Tuesday, October 30, 2012

"SuperStorm Sandy" - we have our power back



Superstorm Sandy has devastated NYC and Long Island, NJ and the CT shorelines. I live a few miles from the shore and was lucky to only lose power for 24 hours. No damage to our cars or condo. Other people in the area weren't so lucky, with many having serious damage or even total loss to their homes. A friend of mine from EMS lost his uncle, a CT Volunteer Firefighter who died after the fire engine was hit by a tree when on an emergency call during the storm. I hope all of the people affected by this storm find comfort and help during their time of need. I've seen a lot of charity happening as people who had power and/or hot water offered up their homes to those who didn't have it.

During the power outage, my wife and I had some help from technology. We had an emergency radio that has solar, hand crank, and battery power, to keep up on news. We charged our smartphones from my netbook, used my CR-48 Chromebook with 3G to access the internet for news and information, and used my Dell laptop to watch DVD's. We had no hot water, but were able to cook with the gas stove and my father let us go to his house one town over and take showers. We stayed for dinner and had a nice visit too and then came home to find our power restored.

I did get to participate in #Edchat at noon Tuesday using my Chromebook, so that was cool. No power but still able to connect with educators around the world.

Since I had limited access to the internet and didn't want to use up my batteries not knowing how long I would be out of power, I did not do any writing. I have a bunch of things to write about soon, so stay tuned.

Again, I hope every one affected by the storm gets the help and assistance they need and recover quickly.