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Confessions of a Virginia Blackout Survivor

Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Confessions of a Virginia Blackout Survivor

 
July 12, 2012

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  By Allison Boccamazzo, Director of Brand Strategy

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or have been in the dark (no pun intended), you’ve heard about the recent chaos sweeping across Virginia in the form of a massive power outage. As millions of people along the East Coast suffered the results of the outage – caused by a heavy set of summer storms – the news has also created a forceful rippling effect over the Web. So how many individuals lost power in this sweltering summer heat? Around three million people – ranging from North Carolina to New Jersey to as far west as Illinois. One brave individual stepped out to give the public exclusive, behind-the-scenes coverage of the power outage as one of the three million who suffered the storm.


Earlier last week, Clay Jones blogged an inside perspective about the infamous Virginia storm and outage. He began by explaining how he “didn’t expect us to get hit so hard by this storm.” Isn’t that always how it happens, though? You expect a tiny drizzle or perhaps some heavy wind, and then suddenly you find almost every front lawn to have trees knocked down and individuals gaping at the infinitely surrounding mass destruction.

Jones related the storm to exceptionally large-scale events over the course of human history, saying, “It’s kinda insane when you think about all the crazy events that have happened around here over the past decade or so.  Terrorist attacks, snipers, earthquakes, hurricanes, massive snow storms and then last Friday’s storm.” His statement depicts just how heavily the incident weighs on the scale of heavy-hitting shockers to take place.

He went on to explain how the night of the storm, he was sitting in a bar with some friends when the power went out. “My friends told me the wind was incredible. I didn’t see it because my back was to the windows and I didn’t want to turn around (don’t ask why).”

After losing electricity that Friday night, Jones figured it would come back the next night, but things quickly escalated for the worst. His phone died soon after, which left him with no way of contacting anyone to find out what was going on. Things only proved worse as the night went on.

Jones explains in a rather blunt but entertaining way, “My neighbors were clueless and actually kinda rude. I live in a three-level townhouse and it was incredibly hot on the third floor in my bedroom. So the first night I tried to sleep on the couch in our music room on the bottom floor but it was really uncomfortable. I kept switching from there to the couch on the second level. Saturday night I actually dreamed the power came back on. Man, I was disappointed when I woke up. Throughout Sunday without any power, suffering the heat, I was getting angry.”

Jones was able to sustain himself – and his communication – by charging his phone a couple of times at random restaurants. Monday morning when he got up to walk his dog (around 5:30 a.m.), he groggily noticed that the light across the street were on and working, as well as the light to the entrance of the complex where he lived – then the light bulb went off in his head.

“Then I saw that my phone was charged and I thought that doesn’t make sense…and I hit a switch and a light came on.  I was so happy.  I closed all the windows and danced with my Beagle.”

Needless to say, Jones threw out everything in his fridge “except for beer and mustard.”

What’s even better in this twisted tale? His neighbors conveniently went to the Caribbean that Friday, and returned after the power had already come back on – completely missing everything. “I used to like them but not so much anymore,” Jones jokes – we hope. It’s certainly interesting to hear such a different, inside story about a large-scale event such as this.

This story – while fun and entertaining – sheds light on something very serious; staying out of the dark by selecting quality power protection providers. Do yourself a favor and simplify the process by checking out a reliable, trustworthy provider of power protection solutions and products right here (you can thank me later!)


Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

 

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Edited by Rachel Ramsey
Power Protection Homepage ››





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