Very OT

Uhhhh......how do you access that website when you have no power?

And that dear friend is the catch. Maybe you just whistle! Juno

You use your laptop on battery power, or perhaps you can bring it up if you have a Blackberry type device or web access on your cell phone. I don't have any of the latter ones, ust the laptop.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

I don't have any of those toys and don't plan on getting them either. The people I know with lap tops are either working people or students. I did tell DH we could always call one of our out of town kids on the TracFone and have them check. I do have a thingy for storms that we can recharge the phone on. But how many people have generators to recharge phones or computers on. We have had more than 1 outage here that has gone on for 3 or 4 days. Juno

Even with a laptop, you need a connection. My DSL is through the phone line, my modem has to plug in and so does my router.

To me the whole plans sounds like something that was hatched in a Dilbert comic strip Juno

You fire up your generator! Didn't everyone get one when Y2K was predicted to take out the entire power grid? ;->

Beverly

Yeah! Maybe they sell generators. ;-)

But you still cannot connect to the net if your wireless modem has no power... Unless you have a dongle and the local network is still working. I work on a laptop, and when the power is down here, even though I can use the pooter, ther connection to the net is still powerless.

Phone connections to the net may still work, but there are still far fewer of us with those... I tend to want my phone to make calls and store numbers, and that's all! :)

We installed one of those standby generators about 3 years ago. Best decision I have ever made. The power in these Wiley parts goes out frequently and just that one ice storm last December when the power was out

That's exactly my question. Unless of course, maybe if you have a laptop w/wireless internet and the battery is fully charged. Even that would not work with a desktop, which is what I have.

Emily

We both have laptops, DS doesn't have a desktop anymore since he travels a lot, and enjoys using his personal computer when he's out of town. He keeps the battery charged most of the time.

I still have the old laptop I received as a gift in 2001, when I lived for those months in SC; it is only used now for my embroidery and the battery died years ago. The same for the cell phone, I also got in 2001; it has few features on it.

Emily

It's a way to check on power at home from work and vice versa. Not so useful if you're at home, true, but a lot of people *aren't* home during the day. (A friend of mine really likes it -- the week that the power was out at home, he could check from work to see how much milk he should get on the way home, and whether he needed to get gas for the generator.)

Most of the people on my street have generators.

So have we, and that's why people here *have* generators.

jenn

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@newsguy.com

Not all the customers or people wanting this information are the same people as those who are without power. Your friends and family may want to check up on how you are faring, for example.

Other than restoring power for you instantly, the utility company has done about all that you can expect them to do, if not more.

Others have suggested work-arounds for when you have no power. After all, when you have no power, you can't expect to operate "as normal" unless you have taken soome precautions such as others have suggested.

Being out of power is frustrating, at a minimum, and could be life threatening.

Other than to "cope", have you prepared for being without power?

You have some responsibility to care for yourself.

Pamela, I take care of myself very well. I really didn't expect a lecture on my responsibilties. I just thought it was pretty funny that a power company decided to put up a web site to keep customers

Hit send before I finished. I find it rather funny that they put up a web site o keep customers informed as to the progress of work when there's a power outage. I probably have more back ups in my life than a lot of people. I can assure you though that I will neither freeze or starve because of the lack of power, but there's no way in hell I'll be able to let you know that, now is there. And if I could I wouldn't because you would be the first to remind me of my lack of preparedness. Juno

My five year old laptop has a wireless modem. Nowadays, I get my broadband through the phone company, but I don't have to plug the laptop into anything for it to work. Mind you, I also pay aol to keep my long-time addy, and also to be able to plug into dial-up if the wireless goes out.

I remember very clearly, right after Katrina, as soon as the mayor opened up the city six weeks after the storm, we in our area (10% of the city)had electricity already. However, those who were too cheap to pay for high speed internet were very amusing. Very few of the coffeshops with wifi had reopened yet, so we saw lots of folk sitting on the sidewalk outside the coffeeshops with their laptops in use. After the batteries ran down, they went back home, recharged, and came back to sit on the sidewalk and surf the net again. Good job it was mid-October and very pleasant to sit outside.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Yep, and here most of the folks (in our neighborhood) who have wifi at home have it through the cable company. Well, in January when we were w/o power for 5 days because of the ice storm, the feeder line for cable was laying in the street up the block before where it goes underground. So.....that was a big no go. The phone was the only thing that still worked during the ice storm. Which was really surprising since it tends to go out for no reason, frequently. Could be a clear, sunny day and the phone won't work for a little while. I don't even try to figure out why any more.

I guess we should all get hamsters. Then we could get hamster wheels and hook those to little generators. Then we could power our computers with those if the electricity is out. And we could log on to the site to see if we have power or not........ LOL Hey!! That would be a green solution too!!! (I'll just save the honda generator for running my gas furnace like I did in January, thank you ever so.)

And while we're at it, we won't pop into a newsgroup we've rarely (if ever??) posted to and chew out one of the well loved, long time regular posters. Especially not if that NG is populated by a group of folks with really sharp implements close at hand.

Sharon

I imagine your subtlety is lost on "Pamela" aka snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com. A google search found exactly two posts to alt.sewing using that nym, both within the last 72 hours.

Beverly