Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Déjà vu. Another big storm, another power outage in Fairfield County, Conn.

Two major power outages in four months. Does God hate Connecticut?
My electricity went out at the worst possible moment Wednesday evening. I had just finished writing a news article on deadline and was getting ready to send it to my editor. Then – pop! My PC and the lights in my office went out. Twice the power kicked back on, but only for a second or two, in the next few minutes.
Fortunately I saved a version of the story I was working on by sending it to my Gmail account while the thunderstorm was raging. Sort of a poor man’s online backup. (I could access it from my iPhone.) But I had worked another 20 minutes or so on it without backing it up again.
The experience only convinced me more that I need a notebook computer as my primary work computer. A desktop computer is completely worthless in a power outage unless you have a portable generator. A notebook PC has its own power. I wouldn’t have lost that extra work after the electricity shut off. I could have continued working on my story and sent it in.
Lesson learned. The hard way.
As of 11:05 p.m. Wednesday, nearly 18% of New Canaan, Conn., was without power. That’s five hours after the electricity went out. Some 1,500 homes were without power.
At its peak, 50,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers were without electricity.

Graphic: Power outage map from Connecticut Light & Power showing homes and businesses affected by Wednesday’s storm as of 10:05 p.m.

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