Techno-dependent

02/18/2003

If you’re a die-hard geek like me, your house is probably completely dependent on electricity and comm lines. I’ve got way more computers than a normal person should have: there are X10 modules controlling the lights throughout the house, Enya plays over an internal FM channel to lull my young son to sleep—and keep him asleep, my wife and I cannot answer the simple question “are you free Friday night” without checking with both of our Palm pilots. And of course, we won’t stop here: next step is a unified LDAP-server and web calendering (so we can start to get my daughter’s busy schedule on line as well). And then the power goes out. And then the internet line and phone lines go down. An intense ice storm blanketed North Carolina this winter, and left us (and a lot of other people) without power for 5-7 days. Since the power grid was so heavily damaged, we had no heat, no water, no phone service, no cell phone service (the cell towers didn’t have power either), no gasoline or kerosene (no power to the pumps). To add insult to injury, the weather then turned bitter cold—into the low 20’s. Suddenly our smug, technology-driven lifestyle went right out the window. No communications meant we couldn’t check on relatives, or check the TV (no cable). Many of the local radio stations were down; those that were up had little information, and mostly concerned themselves with broadcasting the dangers of burning carbon-monoxide producing fuels indoors. Our formerly impressive pile of remote-controls sat there, useless. Had they been flammable, I would gladly have burned them in our puny fireplace in a futile attempt to stay warm. In the end, we bailed out and left town. And all it took was the simple lack of electricity over a region. It’s bad enough that most corporations don’t have disaster plans for their data centers and such, but it’s even worse to realize that most of us don’t have any credible personal disaster plans, either. We have a kerosene heater now, and a bit more canned food on hand than usual. I’ve printed out some critical information that was only on the computers. It’s not much, but it’s a start. Another storm is on the way.