when the electric bill's unpaid. I know how to keep the government cheese from going moldy without a refrigerator. I know tricks to amplify candlelight, ways to maximize natural heat or cooling (depending on the season), and games to play in the dark. With a mixture of resourcefulness and camping gear, my husband and I were managing to keep up with the challenges of life without AC (both kinds.) We turned the chest freezer into an ice chest to minimize food spoilage (traveling to the nearest operating towns to buy from a fast-dwindling supply of ice) and purged what wasn't going to make it. We used paper fans and cool wet rags to hang on until Tuesday night brought a cooling breeze. We burned candles and lanterns for light and played games for entertainment. Short cold showers were the rule, though I was heating a jug of water int he sun for hair-washing shortly before our power was restored.

When the estimate for recovery was changed to Friday afternoon, my husband made the decision to buy a generator to keep the fridge running. It was a purchase he'd been considering for quite a while, though he was loathe to do it in the middle of a crisis. As it turns out, we probably would have been fine with the improvised ice box, but who knew the electric company would finish the job two days early? I guess we'll be better prepared for next time.

LESSON 3: You can plan, but don't be surprised if you have to adjust in a hurry.

Of course, being better prepared for next time is a key benefit to enduring the temporary hardship. We were forced to consider different ways of doing things. We were spurred to make that big emergency-preparedness purchase we'd probably have always intended to do "some day". We got ideas for ways to alter every day procedures to make us less vulnerable in the future and practiced skills to help us cope when emergencies arise. I, for one, will be looking into energy alternatives more seriously over the next few weeks. While large scale solar power is a little out of our financial grasp right now, it couldn't hurt to have a few small scale solar options.

LESSON 4: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Nature loves diversity because diversity works. It can be really useful to have more than one way to do something.

So, a couple of days trying to live a "normal" life without electricity can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding. Despite the financial toll (the generator purchase and the loss of much of a recently stocked freezer full of food,) we've come through OK, so far. Even a relapse into darkness would be easier to take this time around. But the biggest lesson from this experience, one I'm sure many area residents have grasped by now as well, is this:

LESSON 5: Life will always throw challenges at you when you're on your way to other plans. If you can adapt and go with the changes to those plans, you will never be totally powerless.