Posted: 6/10/2008 7:25:51 PM EDT
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Last night, around 8:30 p.m., we had a pretty massive thunderstorm roll through here where I live (Northwest Ohio). I guess it was part of the same line of storms that had ravaged certain areas further west over the weekend. It only lasted about ten minutes, but the thunder sounded like an artillery barrage, and the lightning was very powerful. Long story short, we ended up having a widespread power outage that affected where I am plus areas west of here. I was hoping the crews would have the power back on quickly, but it ended up taking 12 hours before power was restored. Nothing like a power outage to immediately put you back into the 1800s, right? No TV, no computer, no radio (unless battery), no lights, no refrigeration, etc. I had to throw away a lot of what was in the refrigerator, but I figure the paperwork of filing a claim for it on my homeowner's policy would be more of a PITA than it is worth. On the scale of disasters, this was a pretty minor event of course. But it really got me thinking. Here are some observations: - People act like absolute idiots when stuff like this happens. After a few hours I decided to drive around a little to see how widespread the outage was, and the traffic lights were of course out at several intersections. Nor were there any police deployed to direct traffic. So drivers were on their own. As I hope everyone reading this understands, when you come to an intersection with a disabled traffic signal, and there isn't any police officer there directing traffic, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TREAT THAT AS A FOUR WAY STOP, i.e., everyone stops, and the car that has been waiting longest has the right of way. Well, these idiots have no concept of this, so they are honking, refusing to yield the ROW to cars that got their first, etc. etc. Absolutely nuts. - I feel sorry for police, fire, and other "first responders" when they have to deal with sheeple who are acting like idiots during a natural disaster. It must make their jobs very stressful. - Most people live "hand to mouth" and have no preps for survival whatsoever. As I was driving around, I found one WAL-MART that still had power, so I decided to go inside and walk around, not because I needed anything, but mainly out of boredom. I got to talking to one cashier, and she told me that people had been flocking in there all night to buy flashlights, batteries, and candles. How do you not even have THAT stuff on hand? It amazes me that so few people are prepared for any kind of SHTF situation. - Again, this was just a minor incident, and people were already freaking out. Can you imagine how the sheeple would react if something really SERIOUS ever went down? It's more than a little scary to think about. After I drove around for awhile I went back home and broke into my survival preps. I was able to prepare myself a meal and then have a nice, quiet evening reading a book I bought. The title of the book is THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE by Max Brooks. It seemed appropriate for the occasion. |
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When Florida got hammered in '04 (or was it 05?) we lost power for at least a month in total, about 1 week the first time and 3 weeks the second time. I was open-carrying a .45 while cutting trees in my front and backyards and didn't get any looks at all from FPL or the local PD. I live about 5 miles away from what most people would call a ghetto, so I wanted to be ready, just in case they decided to make the power outage Get Whitey day. I noticed the same things that you did: No one obeying traffic laws, people going out to buy simple necessities that they should already have, waiting in miles-long lines for gas on day one or two because they didn't get enough beforehand, and just a general lack of sense from most people. |