Not many people would write a poem titled, “Ode to the Power Company.” We don’t think that way. We expect lights to be on, the air conditioning running. We don’t get excited and creative thinking about the generation and distribution of electricity.
At the same time, there is some poetry involved in the humanity of how companies come together to help EVERYONE in times of storms and duress. We will see this in the coming weeks as cleanup occurs after hurricane Ida hits Louisiana.
There will be tragedy. And there will warming stories of saving others. People will unite to overcome massive barriers to cleanup, salvage and start over. Lives will be wrecked as something new emerges.
Through it all, the electric companies soldier on. Their people prepare beforehand. Their families know they won’t see their mothers or fathers who work on the power lines, who drive the trucks, who respond immediately and overwhelmingly in numbers from all over the country to help their fellow brothers and sisters dig out. It’s an awesome display of unity and goodness to ensure the affected communities can fight their way back to some semblance of normalcy.
And, as we know from past experience, there is a “new normal.” Reconstruction doesn’t put things back the way they were. Trees disappear. Rivers reroute themselves. Houses wash away.
We replant and rebuild. But, the landscape is altered, never to be exactly the way it was before.
Recently we were hit by several power microburst storms near our house. During one of those wind and rain gusts, our power flickered twice. Whew, the lights stayed on. Then a few seconds later we lost all power.
It’s not like outages have never occurred before. We got out the flashlights, lit the candles, called our electric company to let them know what happened, and got their update on restoration of service.
It was hot and humid that night. Slowly, as the AC effects wore off and our house heated up, my wife and I peeled off covers, until it got too stuffy to sleep. Just as it started to become extremely uncomfortable, the power popped back on. Hurrah!
The wind hit 77 miles an hour that evening. We got blasted with over an inch of rain in an extremely short period of time. It was not surprising we lost power.
What surprised me was how quickly it was restored, and we were thankful for that. We reset the clocks, felt the AC cranking again to cool everything down inside. I thought a lot about writing a poem, “Ode to the Power Company.”
There is no perfection when it comes to some of our modern technologies. We think they’ll run continuously and get used to the convenience. When a major storm hits or there’s some other glitch, we wonder what went wrong, not really considering all the pieces of equipment that must interact and operate correctly to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity.
Major storms make us reconsider and remember how fortunate we are. Not only for electricity in general, but for the hard work so many people put into making sure we our homes and businesses reconnect after a disaster.
At the same time, there is some poetry involved in the humanity of how companies come together to help EVERYONE in times of storms and duress. We will see this in the coming weeks as cleanup occurs after hurricane Ida hits Louisiana.
There will be tragedy. And there will warming stories of saving others. People will unite to overcome massive barriers to cleanup, salvage and start over. Lives will be wrecked as something new emerges.
Through it all, the electric companies soldier on. Their people prepare beforehand. Their families know they won’t see their mothers or fathers who work on the power lines, who drive the trucks, who respond immediately and overwhelmingly in numbers from all over the country to help their fellow brothers and sisters dig out. It’s an awesome display of unity and goodness to ensure the affected communities can fight their way back to some semblance of normalcy.
And, as we know from past experience, there is a “new normal.” Reconstruction doesn’t put things back the way they were. Trees disappear. Rivers reroute themselves. Houses wash away.
We replant and rebuild. But, the landscape is altered, never to be exactly the way it was before.
Recently we were hit by several power microburst storms near our house. During one of those wind and rain gusts, our power flickered twice. Whew, the lights stayed on. Then a few seconds later we lost all power.
It’s not like outages have never occurred before. We got out the flashlights, lit the candles, called our electric company to let them know what happened, and got their update on restoration of service.
It was hot and humid that night. Slowly, as the AC effects wore off and our house heated up, my wife and I peeled off covers, until it got too stuffy to sleep. Just as it started to become extremely uncomfortable, the power popped back on. Hurrah!
The wind hit 77 miles an hour that evening. We got blasted with over an inch of rain in an extremely short period of time. It was not surprising we lost power.
What surprised me was how quickly it was restored, and we were thankful for that. We reset the clocks, felt the AC cranking again to cool everything down inside. I thought a lot about writing a poem, “Ode to the Power Company.”
There is no perfection when it comes to some of our modern technologies. We think they’ll run continuously and get used to the convenience. When a major storm hits or there’s some other glitch, we wonder what went wrong, not really considering all the pieces of equipment that must interact and operate correctly to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity.
Major storms make us reconsider and remember how fortunate we are. Not only for electricity in general, but for the hard work so many people put into making sure we our homes and businesses reconnect after a disaster.