Sunday 9 March 2008

Black out

I'm sorry I've been away for so long but the situation here has deteriorated rapidly over the last ten days. It started off with a power cut which came without any warning. The power only returned this morning - it's been a combination of a lack of oil and gas, and problem with some of the nuclear plants. I've been following the situation on the radio but it's all been so vague.

We have now been assured that we will get electricity for three days out five and that all power will be cut off between the hours of 10.30pm and 8.am.

We've tried to keep the school running throughout this time but without power the oil central heating hasn't been working so we've had to make do with a supply of gas heaters. The kids have taken it really badly as they've been cut off from the internet for longer than any other time in their lives. It's caused a lot of frustration and we've even had a couple of fights between kids - which have been very upsetting. We've tried to keep lessons going but our plans had depended to such an extent on on-line learning that we've had to go back to the drawing board.

I've got to go now as we have to get ready for the power going off. There's lots to update you with what's been happening over the last week.

3 comments:

KathyinFL said...

I believe it is now officially internation now ... losing utilities. It used to be very intermittent or relegated to areas that had high rates of civil unrest. But, given the fragility of the grid in most places, when one section fell it turned into a domino effect. Our area has slowly uncoupled from other areas, but we are still dealing with a lot of trained worker shortages. So, while we have the willing, we don't necessary have the able that know how. If we get two or three days out of five with the power on, we've had a good week.

KathyinFL said...

For your school, you may want to see if you can get your contacts to requisition some solar chargers for any laptops that are available. That is how I stay online as much as I do despite uncertainties with the electric.

The problem of the mainframes for the information you are trying to access still being available will continue. Communication hubs are going down all over and I have to keep alternating between servers to eventually find what I need.

Also, cell towers, FiOS, WiFi, etc. are still dependent somewhat on electricity so while you may have power, the hub you usually access - or even how you usually access to get to the hub - may be down.

Anonymous said...

While I appreciate that a blackout would occur in real life, I have to say I'm losing interest in this story simply because it's taking so long to get an update. At the start I came back daily to find out what was happening, now you're 'lucky' if I come once every couple of days.