While waiting for the power to return, what was your most helpful item?
When a surprise derecho hit Northern Virginia Friday night, its winds downed trees and power lines, cutting off "juice" to thousands in the area. While most customers of Dominion Virginia Power are back up and running, there are still 13,000 homes without power in Northern Virginia Thursday morning, according to the company's latest figures. If you were in the dark after the derecho, what got you through? What was the one most useful item that made it bearable? A generator, a flashlight, a book, ice? Take our poll — and if you don't see your top item in the list, tell us about it in the comments box!
The Derecho of 2012 has given us insight into our relationship with technology.
A snapshot of summer 2012 so far: Tyson's Corner is filled with laptopped exiles basking in air conditioning, power outlets and WiFi. People drive around tree-riddled neighbhorhoods getting a dose of cool air and charging their phones before discovering that open gas stations are a little more far flung then expected. Friends with power and internet access become ports in the storm. I was one of the lucky ones, our power flickered but it returned. Our FiOS phones and local TV channels went out and cell phone signal was down to a single bar of non-3G coverage. It was strange to have great internet signal while no phone service. I was very thankful and cognizant that others had suffered damage to their house, lost power and were suffering in…
T Ailshire
6:22 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Keep a car-charger for your cell phone. If worse comes to worst, you can run the car for a while, charging the phone and listening to news on the radio. more ›